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EA's Dungeon Keeper Ratings Below a 5 Go To Email Black Hole

fplatten writes "I would definitely call this unethical manipulation of the ratings system: the Worst Company in America, EA is routing all ratings made in game of 1 to 4 stars as an email that is sent to EA, but all 5 star ratings are routed to the Google Play store, where its rating is currently 4.3 out of 5."

70 of 367 comments (clear)

  1. I can't wait for the next EA game... by znanue · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hear it's going to be called "Dungeon Keeper Beta".

  2. Slashdot takes advise from EA by ChadSmith4920 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Instead of a black hole you get routed to 'WE HEAR YOU We did tell you we wanted feedback. Here's our response.' http://meta.slashdot.org/story...

    1. Re:Slashdot takes advise from EA by techno-vampire · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes. Clearly their attitude is, "We wanted feedback. We hear you, but we don't care. We're going to make Slashdot beta the only interface whether anybody likes it or not." And, the day that happens is the day I stop following Slashdot.

      --
      Good, inexpensive web hosting
    2. Re:Slashdot takes advise from EA by _xeno_ · · Score: 2

      Am I the only one that remembers the community losing it's nut the last time there was a redesign?

      I remember that. I still have D2 turned off and use the old Slashdot interface, because D2 is crap and the original version works better. (Ignoring the pagination bug they never fixed to try and force people to D2.) The beta site kills the traditional UI I still use. (To be fair, the beta site finally lets you filter by score and not just "interesting." Too bad you're not allowed to set that as a default.)

      I remember when Gawker decided to Gawker-ify a bunch of their sites (essentially making them unreadable to a degree worse than the current Slashdot beta) and asked for feedback. I answered that if they went through with the change, I'd leave and never come back. They went through with the change. I left and have never been back.

      If Slashdot goes through with the beta site, I'll leave and never come back. Apparently I won't be alone in that decision. I'm not sure what I'll replace it with, but I'm sure I'll find something. It wouldn't be the first time I've stopped reading a website because a redesign made it effectively unreadable.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
  3. Re:Extra apostrophes by fplatten · · Score: 2

    You're right, my bad, I rushed the submission. Should have also included some links about all the rating manipulation going on at eBay, Amazon, and Yelp. Has me wondering if there is any place were ratings are still useful. Maybe GoodReads, but that may just be ignorance on my part.

  4. Fraud? by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is this not criminal misrepresentation of their product?

    1. Re:Fraud? by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Actually, since EA is publicly traded, couldn't this count as a material misrepresentation to the stock market?

    2. Re:Fraud? by Mitreya · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Actually, since EA is publicly traded, couldn't this count as a material misrepresentation to the stock market?

      Well, it is still possible to leave a lower rating (hence the average is below 5), you just need to edit the initial 5-star rating. So I imagine they have a defense even if someone tries to pursue that issue

      Why can the rating be hijacked, anyway? I am surprised it took so long for someone entrepreneurial to notice that bad ratings can be intercepted to skew the results.

    3. Re:Fraud? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      I installed the game, rated it 1 star with a note about how much of a rip-off the in-game wallet raping is, the uninstalled it. EA is not the only one that can abuse the rating system.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  5. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How do you know it's the admins doing that? I can't remember having the ability to see which users mod a given post.

  6. No rating API by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why on earth is google allowing anyone to submit ratings via any API

    It's not. From the article:

    Thus the only way to give the game something other than full marks is to say you'll award it five stars, then actually rate it less when taken to the marketplace.

    In other words, the 5 Stars button goes to the app's page in Google Play Store, and the 1-4 Stars button goes to the "leave feedback" screen. A player can leave a lower rating by tapping 5 Stars, waiting for the Play page to open, and tapping a lower star rating.

  7. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by westlake · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've noticed that Slashdot admins have been using their unlimited mod points to deep-six anti-Beta posts into moderation oblivion.

    Thank god.

    Now maybe we can talk about something besides the Beta.

  8. Yet another reason.. by Sable+Drakon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Never rate an app from within the app itself. We all know it's super convienent, but at the same time it's subject to this kind of trickery.

    --
    The Amarri pray for god, the Caldari pray for profit. the Gallente pray for peace, but the Minmatar pray their ships hol
    1. Re:Yet another reason.. by jareth-0205 · · Score: 2

      Never rate an app from within the app itself. We all know it's super convienent, but at the same time it's subject to this kind of trickery.

