Review of Go Eye

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GoEye2012
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Re: Review of Go Eye

Post by GoEye2012 »

tchan001 wrote:An independent source would have no pre-conceived idea on which software is the best. They would use their own funds to purchase a group of similar software to test against each other. They would then write a report about the pros and cons of each software and then make a comparison of the features or lack thereof. Then they would assign a score based on their judgement of the quality of the software and publish such a report. Have you ever seen independent software reviews of things such as antivirus software?
I rarely see many so-called independent reviewers. Most are paid service for profits, biased for those paid more.

I think all those are really difficult to trust too. The best judgement would be the users themselves. Hope Apple could have better mechanisms (Seems that would happen soon on iOS8) for users to try an app and are easy to refund if the app doesn't match the expectation.
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Re: Review of Go Eye

Post by RBerenguel »

Knotwilg wrote:GoEye, you have two active members here who are well respected and they are so kind to offer their insights and give you valuable feedback. You should be grateful you don't have to pay them for that. Professional testers come pretty expensive these days.

You can choose to scold them off and hence portray yourself as an unfriendly supplier, or to thank them for their review and offer a balanced account on how you will deal with the alleged deficiencies.

I'm not into IOS apps so I coulnd't be more unbiased. But once I do, I will probably not become your customer, based on how you respond to their feedback.
Not only that, I am editor of a website working on app reviews and promotion. In the past I've promoted totally for free (in some cases in exchange for a promotional code for the app, but not in all cases, and not for some of the most expensive apps) go software I have found good (and I'll keep it doing in the future.) Even software where I have found bugs or shortcomings, I've tried to highlight the good points and talked with the developer with ideas, improvements and opinions (so, in the review I could point the problem while adding that the developer is aware of it and working on solving it). Clearly you (I mean GoEye, not you Dieter :)) can't value this/benefit from it. I'm not going to write a detailed review in the site, though, since part of my goal of sharing reviews of go apps is raising awareness of the game among non-players, and writing a non-positive review may detract readers from taking the game up.

Edit: I followed through, and I'm no longer one of your customers.
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GoEye2012
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Re: Review of Go Eye

Post by GoEye2012 »

RBerenguel wrote:
Knotwilg wrote:GoEye, you have two active members here who are well respected and they are so kind to offer their insights and give you valuable feedback. You should be grateful you don't have to pay them for that. Professional testers come pretty expensive these days.

You can choose to scold them off and hence portray yourself as an unfriendly supplier, or to thank them for their review and offer a balanced account on how you will deal with the alleged deficiencies.

I'm not into IOS apps so I coulnd't be more unbiased. But once I do, I will probably not become your customer, based on how you respond to their feedback.
Not only that, I am editor of a website working on app reviews and promotion. In the past I've promoted totally for free (in some cases in exchange for a promotional code for the app, but not in all cases, and not for some of the most expensive apps) go software I have found good (and I'll keep it doing in the future.) Even software where I have found bugs or shortcomings, I've tried to highlight the good points and talked with the developer with ideas, improvements and opinions (so, in the review I could point the problem while adding that the developer is aware of it and working on solving it). Clearly you (I mean GoEye, not you Dieter :)) can't value this/benefit from it. I'm not going to write a detailed review in the site, though, since part of my goal of sharing reviews of go apps is raising awareness of the game among non-players, and writing a non-positive review may detract readers from taking the game up.
I think I respect some of your options and our future versions will have improvements on many points. If the beginning of the talking was in a peaceful way like right now, I would highly appreciate. You should have seen this happened again and agin in our long Go Eye thread. Instead of trying to persuade people that something is a bad app and enlarging the bugs (or different user preferences) as BIG issue that we have constantly accepted and rolled out fix soon, and reaching conclusions that no one should buy it, pointing the bugs, crashes, unsatisfied features, etc. would be very helpful. There are many kind users like ez4u who sent crash reports and suggested good features.

For the app, we cannot really rely on its poor revenue to support the development though we hope so. And hopefully we needn't for now. It is built both for the love of Go and for the accumulating latest iOS technologies for building something more innovative in broader areas. We also just gave redeem code to unknown people in the Facebook telling me that they had problems paying the app. At the same time we would increase the price any time for marketing tests and try to increase the revenue.

