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Everyone is equal, but some are more equal or is it possible to spam on Google Play

All are equal, but some are smoother.


Some time ago I had to produce measures to rename my tanks . It was connected with the claim of some company, which did not like the use of the word "Frontline" in combination with military themes (surprisingly, what else could the front line be associated with?) With the military theme of the game. But this post is not about that. Checking the renaming results somehow, I was looking for apps on Google Play and saw a strange picture.


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image

Red is not a glitch, I have highlighted the important points.

“Strange,” I thought. Probably, Google went wrong, and he forgot that I have Russian everywhere. Or he could not determine that I am from Russia. Otherwise, why does he show me the same game with different names? .. I checked the names of the packages and realized that this was the way it was intended.

List of package names
  • com.igg.castleclash
  • com.igg.castleclash_ru
  • com.igg.castleclash_de
  • com.igg.castleclash_es
  • com.igg.castleclash_tw
  • com.igg.castleclash_it
  • com.igg.castleclash_id
  • com.igg.castleclash_tr
  • com.igg.castleclash_kr
  • com.igg.castleclash_th
  • com.igg.castleclash_pt
  • com.igg.castleclash_de



“Sly!” I thought. We took a bunch of places in the list and drove out some of the competitors. But is it possible? But what about politics, but what about localization rules? I decided to ask tech support and wrote them a letter. Unfortunately, the source text of the letter I have not survived, because I made it through the form on the site, but the general meaning was as follows:
Please understand the possible error on Google Play. This scoundrel shows me the same game.

In response, I received a letter of appreciation generated for me personally for my active life position, as well as asking me to send some additional materials on the problem, if any. I sent them a screenshot from Chrome.

Some time later, the answer came:

Thank you, blah blah blah ... Happy to help you ... blah blah blah
I looked at your problem and according to our data the reason why you see the same application several times is that the developer has different versions of the application for different languages ​​/ territories. However, it is normal that you see so many versions of this application on Google Play.
If I can still help you with blah blah blah ....
The original text of the letter in case my translation does not convey the full depth of meaning.
Hi Alexey

Thank you for contacting Google. My name is today.

It has been shown that there has been a lot to be done about it. Therefore, it is normal for the app Store.

If there is anything you want to contact me, please contact us at: play.google.com/support.

I would like to have a look at your support experience in the next few days. Your customer support will definitely help.

Kind regards

Tom

Google Support Team


“Interesting,” I thought. Is this what everyone can do? But then on Google Play will be a salad from the repetitive games. Just in case, I decided to clarify:

Hello
But this is a violation of Google Play’s developer program policy and application localization guides using resources. Is not it? I do not think this is normal.
There is no need to make different versions of the same application, if you use resources for localization.
Link to politics, blah blah blah ...
Link to localization guide, blah blah blah ...
The original text of the letter in case you are not afraid to read my clumsy English
Hi!

This is a violation of the Google Play Developer Program. I don’t think that this is normal.

If you are using resources for localization.

Google Play Developer Program Policies
...
Spam and Placement in the Store
Developers are important partners in Google Play.

Do not post repetitive content.
...

Guide Localizing with Resources


Apparently a technical support friend decided not to take on such responsibility. Or maybe this is not his business. But his confidence diminished, and he sent me along with my problem far away to other smarter people:

Hi, blah blah blah ... Thanks, blah blah blah ...
I sent your message to the team dealing with these issues so that they look in more detail. Unfortunately, I can’t say how long a solution to this problem may take.
In the meantime, if you want to report some kind of “bad” application or an application that seems to violate the Google Play policy, you can do it here:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/contact/takedown
The original text of the letter in case my translation does not convey the full depth of meaning.
Hi Alexey

Thank you for your follow up.

I fed them. Unfortunately, it’s not a problem.

If you want to violate the rules of the playlist, you can do so here:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/contact/takedown


A letter arrived a bit later asking for an assessment of the last communication from those. support. I honestly expressed my attitude to the phrase "Unfortunately, I can not say how long it may take a decision on this issue . "

Why is this all?


Now here I sit and wait for the weather by the sea. If they say that it is possible to do this, then maybe someday I will use this way of publishing myself. But I really would not want such a development option. If they say that it is impossible to do so, then I will continue the correspondence in the spirit of "Why the comrades from IGG.com are more equal than the rest."

But most likely, my request will sink in the depths of the bottomless. You can, perhaps, leave more spam-pebbles about the repetitive games. Maybe someone will fall on his head ...

PS:


If by some miracle
The answer will come from Google,
I, of course, right away
I roll here an update ...

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/226561/


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