I've heard that Niantic has offices "everywhere", yet the Ingress team is only some 20 people. Do we know how they're distributed? Pooja is in India, Brian is in LA(?), etc. Are there like two Ingress people at every Niantic office? Would it make more sense for a team that small to be in one or two locations? I get that physical office spaces are becoming an antiquated idea, but I'm beginning to feel like a boomer thinking having everyone so spread out may not be the best move.
Let's be clean. The result of the work of your team of ambassadors is not visible. Everything around is in bugs, everything is in cheaters, and there is not a single new interesting innovation in the game since the battle beacons. The active player base keeps shrinking, you get the idea. The facts speak for themselves.
Lets be clear. The role of the XM Ambassadors is not to fix bugs, catch cheaters, or create new innovations. At best, it's to promote the forums, and generate discussion here.
You are also doing it poorly. The forums are generally in a state of decline, and of all the ambassadors, only you actively communicate with us. So xm ambassadors useless here too. ABSOLUTELY USELESS. THEY CAN'T EVEN COMMUNICATE BETWEEN PLAYERS AND THE COMPANY.
Considering you're a regular and vocal poster, you too have a responsibility to improve the community, yet your posts are always negative. While I agree that there's work to be done, it's on both sides of the equation. The playerbase's behavior isn't without reproach.
With respect, apart from the odd rage posts, most of the player unhappiness and whining is well deserved and a result of infuriating behaviour by Niantic over many years.
I don't disagree, but I'm personally a player not a Niantic employee, so the copious amount of abuse hurled at me in various formats because of a random and badly defined definition, is a clear indication that many other players aren't actually thinking about what they're doing, and just lashing out at any possible target. Which is in no way helpful.
1) Get Niantic to allow XMAs to say and do more or,
Weird that people seem to think we're not trying doing this.
2) Resign as XMA as a number of Vanguards did as a fed up, protest vote, or
Given the lack of reaction to similar with Vanguards, this is likely even less effective with XMAs.
3) Go as silent as Niantic and remove yourself as a target.
Yeah. That's not me🤣
From the public XMA description given by Niantic themselves, it's Duck Season otherwise.
I'd love someone to point to what XMA's responsibilities are, as defined by Niantic. Because all I've seen is a "This is the criteria we're selecting people by" which has little to nothing to do with responsibilities once selected.
Do you know why I'm so negative lately? I am a realist who still remembers what games are. Not idle garbage cans, not stupid mobile strategies where the one who donates the most wins. But games where intelligence was required to win, where it was necessary to turn on the brains. Our ingress in the early days was just such a game. The scanner was interesting, ingress reports were part of our lives. We look forward to something new every week. And now? Stagnation. The only great pvp strategy turned into an aimless swamp in which it is not clear who is fighting for what and when it will end. Some kind of ambassadors and vanguards have appeared, which are of no use to me as a player. We have no innovations.
Beacons? These are castrated copies of raids from Pokemon Go.
Drones? This is a remote view window with a low poly model and an inferior portal hack
Kinetic capsules? These are the same incubators from Pokemon Go.
Where is something new? Where is something that can only be ingress. Something unique that will not be borrowed from Pokémon or other games, but something completely new. Where is it?
Ingress players from all over the world have made Niantic a great company. And what do we get in return? Rudeness. Natural rudeness and no desire to reckon with us at all.
First, we need to at least understand what it is. Why didn’t they hire professionals who could help Nia, but took in completely strange people, some of them were hated even by their local community. Can anyone explain this point clearly to me?
Uh, it's not uncommon for selection criteria to be related to responsibilities once selected. See also: job postings.
If Niantic has gone in a different direction, then maybe, heavens forbid, whoever manages the XMA program should do what every half-decent manager does and stick up for the people they work with.
The issue is staying frustrated. I see this everywhere and you're never really going to get instant results here. Look, I can complain about Niantic day after day but it gets counterproductive to my life. At some point, you walk away from it and return back to see if any progress has been made. Staying on here waiting for the next Niantic update to get disappointed is setting yourself up.
I try to be level-headed and try my best to see it from the other side. Regardless of the big company, there are still 20 people that work specifically for Ingress. Does it make sense? No, of course not. Should it change? Yes, but at the same time, I do not know how Ingress operates within Niantic. I most likely will never know. Does this make me better for trying to see the positives? Not at all but I will try my best to be knowledgeable about where the frustration is coming from on both sides. I would rather target the issue than continuously dwell on the frustration. My two cents. (Note I am not saying you shouldn't ignore the issue here also.)
The same principal applies. If someone calls for volunteers that are really good at making paper dolls, one tends to assume that what they need is someone to make some paper dolls.
I was taken completely by surprise by NIantic's decision to increase the portal cooldown. The general sentiment on the Ingress forum throughout the summer was that the 90 sec cooldown is either a good thing or a necessary evil.
I applied for the XMA program because I expected we would be tasked to provide interesting and informative content for the Ingress forum, promote the game in our home countries, and give Niantic input on the future development of Ingress, as a group with different nationalities, languges and levels of experience.
Comments
I've heard that Niantic has offices "everywhere", yet the Ingress team is only some 20 people. Do we know how they're distributed? Pooja is in India, Brian is in LA(?), etc. Are there like two Ingress people at every Niantic office? Would it make more sense for a team that small to be in one or two locations? I get that physical office spaces are becoming an antiquated idea, but I'm beginning to feel like a boomer thinking having everyone so spread out may not be the best move.
From what I know the majority of the team is in LA and SF, with some in Austin, though that was pre-pandemic so who knows now.
