I hope my long posts aren't a bother.
. ceo wrote:@Polerberr + @Solarizing, while I agree with you both on certain points, I don't think we should be quite as hard on Niantic. PoGo has been an overwhelming success. So much so that in the first week~ so many people would try and get on that the servers would overload and crash. Heck, it set an app store record for most downloads of an app in the first week. (7.5 million in the US alone) If that's not impressive and overwhelming then I don't know what is. I don't think anyone could have really foreseen such a huge turnout and the problems they might cause. (i.e. server issues)
Until recently I wasnt aware of how small Niantic is. Its not like Nintendo, not even close. Here is the link to their linkedin page where it says that they only have 11-50 employees. 50 employees is most definitely not enough people to support PoGO. They aren't just working on PoGO either, so that adds even more workload. (They're actually hiring, thankfully c;)
I was a bit disappointed with the update myself, (the thicker text did bother me too, such a petty thing though to be bothered by, yet I still am) I think that they are focusing on fixing the smaller issues first, to help improve the app overall. The tracking system is one of the main features, it was causing a lot of problems as it was bugged. So they had to remove the other steps and eventually remove the steps completely. I will reiterate, the tracking system is one of their main features, and I'd like to think they are taking their time with it because a lot is riding on it. They may be trying out several new things or attempting to fix the old system, which will take time. It will make or break for some people, so Im glad its not being rushed. I don't think they are purposefully ignoring the suggestions and what not, I just think they have so much on their plate already that they might not be able to focus on things like that. Or maybe they are listening to the fanbase, but are still working on actually implementing such things.
Anyway, that's just my perspective on the whole thing, but I am frustrated as well. Its just that Pokemon Go is still in its infancy and I don't want to be so quick to dismiss it and Niantic. Lighter note: I really enjoy the new animations, badges, and item images
I get what you're saying, and I have no doubt that Niantic's developers are being overwhelmed. I am more concerned about the higher ups that are in charge of overseeing the whole thing. I don't think that overwhelmed developers excuses the company from having shown no attempt at any basic PR or damage control. Nintendo has given Niantic a large enough budget to be able to hire at least
one competent PR manager who could write tweets and maybe even set up a blog. It's a simple fix to a major problem.
I have doubts that they are open to suggestions from the players because they had this exact same attitude with their Ingress players. They have a sort of "not invented here" syndrome where they don't acknowledge what the players want, rather they push their own ideas onto us and don't really check in on whether or not we like their ideas. I think there is a lot of squandered potential, but we'll see. Hopefully in a few weeks we'll have a shiny new tracking system that works even better than before, and we'll get trading and PvP to make the game more interesting. I heard Gen 2 will be introduced in December, but I haven't looked into the source of this information so for the time being I will consider it a rumor.
P3PP3R_c0rn wrote:At first I thought the transfer button disappeared entirely. ^^"
I'm glad the transfer button is in the menu thing. I don't have to scroll down and accidentally press on power up/evolve button
Not only that, but you don't have to worry about accidentally transferring one of your best Pokemon now because favorited Pokemon are not able to be transferred. You have to unfavorite the Pokemon first. I think that's a nice little safety net.
kleffi. wrote:I, when I first got Pokemon GO, had no idea what PokeVision was. I knew what the steps were and what they did, the two steps to one steps thing, but I did not use them. I tried to find Pokemon by just walking randomly in well populated places where lures were likely to be placed. I really don't understand why people are completely leaving this game because of the update. We can survive (and probably thrive!) without 'cheats' to help us... (not being rude, just my opinion)
People are leaving the game because Niantic made a rather foolish decision of shutting down fan-made tracking maps
before they fixed their own tracking system. Had they shut the fan-made applications after they fixed their own system, considerably less people would be complaining.
I don't consider the maps to be cheats because you don't even have to open the game to use them. It's definitely not the same as using a location spoofer to teleport your avatar to rare Pokemon. That's cheating, in my opinion, but the map is excusable. There is a similar map for Ingress which Niantic has not shut down. If anything the map made the game so much more fun and immersive for me. I am the kind of person that does not like to run or build up too much of a sweat. When I used PokeVision there were moments that got me sprinting in a race against the clock to get a rare Pokemon that was about to despawn. It felt really rewarding when I got there just in time to catch the Pokemon, totally out of breath.
Personally, I would love to see a tracking system that when you select a Pokemon from the nearby list, it shows you a timer, an arrow, and the distance in meters. This could all be handled client-side so that the servers don't get overloaded. You don't get to see the precise location on the map, which does add a challenge. I know this from my experience with Geocaching. Often, just following the arrow will lead you to dead ends, so you still need to search, explore, and use your brain rather than mindlessly follow an arrow.
The reason for giving the time and distance in meters is so that you can realistically see whether or not you can go for a Pokemon. 200 meters away, but despawning in 10 seconds? That's not going to happen, so why waste the time when you could be going for a different Pokemon? The arrow is less important since you can judge whether or not you are going in the right direction by keeping an eye on the distance from the Pokemon. If it's going down then obviously you are getting closer. However, in a situation where you have only seconds to spare to catch a Pokemon, it does waste time running in the wrong direction first, which means you could miss out on the Pokemon.
I want to add that this is just my personal preference of how I would like the play the game, and though it works for me, I know other people might be looking for a different sort of gameplay. If Niantic really wants to stick with the whole "we want you to explore" thing, then maybe they should increase the spawn times considerably and perhaps make it so that if a user selects a Pokemon on the nearby list, it does not despawn for them until they have found it.
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