Realy? Isn't that a little harsh?

I've got a peeve to pet.

What kind of app justifies a one-star rating in Apple's app store? Apple's guideline text that appears when you hover over the one-star rating is "hate it". Hate is a mighty strong word. For myself, I tend to reserve that for things that are pretty darn awful.

So we come to FireworksToy. FireworksToy is a really simple fireworks application that I threw together in a few hours as a test harness for the victory overlay in Mü. Since I had fun playing around with it, I thought I'd go ahead and release it as a free app. I thought "Hey, this isn't much but it's kinda fun to play with and perhaps someone will enjoy it." I thought I was doing something nice. Did I think that it was a great app? Of course not. But apparently there are some people who enjoy flicking open and closed a virtual Zippo lighter, surely there would be people that would enjoy shooting off virtual fireworks.

I was very careful to make sure that the descriptive text that appears in the app store didn't oversell it. I didn't want people thinking they were getting one thing and then feeling cheated when they got another. THAT might merit a one star rating in my book and I really was just trying to do something nice so I kept the description pretty low key.

So I have to admit that I'm a little hurt by the fact that nearly half the people who have rated it in the US store have given it one star; and even more so by those who posted negative reviews slamming it. I mean really people. Come on. You knew what you were getting when you downloaded the thing. Or at least you should have. Isn't "hate it" a pretty strong reaction? It's not like you were ripped off. It's free!

Oh well, I guess I'll be crying all the way to the bank. After all, the little ad banners that I tossed onto the bottom as an afterthought are making enough money to pay for my lunches these days.

Not bad for a throwaway app that was released as a nice gesture.

Guess I don't care all that much after all.