TLDR: This app is great for the consumer, but terrible for the producer.
If you didn't know about this app, it's simply a mobile app where you can download free add-ons for Minecraft, kind of like the name suggests. Taking from the Google Play Store description, "Collection of best Minecraft Add-Ons!"
Having used this app on and off for quite a few years now, as well as going from someone who downloaded add-ons, to having add-ons on this store, I feel like I can provide a solid review. However, most of this is a criticism, so if you want a positive review, I recommend looking elsewhere. I'll split this into pros and cons still. These aren't organized in any order, just whenever it popped up into my head. I'll update this post if I ever need to.
Pros:
Pros are mainly based on the consumer point of view, the end user.
- Ease of Use
There's no cost to download any of the add-ons, and importing it into Minecraft is just a few taps away.
- Limited Ads
Ads really aren't an annoying part. I do have a criticism, though.
- Tons of Content
There's so many things on this app. A bunch of add-ons, but also maps and other things as well.
- Updated
The list of add-ons is growing, practically daily.
- Repackaging
According to the description, "All Add-Ons fully tested, and repackaged as needed." So basically, everything works! We're also going to modify this to ensure that! Yeah, I'm picking this statement apart later.
Cons:
Cons are mainly based on the producer point view, the creator.
Just want to say real quick, this section has a lot of strong feelings. I'm probably going to be taking apart their own words and using it against them.
- Poor Maintenance
This one is a stretch. However, if you take apart the Google Play Store description (I don't use iOS lol), "Available on newest version of Minecraft is a new feature called Add-Ons." I mean seriously, Add-ons are new? Yeah, this is definitely a stretch.
- Content Stealing
A bunch of the content on this app is nonconsensual, meaning the original creator never submitted or permitted Addons for Minecraft to post their content. This is the reason that I, for whatever reason, have Morph and Chunk Loaders on this store. I really could care less, except for some of the other points covered in this section. However, others definitely care, and Addons for Minecraft definitely doesn't seem to.
- Ads
I said in the pros section that I would criticize this. Digging through the Google Play Store description, you'll find a link to the website. Ignoring the terrible design, find the "Why are there these popup ads?" section. Let's break this down.
"Many of the addons in this app are provided by the third party addon creators." This is true. But did they consent?
"While the addons are released in public, many of the creators do ask people downloading the addons to view the ads first so they can earn money to continue with the development." Fair enough.
"We have linked such ads when applicable to honor their requests." Wait, hold on. You're telling me that you have decided to go to that website, download with the link with the ads, then place your own ads onto the app? First off, many ads come from when you're searching. Second, on the ads appearing during download, what are you doing with those ads? Honoring their requests? How? Where is this ad revenue going to? You, probably. If it isn't you, and it's really that creator, how are you paying them? Also, did they consent prior? When you go to pay them, how are you going to nicely say that you stole their content? How happy would they be?
Well, that was a rant.
- Poor Community
This really isn't the fault of the team, but it's quite deteriorating for the creator, should they ever decide to check the comments. Far too often you'll find plain and simple "It doesn't work" comments. Occasionally the super annoying, disrespectful, and harmful swear comment.
The trend I've noticed, at least on my add-ons, is a start with positive comments, and then it quickly runs downhill and everyone afterwards just posts the same negative comment.
Over time, I've come to think that this community expects everything to work out-of-the-box, and that's not the case. There's a reason descriptions exist. Oh, and they don't bother to try and read the comments before them which, surprise, surprise, actually are helpful. Nay, they just demotivate the creator.
I was going to write something else here, but I forgot, so I'll leave this as a placeholder.
- Poor Community Management
Okay, this is a serious problem. Let's say that you're a creator and you're fine that your content is being stolen, and you're fine that they're also stealing your revenue. Well, now it's time to read your comments, because your creation is the greatest thing to exist. The first thing you see is a variation of "It doesn't work," adding on angry emojis and stuff.
Now, being the helpful person you are, you want to respond to them and point them in the right direction, because you've tested it a billion times and you know it works. Slight problem. You can't respond. There's no practical way to respond.
There isn't a reply button, throw that idea out of the window.
You can try to post a comment and explain it to everyone. A few problems. No one reads old comments. Also, what makes you expect that they'll come back? You can't send a notification to them so they won't know you're trying to help.
You can update your add-on, try to explain as clearly as possible to contact you at a different spot. Again, who reads descriptions? Also, how do you guarantee that Addons for Minecraft will update it on their end? Similarly, you could try to put a troubleshooting section on your description. Assuming the two questions above it are positive answers, there's still another potential problem. I'll cover that in the next section. But bold of you to assume that people read descriptions.
- Manipulation
This might be slightly specific, but it's happened to me. Coming off from the section above me, let's say we add a troubleshooting section. Well, because "All Add-Ons fully tested, and repackaged as needed." exists, maybe they can also edit the description. Who knows? Regardless, I incorporated a troubleshooting section on Morph on MCPEDL, but here's the thing, when Addons for Minecraft decided to update the add-on on their end, the troubleshooting section was nonexistent. Still nonexistent on last check, by the way.
- Lack of Web Version
The fact that there literally isn't a website, or some form of way to access it on a computer without an emulator makes this app annoying. You can't do anything, typing is out of the question.
Suggestions:
I highly doubt this will get any reads, but in that case, these are some suggestions that may address the cons I mentioned. I'm definitely going to give the email addons@kayenworks.com thing a try in the future, especially for better comments and responses, just not now.
These are addressed in the same order as the cons.
- Update your Google Play Store Description
Is it really that hard? Add-ons aren't that new anymore.
- Submission System
Well, you're going to have to stop taking add-ons from others. Maybe a submission system of some sort will do, kind of like MCPEDL. Oh can I just say something like, MCPEDL does everything better?
If you want to be better than some other add-on submission sites, make sure to do extensive web searches and research, online profile verification, etc., to make sure that this piece of content wasn't stolen and someone else uploaded it. Kind of a stretch though, I'm sure no one has the energy to do it.
I'm also aware of the email submissions thing, not interested in that.
- Hmm
Well, ads are tricky. Maybe just be upfront and update your website to say that the ads are to support yourself.
- Hmm x2
Well, you can't really control people. Good luck with this. You could try putting a billion banners and things to address the issues, but I doubt that'll be effective, it'll have the opposite effect if anything.
Unrelated, but more characters would be wonderful.
- Better Commenting
A reply button would, without a doubt, be one of the most useful things. It would also be great if there was a notification system as well.
- Limited Tweaking
There wouldn't be any issues with description manipulation if the submission system was better implemented.
- Web Version Please
I mean, it would be amazing and could also increase the user base. Would also be much more convenient to do some tasks like comments.