Man! I’m not even reading the Hearts Solo reviews anymore. I did scan down the list of titles briefly, though. I used one of them as the title of this blog post: “Crook.”

You know what happened to this particular “crook” today? He made $54.12 on sales of Hearts Net. That’s for approximately the first 12 hours that the new Hearts Solo has been in the App Store.

That is not just “a good day” for me. That is five times greater than any other sales day I’ve had so far. This is, in fact, the first occasion where I have a glimmer of hope that the time I’ve spent on this game will be worth it. If you people keep buying $54.12 worth of Hearts Net every day, I will keep working on it until it is PERFECT. Internet multi-player, chat rooms, statistics, rules variations, Mac version, Windows version, Android version, and the most fiendish, clever robot players in the world. I’ll make you the best damned Hearts game you ever played. All for $54.12 per day.

By far, the biggest legitimate complaint I’ve gotten is that some people don’t like the color schemes, either for Hearts Net or Hearts Solo. Okay, I got the message! I’m going to release a new version of Hearts Net pretty soon, which will allow you to pick any one of the three themes that the game has had in its life. If you were fond of the plain old green-and-red theme, you will be able to get it back. If you’re willing to pay for Hearts Net, of course.

Now, a casual rundown of the various hate mail. A lot of people say I “tricked” them into downgrading to a crippled version of the program. I said exactly what was going to happen in the “what’s new” notes, and on my website. Where else would you have expected me to put this information?

Have you stopped to think what you’re complaining about here? You got Hearts Solo for free. FREE. For like eight months. And you were apparently so attached to it that you are now frothing at the mouth over its loss.

One of the people who angrily emailed me today said that he has played over 750 games. Apparently, this was supposed to make me feel bad? Because I’m taking this precious resource away from him? So he sent me this angry email, rather than just spending three bucks to get Hearts Net.

Folks, I tried to do this the “polite” way. Hearts Net has been out for over two weeks now. I have many indications that the heavy players are aware of it. It was completely, utterly ignored. Okay then, now we’re doing it my way. And on the first day, I made $54.12. Are you really going to claim I did the wrong thing here?

So, you guys just go right on shouting, as loud and long as you want. The feedback pages for App Store free apps are always a study in casual, drive-by negativity. I know a lot of you enjoy being pissed off over things like this. Okay then, you got your wish! But you are not my customers. My customers are the people who spent $54.12 on Hearts Net, on the first day that I crippled Hearts Solo. It is those people who I’m interested in. To the rest of you: Bon Voyage!

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