      Never mind that it doesn't actually *do* anything. You can only rate apps from Google Play itself, the star rating in EA is a *separate* star rating system, that happens to forward you to Google Play (to rate again) if you clicked 5 stars.

      It's sneaky and shit, but not actually a security issue in Play ratings.

  9. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by ZenMatrix · · Score: 3, Insightful

    guys seriously I think beta is stupid... but all the anti Beta posts are ruining this site more then that is. I come here more for the comments then the stories since they tend to have a better concept of the story then the poster does.

  10. Re:Extra apostrophes by dhaines · · Score: 3, Informative

    No idea if Goodreads ratings are reliable or not, but if you don't trust Amazon...

  11. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by williamhb · · Score: 2, Interesting

    While I'd long suspected that Slashdot comments were becoming the community for the irretrievably disgruntled to vote up each other's misanthropy, it's a bit anticlimactic that the community's last and most vehement rant is not about privacy, nor those old favourites "the evils of proprietary software", "the terrible patent system", or "if Microsoft did something today, it must be wrong", but the much more disappointing "how dare the website owners redesign their UI".

    And so they marched on Washington, pickets waved in the air, and cries of anger filling the wind, not at the government's policies, nor at its governance of the economy, nor at its honesty or care for the most vulnerable, but at the inferior design of its latest brochure.

  12. Re:Extra apostrophes by jc42 · · Score: 2

    Actually, what's going on here is best explained by Dave Barry's observation that, in modern American English, the main use of the apostrophe is to warn the reader that there's an "s" coming up soon.

    Once you understand that change in American orthography, it all becomes clear ...

    --
    Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
  13. Re: Works for Slashdot as well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And if you bother to look at the mod points awarded you will see many many -1 levels (much more than normal) and even the GP modded to 0 as off topic

    The point is that the topic of this article is corporate overlords HIDING negative comments about their products

    Oh the fricking ever-loving irony of it all, a story about some despotic game maker shuttering off negative comments about their products being displayed on a nerd=site where all negative comments about the quality of the site are hidden away as -1 or off topic

    Wouldn't it be hilarious if the dice-lords of slashbetahell are making certain that their advertising customers never make low mods visible, because it is all noise...

  14. Re:Right: Beat them @ their OWN game by noh8rz10 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    bahahaha HOSTS to the rescue! dude, instead of spamming the lists for the past years, it works much better if you actually provide advice such as this. I will try this. thank you.

  15. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by Kremmy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not really about the UI redesign, but rather a number of issues relating to it, such as the fact that they've been attempting to fast track the roll-out of the beta. Fast tracking the roll out of an incomplete UI redesign that lacks core functionality, blindly claiming it's an improvement to the degree of actively replacing the production system. This is not how you create a product, this is how you DESTROY a product.

  16. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by Rostis · · Score: 5, Funny

    Aha, you must be that "audience" I've been hearing about.

  17. Re:True by hey! · · Score: 2

    Well, it *is* a game. What some people would call a sleazy marketing trick, others would call innovative gameplay.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  18. easy technical solution... by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 2

    I'm sure Google keeps the referrer information for URLs that hit the Play store. Just throw out all the ratings that come through the game.

  19. It's all the same by stoploss · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm hardly surprised that EA is doing something mendacious and evil; but it's a trifle gutsy to overtly game Google's rating system.

    Meh, one good coercive scam deserves another. I just checked my Google Play app and attempted to rate an app (never had tried before). Lo and behold, rating apps requires Google Plus and all ratings will be linked to one's public profile.

    No thanks. EA and Google deserve each other.

    Oh, and Dice belongs with them for their plans to destroy this community^Waudience.

    1. Re:It's all the same by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

      Every site on the internet somehow spawned a series of like-tweet-plus1 buttons, and it's becoming impossible to use even the most basic services without an account now. Many blogs and news sites don't allow comments without some sort of social account. It go so annoying I ended up renting a VM just so I could have somewhere uncontaminated to run my own email, website and personal filelocker.

    2. Re:It's all the same by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      As best I can tell, shitty little 'social' share/upvote/whatever buttons at the bottom of web pages are to this decade what toolbars at the top of webpages were to the '90s. Only more tightly integrated with the sites they've metastasized onto.

