We are addressing Ingress devteam and personally Mr. John Hanke!
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!
Comments
This restriction will not help the people of Ukraine.
I propose to issue a paid medal in support of the Ukrainians. And send money to help the victims. This will be useful
Так валите на митинг если вы против.
А сам чего не пошел Родину защищать, а в Молдову в Кишинев сбежал? Еще 26го февраля, как только жареным запахло...
Уже сколько раз выходили на митинги во многих городах и какой итог имеем? Много задержали, выдали повестку в суд где впаяют штраф в несколько десятков тысяч рублей и все, плевать они хотели на нас и свой народ! Вспомни какие массовые митинги были до этого что в России что в Беларуси, много что изменилось? Все подавили под чистую! Не просто так товарищи из кремля из года в год повышают финансирование правоохранительных органов...
И да, а ты сам хоть раз вышел на митинг? Хотя бы просто без всяких плакатов и лозунгов? Или ты только в интернете можешь быть героем? Вон, выйди, например, к кремлю на одиночный митинг а я посмотрю как долго ты там простоишь и что после с тобой будет...
Let's all stay human, please.
How about nobody will inflame others to k i l l or get killed in this thread, which intent was supporting peace and opposing war? How about listening to each other and being polite, as we are a community of grown up people united by the same cause? Well, at least we used to be.
The capitalist company Nyantik, supporting the political position of certain countries, decided to influence the political situation in Belarus and Russia through the community of players. Can this be considered an intervention and an attempt to change power through the terror of the civilian population?Now it all looks like an infringement of people by nationality. Prior to that, in some countries, the rights and freedoms of ****, Asians, and Germans were infringed. Are you on the right path?
Can this be considered an intervention and an attempt to change power through the terror of the civilian population?
Yes, losing access to a mobile game because your country's government is currently shelling hospitals is truly terrifying.
Also, comparing sanctions on a country that is openly attacking civilian targets is a long way from racism or oppression. They can't change their ethnicity, your country can change it's actions.
Do you honestly believe people will come risk their lives because of a mobile app or a hamburger?
Do you understand what a totalitarian regime is? We do. I'm old enough, I've lived in the USSR. It's tougher now. You want us to get killed and jailed, who will take care of our kids? Other countries, who just turned their backs on all Russian people, no matter what they do or believe? You know nothing about any of us, and yet you're quick to judge and hate.
Oh really?! Because Belarus didn’t fight enough against the regime? People were tortured, killed in Belarus because people spoke out. Do you know how long this regime is in power? Have you actually read anything about what’s happening there? It’s easy to judge, I get it. But as an ambassador I would say you should know your crowd. Lukashenko is in power for 28 years. Some Ingress players never knew different power. And those who knew lived in USSR. He was the first president of the independent Belarus and by the looks of it will be the last one. He’s been building its regime piece by piece over 28 years, with the lessons he learned from the fallen USSR. Anyone who thinks that toppling his regime will take a manifestation, a civilian protest lost this believe in the august of 2020. People were arrested by thousands. People were tortured. People died. I guess the 50 players in Minsk will do a better job than 500 000 people who came out in 2020. Sure, Nia, smart as usual 👌🏼
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.
You can complain that you can't play a video game. My sympathies lie with the people who can't remain in their homes because of constant shelling by your government.
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.
Exactly. But NIA should have done better than this.
3% of the Belarusian population supported the moron in power. Our democratic leader is in exile for the last year and a half. All other presidential candidates are political prisoners in prisons around the country. We’re at more than a thousand of those at this point. You saying “your government” is just so wrong in so many ways.
In other words, I will say that your recent ban of Belarus did not change my stance on this war: I never wanted it, I will keep on donating money to Ukraine, help refugees where I am and keep my work with the democratic forces of Belarus. But it definitely changed my stance on Niantic as a company.
We didn’t elect Lukashenko, not once since 1994. All I can do is remind the world that 97% of my home country didn’t want any of this.
Oh and don’t get me wrong, I’m all for sanctions imposed on the Russian and Belarusian governments. But you gotta realise that the Nia banning Belarus is completely useless and won’t have any impact, except hurting a couple hundred agents in a 10 million country. You’ve had plenty of opportunities to actually do something meaningful, but you just went for the “hype” of it all. Like it was previously said, you could’ve made a paid badge to raise money and awareness, for example, but you went for hurting people who are already hurting and are basically hostages of the current regime and Russian military forces.
Have a nice Kureze!
Note that the guy you are replying to is not Niantic. While he is an "XM Ambassador", that role is held by normal agents, and he is not working for Niantic and doesn't represent the company. You saying "your recent ban" and "you could’ve made" is directed at the wrong person.
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.
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
The rest of the world is going to do everything in their power to stop Russia from destroying Ukraine, ramping up slowly with removal of luxuries and businesses, because the eventual result if this doesn't work, will be bombing Belarus and Russia's military industrial complex, which is likely to result in a nuclear war.
This 'inconvenience' is a far cry from what will happen if things don't turn around. It sucks to be caught in the middle, but the alternative is FAR worse for the people of Russia and Belarus.
A slight inconvenience? And why is it such a "small inconvenience"? And how can a small number of players influence the situation at a time when whole countries cannot do it by imposing sanctions? It doesn't work that way... Here it is necessary to deal directly with the source of the problem and not with a side one. The chance that the situation will change is much higher when those who are really to blame will lose everything they have and come to their senses than ordinary people will lose and go to rallies... And in general, have you read what was written above about this or not? It feels like there isn't...
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.
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?
100% agree
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.
I’m sorry, but this is funny.
The main difference between Niantic and, let’s say McDonald’s, is that McD, while selling it’s products in Russia and earning money was paying taxes to Russian government. Same for all other businesses. But Niantic is not a business with a local presence, it earns money from players, but doesn’t put anything in the local government. So banning players in Russia has zero economical impact, it’s literally just punishing people.
And it seems I have to mention it in a clearer way: Belarus is not Russia, it’s a different country. Banning Belarus is just being extremely cruel for zero gain. Once again, Minsk saw brutal crackdowns on 500.000 crowds, the 50 players who got banned won’t change anything.
Even after everything previously written, you’re telling people about uniting… this is just cruel. Seriously, please, Google “Minsk august 9 2020”. Just look at the pictures and tell Belarusians to assemble once again against this regime.
And please, feel free not to use Lenin to localise an example for us. You won’t find any admirers of Soviet Union in here.
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.
NIA can block only shop and subscription, for taxes or economical case
But they blocked a full game, so: "it’s literally just punishing people"
offtop:
Revolutionares is fanatics, they put their lives for change social borders
I'm not a fanatic and I don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison.
It's very easy to say "go, tell your gov to stop" when you're sitting in a comfortable chair far, far away from the ru police forces...
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.
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:
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.
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.