Is review removed after refund?

As an asset creator-publisher I somehow am insecure about how the review/rating system works in Unity Asset Store. It is still possible to anonymously rate without writing a review which I am asking to be changed. On the other hand, a bad review can be the customer doesn't learn enough about the asset from the description and demo before buying and regret it afterward. So if the (bad) review by the said customer has already been shown in the asset item page, will both the review and rating be removed once the refund procedure is successful?

This is extremely dangerous if the answer is no. Any one can buy their own asset and give good review then refund themselves for free popularity boost; worst, threatening to give bad review for their rival's asset and submit the bad review anyway after confirming the refund submission from their rival.

TripAdvisor claims they have a fully functional review monitoring system by both AI and human inspectors, but this still happened. Showing how fragil the online review/rating system can be gamed.

 

on the other hand a dev using refund to delete the bad review is not fair for the users

 

Because each refund case must be submitted by the asset publisher and then reviewed by the AS staffer manually, hopefully AS can preliminarily judge whether there is merit to retain the review and even if the refund request is fishy.

 

I agree with the author of this thread. Sometimes you get reviewers which are trying to manipulate you, especially if they're posting on behalf of a company, so they're not taking a personal responsibility for their actions.
They won't bother to update their review after receiving proper support or a refund.

 

It would be best that the asset store team looks into each and individual review which has complaints. Refunds in return for removing a bad review is manipulation the other way when it comes to bad asset store authors.

Why would the bad review be removed? What next, press is supposed to not review films because they didn't pay for it? World doesn't work like that.

But for reviews that do appear manipulative should be reported and Unity should add it to a queue and manually assess each one, I'm sure that's agreeable, right?

 

FYI, I've been researching this as a journalist for two years. IMO, and based on my research, the asset store team currently removes reviews in a political and manipulative way, to artificially boost certain specific assets. As a journalist, I've collected evidence over two years, and also am publishing the results on YouTube and several news platforms. In addition, posts that touch on critical issues in the forum are also deleted. For example, this post I just made will probably be deleted as moderators artificially cull the forum to "remove drama". Overall, it's bad for Unity and the community because the reviews system is intended to give objective feedback. And it's useful to have positive and negative, even if it's exposing flaws in the asset store or exposing severe personality problems of certain asset creators. There is a lot of discussion of this problem on platforms like Reddit and Discord. The asset store management are not hiding anything from the community at large, and it hurts the reputation of the Unity company. It hurts game devs. Hiding "drama" from the public by the asset store staff deleting reviews to enforce their "no drama" approach is really just whitewashing the reviews process. And it's done only for certain asset creators who have the ear of asset store management, IMO and based on my research. It's political and it hurts a lot of game devs. It also slowly destroys the reputation of the Unity company. For that reason, it's worth discussing.

 

Hey all,

I agree that reviews and policy surrounding reviews should be clear to both sides of a market place as well as clear to those who attempt to mediate issues.

Currently this is the policy we see regarding the removal of reviews:

To keep the review section an open and honest environment, Unity will only deem comments abusive and consider their removal if they are:
- Using offensive language
- Discussing topics Irrelevant to the package in question

From the perspective of the user, it is a pretty limited policy and I can see why it has caused confusion.
Reviews can also become tricky regarding asset updates, upgrades, and refunds.

The review system is something we are looking at carefully and discussing better solutions that benefit the user and publisher.


Policy

For now, here is some added context to why some reviews or responses may be removed.
All reviews and responses are held to the terms stated in the Unity Website & Communities Terms sheet.
Take note of section 5 and 7


Each report is reviewed manually and we take great care to make sure we are as "fair" as possible, because it is our intention to do what is best for the user base as a whole, even when some individuals are affected and feel that it is unjust.


If you have questions about the removal of your review, please contact support for context.
You are also welcome to re-write a review for the same product as long as you follow behavior that we consider appropriate (note the policy linked above).

Something we see often is aggressive or harassing language toward individuals. We do not tolerate this behavior at any level even when it is "mild trolling." We will remove reviews that are reported and match this behavior.


