@12tyTri11ion hey there, I see you've been promoted to Administrator today, which could mean you're new to Ingress team; also lvl2 ingame means that you're probably new to the game too. My wildest guess would be that you're our new CM, but that is a bit far-fetched. I wonder if you can introduce yourself and possibly take a look at the topic? 👀
I'd like to add that some of us are still waiting for news about the Compartmental Access Level measures that were going to be announced "in the coming weeks" back in February.
"We’ll be sharing more information about our Compartmental Access Level measures in the coming weeks on the Ingress forum and our other social channels."
There are many issues with Prime that might be forgiven because it's a free game being developed with a small team. Perhaps the team has data and metrics that they're not sharing with players that justifies how they've been prioritizing bug fixes and new features.
The on-going issues with C.O.R.E are in a different category, however. Money changes everything. The exchange of money for goods and services is a well-established concept in human society. In-app purchases and in-app subscriptions are well-established in mobile apps. C.O.R.E.'s cost to a player is not ambiguous. C.O.R.E.'s goods and services are not ambiguous.
If iOS subscriptions were as messed up for other apps as they appear to be for Prime, the Internet would be on fire. No app developer would tolerate Apple's stranglehold on in-app payments and their cut of every transaction if the end-customer experience were as bad as it is here. When you consider that, and when you look at all those screenshots of people who have the C.O.R.E flair but not the inventory expansion, the situation seems clear: Niantic has failed at implementing functionality that a billion other development teams and apps have successfully figured out.
But it's more than just buggy code. This issue has been ongoing for 3 months now. For a company that's made a big deal out of how Ingress needs to earn its keep and be sustainable on its own, the lack of urgency in addressing this issue is baffling. The only way an issue of this severity can persist for as long as it has is because of a profound failure of leadership and management.
Now, the OP talks about a tipping point. Consider that as I put a very fine point on this: There is one person who has put themselves out there as being that leadership and management.
Great post. OP hit the nail on the head, especially on communication.
Be more open with us and keep us updated, stop ignoring pressing issues raised here. Tell us things are in the works, tell us if things are postponed, give us ETAs and nuggets of detail. The few times we actually do get good communication lights this place up. There's more gratitude, less yelling, everybody leaves smarter more informed and happier. And if you have to say no to us on certain things with justified reasons, we will at least appreciate your forthrightness. Leaving us in the dark does nothing but stir up anger and exasperation. It is also extremely unprofessional to ghost people who are paying and not receiving CORE benefits.
I lowered my rating in the Play Store from 5 to 3 over the comm issue, and it will stay there until comms is fixed. If I didnt love the game as much as I do and wasn't biased, I would probably give it a 1 or 2.
Nearly 200 upvotes on the first post alone. Tagging a new admin. Tagging employees.
Silence….
I cannot understand the logic here. Yet another opportunity to swoop in and START communicating.
Naaaa, we’ll let them post another page or two over the weekend. It’ll drop off the front page eventually…. We’ll release a new feature or maybe a new medal and that’ll distract them…
It's like they not allowed to post unless they have meetings with development, legal, ceo and then we get a drop of info deemed safe to release after its been through all this a week later.
Glad to see someone bringing up COMMs; it's a small thing, but it has a negative impact on the ability to greet new and visiting players (which was one way that we used to build community). Not to beat the dead horse, but in REDACTED you had much better situational awareness, and COMM was much cleaner. The old Scanner was really a "scanner" - a tool you used to interact with the game world, rather than trying to be a game in and of itself. Prime was not designed to support the way the game is actually played, and we're still dealing with the fallout from that....
More broadly, it looks from the outside like (1) there aren't enough FTE on the Ingress team to cover the amount of work needed to be done to maintain/improve the game, so things are falling through the cracks, and (2) the quintessential Niantic nom-communication strategy is making a tough situation worse. (Sometimes, Niantic really is like NIA.) Ingress has a very hard-core fanbase, and while folks may complain, they are also willing to go a long way to support the game. That's a really great resource, but failed communication eats away at it. Not a good business decision, in my opinion.
In the end, I feel pretty sorry for Brian and whoever else is on the team. I know it has to be demoralizing to be working really hard on a project that is bigger than your resources allow, only to have folks complaining about it (and then, presumably, to be limited in what you can say about the situation). At the same time, some of these issues are really serious (like players getting locked out, or CORE members not being able to redeem their benefits), and it does no good to deny that. Per OP, communication would really help a lot here. I hope that the Ingress team understands that a lot of us really appreciate what they do, and are rooting for them. But things do need to work, or the core fanbase won't be able to keep the game going. Help us to help you.
There is one thing you totally missed - the game is overrun by people that lie and cheat, and feel great about it.
Our Area here in Germany is full of spoofers that just basicly have carte blanche and do EVERYTHING they want. Everyone here knows these people, everyone knows who is behind them, still - Niantic isnt doing TUPPENCE about it.
