Hello all,
some days ago I’ve released my first game on the play store and I’ve decided to send an email to different gaming reviews networks. Today, opening my mail, I’ve found an email offering installs at ~0.10$ per install to push my game in the play store. Then I’ve started googling and I’ve found several websites offering same services.
I’m new in the world of gaming, so I’d like to know from someone expert:
Is it a common/good marketing practice/good investment, or it is a total immoral behaviour? Does it really work?
Thank you in advance for a reply.
Rigging reviews is a common practice, yes. Again, this is not limited to games, everything from google maps reviews to magazine reviews get rigged. Some (large and well known) sites would straight up let you pay to manipulate your own reviews. Manipulating information on the web is a growing industry, there are, for example, services that produce a custom tailored presence on wikipedia - and these are in use by some huge companies.
Is it effective? I’m sure some approaches are very effective. Is the company sending you spam one of those - probably not.
Also note that the various stores tend to frown on falsifying reviews and messing with the market. It doesn’t stop it happening. But it does mean you can get into trouble if it’s found out.