We are addressing Ingress devteam and personally Mr. John Hanke!

pinninepinnine ✭✭
edited March 2022 in General

We are the community of players from Belarus and Russia. We declare that we are firmly against the aggression which our governments allowed against Ukraine. We do not support that decision and disprove any necessity of such measures. We ourselves have become victims of circumstance. No matter how much we protest, the governments will not hear us. We are saddened by the terrible events and feel for all the people in the war zone, many of whom are also our friends and relatives. We strive with all our might to help and support them. The most important thing for all of us now is to find peace and restore the strong bond between our peoples. 


For years the world of Ingress has been a safe haven to many of us, one without political aggression or war. The game has united us and made us a wholesome global community where people of different ethnicity, race, religion, age and gender are all equal agents. Ingress helped us support each other and became an outlet in days filled with fear and pain. No more so...


We are against war, we seek peace and we want peaceful skies over everyone's head! 

We ask you not to give in to the general cancel culture hype, and help us maintain a united community without boundaries!


Текст на русском:

Мы – это сообщество игроков из России и Беларуси. Заявляем, что мы категорически против агрессии, которое наши правительства допускают в отношении Украины, мы не поддерживаем это решение и осуждаем происходящее. Мы стали заложниками ситуации и какие бы протесты ни высказывали, правительство нас не слышит и вершит беззаконие. Мы опечалены страшными событиями и глубоко сострадаем членам наших семей, друзьям, знакомым, оказавшимся в зоне боевых действий, и всеми силами стремимся помочь им и поддержать. Сейчас главное для всех нас – обрести мир и восстановить прочную связь между нашими народами. 


В настолько сложное время мир игры Ingress стал для нас спасительным пространством, в котором нет агрессии и разногласий, политики и войны. Игра объединила нас, сделала цельным сообществом, где есть место людям разных национальностей, расы, религии, возраста и гендера. Она помогает нам поддерживать друг друга и становится отдушиной в наполненных страхом и болью днях. 


Мы против войны, мы стремимся к миру и хотим, чтобы спокойное небо было над головой у каждого! 

Мы просим вас не поддаваться общим настроениям и не отменять наше существование!

Post edited by NianticVK on

Comments

  • Так валите на митинг если вы против.

  • hvn04I3hvn04I3 ✭✭✭

    A little correction: the first leader of independent Belarus was Stanislav Shushkevich, for two and a half years. Then Lukashenko came into power. As of 2017 he was still active in politics, heading the Belarusian Social Democratic Assembly party.

  • sophielabsophielab ✭✭✭

    I think they're trying to avoid a boycott of their products. The business news section is running articles about which companies are still doing business in Russia. The making of these lists are the first step to organized boycotts. It may just simply be protecting livelihoods of their employees.

  • hvn04I3hvn04I3 ✭✭✭

    Exactly. But NIA should have done better than this.

  • hvn04I3hvn04I3 ✭✭✭

    Yes, Tsikhanouskaya is the rightful president of Belarus. Lukashenko is just an usurper. He held onto his power because he would be dead if he didn't.

  • KonnTowerKonnTower ✭✭✭✭✭

    A slight inconvenience to the population of a country is a great way for them to stop their normal routine and take stock of what their government is doing.

    Want your game back? Participate in your civic process to ask your government to stop. The alternative is to make your own game that is in your own country, that isn't tied to the United States.


    Good luck, I hope things get better over there. <3

  • Ingress doesn't feed you. Ingress doesn't clothe you. Ingress doesn't pay you.

    It's an inconvenience, not a necessity. If you can't live without Ingress for the time being, then maybe there's other issues at hand. As mentioned above when you say:

    necessary to deal directly with the source of the problem

    the method the world has chosen is united economic sanctions because the alternative involves vast amounts of flying lead and nuclear explosions. Would you prefer that tanks roll down Tverskaya Street with a different flag than yours? Because this is what economic sanctions hope to avoid.

