App update: 06/05/14

A rare app update is available to iOS players:

Restaurant Story app update
on iTunes store

We're now up to version 1.7.1 on iOS, and this one contains more than just the 'bug fixes' stated in the above description. There's a new feature that allows you to block irritating players from posting on your wall.

I'm fortunate enough to have never come across any inappropriate players and comments in my time on Restaurant Story, but sadly there are cases of such behaviour.

So how do we use this new feature? Well it's actually pretty simple and effective. To block a user, tap the 'X' at the right side of a comment on your wall. Previously the comment would just be removed, but now you get two options:

Wall with block/delete option

You can choose to delete the comment or block the player from posting on your wall in the future. Note that if you choose to block a neighbour, they'll still be counted as a neighbour - you still need to delete them from your neighbour list to remove them altogether. When a player is blocked, all of their posts on your wall are deleted.

And don't worry if you block a friend my mistake in the process of deleting a comment, because you can manage your blocked list via the Settings tab from the Main Menu (scroll to the bottom):

Blocked list

So you can unblock a player at any time. Note that there's nothing you can do if someone has blocked you by accident since you can't contact them! However you could always try to get in touch via a third party. I've managed to rediscover players who have had to start their games over by this method in the past.

At this time the block feature isn't available to Android players, but I expect that it will be before long - this is an addition which is in the interests of TeamLava from the standpoint of safe gameplay, and so should be implemented on Android before long. If anything, I'm surprised that it hasn't been introduced before now!

And one last point: this update has so far only been implemented in Restaurant Story and Bakery Story. This may not sound like it's particularly good news, but it could be. That's because it may indicate that the game's developers still see these two games as among their most important - they're still high priorities. This is rather reassuring what with Restaurant Story 2 currently undergoing beta testing. On the other hand, you could argue that the gamemakers now see these games as dispensable, and thus are using them as guinea-pigs for their newer games.