Niantic Day Was Very Disappointing
Went to the Brisbane, Australia one at Roma St Parklands. Very disappointing, I believe it was Pico (https://www.pico.com/en/) running it, they had no idea what Ingress was and only had PoGo/Pikmin cards on hand.
I'm more than willing to volunteer a few hours, hand out some merch (leftovers can be used for a future First Saturday even), and help new players.
We could even have boosted output on the special Niantic portals for some extra engagement.
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it seems ingress is always leftout :( i dont understand... really sad they didnt even have idea what ingress is.
And Niantic are still wondering about how to attract players/agents? They could have had increased load out from the CD portal, maybe even a new medal for succesful meetups from hacking the CD portal, at least a card or some awareness about Ingress.
I'm on Barcelona's railway Station (orange spot) There's no even any stand here. Only a few portals...
So, **** just happened?
It should not have been that hard to simply print postcards out...
They did. Just for the games they care about.
Typical disappointment from Niantic and the Ingress team. Please include Ingress in these events. I'm sure many XMAs and Vanguards would be willing to help out. Heck, even many normal agents would be happy to volunteer and give handouts. @NianticBrian has talked many times about how Ingress needs new agents, and yet nothing is done with these prime (pardon the pun) opportunities.
I have zero expectation of this happening, but I guess I'll talk into the wind. How about Niantic brings the NL van out to one of these events every month? (I know it's out at JAX today, which is awesome!) That could build HUGE hype for Ingress where a mobile gaming crowd is already gathered. Also run Operation Clear Field at a few Community Day sites where we can get more badge ticks and help out the local community. Loads of PoGoers (or their parents) would likely love to see a Niantic game that encourages and rewards community service. It's awesome to see OCF in JAX!!!
I don't think Ingress is a dead game, but it's headed that way if the Ingress team keeps being all talk and no action.
Please do something @NianticBrian @NianticThia @NianticOfficial.
Hi, lots of players from PoGo and Ingress goes to the other of the selected places in Barcelona - Spain for the celebration of the Community Day. Specifically in the La Maquinista shopping center (Orange market top on the Niantic map advertised), And here there was no presence of any Niantic Ambassador, no stand, no PoGo or Pikmin merchandising as if there had been in other places, obviously any Ingress related.
The only thing that was there were the temporary portals enabled in ingress Game for the event and that they have deployed beacons in them.
In the information center of the shopping center itself they did not have information about it, so I think it does not meet the expectations of what was announced for Niantic for this Community Day.
I was starting to regret for no deciding to go there instead... but it seems that happened the same thing :(
"Sorry, we spent the Ingress promo money on virtue signaling - here, have a pronoun button".
Please buy this earth day medal though….
Yeah nothing at all on west coast of Australia.
How hard is it to at least specify a few portals with boosted output?
How about get in touch with locals and mail em cards for dead drops / scavenger hunt etc ?
Oh. That would require communication.
I've done a number of these that I organised myself across a few countries using MY bought cards. But out of cards now...
I assisted to Mexico City. Im writing a full After Action Report, and will share the link here later.
@NianticOfficial @NianticThia i know you are busy right now at Jacksonville, but you should be reading all this feedback @NianticBrian
I just got confirmation that Pokemon Go Community Leaders were summoned as part of the staff
Why were Vanguards, XMAs, and ExPOCs not summoned as well???
https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/19005/niantic-community-day-at-mexico-city-aar/p1?new=1
Mexico City AAR
In the height of Ingress it wasn't hard to get people together to play the game sponsored or not. Now there's no interest left. There's a couple players left but that's really it. Everyone has moved on to other games. You could have an event with direct Niantic support and nobody would show up. At least not enough to make it worth doing. With no player base there's little reason for events. It's a catch 22 scenario.
This is something I was thinking about yesterday. I think for a long time, Niantic has counted on local agents to make things happen. There was enough people playing the game that the game just needed to exist, agents did the rest.
Now, the game seems to be at a middle ground and Niantic apparently hasn’t gotten the memo that their game isn’t the behemoth it once was and depending on local groups to do their work isn’t an option in many areas.