Let's be clean. The result of the work of your team of ambassadors is not visible. Everything around is in bugs, everything is in cheaters, and there is not a single new interesting innovation in the game since the battle beacons. The active player base keeps shrinking, you get the idea. The facts speak for themselves.
Lets be clear. The role of the XM Ambassadors is not to fix bugs, catch cheaters, or create new innovations. At best, it's to promote the forums, and generate discussion here.
You are also doing it poorly. The forums are generally in a state of decline, and of all the ambassadors, only you actively communicate with us. So xm ambassadors useless here too. ABSOLUTELY USELESS. THEY CAN'T EVEN COMMUNICATE BETWEEN PLAYERS AND THE COMPANY.
Considering you're a regular and vocal poster, you too have a responsibility to improve the community, yet your posts are always negative. While I agree that there's work to be done, it's on both sides of the equation. The playerbase's behavior isn't without reproach.
With respect, apart from the odd rage posts, most of the player unhappiness and whining is well deserved and a result of infuriating behaviour by Niantic over many years.
Frustrated people lash out
I don't disagree, but I'm personally a player not a Niantic employee, so the copious amount of abuse hurled at me in various formats because of a random and badly defined definition, is a clear indication that many other players aren't actually thinking about what they're doing, and just lashing out at any possible target. Which is in no way helpful.
I hear you.
Choices:
1) Get Niantic to allow XMAs to say and do more or,
2) Resign as XMA as a number of Vanguards did as a fed up, protest vote, or
3) Go as silent as Niantic and remove yourself as a target.
From the public XMA description given by Niantic themselves, it's Duck Season otherwise.
1) Get Niantic to allow XMAs to say and do more or,
Weird that people seem to think we're not trying doing this.
2) Resign as XMA as a number of Vanguards did as a fed up, protest vote, or
Given the lack of reaction to similar with Vanguards, this is likely even less effective with XMAs.
3) Go as silent as Niantic and remove yourself as a target.
Yeah. That's not me 🤣
From the public XMA description given by Niantic themselves, it's Duck Season otherwise.
I'd love someone to point to what XMA's responsibilities are, as defined by Niantic. Because all I've seen is a "This is the criteria we're selecting people by" which has little to nothing to do with responsibilities once selected.
Players only see the public side though...
Do you know why I'm so negative lately? I am a realist who still remembers what games are. Not idle garbage cans, not stupid mobile strategies where the one who donates the most wins. But games where intelligence was required to win, where it was necessary to turn on the brains. Our ingress in the early days was just such a game. The scanner was interesting, ingress reports were part of our lives. We look forward to something new every week. And now? Stagnation. The only great pvp strategy turned into an aimless swamp in which it is not clear who is fighting for what and when it will end. Some kind of ambassadors and vanguards have appeared, which are of no use to me as a player. We have no innovations.
Beacons? These are castrated copies of raids from Pokemon Go.
Drones? This is a remote view window with a low poly model and an inferior portal hack
Kinetic capsules? These are the same incubators from Pokemon Go.
Where is something new? Where is something that can only be ingress. Something unique that will not be borrowed from Pokémon or other games, but something completely new. Where is it?
Ingress players from all over the world have made Niantic a great company. And what do we get in return? Rudeness. Natural rudeness and no desire to reckon with us at all.
First, we need to at least understand what it is. Why didn’t they hire professionals who could help Nia, but took in completely strange people, some of them were hated even by their local community. Can anyone explain this point clearly to me?
How were the ambassadors chosen?
For what purpose were they chosen?
Why is there no visible result?
Uh, it's not uncommon for selection criteria to be related to responsibilities once selected. See also: job postings.
If Niantic has gone in a different direction, then maybe, heavens forbid, whoever manages the XMA program should do what every half-decent manager does and stick up for the people they work with.
The issue is staying frustrated. I see this everywhere and you're never really going to get instant results here. Look, I can complain about Niantic day after day but it gets counterproductive to my life. At some point, you walk away from it and return back to see if any progress has been made. Staying on here waiting for the next Niantic update to get disappointed is setting yourself up.
I try to be level-headed and try my best to see it from the other side. Regardless of the big company, there are still 20 people that work specifically for Ingress. Does it make sense? No, of course not. Should it change? Yes, but at the same time, I do not know how Ingress operates within Niantic. I most likely will never know. Does this make me better for trying to see the positives? Not at all but I will try my best to be knowledgeable about where the frustration is coming from on both sides. I would rather target the issue than continuously dwell on the frustration. My two cents. (Note I am not saying you shouldn't ignore the issue here also.)
It's not a job title though. It's volunteer work.
The same principal applies. If someone calls for volunteers that are really good at making paper dolls, one tends to assume that what they need is someone to make some paper dolls.
Its the "one tends to assume" that can cause misconceptions though.
Niantic has to be one to initiate things...its weird seeing people blame XMA when I bet there has been limited interactions from Niantic.
Hence my earlier remark about half-decent managers.
There's a manager?
👀
where Thia go ☹️
it's not like if they have are of any use.
either they are not listened to or they are useless. (3 min cd as good idea ? lol)
I was taken completely by surprise by NIantic's decision to increase the portal cooldown. The general sentiment on the Ingress forum throughout the summer was that the 90 sec cooldown is either a good thing or a necessary evil.
So why do we need XM Ambassadors at all? I'd think Niantic asks what they have to say about a change BEFORE the change lands.
I applied for the XMA program because I expected we would be tasked to provide interesting and informative content for the Ingress forum, promote the game in our home countries, and give Niantic input on the future development of Ingress, as a group with different nationalities, languges and levels of experience.
and you didn't get any voice but are not enable to even speak about that ?
The XMA role is/was intended to generate content for - and drive interaction on the forum.
The VG role is intended to provide Niantic with a sounding board on new developments etc.