    3. Re:It's all the same by swillden · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Allowing anonymous ratings results in rating stuffing. Requiring that an identity be associated with the rating doesn't completely prevent it, of course, but it does reduce it dramatically, especially if the identity in question has a social network, because it makes creating the backstory to substantiate the rating harder.

      The social network also facilitates allowing people to easily discover what their friends and acquaintances think of apps, which often provides more information than aggregated ratings by strangers, resulting in a better service.

      I'm not saying that you should like it, or agree with it, or change your mind about using it. Just explaining the rationale.

      It's related to the reason that so many news sites' comment pages are requiring an identity linkage. Anonymity encourages garbage comments, and requiring people to put their name on what they write makes most of them more thoughtful. Of course this also has the effect of silencing people who have reason to fear that their on-line comments may have negative real-world consequences for them.

      There is no perfect solution, but in many contexts requiring an identity for participation seems to improve quality enough that on balance it's a good idea, IMO.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  20. Re:What is this post about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you rate this game within the game, EA gets it and has to forward it on to Google play store. If the rating is 1-4 EA doesn't forward it on to the Play store, but if it is a 5 they do forward on the rating. Its apparantly a bad game, but because of this trick it is still rated a 4.5, which is possible by people rating it lower directly on Google Play where EA can't prevent it from going on.

    At least that is what I am getting from reading it.

  21. Re: Give Me Mod Points Slashdot, I fight for the U by Dzimas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The beta design simply doesn't have the information density of the production version. Instead of scanning for interesting comments, I scroll until I get sick of scrolling and then back out to the next thread. This isn't a situation in which users are grumbling because they don't like change; it's an instance where the redesign has a dramatic negative effect on the UX. That's a potential site killer.

  22. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by Bite+The+Pillow · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've been moderating them off-topic, and I'm no admin. We were supposed to have a day of protest, then there was the boycott I think for next week. There is zero point in continuing this childish nonsense.
    Yay, sticking it to the man, we feel awesome about ourselves, now start acting like people care about the community instead of pissing on it.

  23. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by tibman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sounds like victim blaming. "Beta didn't do it. You did it by not accepting Beta." There is always resistance to change. But the change has to at least bring something better to the table. Not a reduction in functionality. If the villagers didn't riot and just left quietly instead then you would still be left wanting better comments.

    --
    http://soylentnews.org/~tibman
  24. Re:Disingenuous and manipulative summary, article by Xeno+man · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Except that it is not well intentioned. What they are doing is per-filtering people and anyone that says they would rate 5, they direct them to the rating site. Anyone that does not want to rate 5 they direct away from the rating site. Regardless what they may or may not do with user feed back, they are still artificially inflating their games score by hiding the rating site from anyone that doesn't want to give full ratings.

  25. Re:Makes sense by MindStalker · · Score: 2

    The game itself is providing an interface to rate the game. If you tell it you are going to rate the game a 4 it has you send an email. If you tell it you are going to rate the game a 5, it sends you to the play store, where you can then rate it however you like.

    Don't use in-app rating. Go to google play store and rate the game however you want.

  26. Re:What? by pellik · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Neither. It's the super-paywall version where every tile you want to build takes 24 hours unless you pay them $2 PER TILE.

  27. Re:Extra apostrophes by Maxx169 · · Score: 2

    If Dave Barry heard you say that he'd roll over in his grave (assuming he is dead), but I'd hazard a guess that he shan't, because what're the odds he'll be paying enough attention - at least, that is what I've always said.

  28. Re:Right: Beat them @ their OWN game by fisted · · Score: 5, Informative

    You are kidding right? "Solving" this by abusing the hosts file is the most crude solution one could possibly come up with, and, btw, renders /. entirely inoperable (what a loss...).

    Guess either you aren't the real apk, or you indeed have the poor technical understanding you seem infamous for.

    for the record, slashdot sets a cookie. it's called betagroup. It appears to contain an integer value between 0 and 99. The poor souls where this number is sufficiently small (ATM <20) get redirected to beta. The others do not.
    In case the solution has not become obvious yet modify that cookie.

    -- "But I use chrome, you insensitive clod!"

