@Claudija Thanks for the open letter. All the topics were discussed on various platforms and you put them together in an eloquent way.
It can be seen that we all CARE about Ingress or we all would accept the current change without any word and maybe we would just quit the game - but so many people raised theie voice today that Niantic HOPEFULLY sees the potential of a (still) large and caring community.
Honestly, after the issues of Prime scanner and the premature shutdown of Redacted, the Global Shards debacle, and now this, it feels like Niantic is going all out on driving old player base away from Ingress. Otherwise, the level of their incompetence seems unbelievable.
You are ruining all our work and efforts @ingress @nianticlabs @NianticBrian
We spent tons of hours and lots of money to set anomalies and welcome the players the best way possible with 0 support from Niantic, every event has costs and we had to fix it for you, with 0eur support... We go on PR to attract as many players as possible to attend the events, for your profit... We tend to organize the anomalies the best way possible so our players go back home happy from their experience. This decision 1 month before is a total disrespect to all our efforts and all your players!
If orgas and players had known this before, they probably wouldn't have put same efforts in this ...it wouldn't be the same... Well it probably won't be the same succes in the future...
I'm not opposed for paying for things. There's overhead in running the servers, preparing content, etc, all part of this free game we pay. However, there are definitely rules to how it's supposed to be monetized.
Previously, we've had supporter packs of various tiers, so paying was optional, but hopefully Niantic broke even on that sort of thing. Not my business as to their pricing levels, though. As Claudi has pointed out, VATs and local licenses tend to be required for paid events. Even without a physical presence. The labour of POCs cannot be understated. Being on the hook for a venue rental and hoping to provide for your fellow players isn't fun, and thank you to everyone who has done that.
I'm not opposed to a for-pay-only model either. However, again, regional pricing needs to brought to mind. In some of the early goruck challenges, we had a problem where .. um, I think it was indonesia, but the event was going to cost the average monthly paycheck. We made it work though, but really, the conclusion was 'never again'. At 15, that's maybe a week's pay in those places (and yes, those of us in the first world west would just call that 3 coffee drinks ... ) If you want a global game, that's not the way to do it.
Ideally, Niantic makes some money to keep the lights on. That's important. But you still need to have players be able to afford this. You implicitly cross subsidize the folks who can't pay with the fares you can get. So global prices adjusted by say, big mac index. And yes, follow local laws. Haven't you got into enough trouble already for not doing local considerations? *coughpokestopscough*
As a POC for this series who, along with all the others, was blindsided by this announcement, the concerns expressed here are exactly what we are all saying to Niantic directly.
I’m still in shock that this is how they chose to implement this new policy. I haven’t talked to many people who are completely against the concept of niantic needing to make money with Ingress. But the timing of this announcement coupled with the many other concerns brought up here just makes this action so shocking.
My fellow POC and I have put ourselves in more financial risk for this anomaly than niantic has - and yet niantic is charging you, the player base (including us btw, we have to pay to get a badge too), and is not kicking anything back to cover any of the financial risk we take on to bring Niantic’s customers an amazing experience. Just wow.
Will the game function perfectly? Will game actions happen as they are supposed to? Will every paying person’s actions be counted? Will everyone get the badge they paid for? Or will the POCs be left holding the bag when things don’t go the way the should. Or better put, when Niantic does not hold up its end of their contract - who will the players reach out to? I guarantee it’ll be us, the POCs.
I know Niantic didn’t come up with this idea yesterday. I know they’ve gotten feedback long before the announcement - and they could have gotten more feedback had they warned the POCs first. Niantic has ignored every bit of reasonable feedback from the people they appointed to give feedback to them. I have stuck with niantic through terrible decision after terrible decision, but this one really takes the cake.
@Claudija I’m going to quote you : “A public space or public area is understood to mean the part of a municipality or public corporation that is freely accessible to any citizen and managed or maintained by the municipality. In general, these include public transport areas, but also streets, sidewalks, parks and squares.
All gatherings of persons in public space (e.g., concerts, street fairs, etc.) are subject to the Assembly Hall Act (in Germany: Versammlungsstättengesetz)
Every event, which is carried out and advertised in public space, must be registered and approved in good time with the authorities, usually at the responsible regulatory office. The exact permissions, permits or insurance you need depends on the type and size of the event, but also on the location and timing of the event.
The estimated number of participants or visitors is also an important factor when entering into detailed planning.
