4 ms·

'Tiny Tower' Ripoff 'Dream Heights' Hits US App Store; Zynga Employees "Love It"

27 points by bond 15y ago

bdz 15y ago
and the developers of simtower laughing quietly
jedberg 15y ago
Building a great product is step one. Marketing it is step two. Zynga is really good at borrowing step one and executing step two, but they're not the only company that does this.
- coderdude 15y ago
  It's harder to nerd-rage on, say, Valve than it is to ride that Zynga-hating bandwagon 'til the wheels fall off. Of course, if Valve ever makes a deal with Facebook then naturally that'll be a different situation altogether.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
- joejohnson 15y ago
  First, the review is not fake; someone with an iTunes account really made that review. He just happens to work for Zynga. I don't think there was any real attempt to manipulate here. He uses his real name and doesn't hide the fact that he is a part of Zynga. Lots of companies do this with review. Lots of companies also clone other people's games. People just love to hate on Zynga.
  - objclxt 15y ago
    Yes...let's be realistic here. I would wager nearly all apps on the app store have reviews by employees of the company that made them. This is not unusual, or surprising. Hate on Zynga for ripping off another guy's work, but I'm pretty sure the other guy would have reviewed his own app too!
joejohnson 15y ago
This "article" is BS. The average rating for Dream Heights on iTunes (at the time of my writing this) is above 4.5/5 stars. Hardly the overwhelming negative response this article claims.
- MrFoof 15y ago
  I agree with the headline being sensationalized. However, the default iTunes sort method will still manage to do some damage. If I recall correctly, iTunes sorts reviews mostly by how many people found it helpful. Additionally, this is as an absolute value, not a percentage (so 8 of 65 finding helpful will be above one that 7 of 7 found helpful). The result is if you go to the App Store page, the reviews you are shown by default -- overall rating aside -- are all heavily-upvoted one-star reviews. The question that's left is how much of a material effect the one-star reviews being shown by default are having on the game's sales. However, even if there is no material effect, that's probably not a black mark Zynga wants visible even if it's not affecting sales much (or at all). The "Whose Expression is it Anyways?" article on Gamasutra (link: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/TommyWu/20120216/9455/Whose_Expression_Is_It_Anyway.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/TommyWu/20120216/9455/Whose_E...) I think is a good discussion on the topic. Using that article's terms, Dream Heights may only be the "legal distance" from Tiny Tower's design, instead of the "classy distance".
- palish 15y ago
  The game pops up a messagebox that says "If you give us 5 stars, we'll give you more features!" Proof: http://db.tt/whiVaG0t http://db.tt/whiVaG0t
  - abk 15y ago
    Not a fan of zynga, but tiny tower and others do that too. It seems pretty standard for games to prompt users for reviews.
    - palish 15y ago
      They're offering additional game features in exchange for 5 stars, not merely prompting users for reviews. Do other apps do this?
Zarathust 15y ago
For a company who ripped off Sim Towers I don't really get why they are complaining this much
- lazerwalker 15y ago
  Other than the basic aesthetic of "you're building a tower!", Tiny Tower and SimTower have practically nothing in common. If anything, Tiny Tower draws more from Zynga's "Ville"-style games than it does from SimTower.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
zerostar07 15y ago
Guys, zynga has been caught years ago creating fake accounts to post reviews for their games. This is from 2009: http://forum.developers.facebook.net/viewtopic.php?id=41577 http://forum.developers.facebook.net/viewtopic.php?id=41577 sadly facebook has removed app pages and all their reviews

27 points by bond 15y ago

bdz 15y ago

and the developers of simtower laughing quietly

Building a great product is step one. Marketing it is step two. Zynga is really good at borrowing step one and executing step two, but they're not the only company that does this.

coderdude 15y ago
It's harder to nerd-rage on, say, Valve than it is to ride that Zynga-hating bandwagon 'til the wheels fall off. Of course, if Valve ever makes a deal with Facebook then naturally that'll be a different situation altogether.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

joejohnson 15y ago
First, the review is not fake; someone with an iTunes account really made that review. He just happens to work for Zynga. I don't think there was any real attempt to manipulate here. He uses his real name and doesn't hide the fact that he is a part of Zynga. Lots of companies do this with review. Lots of companies also clone other people's games. People just love to hate on Zynga.
- objclxt 15y ago
  Yes...let's be realistic here. I would wager nearly all apps on the app store have reviews by employees of the company that made them. This is not unusual, or surprising. Hate on Zynga for ripping off another guy's work, but I'm pretty sure the other guy would have reviewed his own app too!

joejohnson 15y ago

This "article" is BS. The average rating for Dream Heights on iTunes (at the time of my writing this) is above 4.5/5 stars. Hardly the overwhelming negative response this article claims.

MrFoof 15y ago
I agree with the headline being sensationalized. However, the default iTunes sort method will still manage to do some damage. If I recall correctly, iTunes sorts reviews mostly by how many people found it helpful. Additionally, this is as an absolute value, not a percentage (so 8 of 65 finding helpful will be above one that 7 of 7 found helpful). The result is if you go to the App Store page, the reviews you are shown by default -- overall rating aside -- are all heavily-upvoted one-star reviews. The question that's left is how much of a material effect the one-star reviews being shown by default are having on the game's sales. However, even if there is no material effect, that's probably not a black mark Zynga wants visible even if it's not affecting sales much (or at all). The "Whose Expression is it Anyways?" article on Gamasutra (link: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/TommyWu/20120216/9455/Whose_Expression_Is_It_Anyway.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/TommyWu/20120216/9455/Whose_E...) I think is a good discussion on the topic. Using that article's terms, Dream Heights may only be the "legal distance" from Tiny Tower's design, instead of the "classy distance".
palish 15y ago
The game pops up a messagebox that says "If you give us 5 stars, we'll give you more features!" Proof: http://db.tt/whiVaG0t http://db.tt/whiVaG0t
- abk 15y ago
  Not a fan of zynga, but tiny tower and others do that too. It seems pretty standard for games to prompt users for reviews.
  - palish 15y ago
    They're offering additional game features in exchange for 5 stars, not merely prompting users for reviews. Do other apps do this?

Zarathust 15y ago

For a company who ripped off Sim Towers I don't really get why they are complaining this much

lazerwalker 15y ago
Other than the basic aesthetic of "you're building a tower!", Tiny Tower and SimTower have practically nothing in common. If anything, Tiny Tower draws more from Zynga's "Ville"-style games than it does from SimTower.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

zerostar07 15y ago

Guys, zynga has been caught years ago creating fake accounts to post reviews for their games. This is from 2009: http://forum.developers.facebook.net/viewtopic.php?id=41577 http://forum.developers.facebook.net/viewtopic.php?id=41577 sadly facebook has removed app pages and all their reviews