EX raid on Christmas cancelled.... anyone else?
I just found out on Discord that the EX raid at a sponsored gym was cancelled ... notification consisted of it just disappearing (and beIng replaced with 2 premium passes... who cares). WTF?! The guy who posted it still has a pass on the same day at a park. Why not reschedule for another day for everyone?
Has this happened to others? Who came up with Christmas day in the first place? This is just beyond stupid. The system is seriously flawed.... does anyone have a link to the petition? And they'll get a blistering complaint. And yes, the sponsor has seen the last of me and I wouldn't switch to them if they were the last cell company on earth.
Answers
I agree with previous that it's not on the sponsor but is 100% on Niantic. I called them out in another thread last week for sending EX raid invitations to people for a location within a mall that we all know is closed on Christmas day. We knew that there was no way -- outside of scaling the building and getting on the roof -- that no legitimate player would be able to participate on that day. Why this fact didn't occur to Niantic is beyond me.
Can they possibly be so daft as to not realize how angry this whole EX system is making its most loyal players?
I guarantee you that the raid was on Christmas because the last few weeks had been Mondays and no one at Niantic had the foresight to change the code for creating EX raids. They're really dumb. It would be amazingly stupid, even for them, to do the next round on New Year's Day, another major holiday, just because it's on a Monday and their algorithm is creating raids on Mondays now, but I wouldn't put it past them.
I've heard that Sprint raids were all cancelled but Starbucks and non-sponsored locations are still live, although who knows if that will remain true come Monday. The two premium pass compensation deal was something that they mentioned in their original announcement about the EX raids going live, but that doesn't make it a good solution. Hopefully there will be enough outrage from this that Niantic will rethink their system...but I don't hold out much hope at this point.
I think you are overreacting a bit. When Niantic gave an update on EX raids in November...
https://pokemongolive.com/en/post/novdevupdate-raids
...they did mention the possibility that EX raids could be cancelled, and that players would receive stardust and premium raid passes as compensation.
I realize this is a big disappointment, but try to keep it in perspective. You will get another EX raid opportunity, and Niantic will continue to work out the bugs in the EX system. Do what you need to do, but personally, I would rather have them continue to try to improve EX raids, rather than scrap them altogether, which is what the petition calls for.
I can understand the frustration, but it's just a game, and not something any sane person should be getting so bitterly angry about.
Is it safe to assume that you have one or more Mewtwo? Some of us will never get another chance because we now "had our turn". It's easy to say something is not a big deal if it hasn't happened to you.
Overreacting? It's the principle.
P.S. Sane? What is that supposed to mean (I know the definition).
Your speculation that you will never get another chance because you "had your turn" has no basis. You are just assuming that. Maybe you will be moved to the front of the line, or maybe you will go back into the same pool as everyone else. Certainly, there have been a lot of people who got EX passes multiple weeks in a row. In any case, if you keep playing the way you have, I suspect you will get another pass within the next several weeks.
I'm not saying it isn't a big deal, but the level of anger and bitterness in your comments is way out of proportion to the seriousness of the matter. I'm not sure what "principle" you are referring to; Niantic stated ahead of time that EX raids might be cancelled, and unfortunately, that happened to you and others this time.
Since I try to read the Niantic updates, when I received an EX pass a few weeks ago, I was aware of the possibility that it could be cancelled. They were very clear about that. I hoped mine wouldn't be cancelled, but if it had been, I would have been mildly disappointed, and then I would have moved on and waited for the next one.
"Sane" was a poor choice of words on my part. "Reasonable" would have more accurately reflected what I intended to say.
If having a Mewtwo invalidates my opinion on the subject, than not having one invalidates the opinion of everyone who doesn't. Before I ever got an EX pass, I said several times in this Q&A forum that I preferred to wait patiently for my EX opportunity rather than have Mewtwo be overly common.
I'm hardly alone after reading comments on Reddit. And it's easy for the haves to disregard the disappointment of the have-nots. But I can relate.... when I had the pass I also thought it was an O.K. system and didn't understand why players wanted it abolished.
Maybe some good will come out of this. I won't stop playing because the exercise incentive still exists, but probably not as much. And I'm much less likely now to spend $ on the game. Gift boxes won't tempt me now - the free raid passes are enough. 4.5 million XP to 40.... I'll get there eventually, even without lucky eggs.