  29. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by Archfeld · · Score: 2

    I totally agree, I am NOT a fan of the beta, but there is a place for those comments and suggestions and it isn't in a thread about another subject. If a comment is off-topic, it is OFF-TOPIC regardless of how pertinent it is to the beta. The boycott and rational criticisms about the beta in the appropriate place will convey our feelings quite sufficiently I think.

    --
    errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
  30. Tiny Font by Yahooti · · Score: 2

    Why when I click to a sub thread, do I get font so tiny I can't read it without action (control +) to make it legible? This messing around with me is getting old. Like, I used to go to Digg as often as I went to slashdot, now I haven't been there in months. Is this place going to be like them, and die because they have some wild idea that won't fly?

  31. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by camperdave · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... the anti Beta posts are ruining this site more then that is.

    That is the point. The majority of slashdot regulars DO NOT LIKE, NOR WANT BETA. The hope is that if by raising a stink, the powers that be will nix beta. You say you are here for the comments, but beta's comment system is seriously broken. What you come here for, what we all come here for, may no longer exist if beta gets implemented. Check your comments page and tell me how your comment was moderated, or how many people replied to it. Quote this text in a reply. Post anonymously. Can't be done in beta. Can't be Slashdot without it.

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  32. I found this on another forum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is probably the most insightful perspective I have seen on Slashdot about this mess we find ourselves in. Below is a direct cut and paste. It is not my post, but he states my perspective far more eloquently than I usually say things...

    Fuck beta (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Indigo (2453) Alter Relationship on Saturday February 08, 2014 @03:08PM (#46198875)

    The new Slashdot design is based on Windows 8. That fact alone, even aside from the numerous usability issues, indicates that the new owners have no fucking idea in the world what they've acquired.

    Slashdot is a technology site, a geek site, an open source site, a programming site, an Internet / Web advocacy site. But more than that, it is a Linux community site. It lives and dies by its community. That community, by and large, is made up of passionate Linux advocates who can be whipped into a frenzy at the mention of Microsoft, who think Bill Gates is the Great Satan, who sincerely believe in free and open source software, and who implement that passion in their lives, hobbies, and jobs. Sure, not everyone here fits the mold. But that's the core of the community.

    As one single data point, I work on simulators in the aerospace segment. We develop and integrate specialized, whole-system, software-only simulators, supporting software development when the hardware has limited availability or hasn't been built yet. Our user community is not large, but includes key technical people at well known organizations. Like others we interface with, our work has gone from Windows and Linux in the beginning, to mostly Linux, plus Windows if we have to. That's how we like it. Linux works for us - it's developer friendly, it's rock solid, it's quite deployable, and it lets us do what we need to do. And a bunch of us come to Slashdot to catch the news on Linux and other geek-worthy subjects, and discuss it with others.

    And now the owners, having acquired this rather unique and valuable site, want to make it into Windows fucking 8 - the friendly, cuddly, but unusable Fisher-Price operating system that represents everything we despise? The mind reels. You might as well just make it a SEO parking page for Microsoft.

    Seriously, DICE, do not do this thing. I know you don't care about the history, community, or shared values of this site, but this move will destroy them, and take the site with it. It will become a ghost town, abandoned by its residents, only visited by tourists and people that got lost on their way somewhere else.

    Reply to This

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    1. Re:I found this on another forum by wisnoskij · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I agree to an extent, and 100% for the upcoming gui, but we are not all Linux fanatics.

      Linux makes Windows look like a stinking pile of garbage, in some areas.
      And Windows makes Linux look like a stinking pile in others.

      Linux is perfect for most corporate tasks, imho.
      But Linux just makes a poor personal computer OS, for the vast majority of personal computer tasks.

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
  33. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by manquer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I am not OP, but I since i think i am part of that audience.

    Sure i don't have a 3 digit ID like you, I am fairly recent user, I comment rarely, my comments are barely interesting, but guess what? people like me are the vast majority of the users, most of them don't even have an account. I am happy that slashdot is trying to stay relevant and there are people like me still joining and visiting the site and it has not (yet) become a site of old men complaining about the good ol'days.

    if the community is thinking that slashdot can continue being a viable new site by catering to links browsing sys admins from the 90's it is unrealistic.

