Does the number one rated Mac App store review seem slightly odd to anyone else?

[KipV]

First of all it's accusation in the title is silly but even more bizarre is what he says about Sketch.

 

"There is no killer feature that really caught my attention in order to justify why I would use this over something like Sketch."

 

I think almost everyone knows that Sketch isn't really a competitor to Affinity it's more of a compliment. Sketch was setting out to offer a solid replacement for Fireworks and we know that Affinity mostly has it's slight set on Illustrator. It just seems odd that people would vote that as the most helpful review even though it seems to miss the obvious. Seems fishy.

[peter]

Well, I've read it and the first thing I found was really bad spelling mistakes. But the internet is full of them.

 

Grammar aside (Cartoonmike/aka Grammar cop, Hi) he made no reference to the UI and how the icons in AD are much more easier on the eye. This is not is not cosmetic it is a crucial time saver. The video he refers to, was it the one with the 1,000,000% zoom, embedded adjustments, high speed shape adjust, etc? 

 

The fact that he doesn't mind paying for the CC subscription says volumes:

• He puts it on account
• He is seriously rich
• He assumed everybody else is...it's only money!
• He works for Adobe and maybe has a staff discount?

He has not been to the forum as he would be told who gets paid by Serif...There the ones with STAFF next to their avatars. Yeah I would like to be paid, who wouldn't? Sadly I'm not on the payroll. :( There is one thing, that the Affinity team do pay to the reviewers and that's attention! :ph34r: Listening is cheap, ignoring is expensive. 

 

He forgets that AD is only a few months old, whereas AI is how many years old?

 

Rant over

[KipV]

Whenever I see reviews or social media comments like that I have to wonder if they are not either by Adobe employees, one of their stock holders, or one of the Adobe teachers / evangelists. You really don't have to use the program for long to know why it is much different then both Illustrator and Sketch.

[ronniemcbride]

No matter what they say or what they do, it will all play out as it should. All I know is that I have used illustrator for years and it took just about that long to really get comfortable. I don't know what it is about AD because even though it "it is not illustrator" it does what it does well and more importantly it really gets out of the way and lets you express whatever you need to express with ease. AD just knows what it is and does not try to be more than what it is.  :)

[denironaut]

For some people the thought that they have invested many hours and much effort into learning what could be the wrong software is too much to take. So they breathe a sigh of relief when it turns out this fancy new software is missing a few features, writing such a review is a form of self soothing I guess.

[KipV]

That's a good point denironaut it can take a really long time to learn a pro app well and a lot of people have no interest in learning a similar app. For me that has never been much of a problem often times a new app is just similar enough to the old app to be able to pick up relatively easily.

[Ben]

Whenever I see reviews or social media comments like that I have to wonder if they are not either by Adobe employees, one of their stock holders, or one of the Adobe teachers / evangelists. You really don't have to use the program for long to know why it is much different then both Illustrator and Sketch.

 

That was the feeling I had when I read the "review" on Iconfinder: http://blog.iconfinder.com/can-sketch-or-affinity-designer-replace-adobe-illustrator/

 

I don't think he could have come across as any more an Illustrator fan boy.  The shameless Adobe plug at the end of the comments section is also telling.

 

One of my frustrations is that Affinity gets compared on a like-for-like basis.  Of course, it's not a level playing field at all.  We have only just come to market with a completely brand new piece of software. We have a very small team compared to the Big A.  We also never claimed to be a direct replacement for the alternatives - we want to create a new way of working and shake off the old inflexible ways that the likes of 20 years old software cannot.

[Dale]

Scott from IconFinder has mentioned he'll be doing a review of some key Astute Graphics plugins https://twitter.com/iconifyit/status/552483846877622273 so it's pretty safe to say he'll be Illustrator 4eva.

 

I doubt Scott would rush to cover Designer again for a while either, after we directly and openly nagged about the many shortcomings in the article multiple times. 

