Open letter to agents of both factions
I am a gamer. My attitude to the game is simple - It should fascinate me. But not only me but also many others have not been fascinated by Ingress for a long time, we see problems in the game, we see a bunch of bugs, we observe a primitive implementation of certain game mechanics and some aspects of the game. Ingress Prime was supposed to become a "sandbox" of a new generation, a role-playing game with an unprecedented realization of the role of a secret agent of some secret organization. But this is not there, it is simply not there. Because of this, many players are simply disappointed, and some, like me, even criticize this game and its developers. Yes! Some players say statements in an overly harsh style like "crooked developers unable to fix comms". But all this is because many players sincerely wonder how it is possible to spoil the once successful product, which was interesting to play and which showed great potential!
And many people have a question, why then waste time and energy and even money on the game?
But to hell with that, I was once so passionate about the game that I would even gladly pay for a prime. But as a result, I got a certain "car in which everything inside rushes, rumbles, the door periodically falls off and the lisping autopilot (trying with all its might to imitate Caruso or Pavarotti) constantly strives to crash into another lamp post".
Many players even paid for this "car" by purchasing a subscription. And when they come to the developer and ask why, instead of going straight, my car goes in zigzags? In response, utter silence is heard. Or one unfortunate developer makes excuses for the whole company - in the style that it is so difficult to fix the comm, and we have such a small company ...
The buyer sees the result and evaluates the result.
We do not see the amount of work that was invested in the game, And personally, in my opinion, the buyer of the product should not be sympathetic to a buggy game, just because the developers wanted something to do, but "they somehow broke off." Because they pulled themselves up, wanted to lift something, but instead something poured out. And the developer says no, well, I did something, to which the player replies that you did it absolutely wrong and it smells bad. And in response from the company - we are sorry, but we are tried.
Uhhhhh... Well, no, what you tried is definitely great, this is also not the easiest process for some people. But a person, an ordinary user of the game, sees the result. He pays money for the result. Not for the amount of work done, not for the beautiful ambitions that the developers talk about, I repeat, he pays money for the result,or for the game. And if the result of the players is not satisfied, then he has every right to tell about it. And excuses in the "well, we wanted" style are not interesting to anyone.
Earlier, in the past it was better, correct me if I'm wrong:
1. We had an interesting plot
2. We had a more or less clear and understandable ideology of the factions.
3. We had a more stable client who worked on a weaker Internet even in the most remote villages.
4. The main functionality of the game worked much more stable than it is now.
5. The dialogue in the scanner was consistent with the plot and the glyphs were tied to the faction's ideas.
6. In Andrew's time, we had a dialogue with the company. The new community manager and the company as a whole are deaf and blind to what is happening on the forum and in the game itself.
7. Thanks to the correct approach to the game, there were more players and the game lived on.
And now Nia are rolling out two low-poly drone models instead of one (which a professional designer can do in half a day's work) and pass it off as a great achievement, and all this happens against the background of a non-working comm and subscription for some players. Or a capsule in which you can create from 4 shields one, but more powerful one... But when users ask to make a capsule for media files, there is again excellent silence in response.
What are the comrades going to do? Maybe let's arrange a boycott in a coordinated way? Let's stop playing together and financially support the company in every possible way for such unworthy behavior? Or maybe someone has other ideas on how we can return the game to its former, more revitalized state?
Comments
Someone called 'car'?
Jokes aside, let me say the hard fact first: someone is still satisfied with the game, while some(maybe most?) are not. Just..don't pay, and leave if Ingress is not up to standards. For those, like me, who still see rooms for improvement and can wait, will stay.
But frankly speaking, This is not the first, nor will be the last thread that discusses problems in the game. We already have one big thread largely ignored (except that we did get one answer), and before that is over here is one more. That is worrisome.
1. We had an interesting plot
Well, define "interesting", but yes, we had a plot, at least. There are not a lot of people that actually follow the story, but for the ones that do, the current investigation drought is harrowing.
2. We had a more or less clear and understandable ideology of the factions.
This was made pretty clear at the end of the Tesselation, in my opinion. The big bad aliens are gone, so it's back to the basics: The Enlightened want to harness and use the power of XM, while the Resistance doesn't want to be controlled by it. Pretty cut and dry and basically the same ideology we got at the start of the game.
3. We had a more stable client who worked on a weaker Internet even in the most remote villages.
True, although Prime is lenghts better then it was at launch.
4. The main functionality of the game worked much more stable than it is now.
Redacted also had tons of bugs and crashed fairly often, we just learned to adapt to it. I can play Prime quite stable currently. Yes, sure, it has it's moments, but so did Redacted.