    It is not like dice is changing a winning formula, readership is dwindling, they have invested a lot of money, are they supposed to just sit and watch it all collapse? If you really want to make a difference and keep slashdot classic, offer to pay for it. if enough active community members do, they will keep it. Advertisement based business models need certain critical mass, slashdot is fast losing it.

    Don't want to pay big bad DH anything? build your own news aggregator, there is enough unhappy with the beta people with serious talent and plenty of time on hands in this site. Do something useful and quit bitching about.

    P.S Beta IS shitty, broken, very JS heavy etc etc,However #fuckbeta doesn't help either, giving constructive feedback is more meaningful? Dice may not listen/execute it, but at least it has better chance of working than #fuckbeta

  34. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by arth1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    guys seriously I think beta is stupid... but all the anti Beta posts are ruining this site more then that is.

    Um, you are aware that disruption is the point of picketing, right? The idea is to get not just the slashdot editors to notice, but the upper management who may be unaware of what's going on.
    Disrupting the forums enough that it awakens those with power to actually make decisions is necessary to save slashdot.

    If slashdot feeds us non-committed platitudes and corpspeak svada, chances are they do the same upwards too.
    Hopefully some paying advertisers will notice soon, and make a phone call. It's not in their interest to sponsor a forum full of unhappy people, whether they're unhappy with DICE or unhappy with the protests.

    I hope it won't take too long before someone is forced to swallow a camel and finally admit that they messed up. Then we can move on, get a new usable design made from scratch, and have a thriving community of posters.
    But I'd rather see a few days of picketed topics now than to see Slashdot die within a few months. All your guys postings are worth a lot more to me than rational discussions right now and a dead site down the road.

    So forgive us for disrupting your comment reading right now. If you can think of any other way to get the top brass to see that the site is broken, and that an overwhelming majority of those who make people come to visit the site won't accept the beta, even with band-aids on it, please let us know. Using the "appropriate" channels have gotten us exactly nowhere, they've ignored feedback for four months.

  35. is common practice by ljw1004 · · Score: 2

    I see this all the time from service industries, sellers on Amazon marketplace, conference speakers...

    "If you think we did well, please write a positive review. If you think we did poorly, please let us know so we can improve our service."

    It seems ubiquitous. I've always thought it slimy.

  36. Re:Right: Beat them @ their OWN game by nitehawk214 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Also it solves nothing when they put beta in as the live site and remove the "classic" site.

    Presumably that will not last long when they see readers flocking away. But who knows, the corporate masters at Dice are probably demanding new readers; and somehow the staff thinks they will acheive this by turning it into a combination of the lack of a user interface for comments that ars has, with the shitty front page that Digg had.

    --
    I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  37. Re:Right: Beat them @ their OWN game by nitehawk214 · · Score: 2

    Self reply:

    I said "DIgg had" past tense as I just assumed it no longer existed. Surprisingly it does still exist! And it looks like they moved form the shitty blog-style format to a shitty amalgamation of ars' frontpage and every other goofy column based site.

    Also I had forgotten about their "user moderated frontpage" concept. As much as we bitch about slashdot editors and what shows up on the frontpage... Digg shows how this cannot be left to the masses.

    --
    I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  38. Hate the beta protests but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have seen the Beta a few days ago just to see what the protect was about, if that goes live, Slashdot is dead.

    I have been on here since the 1990's, the comments is the main thing that makes this place worth coming to. Even the political stuff. They give great information on the topic even finding things the original articles had wrong or just left out and gives virtually every side of a story. One of the few sites where you can so a political story and get both the left and right views of it with both extremist sides getting called out for that crap and the misconceptions on both sides corrected and the trolls flat out just modded out. Had times where I would read a 10 minute article and then over 2 hours of comments giving more information on it and flat out picking it apart in every possible way.

    With beta, the comments section is marginalized and hard to really keep organized and all the added stuff eat up way too much space. The people who made it have no clue what the appeal of this site is and their setup will destroy that. If I wanted what they are pushing, I would got to CNET news. If it goes live, slashdot is dead and we will have to find a new place and it will be hard to find one as good as this one was.

  39. Re:What? by ireallyhateslashdot · · Score: 2

    Sadly, he is not.

  40. Re: Works for Slashdot as well... by Bob9113 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    displayed on a nerd=site where all negative comments about the quality of the site are hidden away as -1 or off topic

    Don't look now, but your negative comment about the quality of this site is currently modded as +4 Interesting.

