@Zipfrazzle said:
1) I took a look at the screenshots from the link you provided in the original post. Is that a decapitated head with blood splurging around the screen? Have you tried taking that out?
Strangely enough, that hasn't been brought up. The issue seems to be the guns in particular. But we'll find out soon enough. I pixelated the guns out and resubmitted all the screen shots with the text "Screen shots censored by Apple" across all of them.
@Zipfrazzle said:
2) From what you have posted, you seem to have indicated your screenshots have been the same. Is it correct to interpret that, your screenshots had been ok and approved in the past, hence your surprise? If so, then how do you know this shift in standards (if that's what's going on) isn't being applied wide-spread and other people are not having the same conversations are you are, and with the other games you are pointing out having been approved from the past, as your game was?
That is correct, but on the main page of the App Store, under Best New Game Updates you have Deer Hunter 2014, Modern Combat 5: Blackout, Call of Duty: Heroes, Monster Dash, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf all featured, and all submitted in December. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I'm also pretty sure it'll be other unknown, unheard of people that are the ones being told to comply. I really wish I could see clear evidence of the opposite, I wish I could see signs that any of these other games had to remove any imagery of guns... but I don't see it.
ogreofwartHello Everybody on the Gamesalad Planet. I come in peace, warts'n'all!!! Lancashire UKMemberPosts: 281
I was going to suggest may be a blackout sticker over the offending weapon with comments pertaining to censorship on it.
I did think it could possibly work in your favour for potential customers, wanting to know what was behind the cover.
ogreofwartHello Everybody on the Gamesalad Planet. I come in peace, warts'n'all!!! Lancashire UKMemberPosts: 281
I've googled for some time. Looks like enforcing this rule is not massive at this point. You just probably had a bad luck to stumble on a particular reviewer that is enforcing that rule.
Also it was a surprise to know, that this rule is actually exists since 2011.
It's not apple's fault, but angry parents. Apple is just the middle man trying to deal with angry customers, and not using a certain photo is a better deal than losing customers. Customer service man, learn it.
Just to add to this. On Google 'were muppets' Play, my Flappy Santa game was rated from 'everyone' to Medium Maturity'. I fell off my chair when I received the email. Apparently its a game of chance and therefore gambling.....>FLAPPY SANTA!
Like Balls? Then click here! We've 100 coming soon
@jigglybean Sometimes you can't make this sh#= up!
ogreofwartHello Everybody on the Gamesalad Planet. I come in peace, warts'n'all!!! Lancashire UKMemberPosts: 281
It seems that the only issue here is the inability of game service providers being able to distinguish between actual game content and advertising.
True some images contain weapons and will continue to do so, it is part of the willing disbelief of the gaming community... it is not real.
Also what has not been mentioned are apps with other questionable content that are not suitable for general viewing with provocative advertising pictures.
I don't know or even pretend to know what the answer to this issue is, but there has to be some constructive communication between developers and the stores to resolve this problem soon or there will be no competition between the big industries and indie devs because the money will win.
I do think a serious injustice is being committed here, there should be one rule for all or not at all.
Serious stuff over, seriously do you like my gun. Its very shiny
@RP said:
"AppStore Rules becoming ludicrous" and "Apple now wants all screen shots of any game, regardless of rating to adhere to a 4+ rating"
You are winning about Apple's policies while being totally in the wrong.
Complaints about Apple and their policies shoud be on the Apple Developer forums, not here. If you have legitimate complaints that other developers agree on, that's place to make it heard. Just a word to the wise, you'd likely get harsher treatment on those forums than here if your complaint is similar to what you have posted about here.
This is the Miscellaneous section. It is perfectly acceptable for this to be posted here. This is a legitimate complaint that other developers (in this thread) agree on, and this is one place that it can be seen. Probably not by people who could directly fix it (Apple employees), but if enough developers see how unevenly their own rules are being applied, they can collectively put pressure on Apple to change that.
Thanks for educating me on the sections, as though I don't know what they are for. ;P Yeah, whenever I have a complaint about something I go a far away from the source of the issue as possible. No water in the desert? Go to the north pole and complain about it.