[Ben]

I doubt Scott would rush to cover Designer again for a while either, after we directly and openly nagged about the many shortcomings in the article multiple times. 

 

I think you mean "material inaccuracies".   ;)

 

Not to mention a set of criteria that focused only on what Illustrator can do, and not what features are unique to the competition.

[Dale]

I think you mean "material inaccuracies".   ;)

 

Not to mention a set of criteria that focused only on what Illustrator can do, and not what features are unique to the competition.

 

You're so right, and it's a shame we had to nag many times. 

[CartoonMike]

One thing that occurred to me while reading this thread, is that there's a whole infrastructure/eco-system built around the Big-A's products. The various "tutorial-mills" won't be covering AD anytime soon, I'm sure."Authorized Instructor", indeed. Just another way to lock down the spread of knowledge of competition by paying off the teachers to ignore "the little guys." And then there's the plug-in makers, whose entire business model is based on the output of Just One Software Company. So I'm sure that there's a huge fanboy base and they don't take lightly any "intrusion" to their space. It must be scary/disheartening to have all that required knowledge and/or entire livelihood intruded on by some upstarts who want to do things differently and approach digital art from the view of the creative user. 

 

It doesn't matter (at least to me) that the reviewer may or may not be an employee of the Big-A or its hanger-ons or users who have invested a small fortune in plug-ins and learning. What matters is that by its mere existence, AD has struck a nerve and are reacting with inaccuracies, half-truths and sins of omission; as they do. For those of us who make use of AD (and like it), the best defense is to let the fanboys rant and not engage, but show off what we can do with AD. Fight immutable opinions with examples without tearing down other apps. They may want to wage war, but let us wage art. :)

 

If  AD v1 is enough to seemingly frighten them, I'm looking forward to see the reaction when AD begins to mature. 

 

Pass the popcorn. Entertainment like this doesn't come often.

[KipV]

One of the weirdest statements I continue to hear from reviewers and Adobe stock holders is that Adobe is the software for the pros while everything else on the market is for people on a budget. I own fairly new Adobe software and yet I often choose not to use it based on the short comings of some of their products. The good news is I think they will only be able to play this game for so long. Over the coming years the payoff of making an application from scratch will begin to show while the missing features will get added soon enough. I question Adobe's strategy of continuing to pile on features to products that are already a bit bloated as is. How is that going to play out in the long run? I read an article from a stock holder that was making predictions about the company for the year 2020 once! To me is hard to say how their strategy will play out even in the next couple of years. From my view it seems like Adobe is becoming less relevant as time goes on.

[KipV]

Another odd thing about that article is that it doesn't even mention that Sketch really doesn't have an Adobe equivalent at the moment. The closest products they have had to Sketch have been ImageReady and Fireworks both of which have since been retired. Fireworks was almost certainly retired due to Sketch or perhaps some secret product they are working on. Unless of course they really think Photoshop is the replacement to Fireworks but that would require a degree of cluelessness I don't think Adobe has.

[peter]

That was the feeling I had when I read the "review" on Iconfinder: http://blog.iconfinder.com/can-sketch-or-affinity-designer-replace-adobe-illustrator/

 

I don't think he could have come across as any more an Illustrator fan boy.  The shameless Adobe plug at the end of the comments section is also telling.

 

One of my frustrations is that Affinity gets compared on a like-for-like basis.  Of course, it's not a level playing field at all.  We have only just come to market with a completely brand new piece of software. We have a very small team compared to the Big A.  We also never claimed to be a direct replacement for the alternatives - we want to create a new way of working and shake off the old inflexible ways that the likes of 20 years old software cannot.

So should we be comparing AD to AI CS4/5/6; or should we compare it to the first release of AI from way back? Would that be fairer? I can't comment on Freehand and Sketch as I have never used them.

 

I have to say the brief history seems fair at the start. Quickshapes glad he liked the wide choice, yup... DP DNA that is! 