    Ah-Ha! But that only proves the point! You see, they intentionally allowed your comment to be modded up so they can point to it and say, "See, we didn't mod that one into oblivion!" Tricksy Hobbitses!

    Oh yeah, and, Fuck Beta.

  41. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by richlv · · Score: 2

    i don't knw about that, 'fuckbeta' seemed to attract attention pretty well. you noticed it, didn't you ? :)

    --
    Rich
  42. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by richlv · · Score: 2

    no, there was stink-raising until the boycott week (starting tomorrow). you can be here next week. and if they push through with "beta", you can be here afterwards.

    for all we know, you could be slashdot media executive who registered just now to post this crap :P

    also, fuck beta.

    --
    Rich
  43. EA has apparently 'replied' w/ Official Statement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2451671,00.asp

    such BS...

  44. Re:What? by Merls+the+Sneaky · · Score: 5, Interesting

    No joke. Total biscuit gives you a quick look in this video.
    http://youtu.be/6DJmS7prcmE?t=...

    If this is the future of gaming according to EA they can shove it up their arse.

  45. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by Rostis · · Score: 2

    Get off my lawn.

  46. Re:Dungeon Keeper is for stupid people by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

    From the review I've seen, the game is effectively unplayable without paying. Without the for-pay speedups, even the simplist construction could take weeks of real-time.

  47. Re:Slice of the pie... by SuricouRaven · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Short term, yes. But if EA gets away with this, other developers are sure to follow, and the loss of an effective ratings would seriously hurt the play store's reputation - pontentially easily doing enough financial damage in lost business to offset whatever they make from this one game.

  48. Re: Works for Slashdot as well... by war4peace · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe all the downmods are coming from people like me, who come to /. for the articles and comments, not caring about site design, who owns what and political bullshit implications.
    I come here to see informative comments on the subject at hand and read relevant news. What you guys are doing is noise I loathe.
    It's like going to a cafe to have a good coffee and overhear interesting conversation about the soft volume music playing, and when owner decides to redesign the cafe's interior, some tards start screaming in my ear whenever a new song is played, just because they don't like the new paintwork.
    And when other patrons flag them as vandals, they come up with a "conspiracy theory".
    You and your kind are vandals in my opinion. You don't like the new cafe paintwork? Feel free to go to another or create your own. but please, leave me be. Allow me to read the articles and relevant comments.
    You're the kid in this video, and I'm the other customer.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  49. Re: Works for Slashdot as well... by ultranova · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Maybe all the downmods are coming from people like me, who come to /. for the articles and comments, not caring about site design, who owns what and political bullshit implications.

    The implication of site design on a site where content is user-generated is whether said content - comments, in Slashdot's case - keeps being generated. The consensus seems to be that Beta is sufficiently bad in this regard to give the deathblow to Slashdot.

    It's like going to a cafe to have a good coffee and overhear interesting conversation about the soft volume music playing, and when owner decides to redesign the cafe's interior, some tards start screaming in my ear whenever a new song is played, just because they don't like the new paintwork.

    Beta is not paintwork. Beta is a set of sound-absorbing elements that stop those conversations from being overheard but look trendy. And, this being Slashdot, the coffee is two weeks old and has already been drunk in at least two other cafes.

    Allow me to read the articles and relevant comments.

    The main complaint about Beta is that it makes it difficult to read comments, and almost impossible to read them in their context.

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  50. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by hairyfeet · · Score: 2

    And you think there is gonna be ANY on-topic comments to read when they switch to a "ZOMFG look at this Vlog yo! "Comments by Disqus" layout? Really?

    You have better odds of getting decent comments during "OMG Ponies!" day than you do with that trash UI. I know that after spending a couple hours trying to deal with that eyesore i just went to other tech sites and didn't bother commenting on shit since it was too much of a PITA to follow a conversation but if all you want is channers? Well you'll be in luck, as I have a feeling most of the old guard will just give their UIDs to the 4Chan just for LULZ and walk away.