"how unevenly their own rules are being applied:" Come on now, this is pretty Pseudo. Do you ever read your AD license agreements? (there is a very interesting section in all that), you know which one I mean? The people agreeing that his unbelievably unfair and unjust are the usual suspects.
@Loaded Welcome to the club... not that it's a very fun one to be in.
@jigglybean Wow, that's crazy. Can't believe they would be that over zealous to consider something like that gambling...
@imGua That's actually really interesting. I had no idea this rule was meant to be in place since 2011... definitely no sign of it at a glance of the store. Interestingly, when Apple called me up (to remove my "screen shots censored by Apple" tags on the images) he said this was a new rule that had only just come in.
@RP Honestly, I thought making my case heard to the reviewer themselves would be the most effective method. Clearly I was wrong, since they just copy 'n' paste pre-written responses, as I saw when Loaded received an identical response when he also pointed out that games being featured didn't suffer from this rule. Do you have a link to the dev forum? Can't say I've ever been there.
I can understand how peeps can see this as a drag, but really what Apple needs to do is rework how they are distributing out their apps to their users. It's not really so much the policies and their rights to wave and change anything and everything whenever, it about not issuing the same policy for all content when they fully have the means to advertise/showcase/present apps and content based upon the signed-in age age-confirmed user.
Heck all they need to do is refine the iTunes & App Store Setting (/preferences) that allows you to shop for teen, mature etc. content, and ta-da, it show up in the store during your searches. If a hospital is handing out iPads to kids to play with and they admin has not set up age restrictions in the settings (which should be on by default), it's on them, when little Billy sees Teddy bear guts.
After you log in there is an iOS Developer tool bar on the right side of the browser. Click on the Apple Developer Forums tab and you are in like Flynn.
ogreofwartHello Everybody on the Gamesalad Planet. I come in peace, warts'n'all!!! Lancashire UKMemberPosts: 281
My thoughts entirely @RP the onus should be on age restricted browsing implementation not on the developers censorship.
All app stores should require proof of age of the account holder before letting them free on the market.
@RP I completely agree. The approach of getting developers to censor their own screen shots is a silly one. Filtering the results users see like you described would be far more efficient, not to mention unbiased and fair.
I would say when dev's no matter who they are submit their next game or update they will face the same rules. Some may delay their updates because of it but at some point all apps will comply. If Apple lets anyone get away with it what would be the point in implementing it in the first place. They may as well of not bothered going through the hassle and coping all the flack if there are still going to be pictures of guns on the store.
How can they possibly say to the Mums and Dads "Little Jonny will never see a gun on our store" (Which I assume is the Point of the exercise) if they let some stay. Anything more than none doesn't make any logical sense to me.
It will be interesting to see if they go all they way or reverse course because of pressure from dev's particularly from the big ones and or a backlash from users. It will also be interesting to see how it works out for them over time. There could be a steady leak of users to Android because of peoples perceptions of the stores. For example they may think subconsciously they are getting an unrestricted game on Google Play because they see the un-sanitised promotional material. It could easily be a steady gain because of parents perception of Apple being more kid friendly which I assume is their angle.
I don't think there is any conspiracy going on here. If there is it wouldn't benefit Apple, it would be all pain and no gain for them.
@strag said:
colander Just for the record Google Play is just as bad...only you get contacted by a robot not a human being!
I was only using GP as a comparison to Apple regarding the display of guns, etc in metadata. Correct me if I am wrong as far as I know GP are not restricting this.
@colander said:
I was only using GP as a comparison to Apple regarding the display of guns, etc in metadata. Correct me if I am wrong as far as I know GP are not restricting this.
No as far as I am aware they are not restricting images of guns.
While I haven't posted anything about this for a while there was still some more fun to be had.
I complied with what was asked, censored guns and removed my "censored by Apple" text from them... but the next reviewer was a real pain. They rejected it, under the same rule, but because the binary icon, the one that can only be viewed by someone who has already purchased my game. Since it was not censored.
