No doubt I'll get flak for this but it think I have a valid point. I would like to propose that the Touch Arcade forum BANS all and any 'win £$ for reviewing my app' threads. These are a blight on the site and are ONLY used to generate fake 5* reviews on The App Store which in turn misleads future buyers of the said game. This is a pretty despicable and underhand way of getting reviews and I do not think Touch Arcade should allow this practice any longer.
There's nothing wrong with a developer encouraging people to review their app. Even the big name developers encourage their players to post a rating and/or review on the app store. It's only dodgy if a developer says: "Give my app a 5-star review" in exchange for some reward. Whereas requesting (or rewarding) an honest review/rating is fine.
They don't say 'give me a 5*' but let's be totally honest here, people put 5* ratings on it no matter how good or crap it is, in the faint hope of winning something. I'm also willing to bet no 1* review ever won one of these 'so-called' competitions. 'Review and win' is terrible and creates heaps of fake reviews, if a dev wants ppl to play their game, why not 'highest score after 1 week wins'? That way ppl will play AND the App Store won't be swamped with fake reviews? Either way, I think it's a very dubious practice.
You've obviously never participated in one of these contests. I don't enter very often, but I've won around 3-4 of them. The devs ask for honest and constructive reviews, so that's what I give them. I rarely rate an app 5 stars, unless I think it really deserves it. The winner is chosen randomly. I'm sure you could look at the majority of winners reviews, and many would not be 5 stars. I use these contests to help devs make there games better, discover new apps and maybe even win something along the way. It's a win-win for everyone.
I've not, I see them as a bribe and quite frankly I value my integrity higher than an App Store card.
So you're against reviewing games fairly and providing constructive feedback to developers? Anyways, it's your choice.
I think I'll enter some competitions and if I hate the game I'll leave a 1 star review. Something tells me I won't win any