To cut our budget on promotion, we mostly rely on free sources like forums, facebooks, twitters,etc. The "free" advertising may look "spam" to some users, but we are in the world of advertising, no matter it is paid or free. One of the reason for "Best" one is part of for advertising too (And part from confidence from our technology). Surely we are constantly improving the marketing part too.
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Re: Review of Go Eye

Post by deja »

A basic tenet in marketing is that impressions matter more than winning arguments. In fact, once you engage in the latter you've likely lost your audience before reaching your conclusion. Defending a product without alienating potential buyers is an art, not an exercise in logical argumentation.

I find all of that extremely unfortunate because evidence-based, logical arguments should be the standard by which any reasonable, well-informed person should make decisions. But that's not how most people operate even when they try. It's why manipulating consumer emotions, impression management, and coming across as a "swell guy" is what marketing is all about. It's also why I would fail miserably as a spokesperson for just about anything.

Off-topic note: I hope to provide a comparative review relatively soon between Crazy Stone 2013 and Many Faces of Go 12, with images and everything... :D
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Re: Review of Go Eye

Post by tchan001 »

deja wrote:Off-topic note: I hope to provide a comparative review relatively soon between Crazy Stone 2013 and Many Faces of Go 12, with images and everything... :D
Now this is the type of review I'm looking for assuming deja bought the software himself rather than receiving them from the companies for free.
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Re: Review of Go Eye

Post by Bonobo »

tchan001 wrote:
deja wrote:Off-topic note: I hope to provide a comparative review relatively soon between Crazy Stone 2013 and Many Faces of Go 12, with images and everything... :D
Now this is the type of review I'm looking for assuming deja bought the software himself rather than receiving them from the companies for free.
I think I know what you want to say I wouldn’t say that a reviewer would necessarily be biased if they got the software for free so that they would review it.

And for our all Ruben Berenguel I’d assume that he’s beyond all doubt.
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Re: Review of Go Eye

Post by deja »

tchan001 wrote:
deja wrote:Off-topic note: I hope to provide a comparative review relatively soon between Crazy Stone 2013 and Many Faces of Go 12, with images and everything... :D
Now this is the type of review I'm looking for assuming deja bought the software himself rather than receiving them from the companies for free.
Bought and paid for by me and me alone. I'm also having the the two programs play each other...not sure if that's been done before, but I'm curious to see for myself how they match up against one another. I'll provide those results as well.
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Re: Review of Go Eye

Post by RBerenguel »

Bonobo wrote:
tchan001 wrote:
deja wrote:Off-topic note: I hope to provide a comparative review relatively soon between Crazy Stone 2013 and Many Faces of Go 12, with images and everything... :D
Now this is the type of review I'm looking for assuming deja bought the software himself rather than receiving them from the companies for free.
I think I know what you want to say I wouldn’t say that a reviewer would necessarily be biased if they got the software for free so that they would review it.

And for our all Ruben Berenguel I’d assume that he’s beyond all doubt.
I have reimbursement for any app purchase I want as part of the editor/reviewer role. So, no, having to pay for it is not remotely an issue and doesn't affect my opinion. I purchased myself SmartGo Kifu, but had a promotional code for SmartGo Pro (before the former was universal.) I helped xiangz with testing for EasyGo, so got at least a beta build, don't remember if I got a code for it, maybe. Got one for Baduk Cap as told recently, but purchased Qipan myself. Oh, maybe I also got one for CrazyStone, I'm not sure, but I purchased Igowin HD. That's it. App price is not an issue when reviewing them, except when comparing with others and theirrices. Btw, I got GoEye when it was on sale for Go Seigen's birthday (it was 70% off or similar)

I try to get a promotional code before purchasing (if I plan to review it), though, since it is a kind of signal of the developer's willingness to "cooperate".
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Re: Review of Go Eye

Post by wineandgolover »

GoEye is great for its integration with Go4Go, including the search function. IMHO, on iOS, it is the best way to review recent games, and I'm happy to own it for this reason.

I don't find it's interface intuitive, but I can scrape by.

I don't remember what I paid for it, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't the current price. I'd suggest to the designer that he's breaking into an elite-app price point that may significantly impair future adoption.

I also agree with Ed and a few others who suggested that this thread is horrible public relations. Never be defensive in public. Fume at criticism in private, be gracious outwardly.

GoEye2012, please feel free to disregard my pricing and PR suggestions. It's your product, and you've certainly given it more thought than I have.

I look forward to future enhancements.
- Brady
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