Thanks for pointing out all the issues. I can confirm that communication is a mess. I recently got a message stating that I had tried to influence other players in Wayfarer to vote for my portal suggestions. I was not aware of doing anything wrong and also checked with other experienced wayfarer teammates. Neither did they find something. Therefore I asked back Niantic for more information. The reply was that due to their policies they do not give further information. This does of course not help me at all and I am left with the impression of being treated very unfair. I need to add that I am a Pokemon Go, Wizzards Unit and Ingress player since a long time having reached high levels on all of them and always played fairly. End of the story is that I quit as this is not fun anymore and Niantic is clearly chasing the wrong people.
They have top men working on it. They read all the posts and are under no obligation to answer to anyone who demands answers. It sets a bad precedent. We already know all these issues are being handled and they will be fixed when they are fixed.
They've answered before, it's being worked on. There's no need to keep repeating that. This topic is just the ingress version of a Karen demanding to speak to the manager, when the manager has already spoken. It will be fixed when it's fixed.
Hanke is not going to do anything. If the communication issue even spans to Go which has a higher number of people and they fail there, I don't really know what to think here.
It’s just having that communication. Brian said that the forums are browsed and comments are taken to the right places, but some indication of this would be ideal.
A road map of what’s coming next would really help, so we have an idea of what’s coming and to look forward to.
Frankly, if things don’t change with the lack of communication coming from Niantic, I’ll go looking for another game/hobby to spend my time and money on. Brian has admitted they need to work on their communication, so even they know it’s a problem. So posting in here like we’re impatient or asking for the moon is laughable. Things need to change. Responding to a post with 200+ “votes” would probably be a good place to start…
Comms are terrible. Every time we think it is fixed, it breaks with the next update. It's a unity problem apparently. It's annoying but it isn't game breaking. You can still hack deploy and destroy without it.
You can hack, deploy and destroy yes. But without the knowledge of what is happening around you you can't defend, plan links, react to potential blocking links, you can't see an enemy coming to a strategic area, you can't block potential OP easily. If that isn't game breaking…
kinda game breaking to me when the alert tab is blank when your portals gets attacked.... Comms are a crucial part for daily play for most that needs to function as intended.
Comments
Great post. Let me know if someone from Niantic actually acknowledges it.
@12tyTri11ion hey there, I see you've been promoted to Administrator today, which could mean you're new to Ingress team; also lvl2 ingame means that you're probably new to the game too. My wildest guess would be that you're our new CM, but that is a bit far-fetched. I wonder if you can introduce yourself and possibly take a look at the topic? 👀
Awesome post. I'd add the poor performance on slow connections - it's just bad. Also, start-up time on iOS sometimes unbearable.
I'd like to add that some of us are still waiting for news about the Compartmental Access Level measures that were going to be announced "in the coming weeks" back in February.
But I'm glad to see they are looking for an Anti-Cheat Product Manager
https://careers.nianticlabs.com/openings/product-manager-anti-cheat/
"We’ll be sharing more information about our Compartmental Access Level measures in the coming weeks on the Ingress forum and our other social channels."
Posted Feb 23rd...
We keep saying this over and over and it's always on deaf ears.
A great post like this gets less then 200 insightful+likes, why should niantic care..
There are many issues with Prime that might be forgiven because it's a free game being developed with a small team. Perhaps the team has data and metrics that they're not sharing with players that justifies how they've been prioritizing bug fixes and new features.
The on-going issues with C.O.R.E are in a different category, however. Money changes everything. The exchange of money for goods and services is a well-established concept in human society. In-app purchases and in-app subscriptions are well-established in mobile apps. C.O.R.E.'s cost to a player is not ambiguous. C.O.R.E.'s goods and services are not ambiguous.
If iOS subscriptions were as messed up for other apps as they appear to be for Prime, the Internet would be on fire. No app developer would tolerate Apple's stranglehold on in-app payments and their cut of every transaction if the end-customer experience were as bad as it is here. When you consider that, and when you look at all those screenshots of people who have the C.O.R.E flair but not the inventory expansion, the situation seems clear: Niantic has failed at implementing functionality that a billion other development teams and apps have successfully figured out.
But it's more than just buggy code. This issue has been ongoing for 3 months now. For a company that's made a big deal out of how Ingress needs to earn its keep and be sustainable on its own, the lack of urgency in addressing this issue is baffling. The only way an issue of this severity can persist for as long as it has is because of a profound failure of leadership and management.
Now, the OP talks about a tipping point. Consider that as I put a very fine point on this: There is one person who has put themselves out there as being that leadership and management.
Great post. OP hit the nail on the head, especially on communication.
Be more open with us and keep us updated, stop ignoring pressing issues raised here. Tell us things are in the works, tell us if things are postponed, give us ETAs and nuggets of detail. The few times we actually do get good communication lights this place up. There's more gratitude, less yelling, everybody leaves smarter more informed and happier. And if you have to say no to us on certain things with justified reasons, we will at least appreciate your forthrightness. Leaving us in the dark does nothing but stir up anger and exasperation. It is also extremely unprofessional to ghost people who are paying and not receiving CORE benefits.
I lowered my rating in the Play Store from 5 to 3 over the comm issue, and it will stay there until comms is fixed. If I didnt love the game as much as I do and wasn't biased, I would probably give it a 1 or 2.
Nearly 200 upvotes on the first post alone. Tagging a new admin. Tagging employees.