The pen tool in AD get's my vote! Who was that moderator (Was that you MEB) who talked about scripting?

 

 I think Affinity Designer is a strong contender, especially considering it is first generation software.

 

Nice quote. At least Scott admitted his marriage to Illustrator. Dale's input was also graciously taken on board by (Scott) the reviewer

 

Dustin mentioned how he enjoys Affinity's listening skills. 10on12 said great things about V.3 of AD.

 

Maybe once AD has two or three generations and has had the chance to grow: it be interesting to see his future reviews with the benefit of hind sight. A future convert perhaps?

 

He is right about the takeover bid from Adobe, as that's how you know you've made it. Resist the temptation!

 

However, when he spoke about having the big bucks needed to take on the big boys: has he not seen the OS war in the mobile phone market (never mind the browser wars of times past)? Android (and Linux) won't disappear overnight: but they are here to stay.

 

So a winning a war of attrition, based solely on affluence is very complacent. This is a recipe for disaster. Influence and word of mouth counts for a lot.

 

Affinity has one massive and very crucial piece of ammo in its arsenal...the fan base. Not just Affinity Design's, but the disgruntled Adobe/CC users; as well as the loyal Freehand, Inkscape, Corel Draw, Serif Drawplus, Sketch et al userbase who feel that their Mac is incomplete. Affinity won't absorb all of them, but it will be mentioned, tested, reviewed and by most of them. 

 

So yes, Scott is a fan boy, but you know what? Marriages end, loyalties change, some people aren't early adopters, I think that maybe he is secretly waiting for version 3...

 

This is what Scott and Adobe will see...an uprising. Viva la revolution and the rest of the Affinity suite! :ph34r:

 

peter

 

Untrained, unpaid by Affinity/Serif, understandingly impressed by Affinity Designer and Serif DrawPlus.

[CartoonMike]

@Peter, I've used Illustrator since v.3 (yeh, I know, that dates me.) and if AI 3.x were compared to AD v1, AD would "win" no question. Sure there's things like text on a curve, the magic draw everything button and such that AD doesn't have ... yet. But one thing that gets overlooks is the different (ahem) user interface paradigm of usability between the two apps. Simply put, Illustrator is a swiss army knife and Affinity Designer is a Sonic Screwdriver. I used to think that the pen tool in Illustrator was pure elegance. Now it's old and tarnished compared with the node tool in Affinity Designer. 

(this is me ranting:)

And "Killer Feature" -- there isn't just one, it's the whole friggin' app. From how clipping/masks can be done oh-so-easily by just dragging & dropping a layer, to having pressure sensitive strokes. Saying Affinity Designer has no "killer feature" is nitpickery at its worse. This is like saying that the bark on this one tree is bad and not noticing the forest one is within. 

 

Funny how the 'reviewer' failed to complement Affinity Designer on its Gradient tool or the fact that strokes can have gradients too. But "oh noes" there's no symbols! The horror! That's like saying that Apollo 10 was a failure because it didn't have a lunar landing. It was vital, because it allowed NASA to work out some bugs and procedures that made Apollo 11 a success. Alas, such metaphoric musings are lost on the literal-must-have-it-all-NOW minded. 

 

It's so sad that true enthusiasm about something good is looked at with such a jaundiced eye. Say something nice -- well obviously that person got moola for it. I'm participating in this forum, posted reviews of Affinity Designer and have spent hours working on tutorials about it -- and the only currency I've gotten is some good feels and getting to "know" the good peeps here. And you know what, that's enough. Actually more than enough. It's enriched my life more than it has used. Pretty nifty, thinking about it. That comment about "paid reviewers" says much more about that lost soul than it says about anything else. I'd bet he'd think that eggs must be broken from the small end only. ;)

 

(rant over. I feel better now)

 

What about that iPad teaser video, eh? Neat stuff. :D

[peter]

And relax...with a certain bottle of ale B)

 

That was one hell of a write up and nearly as fast ad AD itself. So how can an all ears development team, a tight-knitted forum that is really supportive, a decent one off price, 1,000,000 zoom (I never get bored of saying that) or even spending far too much time in this addictive forum; not be described as a killer feature? You tell me. :blink:

 

Goliath has David.