Being banned from making reviews:

We will ban a user from making reviews when they have a record of excessive communication infractions, as well as abuse in the Asset Store review system. This includes behavior on the forums, private correspondence to Unity Staff, and Unity Connect communications.

A user may also be banned from reviews when they are a security threat, or involved in illegal activity within the Unity ecosystem.

To violate these rules as a publisher may lead to having all products disabled and being banned from selling on the store.

Bans are rare and they only occur in extreme situations. Forum bans are temporary and provide a cooldown period. Secondary Forum bans may be permanent.

 

Individual concerns
@DavidLieder Please feel free to provide the situation for other users to see. This helps provide feedback for us and shows users how we operate. I am happy to discuss further as to why your reviews were removed.

I also understand why our actions may look like hiding drama, but we only mediate situations that are brought to our attention from our users. We allow plenty of fair opinions in our forums and in reviews, but we have no tolerance for items listed in section 5 here.

 

Being banned from making reviews:

.

Don't you think it is too much punishment - to deprive a person and his family large part of the income for a few careless words?

 

No, because a few "careless" words can prevent depriving another person and their family of income too. Two sides to the coin.

We are adults. Adults sell things. If an adult is acting like a harmful idiot, the adult should be deprived, and set as an example to others.

The trend is, nobody takes things seriously. Then this happens and suddenly, it's depriving? Best people take it seriously and respect others. From the start.

It's called being an adult in 2019. Obviously I don't refer to you or your assets or situation, but it's difficult job to meditate any dispute and I'm happy Unity's team looks into complaints.

 

I'm not sure what you refer to with the asterix spam. Can you explain better and more clearly, please.

 

Adults and smart people at all need to understand several things. Not all people in the word was grown in same nice condition. Not all people in the world have same characteristics. So they speak sometimes in differed manner. We are very different people here.

And now can you please give me example of a "harmeful idiot" here on forum you are speaking about?
About whom did you speak?

 

I deliberately refer to no-one because that's not productive to the conversation. A lot of people will do damage around them and must be removed. The country doesn't matter. The conditions they grew up in doesn't matter. None of that matters because a business is not the same thing as a charity.

What matters is simple: Unity provides clear rules of operating on asset store. Clear rules for reviews (google has them too) and people obey. Clear rules in multiple languages.

Those that refuse to follow the rules can and absolutely should be removed. If the rules aren't clear, then your only real argument is "we need clear rules" and that's fair.

It's simple, in terms any adult can understand. And final, because their presence on the store is a privilege, never a right. When a person crosses over from being a privileged guest to someone harming the store experience for everyone else, they are removed.

Again, it's not a charity, and it absolutely needs to be governed with an iron fist, because where money is concerned, it is no laughing matter - at all for buyers or sellers.

I've said what I need to say and will not be responding further in the topic - but I do not believe - in any situation at all, that the personal situation of the buyer or seller has any relevance in the asset store. It can't, because the moment it does, the asset store becomes something you can manipulate endlessly.

Nobody wants that.

 

For my opinion. If you ready prove in court that someone really financially harmed another person here without any reason, you may consider to remove him from the place, no mater if you financially harm him too. It is fair. But if your are not ready to prove you may expect to meet his lawyer soon.

 

I am afraid this doesn’t answer half of my concern raised in this thread: A publisher open a puppet account (or ask their friend/family to do it), give good review/rating to their own asset then refund themselves. Sure they lose 30% to Asset Store, but the popularity boost is tremendous after passing the 3-rating threshold. Some may be obvious (yet AS still turns a blind eye to these cases and sends a very bad message to other publishers), but most are done skillfully and invisible to other users to report.

 

I couldn't agree more, we see this with games as well sadly today its getting just as bad as assets. ,some people throw tantrums, and gave unfair reviews and its never a review of the issues that they are having, its typically someone throwing a tantrum, because something didn't go there way... So glad Unity is doing this as I see to many reviews, that just make me sick and NOT want to sell assets and I have not for this reason... So glad Unity is on board with this... People can give a bad review but it should be a fair one... Not one where its clear the person is just acting like a child and having a melt down. I been here about 9 years and it has gotten really bad the last few years.