This was really annoying, since if you go back to page one of this thread you'll see that it even said I did not have to modify the binary, just the promotional material. The rule itself even says the purpose of this was only for material viewable on the App Store, the binary icon is not. So I disputed it, and pointed this out... and then they said, oh, but my binary icon doesn't match the one on the App Store... I asked if that was even a rule, they said no, but it could be confusing for customers. So they said that's two reasons for me to change the binary icon. Because it has a gun in it and so customers don't get confused.
So much time had gone by, I had another update by now, so just gave up on this update I had been trying to publish since the end of last year and put through the new update. It went through, no issues, so the ordeal was finally over. But what a crappy experience. I'll probably share this all with Yannick LeJacq, so thanks for the link @imGua.
I just got an app rejected because of several things. I can understand they don't want me to use brand names (even if it was just in the meta tags. But then they start ranting about the apps name. And even come up with suggestions that have the brand names in them. Maybe its my bad understanding of the English Language. Here is the message I got (the last part is the things that made my brain hurt):
Your app or its metadata contains misleading content. Specifically, your app suggests a relationship with SpaceX, NASA and might be considered mean spirited or actionable. Given recent progress, you may wish to reconsider your app's approach to the gameplay.
We’ve attached screenshot(s) for your reference.
Next Steps
Please remove or revise any misleading content in your app or its metadata.
In addition, we recommend adjusting your app name so that the misleading element is used as a descriptor, not as part of the product name. For example, the following styles are acceptable formats for names:
Rocket Landing - with tagline "for Reusable Rockets"
Rocket Recovery - with tagline "Falcon edition"
Rocket Science - with tagline "SpaceX version"
What is going on here, got a mail from google that my game "Twin dash" has been change from low maturity to medium...and i have no ide why.
Can it be that i use the word balls in the description......how to Contact them, cant find any good way
@freneticz said:
What is going on here, got a mail from google that my game "Twin dash" has been change from low maturity to medium...and i have no ide why.
Can it be that i use the word balls in the description......how to Contact them, cant find any good way
This is the most frustrating thing with the way Google deals with developers, it's all automated with no way that I could find of communicating with a real person.
Comments
The rules are always bent when there is money to be made.
Fortuna Infortuna Forti Una
It's not fair but I will be devils advocate.
If you get caught speeding and you tell the officer everyone was passing me at 100 mph why did you stop me????
Its true and sucks but the officer will shrug and hand you a ticket.
Pay it and drive on. You can't win here.
Sorry.
I think his point is more along the lines of;
Universal Binary Template - Universal Binary Template Instructions Rev 4 (Short) - Custom Score Display Template
Strangely enough, that hasn't been brought up. The issue seems to be the guns in particular. But we'll find out soon enough. I pixelated the guns out and resubmitted all the screen shots with the text "Screen shots censored by Apple" across all of them.
That is correct, but on the main page of the App Store, under Best New Game Updates you have Deer Hunter 2014, Modern Combat 5: Blackout, Call of Duty: Heroes, Monster Dash, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf all featured, and all submitted in December. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I'm also pretty sure it'll be other unknown, unheard of people that are the ones being told to comply. I really wish I could see clear evidence of the opposite, I wish I could see signs that any of these other games had to remove any imagery of guns... but I don't see it.
I was going to suggest may be a blackout sticker over the offending weapon with comments pertaining to censorship on it.
I did think it could possibly work in your favour for potential customers, wanting to know what was behind the cover.
That probably wasn't a good idea, they are not going to take well to it.
I laughed out loud when i read it though, good one!
Fortuna Infortuna Forti Una
I've googled for some time. Looks like enforcing this rule is not massive at this point. You just probably had a bad luck to stumble on a particular reviewer that is enforcing that rule.
Also it was a surprise to know, that this rule is actually exists since 2011.
Shadows Peak is an atmospheric psychological horror that explores the dark side of a player.
It's not apple's fault, but angry parents. Apple is just the middle man trying to deal with angry customers, and not using a certain photo is a better deal than losing customers. Customer service man, learn it.
@CobraBlade - I feel you pain brother. Just had the same issue myself - here. These rules are definitely not being applied consistently...
