Back when the new expansion Dark Prophecies was first submitted to Apple, after a week of "Waiting for Review" it finally got rejected because they couldn't figure out how to test the in-app purchases. Like, they literally couldn't find a way to buy shadow crystals. While I agree that buying our premium currency isn't as obvious as some other apps, a professional game tester should at least put some effort into it rather than outright rejecting an app based on their own incompetence. Luckily, my highly detailed reply of how to open the merchant and try to buy something or click on the crystals icon at the top of the screen helped them figure it out and the game made it through the review without having to be resubmitted.

However, today they reached a new low with the v2.01 update. After the usual week waiting for review, it went into "In Review" status and got rejected after about 4 hours. The reason given was:

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We found that your app exhibited one or more bugs, when reviewed on iPad running iOS 6.1.3 and iPhone 5 running iOS 6.1.4, on both Wi-Fi and cellular networks, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.

Specifically, we were not able to register an account or log in. A screenshot is attached for your reference.
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Wow, I thought this must be a big bug if they couldn't even log in using the new game client. How could I have overlooked something like this?? Then I checked the screenshot. It was of the login screen with the error: "Error: Incorrect password."

That's right folks, the game spent 4 hours in review and was rejected because the reviewer couldn't remember his password. My usual helpful reply to the rejection was (obscuring the email in case it is real):

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Hello, our passwords are encrypted in our database so they can't be retrieved. I have used our support system to send a password reset request email to ****@gmail.com, or better yet you can create a new account by using any other email, eg iamjusttestingthisapp@apple.com

Please do not let us wait for another week for review because you forgot your password, come on!
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And then I realized that was not clear enough. It might make them more confused. These are Apple reviewers, after all. So I added:

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In case I wasn't clear in my last post, the error you are receiving "Error: Incorrect Password" obviously means that the account "******@gmail.com" is already registered in our system and the password you are trying to enter is incorrect. If you wish to test the app and can't remember your password, simply enter any email address in the login field to create a new account.
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Now I'm still waiting for them to figure out the highly complicated login system that Shadow Era uses. Hopefully they will be able to continue the review soon...


Update: iOS version was then approved. But...

Mac version was rejected today. Their reasoning:

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Here is how we found this bug:

A new user is unable to register in the "Login/Register" section. It only allows a current use to login.

This review was conducted on an iMac running OS X 10.8.3
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This is not even funny anymore....

My reply:

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A new user is defined as one that has not played the game before and their email has not been used to log into the game yet. Obviously the email you are trying has already been used by yourself or a different tester, and using it will either log you in or give the "Error: password incorrect" message if your password was not the same as what we have in our database. This is the basic functionality of any server-based login system and not a bug.

Try to use a different email, anything, like whycantilogin@apple.com and you will be able to create a new account just fine.

We had a similar temporary rejection yesterday with our iOS submission, and honestly I'm surprised that such simple things are now giving Apple testers such a hard time. The login system for Shadow Era hasn't changed since it was introduced on iOS more than 2 years ago!
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I left out the "if you can't figure out how to log into a game you shouldn't be a professional app tester" part...