 

Hello I have seen you around, and not to pick on you, you seem like a nice person, but I will tell, I have not always agreed with Unity or there ways, but when it comes to assets I feel for the most part they been fair, they are time, I feel they screw up they are human. and it happens but....if an asset is completely broken, and you bought it, Unity will give the money back.. I never had that issue... now if you are trying to get it back, because someone got into a fight with the asset publisher , then I would not give someone money back for that either..

Remember if your making and selling a game, we see a lot of people refunding, and depending who you are selling for, Google Play, XB1, Steam what ever it can cost you money..as well, if you are the developer, so remember if you plan to make games, treat people how you want to be treated as well. now and its not pleasant to bust your butt only for some to make you refund someone money, for a lie or a wrong reason..... but known assets, that have thousands sold, there should be ZERO reason an asset is refunded, unless, the publisher didn't read something about it not supporting, a platform, or what ever or something related where its completely unusable....because with art and code, even if refunded, you guys already downloaded and have access, so that is really in my opinion unfair to the publisher. this has keep me as a professional game developer from selling a thing because I see what many known asset devs go though.. and I wont work for free either...

So just next time you buy something do your research before you bother.. buying it.. Then give them, and your self a mature , fair review, I see to many reviews that sound like they are coming from someone who is not really an adult or a fair review....Yes if its not a 5 star, sadly everyone will down vote you, it happens to all of us...Which I never liked myself... but all you can do is be fair about it...don't be unprofessional about any review you give no matter HOW upset.. you are. /cheers

PS I see why Unity has changed this and this can be a good thing, I always felt the Unity asset reviews was broken.... and only got worse. I dislike that we can't review products where we get a new upgrade, we used to be able to delete a review and update. I used to do it once a year to be fair to the publishers.. We can't anymore. since like a year or so ago.

 

Yes, this is possible, but it's the kind of abuse mentioned above that risks Unity delisting all of the publisher's assets. The Asset Store team does try to police this kind of abuse.

 

The current Asset store system prefers the sellers and allows them to get a free pass with bad business practices. The main problem is that as buyer you have no right of return (like in European law) and Unity acts only as commissioner. When an asset is in the store Unity makes only a quality check for the current version but it can happen that you buy a product und after importing it in a project you will notice a sea of red flags because the version is not more compatible even the asset store states: " Supported Unity versions: 5.6.4 or higher".

In my case i have contacted the developer and he promised me that the team will care about the bugs and it will take some days (that was in the last week in December). In the meantime i have seen a review by an other user who gave only 1 of 5 stars for this asset because of the bugs. Some days later i checked the asset in the store again and the review was removed. When a user reports serious bugs then Unity should at least consider to remove the asset from the store and make a new quality check. After i contacted again the developer in January again i was told they need additional three days.

My consequence is that i do no use my Visa anymore for asset store purchases and check out with Paypal and buy no more products which are well-established.

 

I've looked at the reviews of yours and nowhere do I see the developers harassing you? The developer of EasyRoads even gave a good answer?! I do see what tone you're using in your reviews and it's not a good one. For example, you've titled the review for Gaia as "Overrated", gave one star and named MapMagic (a competitor product) out of the blue inside your review.

It feels like you buy Assets without actually looking at the description/manual/YouTube videos whatsoever and if something doesn't work, you blame the developer for allegedly lying/being misleading about his Asset. That's not how it works.

 

Although addressed to another user, may I take the liberty and provide an example case because you asked for it? Mine might fit, even though that it's at a disadvantage for me. If the example isn't wanted, it's fine by me if you delete this post. The issue is already being addressed as a support ticket anyway. And in that regard thank you Unity team and Unity moderators. I can imagine your job with balancing all of this with so many different people on the Internet isn't easy.