Website » Twitter » Facebook » Loaded Arts - Fun for thumbs.
Developer Blog » 08/01/2015 - Week 72 – Apple, the great dictator…
Just to add to this. On Google 'were muppets' Play, my Flappy Santa game was rated from 'everyone' to Medium Maturity'. I fell off my chair when I received the email. Apparently its a game of chance and therefore gambling.....>FLAPPY SANTA!
Like Balls? Then click here! We've 100 coming soon
@jigglybean Sometimes you can't make this sh#= up!
It seems that the only issue here is the inability of game service providers being able to distinguish between actual game content and advertising.
True some images contain weapons and will continue to do so, it is part of the willing disbelief of the gaming community... it is not real.
Also what has not been mentioned are apps with other questionable content that are not suitable for general viewing with provocative advertising pictures.
I don't know or even pretend to know what the answer to this issue is, but there has to be some constructive communication between developers and the stores to resolve this problem soon or there will be no competition between the big industries and indie devs because the money will win.
I do think a serious injustice is being committed here, there should be one rule for all or not at all.
Serious stuff over, seriously do you like my gun. Its very shiny
This is the Miscellaneous section. It is perfectly acceptable for this to be posted here. This is a legitimate complaint that other developers (in this thread) agree on, and this is one place that it can be seen. Probably not by people who could directly fix it (Apple employees), but if enough developers see how unevenly their own rules are being applied, they can collectively put pressure on Apple to change that.
@SnapFireStudios
Thanks for educating me on the sections, as though I don't know what they are for. ;P Yeah, whenever I have a complaint about something I go a far away from the source of the issue as possible. No water in the desert? Go to the north pole and complain about it.
"how unevenly their own rules are being applied:" Come on now, this is pretty Pseudo. Do you ever read your AD license agreements? (there is a very interesting section in all that), you know which one I mean? The people agreeing that his unbelievably unfair and unjust are the usual suspects.
@Loaded Welcome to the club... not that it's a very fun one to be in.
@jigglybean Wow, that's crazy. Can't believe they would be that over zealous to consider something like that gambling...
@imGua That's actually really interesting. I had no idea this rule was meant to be in place since 2011... definitely no sign of it at a glance of the store. Interestingly, when Apple called me up (to remove my "screen shots censored by Apple" tags on the images) he said this was a new rule that had only just come in.
@RP Honestly, I thought making my case heard to the reviewer themselves would be the most effective method. Clearly I was wrong, since they just copy 'n' paste pre-written responses, as I saw when Loaded received an identical response when he also pointed out that games being featured didn't suffer from this rule. Do you have a link to the dev forum? Can't say I've ever been there.
@ogreofwart Haha, yes, nice gun.
I can understand how peeps can see this as a drag, but really what Apple needs to do is rework how they are distributing out their apps to their users. It's not really so much the policies and their rights to wave and change anything and everything whenever, it about not issuing the same policy for all content when they fully have the means to advertise/showcase/present apps and content based upon the signed-in age age-confirmed user.
Heck all they need to do is refine the iTunes & App Store Setting (/preferences) that allows you to shop for teen, mature etc. content, and ta-da, it show up in the store during your searches. If a hospital is handing out iPads to kids to play with and they admin has not set up age restrictions in the settings (which should be on by default), it's on them, when little Billy sees Teddy bear guts.
Sign in here: LINK
https://developer.apple.com/devcenter/ios/index.action
After you log in there is an iOS Developer tool bar on the right side of the browser. Click on the Apple Developer Forums tab and you are in like Flynn.
My thoughts entirely @RP the onus should be on age restricted browsing implementation not on the developers censorship.
All app stores should require proof of age of the account holder before letting them free on the market.
@RP I completely agree. The approach of getting developers to censor their own screen shots is a silly one. Filtering the results users see like you described would be far more efficient, not to mention unbiased and fair.
I would say when dev's no matter who they are submit their next game or update they will face the same rules. Some may delay their updates because of it but at some point all apps will comply. If Apple lets anyone get away with it what would be the point in implementing it in the first place. They may as well of not bothered going through the hassle and coping all the flack if there are still going to be pictures of guns on the store.
