They must be really behind numbers.
With all these events going on perpetually, overlapping with each other, it's hard not to think that they are trying to fire all the gunpowder to attract players.
Been playing since the beginning. Reached level 40 a few weeks ago. I can speak for the other veteran players in my area and say that it feels like it was tailor made for the long-time players to shake things up and give us more to do.
By default this can only bring newer players in too.
I don't think its a "desperate" move to attract new players as much as it's just Niantic trying to keep a great game fresh. For new players and old alike.
As a new player it's almost overwhelming I imagine.
You speak for veteran players? How does this keep the game fresh? You think I'm going to invest in another Zapdos? Over 200k stardust and 150 rare candies? No thanks, I'll use Jolteon. MAYBE if investment costs weren't so great, but what does a ts Zapdos do for me in this game that a cb Zapdos can't do? All this crap does is makes me wonder why I played 2 years ago and didn't start a month ago.
You want to keep the game fresh? How about a gym system worth while? What are my goals, solo Jolteon? This game has nothing to offer to high level solo players.
No.. this is the way the game is supposed to be. They are making more money now than ever. As long as they keep up the new features, the events, and raids, they can keep printing money.
I remember the old days of just trying to find a dratini or enough Magikarp to evolve my first gyarados... now that seems boring to the things we can do today. Now we have so many daily things to do. Everyday I try to get a raid in, spin a few stops for research, spin a gold gym for my first spin to get items and a raid pass, do a few research tasks, battle a few gyms so I get my coins. And we have so my shiny versions now it’s fun to try to catch starters.
I think they actually are doing things right. Now if they can just permanently ban all spoofers so that’s not an issue and work on other features in the game.
Personally I'd like them to address optimization issues, bugs, and introduce PvP battling before tackling spoofers for good. Hell, spoofers don't bother me at all unless they're being dicks about it (bragging about spoofed gains, gym sniping, etc).
The game has definitely come a long way since launch, majority of it being for the better.
In the old days there was excitement in finding a dratini. Now we're showered with so much of everything that it's hard to feel anything about most of it. I can pretty much count the number of wild spawns that excited me within the last 3 months with my fingers.
I think they're doing a lot of things right as well, but not everything is better. The constant stream of events and this new development of even more 3h mini-events are worrying, the gym system still sucks, the meta is shallow and we have almost no meaningful way to compete against other players in game.
People who say this sort of thing don't realize that Pokemon Go is one of the highest rated mobile games. They pretty much set up a money printing station with the introduction of raids. Since then repeated boxes and events have likely managed to get them some coin from people who would likely never spend money on the game to begin with.
If this is about the 3 hour raid windows for the birds, at most that could help pick up slumped raid pass sales since Regice isn't really all that. Either way Niantic isn't hurting.
No, this just makes sense, its summer, kids/teenagers and theif families, the largest part of the community are free during summer, if this was happening say during school or winter when people dont have the time to or dont want to go out, they'd complain
that, and with gen IV pon the horizon, this is the last real chance for the birds, an most other pokemon, to really shine, as well as giving players the chance to get them, one complaint people have about things like regice and the lati's are that it went on for
SO. DANG. LONG, a month of each where people got 15 or so from raiding on weeks ends and odd oppurinuties to, now they can get all of them done in one after noon
There is a huge convo about this on other sites. However, we also need to appreciate that those of us with 400 to 1000 legendary raid victories had (and continue to have) a bigger advantage over smaller places than TS’s advantage over CB.
It isn’t just catering to newer players, it is catering to players in small communities that may be just getting afoot. Those with powered Zapdos going on and on about Niantic forsaking us might be ok to keep Niantic on our side, especially since those smaller places never got one thought since the game started.
Plus, 100% of us knew powering up your 2nd, 3rd or 4th Raikou was a better idea than powering your top Zapdos. I did two Raikou (3328 and 3060) and 1 Zapdos (3103), I fully knew which was better and which would remain better...
Sure when they do this for some other stuff, then...?
When they introduce origin pulse and precipice blade this way, there will be a huge backlash from the community. Pretty much no point in powering up and grinding for high iv until an exclusive move comes along. At least for CD you can plan ahead and save high iv Mons unevolved. Here you're just screwed.
I say bring it on. I've powered up one Kyogre (near max, will likely max it out when I build up dust supplies again) and two Groudon (one SB, one EQ, both early 30's), and I regret nothing using them. The only things to fully eclipse HP Kyogre are the starter Megas with Hydro Cannon and OP P-Kyogre. EQ Groudon likely won't be passed up by anything other than itself with PB. SB Groudon already tangles with grass types as is.
Maxing out 6 of any given legendary is already a pretty big gamble before factoring in buffed up re-releases.
Screwed? Because you powered up a mon that is now second best instead of being best? Veteran players surely still have on average more resources than new players. But for the sake of example, let's take one veteran player and one new player and suppose they have equivalent ressources because they play the same way today and it's easier to gather them now than before, especially stardust. When a new pokemon comes out or a new move is given to a pokemon that makes it number 1 in its role, both player have the same ability to power it up. To follow your example, both the veteran and the new player would be able to catch and power up a precipice blades Groudon for example. So the Veteran player's ground squad is composed of, say, one precipice blades Groudon, two earthquake Groudons and 4 earthquake Rhydons. The new player has one precipice blades Groudon, let's say to be nice he somehow managed to gather 5 earthquake Rhydons through raids (and if not lets put earthquake Golems instead). In the end, who has the best ground squad?
The only case where the new player can get to the same strength than the veteran is when both have 6 maxed precipice blades Groudons. How likely is that? And even then, worst case scenario they are both equal.
The new player will NEVER take the edge over the veteran if they play the same way. Never. What we veterans powered up before newcomers come to play, we will ALWAYS have that over them. In the end, having the better team is only a matter of how much time (and eventually money) you invest in playing the game, whether you're new or veteran.