Long story short: Had an argument with a publisher on the forum. He showed everything worked, I showed proof it didn't. Things escalated, I got the ban-hammer for 1 month. Mod was cool though (thank you!), unbanned me after a few days without any interaction from my part. It's totally fine except I don't see why the publisher didn't get the ban-hammer as well and for the other I was just banned, no contact from a mod beforehand to stop or whatever. The publisher continued in his thread, so I thought it was okay to reply. Wasn't anything ban-worthy anyway. All of a sudden I was locked out, even though the posts didn't justify a ban according to the opinion of other readers. I saved the thread after every post I made, simply because a lot of other users posts got deleted in that thread in the weeks before. So I assumed it would happen again. By the way regarding ban-hammer: I do understand not being allowed to access the forum. But if you ban someone, please consider if they are in production of a game, that it might be necessary to allow PMs. If not to mods, then to others. Or at least allow read access to the PMs. In my case I have several fixes of code from publishers and how-to information in the PMs. I do understand also that mods and staff have better things to do. So it's totally fine, but here might be room for improvement.

Be it as it was, of course I had no love left for that publisher. At the time I purchased the assets I had published reviews, they weren't in favor of these assets. But I removed them because I didn't want to hurt his sales. After what happened with the discussion and especially after I got banned, I didn't feel the necessity anymore to hide bad reviews for those assets. And so I gave the assets proper reviews which I saw fit.

Here they are, I blackened out the asset names and versions to keep it hopefully neutral:

Review #1:



Review #2:



Review #3:



Review #4:



Before anyone asks: I don't give 5 stars for assets I have no use for because they aren't good, especially when they waste my time. I rather not review at all. But if I can't recommend the publisher at all, the review is accordingly.

What happened was that those reviews got deleted by Unity. Even worse: They were just deleted. Nobody contacted me. I didn't even get an automatic notification that those reviews were deleted. Just gone, as if they were never there. Of course the publisher can always claim that everyone likes his assets when negative reviews and forum posts which show proof of problems with the assets get deleted. For the sake of everyone who purchases assets depending on the reviews and forum posts, I didn't let it go. After contacting support I've learned after a month that it was apparently because what I did was considered trolling the publisher. Here we differ: How can I "troll" a publisher with a review? Especially with those above. If I'm not allowed to rate a publisher the way I feel fit and someone dictates how I have to make a review, please drop the review system altogether, it doesn't make any sense then.

What was really bothering me with the reviews was the reply of the publisher. I was on topic, publisher says in the reply that I was harassing him. When actually ... well, see the reply who's harassing who. And then there wasn't a possibility for other readers to verify that accusation and have their own opinion about it because all the posts got deleted.

The only thing I could think of was that the reviews were deleted because of the rule that one can't post a review with the intent to get a refund. When the publisher writes that he offered a refund while not even giving one and painting me in a bad light that way, I wanted to publically show what's really up behind his usual marketing wording. That's why I asked, I didn't care about a refund. I wrote that money off at the time I purchased the assets, that much I've learned from the asset store. Besides, when you get banned from the forum, there's no other way to ask for a refund, at least no way that's verifiable for Unity.

The question now is this:

What about the reply of the publisher above? That's definitely not okay, I think we can agree on that. Unity offered that I can rewrite my reviews. So I did. The publisher replied to my latest review twice. First one normal text, confirming my complaints probably accidentally. That's why I quoted his reply in my reply in the review, I assumed he'd change his reply. Then after i replied in the review he indeed changed it to what you can see below. The last reply of the publisher before it got removed was this:

Reply:



I mean, seriously? Unfounded accusations and if that isn't a personal attack in public, then what is? I reported that reply and the reply was deleted. The question is: What happened with the publisher? Is he still allowed to go on that way?

