Niantic Assembling Pokémon GO "Task Force" To Address Player Concerns

"I expect and I'm still let down"

Whenever I hear a game company saying that they've built a "team" to work on possible issues that the players bring up I basically assume nothing of value will happen. The Pokemon Trading Game Online is in the same boat: you bring up an issue on their official forums and the most you'll get is a mod saying "It has been passed along to the development team." or a similar phrase saying that they're listening and nothing happens after months of waiting.

"We hear you, we just don't care. Now give us your money."

But then in the nicest of ways.
And yes, you hear this everytime.

They only care when it affects they're bottom line

I like how every single section was just them saying that they know nobody likes these changes but they’re going to do them anyway.

So instead of changing what probably amounts to a couple of lines of arbitrary code they will now come up with some F2P way of making the distance double via an item you can buy from the shop.

Cheers.

"We are assembling an internal cross-functional team to develop proposals designed to preserve our mission of inspiring people to explore the world together."
alternatively, they could just let people spin a Pokestop from across the street like they'd BEEN doing for over a year.

2020 was the game's most profitable year. it sucks Niantic would say no to accessibility, even when it means more revenue.

Yes pokemon go is all about exploration and socialising but I don't think they realise it is still too soon to get back to that. We were happy with how it was during the last year and Niantic need to understand that.

Then again, they have never responded well to feedback. Shutting down fan pokemon tracker sites even when they don't have one of their own, not allowing the removal of eggs people don't want, still not putting kecleon in when its invisibility really doesn't matter, and of course having no true regional rotation system in place.

They can say what they want but they won't listen, not unless they start losing significant money.

The name Pokemon GO task force is incredibly funny to me. Idk why it just is. Also I'm not gonna lie the issues for this concern seem pretty solvable taskforce or no taskforce.

I know they're changing it for the spirit or whatever but ain't that kinda weird? Like it's clear the fanbase thinks of the game differently than the company, so shouldn't the company kinda try to play to what people feel the strengths of the game are?

@CabbageHunter64 A friend of mine and I chatted about this and we realized that Niantic more than likely gets some sort of “secondary” income that comes from selling information collected from players spinning PokeStops and Gyms, it’s really the only way we could Niantic go through with these changes despite the inevitable backlash.

@Boldfoxrd IIRC the problem with Kecleon isn’t its invisibility, it’s that it has a gimmick (in this case it’s the Color Change Ability) that’s difficult to apply to the game. Remember that similar problems happened to Ditto (Transform) and Smeargle (Sketch).

Go task force sounds more like to me they will send out hit squads to silence the loudest parties. Hopefully they actually do something useful though, unlike most 'task forces'.

September 1st: Our task force has determined that people really don’t like the change in interaction distance with poke stops and gyms….

We're just going to get a Pikachu with another hat aren't we?

@ZebZed true but does it really matter that much? I'm sure they can just get him in the game in some way. Even if its something simple like only appears in ar mode after you tap him?

Instead of the ‘we hear you, but we don’t care’ attitude in reaction on your request not being put in the game, you can also ask to be part of a focus group. It is for a multimillion user game only possible to make changes if they are validated by a large portion of the players, hence the focus groups. Being part of focus groups allows you to get more insight in how the game is managed and what effort it takes to change, balance, test, etc to a multimillion audience. It might even take you further if you have the skills that are needed.

The pokemon company should have bought Niantic rather then going into business with them. You don't have to listen to this or other crap that John Hanke says to see them for what they are.

I realize that pokemon know how to fleece there customers too but not quite as bad as this mobile game lot.

Lol. Doesn't matter. No pleasing folks.

Err wait. I mean I conform with the crowd. Niantic is evil and selfish. How dare they? I conform with the outrage culture. Grr. So angry...

@CharlieGirl but 2021 might not be. Maybe they see restrictions being lifted and players leaving the game. People meeting other people through this game keeps people playing beyond the normal game attention span. If the distance change was more profitable long-term, it would stay.

Ok I'll say this in caps in case punctuation isn't your strong suit:

UNDO THE CHANGES. YOU DON'T NEED A ***** TASK FORCE.

@buggysdad People are leaving the game now that it's less accessible to play it, yeah.

They'll keep the old distance, because that means there's a greater chance you'll spend money on Remote Raid passes to participate in the gym battle that was temporarily within reach, but is now out of reach when you're sitting at work on a break.

That would be my situation, but I stopped playing just before Go Fest and I'm still feeling good about it.

I guess it is just too hard to reverse the change. Did they see a drop in income last year?

We don’t want nor need a task force. We want the interaction distances to be reverted to 80m. Niantic, this isn’t that hard.

"Research has shown that taking walks outside is safe"

Tell that to anyone who's ever been outside before and they will disagree.

So the fan base wrote a letter, Niantic made a public statement of acknowledgement, and people are still upset?

Niantic is obviously trying to meet a middle ground with the players, give them a chance to at least try something.

"We hear you...we also hear the cash register ding from sponsors like Starbucks. Therefore, we will sit with our hands on our butts for the next month to see if all your anger subsides, this way we can pretend we're listening without actually having to make changes"

"task force" is a weird way to spell trash bin

@CharlieGirl I agree with you personally, but they have all the data to look at. I don’t know anyone who likes the changes, but again, looking at true usage/spend data is more accurate.

@CharlieGirl came back to say you were right. Glad they brought the distant stops back.