    As for EA? What is sad is from the mid 80s to the mid to late 90s? They were actually a good company that cared about the games they put out, but then it became this big bloated monster that only cared about how much blood they could milk out of a property. You know a company sucks when they trade places back and forth with Activision in the "this company must be run by Satan" contest.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  51. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm sorry but that is EXACTLY what those of us who were beta testers for Windows 8 were told, what did we get? "Sure we hear you" (we just don't give a fuck what you have to say).

    The big difference here is until Alt is up and running we can't just "stick with the old one" or "use a different one" like we did with windows 8, because frankly there ISN'T ONE, there isn't any comment heavy site like /. catering to nerds, least not that I've found. instead you get "comments by Disqus" style pages where if an article is REALLY lucky you get...drumroll...10 comments! because at the end of the day its nothing more than a press release that nobody even gives enough fucks about to say anything, just glance and move on.

    You say awareness has been brought...citation please? A single article by Soulskill or Timothy don't mean jack shit, they are tier 3 at best. show me a single thing, just one, from somebody in a high position at DH and I'll take your word for it and helpfully post right beside you that the #Fuckbeta needs to stop.

    But you'd better provide it quick, because I won't be here from the 10th-17th.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  52. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by ultranova · · Score: 2

    There's more than enough in line to replace your oh-so-high quality comments.

    Slashdot has a queue for registration now?

    Well, doesn't that solve everything? Just make a Classic shard and a Beta shard and let all the cool kids who are now forced to wait in line head for the Beta (Neo?) while the grumpy old men stay on Classic (Jurassic?). Everyone's happy, and you can even make the Slashdot Jurassic and its dinosaurs viewable from Slashdot Neo as a kind of Jurassic Park.

    Seriously, people, do I have to think up all the good ideas around here ?-)

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  53. I tried by justthinkit · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Several years back I tried contacting Slashdot about a variety of issues, with my point being that some of these can/should be fixed for those who subscribe (as I was willing to do).

    They, of course, did not change, and so I, of course, did not subscribe.

    FWIW, my main point/suggestion was:
    There is, at present, zero value in subscribing. Slashdot should take a lesson from Ars Technica -- they let you download the entire article, in PDF format, if you are a subscriber. I suggested Slashdot allow subscribers to load an entire comment thread on a single page (to get rid of the annoying duplicate post bug that has been around for more years than I have fingers). They didn't go for it.

    So here we are today, with Slashdot providing nothing of value to subscribers, and losing money. Color me shocked.

    Boycott begins tomorrow, for at least a week.

    --
    I come here for the love
  54. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by fox171171 · · Score: 2

    It is not like dice is changing a winning formula, readership is dwindling, they have invested a lot of money, are they supposed to just sit and watch it all collapse?

    Obviously then they are not sitting back and watching it happen, they are being proactive by stuffing it into a coffin and burying it before it is dead.

  55. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by arth1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ironically, you're destroying /. when you're trying to save it this way.

    The point of the distruption is to bring awarness and that has clearly been accomplished. You're continuing distruption however is fueled by a different motive which is to control /. and make /. do what you want them to do. That's a violation of property rights and I'm not going to support it. Let me let you in on a little secret. It's not you're fucking Slashdot! Trying to control them won't work and will cause more harm than good.

    Don't ascribe me motifs. You're dead wrong in several respects.

    1: Awareness has not been accomplished. There is no indication that the awareness has reached farther than the slashdot editors and the design team. If you have other information, please point to it. The point was not to make visitors aware, but tot make the stink big enough that it would reach those with the ability to cut the crap and make decisions.

    2: I have no wish to control slashdot. I have a wish for slashdot to stop the headlong rush towards a cliff that the users won't follow them over. I don't want them to do a Digg.

    Slashdot is not too big to fail.
    I would welcome changes, but not changes that will drive away a majority of the posters. I do not believe that slashdot could survive that.

    When a toddler walks towards a busy road you yell to stop it. If it continues walking because it's obstinate and you're not its mommy, you continue yelling to get the attention of someone in the position to intervene.
    Those that advocate doing nothing and please stop shouting that will are the ones thinking only of themselves. I will not stand idle and watch with you.
    It is not too late to save the site, but it won't happen through hope.

    Because I want to see lots and lots of posts and discussions here over the next fifteen years. Including yours, and others on my foe and freak lists. Slashdot is too important to be allowed Death By Redesign.
    The number of sites that died, or are just a shadow of what they were, are plenty. Yahoo Video is another one. It was lead by the same man who now leads technology for Dice Holdings. The vision is strong in that one.