So the event must be registered and approved from the city. As a former POC I know that I was asked not to contact the local authorities to register the event, but I also never was 100% that the event was registered.
If the Event gets successfully registered, there are more terms that needs to be fulfilled.
Other locations around the world, especially in the US, have different but similar laws that vary from place to place. All these items that will now fall onto Niantic as the organizer of the event to register for, as local agents, in many cases, will not be able to serve as a local proxy for the company."
I wholly agree. I was not expecting that my application was going to be accepted for the field test and I had hoped that they may have actually looked at the city in intel and looked around for other sites. I ran into some snags and a couple days ago we almost had to cancel the event. I would have appreciated SOMEONE at Niantic contacting anyone on this campus before announcing this event, or even having a POC to contact because we had some issues come during the last two weeks regarding this.
Claudia, thanks for taking the time to type this out so comprehensive. I applaud your efforts.
Whilst I initially felt like people were mostly whining because it's what people do, I think you explained it perfectly. Myself I don't care about the 15 dollars. I spend that on enough other useless stuff, so I saw the price and just paid up. Let's hope NIA actually listens and makes some changes.
Not for me, but for the sake of the community and this beautiful game.
Well said Claudija! I endorse everything in this letter and encourage Niantic to listen. Niantic, please learn from this and do better by your community.
Totally agree......it's not the money outlay for me, but why should niantic charge for an event and take all the money when they only offer the technical support within the game. I wouldn't put it past future orga team saying "I don't think so" and see what niantic can run on their own. Such a shame that the "Ideas" people at niantic are so blind/naive that they can't see the implications of making this move. #sadtimes #nia @nia
Comments
Vielen Dank Claudia
I can place a bid on the number of answers from Niantic to this...
@Claudija Thanks for the open letter. All the topics were discussed on various platforms and you put them together in an eloquent way.
It can be seen that we all CARE about Ingress or we all would accept the current change without any word and maybe we would just quit the game - but so many people raised theie voice today that Niantic HOPEFULLY sees the potential of a (still) large and caring community.
I subscribe everything! Well done @Claudija
#Respect
Honestly, after the issues of Prime scanner and the premature shutdown of Redacted, the Global Shards debacle, and now this, it feels like Niantic is going all out on driving old player base away from Ingress. Otherwise, the level of their incompetence seems unbelievable.
Great post. Cant agree more. Thank you. I hope NIA reconsider.
100% with @claudija!
You are ruining all our work and efforts @ingress @nianticlabs @NianticBrian
We spent tons of hours and lots of money to set anomalies and welcome the players the best way possible with 0 support from Niantic, every event has costs and we had to fix it for you, with 0eur support... We go on PR to attract as many players as possible to attend the events, for your profit... We tend to organize the anomalies the best way possible so our players go back home happy from their experience. This decision 1 month before is a total disrespect to all our efforts and all your players!
If orgas and players had known this before, they probably wouldn't have put same efforts in this ...it wouldn't be the same... Well it probably won't be the same succes in the future...
Still there is no official staff coming to respond about this issue on this forum..
@RedSoloCup you have a long, long week ahead of you, and a lot of communication is needed. Keep your head up.
I'm not opposed for paying for things. There's overhead in running the servers, preparing content, etc, all part of this free game we pay. However, there are definitely rules to how it's supposed to be monetized.
Previously, we've had supporter packs of various tiers, so paying was optional, but hopefully Niantic broke even on that sort of thing. Not my business as to their pricing levels, though. As Claudi has pointed out, VATs and local licenses tend to be required for paid events. Even without a physical presence. The labour of POCs cannot be understated. Being on the hook for a venue rental and hoping to provide for your fellow players isn't fun, and thank you to everyone who has done that.
I'm not opposed to a for-pay-only model either. However, again, regional pricing needs to brought to mind. In some of the early goruck challenges, we had a problem where .. um, I think it was indonesia, but the event was going to cost the average monthly paycheck. We made it work though, but really, the conclusion was 'never again'. At 15, that's maybe a week's pay in those places (and yes, those of us in the first world west would just call that 3 coffee drinks ... ) If you want a global game, that's not the way to do it.
Ideally, Niantic makes some money to keep the lights on. That's important. But you still need to have players be able to afford this. You implicitly cross subsidize the folks who can't pay with the fares you can get. So global prices adjusted by say, big mac index. And yes, follow local laws. Haven't you got into enough trouble already for not doing local considerations? *coughpokestopscough*
I considered going to Umbra Dresden. Nope.