5. The dialogue in the scanner was consistent with the plot and the glyphs were tied to the faction's ideas.
The glyphs are and have always been shown to both factions. Unless I missunderstand what you mean with "tied to the faction's ideas", glyphs now are the same as they were in the past, there are just more of them.
6. In Andrew's time, we had a dialogue with the company. The new community manager and the company as a whole are deaf and blind to what is happening on the forum and in the game itself.
This is total bull. Aside from the fact that Thia is still fairly new, she has already established that she goes above and beyond for player issues and feedback. See the deletion of the 6th Locker for example, which she managed all by herself, as far as I can tell. She took a look at finally updating the forum for a bit (dark mode, signatures etc.) and has proactively reached out to agents here on the forum regarding missions for last months Second Sunday, for example. She also informed us of the Maintenances a while back, which would have been run announced without her, 100%. As much as I love Andrew, I don't believe he was the power house he was when he left Niantic when he first started either. I'm not sure what is expected from her, but I think she is doing a pretty good job.
7. Thanks to the correct approach to the game, there were more players and the game lived on.
Define "Correct approach".
I think these posts need to continue, but I wouldn't plan on ever getting any sort of response from Niantic.
They've shown their cards, by not showing them at all. Supposedly they read the forums, supposedly they read the 1* reviews I've left, but to actually communicate with them isn't on the table. And I say that regardless if the communication is critical or productive. They've got their XMA crew, so anything posted outside of those forums I have to assume isn't as valuable. No idea if there is conversation happening in that forum either. But I'm growing bored of talking to a wall and hoping that my excitement about a new feature will generate any sort of communication, because it doesn't.
If the game isn't working for you then why complain about it? Just stop playing. Most have already quit. The game always had bugs but there used to be enough active players that we all just pushed through it and kept playing. Now the biggest problem is the lack of players. There's simply nobody left. The interest is gone. The game could work perfect and they wouldn't come back. I'm actually surprised they haven't taken it down. But I believe that day is coming soon.
Aside from the fact that Thia is still fairly new, she has already established that she goes above and beyond for player issues and feedback.
Had a good laugh, thanks.
Opening own topics and answering in them ONLY, not responding to pings from anywhere outside of Niantic topics and Report a Bug section, is definitely going above and beyond. /sarcasm
When they start answering difficult questions and get outside of their self-created warm and cozy topics into hardcore General section, THAT would be going above and beyond. Or actually would it? Isn't that THE job of a community manager? But that currently isn't happening. The current community manager plays the role of the support crew, not "community managing".
It's time for us to act. Because the company doesn't hear us. I propose to arrange a flash mob and stop playing for 1 month. Who wants to join? Maybe by dropping the number of players in the game, we will achieve that we will be treated like customers.
"1. We had an interesting plot"
lol. okay.
There's a plot?
Yes, we had.
Ok. My two cents, again.
The game. I would argue the scanner is still less stable than the most stable redacted versions, easily. I have to restart often, portals don't load, comm is still not working correctly. (Its better, but still buggy).
It's certainly playable though, and I continue to play.
Story, I never gave much of a hoot for. Factional ideology could be made clearer though.
Community and communication, was bad during Redacted era, is much worse now. I rarely check the forums now.
XMAs and new community manager appear to have no positive addition to the situation other than an extra person doing support job tasks for the CM side of things.
Vanguards overlooked here, some FANTASTIC behind the scenes work from them.
Anyway I doubt anyone from Niantic will comment on this thread in a meaningful way.
In the end, it's up to each player what they do.
Sometimes it seems to me that dislikes for certain comments are regulated by "someone from above". And this is done with the aim of forming a mass opinion on this resource. Otherwise, why would it be necessary to hide who exactly put the dislike? The homeland must know its heroes.
Disagree button doesnt affect to our score, increases hate and as you said sometimes seems done by a troll.
When pressing like and insightfull, you must be sure and adds points to the owner of the comment. by pressing disagree it's dirty the comment and it's owner, shows you are disagree with the comment or with the discussion or with the agent or how is going your day.. we dont really know.
Your comment has one like more as i think its aim is forming a mass opinion but i dont think nobody must know who pressed insightful, disagree and like.
Stolen from Reddit.
I mean, there are ways to see who hit the disagree button. But I have to admit, asking people to stop playing for a month is pretty easy to disagree with, among some of your other points.
So do you really think there would be a game to return to after the 1 month boycott that you´re trying to drum up?
No, but I know for sure that someone can get caught up in the drop in player activity and sales, and a normal dialogue will begin with us.
By the way, why hasn't the company still thought of selling disagreeing button clicks for real money?