Niantic really did it
The same guy who said the save your candies weeks ago was interviewed by a site or something and said a lot of shit. He first said that all the save your candy crap was just a tip for starters and was misunderstood by us, wtf, but it is not the worse. He also did the same old shit that everyone on niantic does, he say a lot without telling anything at all, not a date for an event, not a thing about legendaries, nothing. The only important thing he said the entire interview was that niantic people don't even look at sites like reddit or gp or thesilphroad because the community is too toxic, like there is a community that is not toxic. And because he and others in niantic are "human" and can't take all the shit people say in pogo chats they simply don't look at pogo community anymore, they just pretend we don't exist and keep updating the game every 2 weeks without saying anything. Why the hell would someone important from niantic even say this amount of shit?
Answers
The community is great-full when Niantic does something good. The reason the community can be so toxic is they have made some horrible decisions and their approach seems to be drastic changes, followed by back-tracking to fix it. It's like they don't even test things out before they do them. The best example of this is the gym change back in November. They made gyms TWICE as easy to take down and TWICE as hard to prestige. That was a change that caused me to quit for 2 months. The community isn't a bunch of internet trolls, Niantic has just made some really bone-head decisions.
Instead of looking at GamePress, Silph Road, and Reddit as FREE channels to conduct FREE market research and obtain FREE product feedback, Niantic staffs choose to call them "toxic" for the fear of getting their feelings hurt?
What a bunch of weak mental midgets.
What the fuck happened to "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me"?
How do you ensure the longevity of your product if you choose to ignore feedback from people who use and PAY for your shit?
Sorry, this is a rant.
They just have a dogmatic way of thinking. They think that just because they came up with something that made millions, they know everything. The reality is that Pokemon has been a money maker for over a decade, so them making money isn't really a surprise. I mean I could do better...if I were the CEO, I would ask "How often do you think we could have a double candy event that would cause people to run 9 incubators? Once a month? Do it!" Do that to death until people stop buying incubators...that's the only thing I ever spend money on...
Niantic as a company and I assume it starts with the CEO are horrible communicators. Give me a company that can earn millions and I develop skin thick enough to take criticism, trust me. They should learn some lessons from Supercell, a more successful company, that does an excellent job of interacting with their fan base and I'm sure they have to suck it up and put up with some rude and unreasonable "toxic" feedback, but guess what. It's probably worth it to them. Nitendo and the Pokemon Company have given Niantic a huge gift. If note for the Pokemon characters and brand no one would make an effort for this game.
I was about to comment that about communication but you brought it up sooo yeah niantic is bad at that and they wonder why this community can get "toxic". Though it isn't something new for ingress players apparently. Like someone else mentioned they never tell us of changes like they did with gyms, after them taking down tracker sites they went silent about the tracker system in the game and wasn't fixed till November unless you were in San Fransisco, and till now it was cleared up about what "save your candies" meant was nothing more but adivce for newer players.
Yes. Most companies have to SPEND money out of their own pocket to do market research, because customer feedback is just that important to them.
It's impossible to not rub PoGO players the wrong way, when people from Niantic actually say that they tend to stay away from PoGO communities because they are "toxic".
So it is true...they don't give a shit about their players, only the players money.
Some companies pay a firtune to get feedback from their customers...and Niantic aren't even clever enough to take advantage a what can be valuable resources.
If they listened, maybe then their game and app wouldn't be so flawed for so long...in such basic an obvious ways.
I think you are too harsh on this guy. Don't extrapolate him to the whole Niantic :). He is young, inexperienced, 26 or so from his early mention of playing Pokemon green at age of 5 in 1996.
I bet he exaggerated and he continue to read from time to time. And getting info from online community I think should be done by a dedicated team/company that is not emotionally involved in the creation of the game, not by employees reading the message boards. To much personal involvement in that case, high chance of extracting the wrong info.
Also he mentioned that they intend to improve game play not just to dump new pokemons; this I think implies they listen to the community.
I think there are more than 50% chances that the guy on reddit who posted some early info about events is one of this guys roommates :).
My frustration was aimed at Niantic as a company, and not at any individual who is working according to company policy.
You make a great point about the company possibly having dedicated people to look at social media etc and asking the rest of the employees to not read it - and we can only hope this is the case...the players are such a valuable resource, for more than just the funding they provide.
I am not sure how much of the players suggestion or frustrations get through to the company though...or the company is just slow to respond. The 'nearby' issue for players with a single pokestop a long distance away, is one issue that would have been addressed if they listened and responded to the community. When a single pidgey or rat that spawns around 1km away and changes the nearby from 9 mons to 3, should have been fixed long ago...even worse when 2 pidgey a rat and an ekans appear 1km away and the nearby becomes more useless than teeth on a chicken. And the dodge bug. I could list more, but I think we all know what they are (and I am getting side tracked)
Also, some very interesting other points you make there :)