But back to the deleted reviews, here's a customer point of view: A few days after the deletion of my reviews the Holiday Sale came up. There were 4 categories. Each of those assets was in one of those categories. I guess you can imagine that my first thought was that those reviews got deleted because of that. I was approached in the weeks that followed by users and publishers who knew about the incident, telling me that the Asset Store favors certain publishers. I couldn't agree more, but I already knew that. One example, it would be nice if you could answer this: I've been on the store for years, searching for impressive new assets. Daily. Whenever I open the main page, there's exactly 1 asset that's instantly and always clearly visible, separated from all the other assets. I guess everyone knows which it is and which publisher. And I don't think it's because the category in the right column (old store) or middle (new store) is that way, it's because Unity made the category that way. As a customer I'd rather prefer to have e. g. monthly top assets presented to me, but not the same asset from the same publisher all the time. And that publisher is also in all the sales while other publishers with competitive assets which have in my opinion the better version are left out. Or take e. g. the "Impressive New Assets" link on the top of the asset store main menu.

https://assetstore.unity.com/lists/new-cool-3

Who categorizes these assets? Of course an asset of what I think is a favored publisher is in there. But honestly, there are a lot more assets which are newer and by far better and make Unity shine. They are left out. Also while there are publishers with a direct connection to the asset store (or so they say) there are others who have to wait for weeks until their asset or an update of it shows up on the store. At least that's what I'm told from other publishers, I'm not a publisher and can't tell what's the reality.

Regarding negative reviews of course the publisher lives from the reviews and money is involved. But so is the money for everyone who works hard to be able to purchase the assets. And if the publisher doesn't want negative reviews, he should act accordingly. Positive and negative reviews show up as the result. If it's lots of positive reviews vs few negative reviews, it's just fine, it gives potential customers options to decide themselves. But if it's all positive reviews on the store while negative ones get deleted, then it's all just false advertising. Of course there's always the fan base which rates and reviews accordingly and collectively downvotes every negative review. That's also okay. I for my part read the negative reviews first, they are more truthful than the positive ones. Whether or not that content is really negative or if I can live with the flaws, I can decide for myself. And after that I read the positive reviews. With that regard, it would be interesting to see on the store if a reviewer got an asset for free via voucher or not. Simply because in my opinion a negative review of an asset which someone got for free is trustworthy. Whereas a top rated review of an asset that someone got for free isn't, that was just a gift from the publisher. And maybe a "recent avarage review score" in addition to a "total average review score" might also be interesting, like Steam has it for the games.

I really would love to see an improvement here when it comes to the store. Especially less obvious favoring of selected publishers. Of course Unity can say you don't favor publishers and it might be even true, but it most certainly doesn't look like it.

PS: Why I'm doing this? Simply because I started small as well. I also had to think long before I decided to make a purchase or not. Decide whether I lose the money because the asset is bad or not. Same as lots of other users. Especially new ones. There is no try before you buy. And Unity doesn't give refunds if the publisher doesn't agree to them.

Unity is a great platform. Now I purchase assets without hesitation or I know how to get myself informed. I definitely don't buy because of reviews or forum posts. I know now how this works. Hence I ask other users who have the assets about their opinion.

Feedback was requested, so here it is. Of course opinions differ. And as I said initially: Please delete this post in case you see something wrong with it.

 

I agree, I seen this as well. two assets that where just named, are ones I have used for years....as someone who is a professional developer, these tools work....Easy Roads, and PW TOOLS... people throw tantrums, and talk down to developers, they do it to games as well, this is why I tell people to please understand this type of behavior don't work, most developers will fix your issues, now if you had to wait...guess what oh well, if its NOT game break, issue, you will wait, no matter if its software/asset or a game, most don't understand, they are not the only person with a problem....They will record a bug...if it is in fact a bug, but if we can reproduce it makes it that much harder..I see people going, HERE IS THE CODE, just add this...I mean really....... you cant just add that code, it don't work that way... drives me crazy, how people treat many good publishers and devs on Steam..... are there some bad assets ? yes..but the well known ones, are well just that and for good reason... the ER dev, is one of the nicest devs you would ever talk to...Do I always agree with his ways? no..and I shouldn't have to...but his tool works and he is super helpful..

bottom line, glad Unity has done this. and last people need to look before they buy.......what gets me I see people attack a publisher, yet they own 5 of there assets..if you disliked this publisher, why did you buy 5 of his assets?? give me a break..its clear its and attack towards the publisher and people need to stop ....period.

