Today marks one year since Niantic made one of their most callous and tyrannical decisions: to nuke remote raids into oblivion. So let's talk about it, since it's a topic I bring about so rarely otherwise 🥰 The types of players negatively impacted by this change include (but is surely not limited to): 1. Rural players 2. Disabled players 3. Players who enjoy raiding with their friends around the world for fun 4. Players who may just have other obligations during the time frame of raid-themed events 5. Players who don't feel comfortable, or otherwise simply don't want to, hang out with strangers 6. Players who are literally outside playing, trying to grind the dreaded "win a raid" event task, when there are no raids around that they want to do. And yet, when we bring up how detrimental this change has been to the gaming experience of all sorts of players, we are always met with the ever so insightful responses from Niantic defenders: "Play another game." "No one's forcing you to play." "Complaining about a game while continuing to play it, invalidates your opinion." "Quit then." In nearly any other situation, I would completely agree. If a game is no longer bringing you the same joy it once did, why continue to play it? I mean, there are endless games on the market for each type of medium, even within a specific genre you might like. HOWEVER. Pogo is different. There is not a single mobile gaming app on the market that comes close to competing with the experience of this one. I mean seriously, what other game allows you to play on the way to work, motivates you to explore your city, has fun events you might want to participate in with friends (or enjoy alone!), and even has cool features to engage with from home? And EVEN IF you can think of something like this from a different company, you'll never find one that's POKEMON centered. Because let's make one thing crystal fucking clear: It is not Niantic's tech that keeps us around. Frankly, Niantic's tech is the worst part about pogo. It's the IP itself, the ability to CATCH POKEMON wherever we are at any time. Like, that's simply - pardon my french - dope as hell. And this is evidenced by all of Niantic's failed gaming ventures over the years. Niantic's hold on the absolute gold mine that is pogo - and the ruthless, selfish, and inconsiderate business practices they employ in running it - serves as a fascinating [and cautionary] case study on why monopolies fucking suck and how they hurt consumers. I would personally LOVE to have an alternate option for living out my childhood dreams of becoming the very best like no one ever was, created by a company that actually cares about the GAME itself rather than some vision that causes them to make misguided and awful decisions that HURT their players. I would love to drop pogo and STILL be able to catch pokemon at work, spend Sundays in the city with my husband for hours hunting shinies, and raid legendaries with my global community til I'm blue in the face. But alas, this experience doesn't EXIST outside of pogo. And it's this lack of competition that gives them no incentive to listen to their playerbase, allowing them to run their game with little regard - or even complete disdain - for their own consumers. As someone who doesn't have any gaming consoles at home and whose other hobbies include coloring and watching unreasonably long YouTube documentaries about literally anything, it is amazing to have something in my life that doesn't keep me sitting home all the time. A "healthy" hobby, if you will. So yes, I will continue to play pogo. And yes, I will continue to speak up when Niantic disrespects their players. Two things can be true and valid at once. In conclusion, pogo is a phenomenal game, Niantic is a shit company, and monopolies suck.
@theverybest5000 How much time and thoughts you put into this?
@theverybest5000 Don't forget the people you have met because of the game. I love the people. I will stay in the game as long as my friends do, but I sill hate remote raid limit, no AR and this new avatar looks so bad.
I see it like a toxic romantic relationship. Of course we love Pokemon, but these horrible decisions like nerfing remote raids hurt so much and I hate those decisions with all my heart. So when do you call it quits ? And then… what could you replace this game with?? You can’t get an experience like this anywhere else. So if you want to replace this hobby with something else, that something will be very different and you have to either make your peace with that or stay. If I had something else that I liked as much and that worked for me as well as this does, then yeah I’d have left ages ago. I try not to talk about this often because it’s so soul crushing to me, but in my opinion this is the reality of life as an avid pogo player. I still have hope, I want this to work, but I’m also jaded as fuck
@theverybest5000 To be honest I had stopped raiding as much before the pricing change. Even in the old pricing I thought i was spending too much on raids so I had self regulated to the point where, when the change happened it didn't affect me that much. Tbc....
@theverybest5000 Well written. Due to health reasons I have a lot mobility issues that last couple of years. Niantic changed things & made it harder for people like me to enjoy it as much as I did before. It’s only meant for a certain group. I just putter through what I can now. Sucks
@theverybest5000 Not to mention, remotes allow you to play even more than you normally would. During events like yours and go fests, after playing and raiding all day, you should be able to do even more Raids, especially if you want to focus in catching during the events.
@theverybest5000 PoGo could be so much more and so much more enjoyable but all niantic does lately is taking the joy of the game. I have barely seen a game with so much wasted potential
@theverybest5000 Hail Hail...grandma has spoken. I couldn't agree more. It was in distance passed that we were able to decide how we want to play the game. Now Niantic tries to force us to play on their terms. Niantic has no rite to ask us to walk away because we have invested so much. 🤨
@theverybest5000 100% in line with all your words. Well said. 👍
@theverybest5000 I stopped playing pogo bar the odd events and just play the main series games. I caught shiny arceus at work in bdsp 😂. Once you stop playing pogo it's hard to pick it up again. It's also nice not ignoring everyone whilst playing on your phone 😂