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It is no secret that Pokemon GO is in its most questionable state at the moment. Following Niantic's stream of anti-consumer practices, the community that the company worked so hard to establish has been quickly leaving the mobile experience, and those who have stayed are pleading with the corporation to reconsider some recent decisions.
The game has received a lot of changes over the last few months, and the player base has taken to various online sites to vent their frustrations. There are some key complaints that keep surfacing, leaving many with the impression the mobile title would be in a better state if these complaints were to be addressed.
So what is the Pokemon GO community saying about the mobile game, and in what ways should Niantic strive to make their game a more enjoyable experience? This article lists five common complaints that players have.
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5 common issues with Pokemon GO and Niantic
1) Buggy experiences
Every game has its fair share of bugs, regardless of quality, and Pokemon GO is no different. Although many of the glitches with the game are typically tied to performance issues or graphical errors, there are some key instances where these bugs lead to gameplay problems.
Most recently, this has led to an issue with the recent GO Battle Ticket that players could purchase for real money. This glitch has prevented players who have forfeited a match or have forcefully disconnected from completing the ticket, depriving them of the rewards they have earned.
2) Selling location data
It is no secret that Niantic develops and releases countless GPS tracking geocache mobile games as a way to farm location data to sell to advertisers. While some players are aware of this when starting their Pokemon GO journey, they may underestimate the extent to which Niantic goes to collect this data.
A lot of the problems that players have with Pokemon GO in its current state stem from how Niantic is trying to increase the amount of location data they collect. This can be seen from the pattern of a majority of their more controversial changes resulting in players needing to leave their houses to participate.
3) No action to prevent cheating and hacking
Cheating is a notorious issue in most online multiplayer games. However, since Pokemon GO's gameplay is tied to locations, it is much easier to cheat compared to other games like Counter-Strike or League of Legends. Players can simply install a VPN and a joystick interface to be in any location at a given time.
This causes issues for those who are playing the game legitimately since a lot of the events and gameplay aspects depend on social and geographical factors. As such, these cheaters who use their cheating tools to change their location can make defending gyms almost impossible. Apart from this, there are also cheats that give trainers maxed-out Pokemon.
4) Grindy/Unfun experiences
Although this is a problem with mobile games in general, Pokemon GO does have some cases in which evolution requirements or item drop rates seem to be implemented for no other purpose aside from inconveniencing players.
Most notably, Wailmer and Larvesta are two creatures that possess whopping 400 candy evolution requirements despite their evolutions being far from the best creatures in the game. The drop rate for evolution items is also astronomically low. Since Niantic is not even monetizing the acquisition of these sorts of items, it seems odd to make them so rare.
5) Greedy company
The biggest complaint of Niantic among Pokemon GO players is that the changes they made have all been in the pursuit of increasing their profits. Most recently, the attention of players has turned to the overarching issue of greed following the recent changes made to remote raiding as a whole.
The implementation of Elite Raids requiring players to attend in person to allow for the collection of location data, as well as the new seemingly pay-to-win Willow's Wardrobe research ticket, has left players wondering just how far Niantic will go to increase their profits.