Ty Unity for adding something that will help the asset development community and make it so someone like me, may consider selling in the future, because before they made me NOT want to.

 

You keep saying fans and bugs....you know how many times I see, User error when helping some publishers with assets......Fans are people who actually use these assets and they work.. So you need to understand this .. Game development, is not click a button and a asset makes your game, people need to take time to make there game....and learn about what ever it is they are making.....Art, Code, networking, marketing, what ever.... anyways, just because these assets work for others, and it don't for you does not make them fan boys..... Sorry but I know for myself, I'm a professional developer and I give a review base on facts of how well the tool may have worked, and how well, if I needed support if any .... most of the time I don't ask for support, because MOST issues are related to the user not understanding the tool...So its always best to learn about it, watch videos....read the docs... Be glad we have these tools., because in the AAA world, you won't have some there to take you by the hand to use the tool, you will be on your own.... So we need to give these people making these tools more respect... They bust there butt and sell these tools for 100 times less than, they cost...at AAA value.... some tools I see are better than, some of the AAA tools I have used....... to name a few, VS, GENA 1, 2 , Easy Roads and so on... So lets keep this in mind, how good we really have it... other wise you would need to make your self...... or hire someone, and it will cost you much more.. so again, you have a great day and enjoy using Unity!


PS: if you find a bug, report, it but attacking a developer, don't get you anywhere, just give them any info to find and reproduce the issue you may be having..... but I suggest to read everything before using any tool you use.or asset...... read all of the docs many don't do this and this makes it that much harder. /cheers. I hope that helps.

 

well that is what needs to be done, is look at assets that been around and asset developers who been around, I cut back myself, due to some of the assets I seen, that get sold for 200 dollars only weeks later, its closed down. now I don't mind an asset being closed it it was like 1 year later, because we shouldnt expect the devs to work for free for ever.....upgrade cost should happen to keep the devs going, they also do this with games, I notice some people throw fits over upgrade costs of 10 dollars .? are u kidding me, they need to eat to...and this is why many asset close down...people get all mad, because someone who give free updates for ever.... Look at games like ESO every time they release new content they charge ....and I would to.. we as customers need to understand these assets are CHEAP to begin with and they can and will charge upgrade fees for the known assets, so I for one , only typically buy assets from publishers I know or I make it myself.. So are that part I don't blame you. there at all. Also asks your friends, what is good, on which ones they used. Once in a blue moon I will gamble on a new asset, you never know, you may find a gem, from a new one... So also another way to get know some devs, they will let you beta test before they sell it. I beta test alot for our games, they are make.. and plan to sell, sold some already. and many times now a days they ask me, but back then I used to ask others, and once people get to know you, they will come ask you...

 

Good advertising, but false advertising. You buy it trying to support the publisher because of what you read on the forum, but then over time you realize you won't get support back. Not only that, but the publisher refuses to acknowledge obvious bugs (even if you show them to the publishers face) which make the assets not work, let alone fix them. The publisher then starts attacking the customer on the lowest level because the customer critisizes his asset for wasting everyones time because the most trivial fixes aren't applied. Offering workarounds is okay, but when a fix isn't available after half a year, you get your doubts. Not only that, when e. g. your time gets wasted because the publisher asks you to create support tickets for the same bugs which the publisher already knew existed and were reported long time ago, it's just plain unprofessional. With deleted and hence manipulated reviews and deleted forum posts where people show proof that the asset doesn't work at all except under ideal conditions, it's impossible to get yourself informed properly. Of course with deleted negative reviews and forum posts the publisher can claim all the time everything works and that everyone is happy. Ratings are high, asset is top on the store.

