I don’t know about you guys, but I hate it when games pop a message up saying stuff like “We miss you, you’ve not played the game for 3 days”. ARRGGGHHH, I’ll play the game when I want to play it damnit!
Now, from a developers point of view, i can understand wanting to keep your players playing, maybe only if you have IAP’s and so you benefit from the players spending more.
What do you guys think, do you dislike notifications? I turn them all off.
You can disable them for each app. most of the time on the first launch of the app it will say, ‘Do you wish to enable notifications’
So moaning about notifications is pretty pointless, because they aren’t forced upon you. Next topic.
If you cared to read the post properly, I do disable them. It’s not a pointless topic as I’m asking other peoples opinions of them from both a gamer and a developers point of view.
Jog on to your next topic.
Caustic comments aside, here’s my thoughts.
From a developer’s standpoint, yes, notifications do make sense. They keep users reminded about your app and allow them to consider playing it again if they’ve stopped. Some people may have 100s of apps on their phone - this is a way to keep yours in their thoughts.
However, I can certainly see why they’d be annoying. But, as has been pointed out, they can be disabled. So it’s not a big deal. Would I do them? No. Do I deprecate them? No, certainly not.
When I see a message reminding me I have not played the game in so long, it reminds me the thing is still there and I uninstall it. That’s my experience as a gamer.
On the other hand… if it’s a free ad based game… well, you get what you pay for and I guess it’s understandable… and players that refuse to pay for stuff are also players that have desensitized themselves from ads and spam, so maybe they can handle it.
I don’t know if this is an iOS bug, though, but I hate when I tell an app to not give me notifications but I still somehow get them to show up… ponder if it’s a hack or a bug.
I wonder if it might be the difference between push and local notifications - does the popup allow you to enable/disable all notifications, or just push?
What I really cannot understand is why the f…ing notification panel is always accessible. It pauses the app, making non jailbroken devices effectively useless in art exhibitions. I have one planned where music is key, and the public can interact with multiple networked devices. If someone inadvertently pulls down the n. panel, that’s it, the device’s sound stops, sync is lost, and the visuals of the app are intruded upon.
Only solution aside from jailbreaking is to encase the devices so that the top of the screen remains untouchable… Why, oh why?
You should check the Guided Access feature of iOS 6.
Not only does it disables the notification pane, it also prevent users from exiting to the home screen (if you want) and prevents devices from going to sleep (again, if you want.)
Once enabled, you start it up by triple clicking the home button while inside the app you want to lock on front. To exit, you do the same and enter the password (if you decided to set a password.)
You can even set sections of the screen that can be off-limits to the user (lets say, the corner where you know there will be a Settings icon at some point.)
Seriously: if you doing any sort of presentation or kiosk display with iOS devices, you should use the thing! 
Yes, it is an extremely useful feature.
@Starsman : Ha! Thanks a lot! I had posted many times on the subjects to no avail, here and on stack overflow. I wasn’t expecting a solution, just ranting, so it’s an extremely pleasant surprise! Many thanks, I’ll get a plugin sorted out and posted as soon as I find time.
Edit: replied before checking your link. No need for a plugin, even better.
Cheers,
Gregzo
But on the note of some people having hundreds of apps, it’s quite possible that dozens of them use notifications. That makes the notifications very annoying, and so just being asked “Can this app nag you?” can be a turn-off for players. My thoughts are that you should only use them when it’s to the player’s advantage - such as in a social game where another player has started some interaction with you. If you’re just using a notification to remind people to play a game that failed to keep their interest I think you’re just tempting the player to uninstall it.
Not only notification make my tired.
Lets say 50% of game development on iOS is now based on all the social, purchase, ad, banner, etc you can insert into an app.
So boring… boring and boring…