  • uriy55RUSuriy55RUS ✭✭
    edited March 2022

    I understand this perfectly well and the introduction of many sanctions has been accepted, but it is not clear to me how the shutdown of games can affect the decision of the main thing if at the moment they cannot do the economic sanctions that are written above? Well, let's say people go to a rally, they will be twisted and soldered in the best case a large fine, and at worst they will be put in jail except for a fine... It should also be taken into account that there are a lot of schoolchildren and students in them (especially in Pokemon), a lot of what can they do? Will they go to the rally with a high risk of being expelled for this? I will repeat once again, sanctions should be introduced, but they should be introduced so that, first of all, the top of the government suffers, and not the ordinary population of which was not even asked. And also, why do the players in Ukraine, who are being shelled by the Russians, go and play calmly and also throw links to the territory of the aggressor?

  • edited March 2022

    An avalanche starts with a pebble.

    The primary reason for this and all the others like Nike closing their stores, and McDonalds leaving, is that despite what you may think, Pokemon Go made quite a bit of money in Russia according to the stats websites. Niantic is showing unity in their own small part of the collective whole. This isn't "Niantic is going to change the world". It's "Niantic is part of a community that is saying 'No' to Putin". Every little bit of economic pressure is more pressure on him to reverse course. Eventually something has to get through. No-one is expecting regime change from the outside, but at some point the government of Russia has to say "we cannot afford to continue this".

    And outside of Russia, the prevailing belief is that a people united cannot be defeated. Democracy will win eventually, even if the US is doing a miserable job itself.

    To point to a more localised example, Lenin was a barrister's assistant before he changed your country. For good or ill, change starts small and grows.

  •  But Niantic is not a business with a local presence, it earns money from players, but doesn’t put anything in the government. So banning players in Russia has zero economical impact, it’s literally just punishing people.

    All Google Pay businesses pay local taxes where appropriate, when using local currency. Niantic was paying plenty of taxes to the Russian government.

    You won’t find any admirers of Soviet Union in here.

    Like I said, for good or ill. The point was that while you may not be the person that starts a revolution, the only way systemic change happens is when the people refuse to let a ruling class continue.

    I'd prefer to see Putin withdraw immediately, but these economic measures, as mentioned above, are the lesser of two evils. Tanks are the greater of the two evils.

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭

    I hate to hear that in times of war a lot of people care more about some company shutting down their favorite game, but they don't care that their brothers and sisters die in the war. And most importantly, these same people do not want to influence the situation and stop the war. Dear administration, we ask you on behalf of the people of Ukraine to stop this hypocrisy.

  • XK150XK150 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2022

    I'm fascinated that people living in authoritarian kleptocracies think a polite or angry letter to a corporation will change that corporation's plans. Is this what Russians think America is like? It's not.

    Let me explain it to you: You only change a capitalist corporation's plans by exercising economic leverage -- you have to convince them you're going to increase or decreae the amount of money they make. There are basically 5 ways for an outside group to influence an corporation:

    1. Threaten to spend less money when they do the wrong thing (a boycott)
    2. Promise to spend more money when they do the right thing (a reverse boycott)
    3. Convince others to spend less money when the corp does the wrong thing
    4. Convince others to spend more money when the corp does the right thing
    5. Threaten the corporation with legal or government trouble.

    Option 1 doesn't work for you because Niantic already decided they don't want your money. Option 2 doesn't work because you can't spend any money any way with payment processing down. Option 5 won't work because Niantic leaving Russia doesn't violate any country's law outside Russia, and you can't drag Niantic into a Russian court while Niantic is staying out of Russia.

    So, your only options here are to get non-Russian players on your side, convincing them to boycott Ingress until Russians are allowed to play, or convincing them to spend more money when Russians are allowed to play. I believe both of these options are unlikely (given most of the Ingress-playing world is on Ukraine's side), and become even more unlikely when Russian players come to here (and Reddit, and ADA knows where else) to yell at non-Russian players.

    In other words: Shut up, guys. You're hurting your own cause with all this pointless begging and angry complaining.

    Post edited by XK150 on
  • KonnTowerKonnTower ✭✭✭✭✭

    Vote with your feet once you're able to do so. Get out of the place that's so backwards you have no voice. Until then, you have some minor inconveniences to deal with and well, that's something you'll have to live with. Your immediate life is not in danger, many agents can not say the same.

    Best of luck, hopefully peace can come soon and you can rejoin the rest of the civilized world soon.

  • Thanks for the lively discussion on this thread. Based on the content of the discussion, I will be closing it for future comments. I appreciate your understanding.

This discussion has been closed.