We’ve continually offered our help, our ideas and willing to meet Niantic in the middle. But more often than not, the Ingress team seems he||bent on sticking to their schtick, this game of “top secret” details (hello, where is our Q2 update?!), bare minimum communication and dangling carrots to keep the die hards playing the game. Something as easy as this #MeetYouOutThere campaign and we go to their events and they can’t even meet us there 😂😂😂🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️ Like, you couldn’t make this up if you tried, but Niantic on twitter saying, “hold my beer!” #MeetYouOutThereExceptIngress
Are Thia and Brian completely ignoring these comments? Has niantic responded at all to the concerns about them omitting ingress from community day?
We ReAd EvErYThInG!!!!
I've sent a support ticket the same day, these are the only answers I got:
It looks like a generic "thanks for your report" to me. At least they're kinda aware.
I was hoping for something more. St. Louis, MO here. They had no idea what Ingress was. It's obvious that it's a Niantic only promotion. But it seems like it would be a great time to actually promote their games.
This is what was handed out.
Also to note. There were about 20 "Niantic" portals throughout the park. All but one portal was drivable (it was on a road its just a closed road). None really seemed to actually point out where Niantic people would be. Park is about 2 km long. Thankfully there was actually a tent set up near the middle of the park.
I predicted this to some extent, but it is always the case that Pokémon GO trainers don't know about Ingress, so that point doesn't matter to me.
I don't care as long as they don't adversely affect the quality of the portal or the accuracy of the location information. And conversely, I fear they will bring the cheating that is prevalent in Pokémon GO to Ingress. (I still wonder why the Pokémon GO team rarely cracks down on cheating)
The problem with the Niantic Community Day as it pertains to Ingress would be the following
a. there is no Ingress Community Day icon. (It's not First Saturday and they are appropriating that icon)
b. there is no event for Community Day. (A medal that contributes nothing to the cause does not add much value)
c. Not utilizing XM Ambassadors. (This is when the Ambassadors should be utilized)
First, regarding a. Niantic, of course, but Pokémon GO and Pikmin have dedicated community day icons.
However, the Ingress icon is still an appropriation of the First Sada Day icon. It is wacky to use that icon when it is not the first Saturday.
This would make it less interesting.
A dedicated Ingress Community Day icon should be created now.
The most important thing is to put up an icon that is easy to understand.
Secondly, regarding b, Niantic currently sells a number of medals. However, most of them are merely "just seasonal" and unrelated to Ingress events.
In addition, the recent Nemesis medals have been controversial because they are so far off the Ingress line, and agents who do not want their profiles occupied by that creepy masked icon have deliberately stopped participating in Nemesis events.
This should be the case for a higher percentage of agents who are more beneficial to Niantic, who often attend official events.
This time, they went to the trouble of bringing back the past Nemesis event, and I am sure I am not the only one who thought that the Earth Day medal, which had such a cool design, should be used for the medal to match this Community Day.
In the future, it would be better to sell "cool design" event medals to coincide with Community Day as participation tickets, and distribute special colored medals to the top performers in the event, so that more people will participate.
So VIA LUX Adventures kind of event we are waiting for. Not an event that ends when a numerical quota is reached, but an event that lasts until the final day.
The Ingress team should examine past events and rebuild events that keep agents interested until the end.
Finally, regarding c, this is the kind of event where XM Ambassadors should be utilized to promote the appeal of Ingress with the staff.
This is far more effective than hiring temporary staff who do not know Ingress.
That's all.
Please consider it.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Nemesis saga wasn't that bad, it had a lot of information and character development. I think the badges are fine and you are speaking on behalf a minority. I don't believe new badges would engage the community more than we are.
In my opinion, the mistake was to advertise a community day as something different, they could have said it was about the k caps only and everything would be fine. Advertising an on site event meant something special was prepared in advance. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
Ps. I am also worried about cheating and pokemon go. I'm on the verge to stop playing that game because of spoofers. Don't bring that to our beloved game Ingress, please don't
I think most modern spoofing was ported from Pokemon....
It still is, but since PoGo doesn't care about spoofing, the funding to stop it isn't forthcoming, just the tools to cheat.
Plus, so long as the spoofers and multi accounters spend some money to grease the wheels, Niantic look the other way.