How to handle low review ratings?

[andymc]

I get a number of low scoring (1 or 2 star) reviews on Google play for my games, I normally reply upbeat with something like "Hi! thanks for the amazing review, please let us know what we could do to improve?"
But users never reply back with ideas.

Should I try to stop people leaving bad reviews? Like only ask for a review after a few games where the player has played for more than a few minutes?

The bad reviews really affect the overall review score.



edit: before anyone suggests it, yes I know I could try making better games!

 

[BillMeyer]

@andymc

Have you ever thought of the fact that it is opposition developers leaving these ratings to lower your ranking ?

I caught a guy out that did that to me on a commercial app - but unfortunately I had no known recourse to "beat the ***** out of him"

Your idea of playing and then review before unlocking the next level might be a good one.

Have a "lekka" day !!!

 

[Peter Simpson]

I find that the smallest of issues and most users will most probably leave bad feedback at a drop of a hat, but I bet if those same users didn't have an issue they probably wouldn't have left good feedback.

That's it really, I've given up trying to figure out app users.

 

[Sandman]

Like only ask for a review after a few games where the player has played for more than a few minutes?

Absolutely. Or rather: whatever factor you can use to expect them to be hooked. On top of my mind, I would probably be tempted to combine these and show the request for review when they all are true:

• User has played > X games
• User has played > Y minutes
• User has just finished a game and made high-score (and make it very obvious for them that they did this)

 

[sorex]

you'll learn to just ignore the bad reviews, Andy. probably some other space invaders programmers who downvote competition.

you barely get a change of stars when you implemented their requests aswell.

in my games there's a point trigger like 100 points and then it will show the rating message (only once as long as they don't remove and reinstall the app again).
but to reach 100 points you need to play a lot of games so it's probably only the addicts who will see it.