How can they possibly say to the Mums and Dads "Little Jonny will never see a gun on our store" (Which I assume is the Point of the exercise) if they let some stay. Anything more than none doesn't make any logical sense to me.
It will be interesting to see if they go all they way or reverse course because of pressure from dev's particularly from the big ones and or a backlash from users. It will also be interesting to see how it works out for them over time. There could be a steady leak of users to Android because of peoples perceptions of the stores. For example they may think subconsciously they are getting an unrestricted game on Google Play because they see the un-sanitised promotional material. It could easily be a steady gain because of parents perception of Apple being more kid friendly which I assume is their angle.
I don't think there is any conspiracy going on here. If there is it wouldn't benefit Apple, it would be all pain and no gain for them.
Universal Binary Template - Universal Binary Template Instructions Rev 4 (Short) - Custom Score Display Template
@colander Just for the record Google Play is just as bad...only you get contacted by a robot not a human being!
I was only using GP as a comparison to Apple regarding the display of guns, etc in metadata. Correct me if I am wrong as far as I know GP are not restricting this.
Universal Binary Template - Universal Binary Template Instructions Rev 4 (Short) - Custom Score Display Template
No as far as I am aware they are not restricting images of guns.
http://kotaku.com/apple-is-rejecting-games-for-having-images-of-guns-1685507628
Shadows Peak is an atmospheric psychological horror that explores the dark side of a player.
Yea i read this story earlier, even app preview videos need to be censored.
Edit:
After reading the comments, this explains everything
Fortuna Infortuna Forti Una
While I haven't posted anything about this for a while there was still some more fun to be had.
I complied with what was asked, censored guns and removed my "censored by Apple" text from them... but the next reviewer was a real pain. They rejected it, under the same rule, but because the binary icon, the one that can only be viewed by someone who has already purchased my game. Since it was not censored.
This was really annoying, since if you go back to page one of this thread you'll see that it even said I did not have to modify the binary, just the promotional material. The rule itself even says the purpose of this was only for material viewable on the App Store, the binary icon is not. So I disputed it, and pointed this out... and then they said, oh, but my binary icon doesn't match the one on the App Store... I asked if that was even a rule, they said no, but it could be confusing for customers. So they said that's two reasons for me to change the binary icon. Because it has a gun in it and so customers don't get confused.
So much time had gone by, I had another update by now, so just gave up on this update I had been trying to publish since the end of last year and put through the new update. It went through, no issues, so the ordeal was finally over. But what a crappy experience. I'll probably share this all with Yannick LeJacq, so thanks for the link @imGua.
I just got an app rejected because of several things. I can understand they don't want me to use brand names (even if it was just in the meta tags. But then they start ranting about the apps name. And even come up with suggestions that have the brand names in them. Maybe its my bad understanding of the English Language. Here is the message I got (the last part is the things that made my brain hurt):
Your app or its metadata contains misleading content. Specifically, your app suggests a relationship with SpaceX, NASA and might be considered mean spirited or actionable. Given recent progress, you may wish to reconsider your app's approach to the gameplay.
We’ve attached screenshot(s) for your reference.
Next Steps
Please remove or revise any misleading content in your app or its metadata.
In addition, we recommend adjusting your app name so that the misleading element is used as a descriptor, not as part of the product name. For example, the following styles are acceptable formats for names:
Rocket Landing - with tagline "for Reusable Rockets"
Rocket Recovery - with tagline "Falcon edition"
Rocket Science - with tagline "SpaceX version"
Rather than associating "Falcon" and "Fail"
Lump Apps and My Assets
What is going on here, got a mail from google that my game "Twin dash" has been change from low maturity to medium...and i have no ide why.
Can it be that i use the word balls in the description......how to Contact them, cant find any good way
Homepage: freneticgamez.eu/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=FreneticGamez
Balls, Ow, I have games using that too. And bunny as well owwww!
Lump Apps and My Assets
This is the most frustrating thing with the way Google deals with developers, it's all automated with no way that I could find of communicating with a real person.