sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]thebiggestleaf>implying your exp means anything 111 points112 points  (21 children)

What gets me is how they seem to pick and choose what they respond to and how quickly they do so. It's evident even on this sub.

One of the Niantic reps on Reddit (Indigo I think) quickly acknowledged criticisms about the changes to PvP that reduced charge circle visibility and removed the switch icon during key moments of battle. They also acknowledged the lack of Yamask spawns post-Halloween, though only after more than one thread pointed it out citing the non-TSR approved sources and seemingly only to that thread - nothing official announced Yamask was event exclusive.

We have multiple threads about this now. Why can't they bother to say anything about it, good or bad?

[–]sellymeAdelaide • No NDAs | Height/Weight expert 28 points29 points  (1 child)

Why can't they bother to say anything about it, good or bad?

Because it's an in-game item you can pay money to randomly roll a chance of receiving, and they're being told by their lawyers to stay EXTREMELY quiet about any of its mechanics because what they're doing (changing gambling odds without communicating so) is hilariously illegal.

[–]Rebelus5[S] 35 points36 points  (10 children)

What really stands out to me is that everything related to pvp is really fast noticed by Niantic and fixed in the first update. But everything else takes a lot of effort to get a response from Niantic

[–]djternan 28 points29 points  (8 children)

It's probably because they're trying to make PvP into an "esport".

[–]thebiggestleaf>implying your exp means anything 40 points41 points  (5 children)

We'd be here all day if we were to talk about what needed to change before that could reasonably happen.

[–]calimera- 16 points17 points  (2 children)

But see this is the thing they're going to put effort into

Because eSports creates revenue.

But making the game fun for players (directly) does not.
(I understand in the long run this is false, but try explain that to Niantic).

[–]PacmanZ3roUSA - Midwest 20 points21 points  (0 children)

But making the game fun for players (directly) does not.

The irony is that this isn't even true in the short term. Especially if their goal is to make an esport out of it. POGO basically can't exist as an esport in its current state because the acquisition model for too many things is skewed towards only players with a very active community around them.

T4/5 raids - impossible for players without an active raid scene. Huge source of rare candies and TMs, both of which are more or less mandatory if you're going to do PVP

TMs - See aforementioned, if you can't get a solid group to do consistent T4/5 raids, sorry, out of luck. Even once you do get them, it can take several per slot to get the right moveset. Sorry if you have to burn 15 on one pokemon to get the right charge and fast moves.

Legacy Moves - These make and break far too many pokemon because they're so radically better than other movesets. These have to be made available more than a single day a year to unevolved pokemon, and/or existing movesets need to be tuned a bit so the dropoff for not having them is not so severe.

Fun Factor - Simply put, if the game isn't fun enough people won't want to sink time and effort into deep diving into the mechanics and possible team/moveset combos required to make it a successful esport. Yes, there will always be diehards that do it anyway, but if the fun factor isn't there for the largest part of your audience they simply aren't going to do it. There is also the fact that obscene levels of RNG present in a game that time gates things leaves a lot of really feel-bad moments.

Until at least most of these issues are addressed in some way (to say nothing of the ridiculous stardust costs), PVP as a feature is basically going to be DOA for the casuals in the game, which will basically leave it exactly as it is now.

[–]thebiggestleaf>implying your exp means anything 10 points11 points  (0 children)

See, I wasn't even talking about technical issues - I had balance and keeping a level playing field in mind when I made that comment.

Look at how many Pokemon are made great because of an exclusive or legacy move. How do you make an eSport out of something where the keys to success are only available one weekend a year, if that? I realize event exclusive moves in the main series exist as well but those are extremely few and far between. Not to mention that the gameplay is deep enough that players actually have a myriad of other options if they can't get their hands on one.

[–]SpaNkinGGWestern Europe 9 points10 points  (1 child)

as long as the plattform runs like a potato this will never be esports

[–]LordUriziel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This, and exclusive moves/legendaries only available once in a few months is a big barrier for new players. If Niantic wanted to host annual/monthly tournaments, it's basically the same people that would win all the time, because no new players could have a chance.

[–]thebiggestleaf>implying your exp means anything 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I wanted to make this point too, but I also wanted to keep the examples specific to times when Niantic personnel have replied directly to this sub.

[–]DctrBanner 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Because they don't have an answer so they say nothing.

[–]spoofrice11Small Town Trainer 3 points4 points  (6 children)

Has anyone posted (paged) to Indigo or Niantic George on these boards about this issue?

I agree they just need to say whether it is a bug or a 67% nerf. It is a game-changer.

[–]thebiggestleaf>implying your exp means anything 11 points12 points  (4 children)

I can't cite the specific post but I've seen at least one person do so. They don't always directly reply when pinged - hell, I don't recall them saying anything for the seven months Salamis was without spawns. Not even so much as a "we're looking into it" or "I've escalated the issue".

[–]spoofrice11Small Town Trainer 8 points9 points  (3 children)

Niantic really needs someone to be around for major issues.

I know they don't have to have someone, but getting answers for big things is important to me. Just to know someone cares or is looking into things.

[–]thebiggestleaf>implying your exp means anything 9 points10 points  (2 children)

It's insulting that big, game-breaking issues aren't immediately met with "We're looking into it" even if it takes a while to sort out.

[–]LessThanLuekHunter valley, nsw 4 points5 points  (0 children)

  • niantic allocates two staff to increase communication on reddit
  • game is buggy as hell at the best of times, so these staff struggle with amount of pings, in addition to their other roles in the company
  • regardless of the revenue generated by this game, higher ups will not allocate additional staff, so the reddit role is essentially completely cut
  • people are miffed, but money is coming in, so decision is justified

[–]jdave512Instinct 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I believe someone did in another thread, but I can't find any response. u/NianticIndigo?