  56. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    UI changes are not something to act disruptive in every fricking thread over, even if they reduce features.

    Slashdot has two things, comments and a UI. If you fuck up the UI so that you can't easily comment, it will have zero things. Many of us have dare I say invested a lot of time here, and it's reasonable to attempt to protect that investment by spending more time bitching about the proposed changes. The fact that you're seeing so many messages of complaint is that it's a big deal to many people. If you're not one of them, consider yourself counted, but realize that you're protesting protest which is both bitchy and hypocritical.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  57. Re:It works though (you did better?) by fisted · · Score: 2

    Question: does it really? No, it does not, since even though you trick your resolver to yield 216.34.181.45 for beta.slashdot.org, your web browser will still send the ``Host: beta.slashdot.org''-Header
    As you are evidently not aware of, DNS subdomains and the so called ``vhosts'' that web servers implement are two completely different things.

    As you have evidently not even tried it yourself, all you achieve with that bogus hosts entry is not being able to access /. at all, provided you're one of the people getting redirected to beta (which you clearly should as you're as close to the intended audience as it gets)

  58. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    Ironically, you're destroying /. when you're trying to save it this way.

    No, no we aren't. A week's disruption won't destroy slashdot.

    The point of the distruption is to bring awarness and that has clearly been accomplished.

    No, no it isn't. The point of the disruption is to prevent bad changes to slashdot.

    You're continuing distruption however is fueled by a different motive which is to control /. and make /. do what you want them to do. That's a violation of property rights and I'm not going to support it.

    Congratulations, you just proved that you are a massive idiot. No one is forcing Dice to do anything in particular. They give us a comment functionality, and we're using it to cause a distruption of their bad plans for our community. If they don't want us leaving these comments, they're free to terminate our accounts. Further, it is the absolute right of every community to attempt to control its conditions. If you disagree, move out of your house and go live in a hole.

    Let me let you in on a little secret. It's not you're fucking Slashdot!

    That's "your". And we'll just see about that. Let me let you in on a little secret that even Dice hasn't figure out. It is our fucking slashdot. It's nothing without the users. You can create a community, you can even dissolve it, but you can't control it. You can appeal to it, but what Dice is doing is unappealing.

    Here's a superior way to accomplish what you want. Once you've communicated your displeasure and have gotten confirmation from the owners that they understand your concerns, simply wait to see what happens.

    We have not gotten confirmation from the owners that they understand our concerns. We've gotten confirmation that they understand our concerns. Until they announce that they won't be forcing the singing-and-dancing bullshit overwrought interface on us, we will lack that confirmation. Slashdot has never before been so full of hubris that it was both ready and willing to alienate its userbase to this degree. Sure, Slashdot has had crappy new interfaces, but no one has ever been forced to use them.

    Here's a superior way for Dice to change the site: The beta site could have had the functionality of the production site. By impinging on that productivity, Dice proved that they don't understand Slashdot. We're going to keep it up until they either figure it out, or fuck it up completely.

    If the owners decide to not please their audience then they'll have a natural consequence of losing that audience and revenue. It will also create void for someone else to fill with perhaps a better site than the "perfect" classic /.

    It will also lead to fragmentation. People like you will stay here on Slashdot, and then we won't have your posts to criticize in order to demonstrate to others what unfounded, illogical views look like.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  59. Re:Works for Slashdot as well... by arth1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Meanwhile in RealityWorld:

    Exec: Wow, those neckbeards really hate change. It's a shame. That site is losing money already, and they're trying to destroy any chance to revitalize it. Guess we should just shut it down instead. Alright boys, let's auction the servers.

    That might not be a bad alternative to running the site over a cliff. It could be sold to the users, like WELL.
    I still hope for reason to prevail, but if not, I would welcome a user-owned slashdot, and contribute my share.

  60. Re:Right: Beat them @ their OWN game by Thanosius · · Score: 2

    OT: Why should Amanda Knox be freed? She's been found guilty (again) and there doesn't appear to be any real accusations of any level of incompetence or corruption on the part of the Italian courts. Just curious is all.

    --
    Account abandoned. I can't fucking spell for shit and Slashdot doesn't even allow time-limited edits of posts. Plus you'