You just buy it simply because you can't try it first, it's how the store works. And over time you face reality. It doesn't happen over night. It develops over time. Especially when you buy a bunch of his assets during a sale among 50 others, impossible to try them all at once. If you purchase assets, you follow a line, there are clusters of publishers. You go a certain direction. Sometimes it's the wrong one because you see what's happening. And in that case a lot of money is lost because you won't use the assets of that publisher anymore. Simply because they aren't good enough and you most likely won't get support in the future. My asset purchase decision depends heavily on the faith I have in a publisher. Of course publishers reactions can change over time. Or you get a promise to get a free upgrade to the next version of an asset, even if you buy it now. And then there'll be no free upgrade. You'll have to pay for it, if it ever gets released. You realize you and others are being lied to. If showing facts is an attack against the publisher for you, then that's your opinion. But maybe you might also want to try a different perspective and see that this opinion of yours about facts being an attack would give you a hint yourself that something is wrong. Any more questions?

 

There is also possibility to have a publisher with similar asset have all his friends and family put bad review in rival assets, this is also a huge concern. I have noticed i have got my worst reviews just before some major sale or event and is strange to happen exact that time to say the least (and has happened nearly all times of such events), i always have in back of my head that there may be a reason a bad review appears just in time before a major sale, even though it may be a genuine one (which noone really knows).

Generally the review system is a joke, that is all there is to it. There is no way to even contact a customer that has issue with the asset, leading to a bad review remaining, the customer loosing his money because he cant use the asset when could use it with a simple hint from developer and developer not be able to support and enhance the asset because of bad upcoming sales.

Reviews give a huge loose - loose situation to both customer and developer and help noone the way they are currently handled. At the very least the developer should be able to somehow interact with the customer leaving the review.

 

eh. you like to use that word, false advertising, on some assets, I seen this a few times. What gets me, what do you consider false advertising....Also, you state some developers don't give you support? what does that mean, I know many developers spent a lot of there time and there community even helps out since they know the tool well as well .. and its never good enough for users... and I have said this before...people love to claim, ITS SO EASY TO FIX said problem../Yet they never made any software before, and prolly never worked in that environment... it don't work that well... in IT, Game, Web, and so forth many companies have a process, they aren't going to JUMP and add someone code to there asset...First they need to reproduce a bug , just because you say its a bug don't mean it is. so some people need to understand this.

I worked for a larger company not long ago for game development in the UX.UI Design and programming department, I had someone argue with me talking about how this was a bug and how easy it was to fix... I asked for a screen shot , because what that person was talking about didn't exist in our interface at all... I spent a total of 2 hours with this guy in a period of almost 1 month , on and off, of going back and forth..... I found out early on, this wasn't even our game...so my point, companies have a process for a reason...They cant just fix your bug, NO MATTER how easy you say it is.. and add your code. blows my mind when I see people claiming, how easy a bug is to fix.. when its nonsense.. if you have one person having and issue, and ZERO REPORTS from everyone else, and you cant reproduce the bug, I mean, no company will JUST ADD code and trust it will fix your problem.. This may create, 20 new bugs for everyone else.. if a company don't follow a process.. and many bugs many be low priority. So again I see developers of games, and developers of the asset store bend over backwards for people and yet, its never good enough.. that is the problem.. people act like they PAID 2 grand for there asset.. They pay 10-50 bucks, maybe more, and they dev gives free updates for years, and it works, all of a sudden an update happens, and a bug happens mostly for that one person.....and people expect entitled.....we need to give publishers a break..If they never fix issues ever... I can understand it, but they spend year doing, it, we cant expect them to JUMP...now if said company, was making a game and it was game breaking, and there was a DLL, i'm sure, if the developer asked nicely, that publisher would give them a private fix....is my point...but by treating people like dirt, don't help..I see this a ton... from users to publishers... it gets old. and I see it to more than one publisher as well..


PS: Bottom line, I would never ever buy 5 assets from a developer, I had an issue with or who made broken stuff . i'm sorry that is what gets me.... makes no sense to me. I would never do it and I don't know many who would do that. If I found an asset to be broke and I got no support, I wouldn't bother... but I have used MOST known assets on the store and I have for investors, companies and my own company, they all work as they should...Do some have some bugs, sure, but does it stop me from working NO..... there is NO such thing as a bug less game or software...... but I have yet to see any that stopped us from working at all...Not once, and I been here for about 9 years, and been apart of different releases through the years... of apps, games, and so forth.. So no idea what 5 assets you bought and THEY WHERE ALL BROKE.... FROM the same publisher, but sorry that is fishy..

