Pokemon Go community pleads Niantic to change “anti-consumer” features

Some Pokemon Go fans are not happy with the current state of the game. A viral post online had users begging Niantic to fix the mobile title which they argued had become “anti-consumer.”

Pokemon Go exploded into a cultural phenomena when it made its viral debut in 2016.  The mobile game had players around the world venturing outside their homes to catch their favorite ‘mon in real life.

Four years on, it’s still as popular as its ever been. Some fans, however, are growing increasingly frustrated with the game’s features and are now begging developer Niantic to fix what they call a “pay-to-win” experience.

Pokemon Go fans slam features as “anti-consumer”

Over the years, Niantic has added several new features to Pokemon Go such as Research, and online raids. However since 2020, the community has become more and more vocal about changes they have not been a fan of. All of this accumulated on April 15 when a viral thread on the r/TheSilphRoad forum claimed the mobile title’s current state has become “pay-to-win.”

“Pokémon GO has become incredibly Pay to Win and Anti-Consumer over these past few years,” user ‘GabeBit08’ exclaimed before going into detail. “GO transitioned from a fun game with a few flaws, to being a buggy, loot box filled mess. Every feature implemented breaks another, the Shiny Deino and Flower Crown Happiny situation, Mega Evolutions and many more things have ruined this game for so many people.”

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The passionate fan then hit out at the game for losing many pro-consumer features. “Now, in 2021, the footprint system is gone. There is barely any spawn variety. Rare Pokémon are locked behind Eggs, Raids, and difficult to find or complete field research tasks. Shiny Pokémon are featured in one event and then locked away for a year or being turned of by mistake. There are bugs everywhere. People are being unfairly banned. This game has become a mess,” the user wrote.

GabeBit08’s passionate plea resonated with many fellow Go Trainers who also felt similarly. “Yeah loot boxes (a.k.a Eggs) are crazy right now and possibly they are one of the less fun things in the game. I completely stopped buying incubators, in fact I actually stopped playing this year” a player replied.

Another exclaimed, “I stopped playing quite awhile ago basically because of this. The whole like “hey there’s this special research event, but hey, gotta pay for it!”

Interestingly, despite Go’s player numbers being down in 2020, it was the game’s most profitable year which one could argue is due to the increase in paid ticket events. This isn’t the first time the community has complained about Niantic’s practices either. In December 2020, fans were furious over Galarian Mr. Mime’s debut being locked behind a $7.99 research. During the Easter 2021 event, a flood of users were upset over Happiny’s low hatch rate, leading many to compare the Egg system to “loot boxes.”

To top it all off, the mobile title has had a rough week. The latest update which dropped in April 2021 caused several prominent features to break. From maps disappearing to Team Rocket encounters freezing the screen, the new patch has had serious issues. Problems became so bad, the villainous group had to be removed from the game completely without any update in sight as to when they might return.

• Read More: Go players wrongfully banned for “cheating”

Regardless if you agree with the problems outlined in the viral post, its clear many players are not happy with certain elements of the game. Only time will tell if Niantic will listen and make changes.