I’m sorry you didn’t have a great time, but I was heartened to read this article.
I’ll go further than you - the experience for me was so bad I’ve decided to pull back massively on both my playtime & interaction with Go content. I was having no fun on what should be *the* event of the year.
I’ve not battled since (which, given the apparent issues, seems like a good idea anyway) or watched any video.
Unsure what this means here, I enjoy reading your thoughts so might carry on - but if I don’t it’s not a reflection on you!
I appreciate the candor on your readership or potential lack thereof. I'm sorry, too, that it seems like you had an even worse time at GO Fest. I've been battling here and there, but the performance issues have been weighing on everyone's minds in the GBL scene. I especially feel for the content creators right now.
Agreed, I’ve seen several post the graphs of declining engagement - it must be so frustrating to have a source of income tied to a company who are doing nothing to retain customers, even pushing them away.
I thought Adventure Week might lure me back into playing, as it was one of my favourite events last year. I think that was the first time I have actually been shocked at how bad an event looked.
I'm enjoying this Ultra Unlock: Strength of Steel event way more than I did GO Fest. I already have more Shinies, the bonuses are better, and there are about as many PvP-relevant spawns available herein. When your side event is better than your main event, ahem, that's a problem.
When I was completing that grueling Master Ball checklist last year, I recall the moment when I realized raid passes weren't unlimited.
I rarely do raids because despite living in a populated area there are usually very few people lining up for the 5 stars. So I used a pass from whenever I got one spinning a gym in the past, got a new pass that day and used it, then stopped raiding and wrongly assumed you just kept getting them haha.
Anyway I was astounded that raids, which there was so emphasis on, could only be completed once per day for free - unless you were coughing up coins for remote passes or "premium battle passes" which I thought were just for PvP but later learned you could use on raids.
THEN even if you scooped up some remotes, some of them STILL required you actually being in the location haha. I was so stunned and mad but I guess I shouldn't have been.
So now I stash those premiums away just in case. You really got me with that one moment - for an event like this where literally, it's only for a day or so, and you see everyone else having fun, and you can't participate because you're not coughing up cash for raid passes - for all they preach about turning down remote so everyone can get out and go and interact with each other, they're still just alienating people. Bummer.
I guess on the bright side of things I realized a day ago you can evolve a girl Combee. So I got that now haha
The thing that was striking to Andrew Ross, the author of the column I referenced at different points, is that even after eight years of this, even when knowing full well what Niantic is doing, a lot of the players in his circle didn't bat an eye when it came to shelling out for these Raids, especially Necrozma. Just the cost of doing business. Not that they should pat themselves on the back, but Niantic isn't even the worst when it comes to monetization in the mobile sphere or "live service" console titles. There's a bottom of the barrel—and we're not there yet.
The Combee mechanic, BTW, is fun, I think. Salandit is the same way, with only the females being able to evolve. The latter would be more fun if players were able to catch it in the wild rather than having to walk an Egg out 12 km, but on a theoretical level, I like the gimmick.
Good article! A lot of strong feelings amoung players noted . Well done !
Strong feelings, indeed.
I’m sorry you didn’t have a great time, but I was heartened to read this article.
I’ll go further than you - the experience for me was so bad I’ve decided to pull back massively on both my playtime & interaction with Go content. I was having no fun on what should be *the* event of the year.
I’ve not battled since (which, given the apparent issues, seems like a good idea anyway) or watched any video.
Unsure what this means here, I enjoy reading your thoughts so might carry on - but if I don’t it’s not a reflection on you!
I appreciate the candor on your readership or potential lack thereof. I'm sorry, too, that it seems like you had an even worse time at GO Fest. I've been battling here and there, but the performance issues have been weighing on everyone's minds in the GBL scene. I especially feel for the content creators right now.
Agreed, I’ve seen several post the graphs of declining engagement - it must be so frustrating to have a source of income tied to a company who are doing nothing to retain customers, even pushing them away.
I thought Adventure Week might lure me back into playing, as it was one of my favourite events last year. I think that was the first time I have actually been shocked at how bad an event looked.
I'm enjoying this Ultra Unlock: Strength of Steel event way more than I did GO Fest. I already have more Shinies, the bonuses are better, and there are about as many PvP-relevant spawns available herein. When your side event is better than your main event, ahem, that's a problem.
Yeah, I agree - to be fair to Niantic I can’t fault this event! It’s a shame events of this quality are so rare.
When I was completing that grueling Master Ball checklist last year, I recall the moment when I realized raid passes weren't unlimited.
I rarely do raids because despite living in a populated area there are usually very few people lining up for the 5 stars. So I used a pass from whenever I got one spinning a gym in the past, got a new pass that day and used it, then stopped raiding and wrongly assumed you just kept getting them haha.
Anyway I was astounded that raids, which there was so emphasis on, could only be completed once per day for free - unless you were coughing up coins for remote passes or "premium battle passes" which I thought were just for PvP but later learned you could use on raids.
THEN even if you scooped up some remotes, some of them STILL required you actually being in the location haha. I was so stunned and mad but I guess I shouldn't have been.
So now I stash those premiums away just in case. You really got me with that one moment - for an event like this where literally, it's only for a day or so, and you see everyone else having fun, and you can't participate because you're not coughing up cash for raid passes - for all they preach about turning down remote so everyone can get out and go and interact with each other, they're still just alienating people. Bummer.
I guess on the bright side of things I realized a day ago you can evolve a girl Combee. So I got that now haha
The thing that was striking to Andrew Ross, the author of the column I referenced at different points, is that even after eight years of this, even when knowing full well what Niantic is doing, a lot of the players in his circle didn't bat an eye when it came to shelling out for these Raids, especially Necrozma. Just the cost of doing business. Not that they should pat themselves on the back, but Niantic isn't even the worst when it comes to monetization in the mobile sphere or "live service" console titles. There's a bottom of the barrel—and we're not there yet.
The Combee mechanic, BTW, is fun, I think. Salandit is the same way, with only the females being able to evolve. The latter would be more fun if players were able to catch it in the wild rather than having to walk an Egg out 12 km, but on a theoretical level, I like the gimmick.