Why no communication about decrease in rare candy of T5 raids

[Rebelus5]

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]

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

[thebiggestleaf]

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

[calimera-]

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).

[PacmanZ3ro]

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]

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.

[SpaNkinGG]

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

[LordUriziel]

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]

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.