8 Comments
User's avatar
Kev's avatar

I hatched that costumed mouse thing and immediately transferred it haha - I can only update for storage so many times before I ask myself, why am I keeping these? Though you'll have to pry my Slowking in celebratory 2021 glasses from my cold, dead hands

Expand full comment
Joseph Mangano's avatar

I read this in my email notifications and completely blanked on replying. Sorry, Kev! For the casual player, yeah, unless it's Shiny, it's probably not a concern to toss it or even miss out completely. I just wanted the one "festive" Dedenne for my collection, and I feel like I didn't even see one Raid. Two of my locals said they went out of their way for theirs. That's, ahem, not in the holiday spirit, Niantic.

Another demerit of not having a Pokémon appear in the wild is the IV floor. When Pokémon are Raid encounters or Egg hatches, they're more likely to be perfect, but unless they're viable for Master League or max out below the threshold for a league with a CP limit, that's suboptimal for PvP purposes. This assumes Niantic cares about PvP, though, which it almost certainly doesn't.

Expand full comment
Kev's avatar

Do Shinies have any practical value? I thought that was just a collector thing too. Got a Shiny variant Ponyta yesterday and was just gonna trade it to my daughter haha

Expand full comment
Joseph Mangano's avatar

No practical value. The joke in PvP circles is that Shinies do more damage, but it's just a trophy.

Expand full comment
debra mangano's avatar

How greedy can you get! When even the most mild mannered enthusiasts are miffed you know Niantic went too far. Take heed not to alienate your faithful Niantic!

Expand full comment
Joseph Mangano's avatar

I don't want Pokémon GO to fail, if for no other reason than I don't wish to see talented people lose their jobs, but if we need to start hemorrhaging users for things to change, so be it. Then again, what if Niantic is so locked into this engagement model that they refuse to course correct? Ultimately, if matters are going to improve, I fear they'll need to get much worse.

Expand full comment
Ryan Cummings's avatar

What’s worse is that through all of the micro transactions we’re paying Niantic to let us help them make their AI thingy. They’re parasites.

Expand full comment
Joseph Mangano's avatar

Not directly, but yeah, our dollars are at least paying the salaries and research costs behind their large geospatial model. Niantic feels like a data company masquerading as a game company.

Expand full comment