Apple has Samsung.

Adobe has Affinity? Ooh the irony :lol:

[peter]

That was the feeling I had when I read the "review" on Iconfinder: http://blog.iconfinder.com/can-sketch-or-affinity-designer-replace-adobe-illustrator/

 

I don't think he could have come across as any more an Illustrator fan boy.  The shameless Adobe plug at the end of the comments section is also telling.

 

One of my frustrations is that Affinity gets compared on a like-for-like basis.  Of course, it's not a level playing field at all.  We have only just come to market with a completely brand new piece of software. We have a very small team compared to the Big A.  We also never claimed to be a direct replacement for the alternatives - we want to create a new way of working and shake off the old inflexible ways that the likes of 20 years old software cannot.

Well I moved from Win7 to Mountain Lion...and to think I started off with Win 3.11 & DOS 6.0. This is a bit like sailing: when the time is right and the wind changes direction at the same time and direction as you need to; you'll be going places a lot faster.

[KipV]

It's odd to me not only the Adobe bias that seems to be in a lot of articles but just the overall silence surrounding Affinity. I would have thought that Mac news sites like Macworld or Maclife might have said something about the software by this point but they have been completely mum. For a product that is a major contender for graphics software at a time when CC has been incredibly unpopular it's odd that they haven't even dedicated a couple of sentences to this software. Also no mention of Sketch 3 which has been out for quite a while now. However any time Adobe announces even the smallest new feature it gets splashed all over their homepage and social media. I wonder if Adobe is paying these sites anything?

[CartoonMike]

@KipV, I don't think (or want to believe) that there's payola going on. But it does seem a bit surprising that all the Adobe news I hear is all about how CC is wonderful and exceeding expectations. It's like Adobe has their own "Reality Distortion Field"... then if the Big A is buying lots of ads and a sponsor for promoted articles, that kind of indicates that the websites do know which side of their canvas is being painted on, so to speak.

[KipV]

If I am not mistaken the main success has come from the $10 a month photography plan. It's going to be hard for them to run a company on $10 payments I think, no wonder there is such a big push for the $50 plan. I wonder if they are going to have to cut the price at some point? They cut the price of the photography plan in half which was the only way they could get people on board.

[CartoonMike]

If I am not mistaken the main success has come from the $10 a month photography plan. It's going to be hard for them to run a company on $10 payments I think, no wonder there is such a big push for the $50 plan. I wonder if they are going to have to cut the price at some point? They cut the price of the photography plan in half which was the only way they could get people on board.

You mean actually make the plans affordable for us lowly freelancers and digital artists? What next, dogs and cats living together? Total Chaos!! :P

[Petar Petrenko]

First of all it's accusation in the title is silly but even more bizarre is what he says about Sketch.

 

"There is no killer feature that really caught my attention in order to justify why I would use this over something like Sketch."

 

By "Sketch" you mean "Autodesk Sketchbook Pro"?

[ronniemcbride]

By "Sketch" you mean "Autodesk Sketchbook Pro"?

 no Sketch 3  by Bohemian Coding 

 

[KipV]

Yes, I meant Sketch 3. I just noticed that both the app store review and the Iconfinder review don't seem to understand that Sketch isn't really in the same group as AF and Illustrator. Nobody seems to be pointing out that it competes with an with an Adobe app that no longer exists (Fireworks).

[Ben]

And that's why freedom of speech (also known as the unrestrained ability to say what you like on the Internet) should be only given to those with the intelligence to use it wisely.

 

The Mac App Store is a real haven for people who want to make totally unqualified and inaccurate statements (along with one star reviews for utterly ridiculous reasons) since we developers have no opportunity to write a response to correct or question what has been said in the user reviews.