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Author Topic: Apple Removes "Afghanistan ‘11” from the App Store  (Read 12646 times)

Cyrano

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on: December 05, 2018, 09:28:20 PM
https://toucharcade.com/2018/12/05/apple-removes-afghanistan-11-by-slitherine-from-the-app-store/?fbclid=IwAR2RhXe_BZ6SvPo-v_qVwiMdTILZZ-vs25Ah1KUrD7hjr6kMLiorhp-hGnA

So much here, but I'll offer these two thoughts:

1.  This is more a problem of trying to create bright-line rules where judgment is called for.  It is a failure of the bureaucratic mentality.   Quote your "book of principles" all you like, Apfel-Kinder, but a single adult with a degree in history and a modicum of common sense would have saved you a world of embarrassment here.

2.  Nobody tell them about "This Guilty Land".  They'd probably faint in a fit of the vapors.

« Last Edit: December 06, 2018, 09:06:04 PM by Cyrano »

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mirth

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Reply #1 on: December 05, 2018, 09:44:56 PM
I found this interesting from the comments:

Quote
Sorry, lost all sympathy for Slitherine when they told everyone who'd bought many of their previous iOS games (at great expense - many of the games were $20, some with another $50+ of add-on campaigns), that updating their games to work on 64-bit would be hard, so their most lucrative course of action was to screw their existing customers, and not update any of those costly games.

Part of their explanation was, "well, it would be too much work to write format converters for old save games and re-test multiplayer between all the platforms" - fine, so give us an update with those capabilities dropped, but that at least just lets the basic game run single-player with no old save games brought over, and only update the subset of games running on the easier engines to fix - give us something for all the money we poured into the games, to show some loyalty to the customers. Nope, they present it as an all-or-nothing scenario in order to justify not doing anything, and screwing their loyal customers.

I haven't purchased anything from the Apple App store in years so I had no idea this had happened.

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panzerde

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Reply #2 on: December 05, 2018, 11:14:06 PM
https://toucharcade.com/2018/12/05/apple-removes-afghanistan-11-by-slitherine-from-the-app-store/?fbclid=IwAR2RhXe_BZ6SvPo-v_qVwiMdTILZZ-vs25Ah1KUrD7hjr6kMLiorhp-hGnA

So much here, but I'll offer these two thoughts:

1.  This is more a problem of trying to create bright-line rules where judgment is called for.  It is a failure of the bureaucratic mentality.   Quote your "book of principles" all you like, Apfel-Kinder, but a single adult with a degree in history and a modicum of common sense would have saved you a world of embarrassment here.

2.  Nobody tell them about "This Guilty Land".  They'd probably faint in a fit of the vapors.

Agreed, particularly with point #1. I'd add that the people involved are likely not Apple employees but rather sub-contractors, and likely off-shore sub-contractors. Who have a minimal understanding of the subject matter at hand. Who are much, much less expensive to employ that said adult with a degree in history. Who also make for much easier plausible deniability when these sort of things happen.

It's worse than the bureaucratic mentality, it's that crossed with the cult of Shareholder Value.

It's also great for driving traffic to Touch Arcade's site and making them lots of advertising revenue.

I actually don't really like games.

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panzerde

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Reply #3 on: December 05, 2018, 11:20:20 PM
I found this interesting from the comments:

Quote
Sorry, lost all sympathy for Slitherine when they told everyone who'd bought many of their previous iOS games (at great expense - many of the games were $20, some with another $50+ of add-on campaigns), that updating their games to work on 64-bit would be hard, so their most lucrative course of action was to screw their existing customers, and not update any of those costly games.

Part of their explanation was, "well, it would be too much work to write format converters for old save games and re-test multiplayer between all the platforms" - fine, so give us an update with those capabilities dropped, but that at least just lets the basic game run single-player with no old save games brought over, and only update the subset of games running on the easier engines to fix - give us something for all the money we poured into the games, to show some loyalty to the customers. Nope, they present it as an all-or-nothing scenario in order to justify not doing anything, and screwing their loyal customers.

I haven't purchased anything from the Apple App store in years so I had no idea this had happened.

I have little love for the ownership of Slitherine. Anything they develop themselves will suffer exactly this fate, they are not going to invest for the long term.

I actually don't really like games.

Castellan -  La Fraternite des Boutons Carres


bbmike

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Reply #4 on: December 06, 2018, 08:45:55 AM
I have an old iPhone 6 that is in need of replacement. It's stuff like this and Apple's increasing Draconian control that I'm about to go back to an Android phone. Please recommend a good one for me.  :bigthumb:

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bayonetbrant

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Reply #5 on: December 06, 2018, 08:47:59 AM
I have an old iPhone 6 that is in need of replacement. It's stuff like this and Apple's increasing Draconian control that I'm about to go back to an Android phone. Please recommend a good one for me.  :bigthumb:


I have a pixel 2, and I love it. The XL pixels are a little too big, but the regular size works great.


I am as much of an apple Fanboy is the next guy when it comes to desktop or laptop computers, but I won't touch an iPhone

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bbmike

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Reply #6 on: December 06, 2018, 08:49:02 AM
I'm eyeing the Pixel 3 (the smaller one) right now.

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panzerde

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Reply #7 on: December 06, 2018, 09:59:11 AM
I have an old iPhone 6 that is in need of replacement. It's stuff like this and Apple's increasing Draconian control that I'm about to go back to an Android phone. Please recommend a good one for me.  :bigthumb:

I've had a One Plus for the past couple of years and am very happy with it.

I actually don't really like games.

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ojsdad

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Reply #8 on: December 06, 2018, 10:41:52 AM
Never tried the pixel.  I use a Samsung S9 for work and the kids have S9's, one has a regular one and the other has the XL. 

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Staggerwing

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Reply #9 on: December 06, 2018, 07:09:12 PM
The thread title is 'Apple Removes "Vietnam '65" from the App Store' but the article is about them removing "Afghanistan 11". Were both games removed?

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Cyrano

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Reply #10 on: December 06, 2018, 09:06:32 PM
Quite correct!

Amended.

Thanks.

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panzerde

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Reply #11 on: December 06, 2018, 09:58:11 PM
The thread title is 'Apple Removes "Vietnam '65" from the App Store' but the article is about them removing "Afghanistan 11". Were both games removed?

What makes this even more screwed up is that both games weren't removed. So much for a consistent policy.

I actually don't really like games.

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Cyrano

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Reply #12 on: December 07, 2018, 12:06:11 AM
One might surmise from that that they concluded the Vietnamese were not a "real people" or some such.

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panzerde

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Reply #13 on: December 07, 2018, 08:17:37 AM
One might surmise from that that they concluded the Vietnamese were not a "real people" or some such.

Maybe the team making the call is based in Vietnam.

I actually don't really like games.

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bbmike

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Reply #14 on: December 07, 2018, 09:01:43 AM
I have an old iPhone 6 that is in need of replacement. It's stuff like this and Apple's increasing Draconian control that I'm about to go back to an Android phone. Please recommend a good one for me.  :bigthumb:

I've had a One Plus for the past couple of years and am very happy with it.

I've never heard of the OnePlus. That looks interesting.

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My Own Worst Enemy