Duck you, NIA.
ded game.
I cannot agree more with Claudija.
Thank you for that letter and for expressing our opinion so perfect and profound way.
Niantic should respect player's effort.
Absolutelly agree with all post
Thank you Claudija,
You words are very welcome and as a player and one of the UMBRA POCs, I can sign every word.
As a POC for this series who, along with all the others, was blindsided by this announcement, the concerns expressed here are exactly what we are all saying to Niantic directly.
I’m still in shock that this is how they chose to implement this new policy. I haven’t talked to many people who are completely against the concept of niantic needing to make money with Ingress. But the timing of this announcement coupled with the many other concerns brought up here just makes this action so shocking.
My fellow POC and I have put ourselves in more financial risk for this anomaly than niantic has - and yet niantic is charging you, the player base (including us btw, we have to pay to get a badge too), and is not kicking anything back to cover any of the financial risk we take on to bring Niantic’s customers an amazing experience. Just wow.
Will the game function perfectly? Will game actions happen as they are supposed to? Will every paying person’s actions be counted? Will everyone get the badge they paid for? Or will the POCs be left holding the bag when things don’t go the way the should. Or better put, when Niantic does not hold up its end of their contract - who will the players reach out to? I guarantee it’ll be us, the POCs.
I know Niantic didn’t come up with this idea yesterday. I know they’ve gotten feedback long before the announcement - and they could have gotten more feedback had they warned the POCs first. Niantic has ignored every bit of reasonable feedback from the people they appointed to give feedback to them. I have stuck with niantic through terrible decision after terrible decision, but this one really takes the cake.
👌
Very well written, agreed with everything you said!
👍🏻
@Claudija I’m going to quote you : “A public space or public area is understood to mean the part of a municipality or public corporation that is freely accessible to any citizen and managed or maintained by the municipality. In general, these include public transport areas, but also streets, sidewalks, parks and squares.
All gatherings of persons in public space (e.g., concerts, street fairs, etc.) are subject to the Assembly Hall Act (in Germany: Versammlungsstättengesetz)
Every event, which is carried out and advertised in public space, must be registered and approved in good time with the authorities, usually at the responsible regulatory office. The exact permissions, permits or insurance you need depends on the type and size of the event, but also on the location and timing of the event.
The estimated number of participants or visitors is also an important factor when entering into detailed planning.
So the event must be registered and approved from the city. As a former POC I know that I was asked not to contact the local authorities to register the event, but I also never was 100% that the event was registered.
If the Event gets successfully registered, there are more terms that needs to be fulfilled.
Other locations around the world, especially in the US, have different but similar laws that vary from place to place. All these items that will now fall onto Niantic as the organizer of the event to register for, as local agents, in many cases, will not be able to serve as a local proxy for the company."
I wholly agree. I was not expecting that my application was going to be accepted for the field test and I had hoped that they may have actually looked at the city in intel and looked around for other sites. I ran into some snags and a couple days ago we almost had to cancel the event. I would have appreciated SOMEONE at Niantic contacting anyone on this campus before announcing this event, or even having a POC to contact because we had some issues come during the last two weeks regarding this.
+1
Thx @Claudija
I think it is what every agent think!
Completely agree and very well written.
Claudia, thanks for taking the time to type this out so comprehensive. I applaud your efforts.
Whilst I initially felt like people were mostly whining because it's what people do, I think you explained it perfectly. Myself I don't care about the 15 dollars. I spend that on enough other useless stuff, so I saw the price and just paid up. Let's hope NIA actually listens and makes some changes.
Not for me, but for the sake of the community and this beautiful game.
Totally agree with all the points made. Especially Reason 2.
There are other ways of making money that won't get players angry..
Thank you @Claudija 💚
Delightful summary!
Well said Claudija! I endorse everything in this letter and encourage Niantic to listen. Niantic, please learn from this and do better by your community.
Totally agree......it's not the money outlay for me, but why should niantic charge for an event and take all the money when they only offer the technical support within the game. I wouldn't put it past future orga team saying "I don't think so" and see what niantic can run on their own. Such a shame that the "Ideas" people at niantic are so blind/naive that they can't see the implications of making this move. #sadtimes #nia @nia
Simply +100
As i think, Niantic doing to **** Ingress that we know of.