Silence….
I cannot understand the logic here. Yet another opportunity to swoop in and START communicating.
Naaaa, we’ll let them post another page or two over the weekend. It’ll drop off the front page eventually…. We’ll release a new feature or maybe a new medal and that’ll distract them…
So much facepalming…
Spot on.
It's like they not allowed to post unless they have meetings with development, legal, ceo and then we get a drop of info deemed safe to release after its been through all this a week later.
Wrong part of the world. N. America is crawling with spoofers. Some weeks more than others but there are plenty of them floating around.
Glad to see someone bringing up COMMs; it's a small thing, but it has a negative impact on the ability to greet new and visiting players (which was one way that we used to build community). Not to beat the dead horse, but in REDACTED you had much better situational awareness, and COMM was much cleaner. The old Scanner was really a "scanner" - a tool you used to interact with the game world, rather than trying to be a game in and of itself. Prime was not designed to support the way the game is actually played, and we're still dealing with the fallout from that....
More broadly, it looks from the outside like (1) there aren't enough FTE on the Ingress team to cover the amount of work needed to be done to maintain/improve the game, so things are falling through the cracks, and (2) the quintessential Niantic nom-communication strategy is making a tough situation worse. (Sometimes, Niantic really is like NIA.) Ingress has a very hard-core fanbase, and while folks may complain, they are also willing to go a long way to support the game. That's a really great resource, but failed communication eats away at it. Not a good business decision, in my opinion.
In the end, I feel pretty sorry for Brian and whoever else is on the team. I know it has to be demoralizing to be working really hard on a project that is bigger than your resources allow, only to have folks complaining about it (and then, presumably, to be limited in what you can say about the situation). At the same time, some of these issues are really serious (like players getting locked out, or CORE members not being able to redeem their benefits), and it does no good to deny that. Per OP, communication would really help a lot here. I hope that the Ingress team understands that a lot of us really appreciate what they do, and are rooting for them. But things do need to work, or the core fanbase won't be able to keep the game going. Help us to help you.
200 upvotes passed. I guess we just keep bumping this to prove that Niantic won't be able to wait it out.
thank you OP
There is one thing you totally missed - the game is overrun by people that lie and cheat, and feel great about it.
Our Area here in Germany is full of spoofers that just basicly have carte blanche and do EVERYTHING they want. Everyone here knows these people, everyone knows who is behind them, still - Niantic isnt doing TUPPENCE about it.
Thanks for pointing out all the issues. I can confirm that communication is a mess. I recently got a message stating that I had tried to influence other players in Wayfarer to vote for my portal suggestions. I was not aware of doing anything wrong and also checked with other experienced wayfarer teammates. Neither did they find something. Therefore I asked back Niantic for more information. The reply was that due to their policies they do not give further information. This does of course not help me at all and I am left with the impression of being treated very unfair. I need to add that I am a Pokemon Go, Wizzards Unit and Ingress player since a long time having reached high levels on all of them and always played fairly. End of the story is that I quit as this is not fun anymore and Niantic is clearly chasing the wrong people.
I think @ace himself should do monthly AMAs until a CM can take over.
@ace last signed in october 2020.. i do hope someone will reply next week is weekend now so doubt we will hear anything until then.
Hey Niantic, you won't be able to wait it out. Besides, ignoring it is ugly.
They have top men working on it. They read all the posts and are under no obligation to answer to anyone who demands answers. It sets a bad precedent. We already know all these issues are being handled and they will be fixed when they are fixed.
It's a patience deal.
We want answers yesterday and if answers can't be provided then reasons why they can't be provided are absolutely desired.
That's the gap that makes people less than happy. We want this fixed, or legitimate reasons why they can't.
They've answered before, it's being worked on. There's no need to keep repeating that. This topic is just the ingress version of a Karen demanding to speak to the manager, when the manager has already spoken. It will be fixed when it's fixed.
Hanke is not going to do anything. If the communication issue even spans to Go which has a higher number of people and they fail there, I don't really know what to think here.
It’s just having that communication. Brian said that the forums are browsed and comments are taken to the right places, but some indication of this would be ideal.
A road map of what’s coming next would really help, so we have an idea of what’s coming and to look forward to.
Please kindly explain COMMs then…..
Frankly, if things don’t change with the lack of communication coming from Niantic, I’ll go looking for another game/hobby to spend my time and money on. Brian has admitted they need to work on their communication, so even they know it’s a problem. So posting in here like we’re impatient or asking for the moon is laughable. Things need to change. Responding to a post with 200+ “votes” would probably be a good place to start…
Comms are terrible. Every time we think it is fixed, it breaks with the next update. It's a unity problem apparently. It's annoying but it isn't game breaking. You can still hack deploy and destroy without it.
Can't defend easily though.
You can hack, deploy and destroy yes. But without the knowledge of what is happening around you you can't defend, plan links, react to potential blocking links, you can't see an enemy coming to a strategic area, you can't block potential OP easily. If that isn't game breaking…
kinda game breaking to me when the alert tab is blank when your portals gets attacked.... Comms are a crucial part for daily play for most that needs to function as intended.