 

I been saying this for years, the review system is a joke, I will give a product a good review and someone will down vote me and more than one person will all at once. Sadly this happens, but I know many people who been around Unity, knows, to not trust the review system due to either A, someone will down vote for the wrong reason, or someone will up vote for the wrong reasons. sadly this happens. and once a developer makes a name for them selves, that helps. talking to the community, being involved as much as they can helps a ton. Discords, etc. I always tell people to make discords to talk to there communtiys more, so people know more about the publishers as a person and how they run things, its hard to know for sure by some forum posts. Hey Nasos! I hope all is well. !

PS:I couldn't agree more about being able to interact with the customer, this is why I keep pushing Discords, this can help. I would advertise it more, letting people know if they have an issue, or before they have an issue, come to your Discord, this way you have a chance at talking to them before the review does or worse. its not a cure all, but it can help. plus having a great community on Discord can only make it easier for any publisher, as they can help answers questions. what also helps, is beta tests. we do a lot for other assets, and it helps get people involved and get to know what other. but I agree Unity needs to do better with the review system its totally broke, it always has been and only getting worse.

 

The store states which versions of Unity assets are uploaded with, this is the only way to know for sure whether will be compatible.



Unity moves at lightning fast speeds these days and is not easy to keep up (i spent countless sleepless nights just to get all my systems work in Unity 2018.3 after only 2 new versions)

So as a publisher i try to upload with as many versions as possible, but i expect users to look at supported versions and buy-use the systems at their own risk if the version they use is not mentioned in the section which clearly states which versions were used to upload the asset with.

Of course the new versions will always be supported eventually, at least from my side i always strive for that (and on demand create upgrades as needed if something is raised from a just released version), but is not possible to follow unity exact release dates, as we are not multi million companies, just few person teams, that also not always make enough just from the store to live on.

 

Be glad that you get harassed directly. I was told by a discord admin that a publisher who's assets I gave negative reviews joins discord channels I'm in, tells the admin literally they have a troll in their channel and then leaves. I verified via the welcome page. He indeed joined and left. I'll definitely not remove any review.

 

He didn't harass you in the reply to your review, but gave helpful information instead. You wanted snow roads - the developer said these type of roads are not in the pack, but you could easily make them by using/creating your own textures (ever heard of cc0textures.com ?).

If an Asset doesn't work properly, you should give more information about why it's not working. If the Asset runs slow for you, don't just leave a review saying "it's slow and limited" and name a competitor product, but say what part of it runs slow/is limited and what your system info (CPU, Ram, etc) is. How should a developer be able to improve his work, if people leave out such crucial details?

It's like buying a game, playing it and it runs awfully slow, then blaming the developer of it because it runs slow... and in the end it turns out that your graphics card is just old - but no one knew...


BTW, I'm not a fanboy of Gaia or EasyRoads. I do own a copy of Gaia, but it came with a Humble Bundle (Humble Unity Bundle). Never used it, because I'm currently using World Creator for generating terrains and I'm pretty happy with it.

 

Do you mean in general or directed at me? Because if it's directed at me, it's a good example about my negative reviews. In one case where the asset didn't work for me at all even you reproduced the bug in September and confirmed it, so did the publisher. We now have February. I can live with workarounds, but definitely not for half a year. Is it fixed yet? No. People still have problems with it and search why the asset doesn't work. Sorry, but knowing the bug and the solution and not fixing it just is a waste of time for every customer. I can live with bugs. But not with wasting my time or the time of others while publicly claiming everything works and saying there's no problem. In time you sometimes realize what the problem is, it's not the assets. And then you get doubts. And over time those doubts are confirmed even more.

 

I think it's pretty clear that we're going to have to rely on people contacting Unity support for this one. It's with respect that I lock this thread.

(People will start repeating themselves as the major players have all put forward their main issues and if they haven't by now they had enough time to do so).