Bs move by google

[Hellowpplz]

 

I found this reddit post and it INFURIATED me.

 

TL;DR: game developer, Ed, shares his story about creating an idle RPG game called IdleTale. After months of successful alpha testing and a positive launch, his app was removed from Google Play for "Malware or Deceptive Behavior." The issue was a code function that kept the screen on during gameplay. Despite appeals and willingness to fix the issue, Ed's Google Play dev account was permanently closed.

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Google really are turning into scumbags and no one will be there to stop it. This man followed their instructions and was met with a permanent* dev account ban. Even after clarifying that he would remove the problematic code that was against google plays TOS and comply.

 

This man went through months of genuine development, a month of beta testing, made a 100% free app, no ads or in-app purchases, and was rejected after all of that in a matter of weeks.

 

Bs move google. Bs.

Bs in the sense that he continued getting bot replies for several days before talking to a real person presumably

I have a feeling that his emails were replied to by some Indians who hardly understand English or terrible AI.

That or google really didn't care since the app wouldn't bring them any money.

 

*his account was later recovered

 

[TempestCatto]

17 minutes ago, Hellowpplz said:

kept the screen on during gameplay

I don't game on my phone. But I feel like I'd want this feature so it doesn't lock and ruin my progress (though I suppose it could just "pause" if it did lock). Does this function go against any kind of TOS or whatever?

[Hellowpplz]

9 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

 Does this function go against any kind of TOS or whatever?

To be honest I don't know. But google marked his game for malware.

9 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

I don't game on my phone. But I feel like I'd want this feature so it doesn't lock and ruin my progress.

Well it doesn't ruin your progress? 

Edit: I heavily misunderstood your post  mb

Games do just pause, at least on iphone. Samsung phone's have a always on display feature that disables touch until you swipe from the center of the screen (the game is still visible under it), dims the screen, and limits the fps to save battery. Plus 99% of mobile games are constantly saved, there's no waiting for the save icon to show up. You could 100% shut off your phone, turn it back on and open the game, and EVERYTHING will be there.

 

[TempestCatto]

3 minutes ago, Hellowpplz said:

Well it doesn't ruin your progress? All it simply does is stop your phone from going into sleep mode (screen turning off) while the game is open.

Per my last email (/s) I said I don't game on my phone. Idk how games on phones really work. It was only a thought.

[Biohazard777]

57 minutes ago, Hellowpplz said:

I found this reddit post and it INFURIATED me.

58 minutes ago, Hellowpplz said:

Ed's Google Play dev account was permanently closed.

Did you read it to the end?

It was resolved:

[Quackers101]

good if they were able to resolve in some automated systems. but could be that it wasn't labelled correctly that this function was in place and did such.
I do notice its nice function for some apps to not sleep during certain operations, but if forgetting its an killer on battery.

[Hellowpplz]

1 hour ago, Biohazard777 said:

Did you read it to the end?

It was resolved:

omfg im sorry  

I'm too tired right now to complain about anything, don't know why I bothered.
 

Still, shouldn't have happened in the first place

[Eigenvektor]

2 hours ago, TempestCatto said:

Does this function go against any kind of TOS or whatever?

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9888077?hl=en#zippy=

Quote

That was the only function I used that would not request the user's consent to make changes in the device's settings.

I assume that's the issue. He's modifying device behavior without asking for user consent.

 

As someone who's been on the receiving end of this, it can be really frustrating to deal with Google in such cases. The most frustrating part is that you don't have anyone to talk to. You get a message that vaguely outlines the issue, a link to a document like the one above that contains very broad descriptions of offenses (none if which seemed to match) and you're left to figure out what exactly you did wrong.

[LAwLz]

5 hours ago, Hellowpplz said:

Google really are turning into scumbags and no one will be there to stop it.

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. 

 

Or in the case of Google, probably automated systems in combination which what seems to be a genuine misuse of a function from the dev, but that wasn't adequately explained by Google. 

[Poinkachu]

4 hours ago, Quackers101 said:

good if they were able to resolve in some automated systems. but could be that it wasn't labelled correctly that this function was in place and did such.
I do notice its nice function for some apps to not sleep during certain operations, but if forgetting its an killer on battery.

Don't forget screen, and arguably the whole phone (heat)