COVID19

GrnTyrantGrnTyrant ✭✭
edited March 2020 in General

Unfortunately Niantic has decided not to suspend the game during this global pandemic! Why?

We have witnessed an escalation of agents in our communities venture out during the lockdown period and blatantly ignore the authorities requests to only leave their homes for essential purposes, playing AR games is not essential. These ignorant and arrogant people are placing lives at risk and Niantic is clearly aware of this. Governments must now step in and shut this organisation down for being globally irresponsible.

Post edited by GrnTyrant on
«1

Comments

  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭

    Oh are you the same person who made a similar topic on reddit?

  • GrnTyrantGrnTyrant ✭✭
    edited March 2020

    *Not on reddit.

    From what I am seeing in here is unfortunate already & quite disturbing. Stipulating reasons to keep your stats' up & help your "team's" position is not a valid reason for putting people lives at risk! All this shows is that you lead one to believe you have an addiction problem and can't exercise restraint without using an AR game as an excuse to exercise. This is why Nianatic needs to be pro-active for everyone's safety and suspend the game indefinitely. They can place the system on hold if they want, all stats are un-affected until the pandemic has cleared, quite simple really. Stay safe and don't risk infecting people just for a game!

    You are incorrect that its not Niantics responsibility, they have a duty of care to ensure their game does not put lives at risk and if they are found to be negligent and not take appropriate pre-cautions & actions to mitigate the spread of this disease they could be liable.

    I'm sure if someone was traced back to getting infected while playing this AR game and they inturn caused further spread & deaths of others I'm sure this would not sit well on that person's conscious or Nianatic's?

    Post edited by GrnTyrant on
  • The concept of this game is to save humanity.

    Doing the right thing to save humanity is to increase the value of this game.

    Even if the current interim measure doesn't make sense for Niantic's bottom line, it requires us to think about and apply the right content to save humanity.

  • kiloecholimakiloecholima ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2020

    If they completely suspended the game, how many players do you think would come back when it resumes? Ingress already has a dwindling player base. My guess is that the loss of players from not being engaged with the app at all for 1-2 or more months would end the game altogether. They need to find the right balance between keeping people engaged with the app but also disincentivizing people from gathering and going out. They could eliminate the double 8s and increased hacking - I agree that it incentivizes people to go out- but help people in other ways. Reducing decay is one way, maybe reduce it from a one week decay rate to 3 weeks or a month. I don't support a complete halt to decay because that would nullify the benefit of keeping sojourner alive by recharging and also run into the same problem of people disengaging completely. They could also put out more passcodes with cubes. Or perhaps they could set something up where you trade items that encourage action (such as resos, bursters, mods) for power cubes. Putting cubes in the store was a step in the right direction but because they are not free, it won't be financially sustainable for everyone, especially for folks who lost their jobs, or worse.

  • GrnTyrantGrnTyrant ✭✭
    edited March 2020

    You don't get the point - suspend the game, all sojourner etc and aspects of earning medals is not penalised over the lock-down period. Very simple really. Prime has been nothing but a headache since its inception and its support system has degraded significantly & therefore it's not rocket science their player base would dwindle as a result. If it ends the game then so be it!, means it was just delaying the inevitable.

    Unfortunately since Niantic took over Ingress it has only butchered a great concept, made it more laborious to navigate the add-ons & have not invested in its support system which is absolutely deplorable. They unfortunately will be the demise of what was a great game IMAO.

    At the end of the day "shut the god dam thing down" who cares its just a game! Your family are friends are more important aren't they?

  • kiloecholimakiloecholima ✭✭✭✭✭

    I do get your point. I just don't agree with it. And you seem to think that it has to be your way or else we don't care about our friends and family. Somebody who opens the app once a day to recharge something is more likely to play again after the pandemic is over than somebody who has no engagement with the app at all for who knows how many months. If decay rate is drastically reduced and people have access to cubes without leaving their home, that's a safe way to keep people engaged.

  • GrnTyrantGrnTyrant ✭✭
    edited March 2020
  • Yeah, I encourage healthy debate, and you may or may not agree that's your view. What I would argue is that your argument is a mute point based on a world crisis. No-one can stop you prioritising Ingress over family & friends health and well being, however there are others who would certainly agree with my sentiments.

    It was enlightening "pun" intended, to actually witness & expose those who are prepared to risk lives, and unfortunately in my Country, in the region of Christchurch a number of agents blatantly ignored the Government's instructions to remain home, with only essential travel being permitted. Ingress is not essential travel no matter how you spin it, but those addicted obviously disagree. That's why the few ruin it for the rest and therefore Nia. should shut the thing down, at least until COVID-19 is over.

  • KarM3LKarM3L ✭✭✭✭

    Some of agents still have to work :)

    Feel free to uninstall ingress and ignore what's going on in ingress

  • Another mute comment on the situation - I still have to work too!, however I do not deviate from my work location to play Ingress on my way home!, not like "addicted" players like yourself that can't restrain themselves, or be trusted to un-install the app voluntary. I find your comment quite bizarre and lacking in content and context. This certainly shows where some of your values sit that's for sure. :-(

  • That is quite attosishingly reckless from our neighbours in Christchurch and others with this attitude, and therefore I do agree there is a good argument to suspend the game until the crisis is over.

  • No Niantic without Google = No Ingress ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  • KarM3LKarM3L ✭✭✭✭

    I dont even know you how would you know whos near playgrounds??

    how is asking a question hijacking??

  • kiloecholimakiloecholima ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2020

    Clearly you aren't getting where I am coming from because the ideas I've laid out are focused on keeping people home, while still allowing them to engage with the app. I'm also not saying that the measures should end there, and that more ideas to incentivize people to stay home should be considered. I just think it is worth considering ways to do it without shutting it down.

  • GrnTyrantGrnTyrant ✭✭
    edited March 2020

    Hey that is a valid point, but you are requiring agents to venture out to just hack for pcubes, which is "not essential" travel. Just suspend it, if you can't live without an AR game for a few weeks like some then you have bigger problems to deal with. JS

    Post edited by GrnTyrant on
  • kiloecholimakiloecholima ✭✭✭✭✭

    That's the thing, I'm not requiring anyone to venture out to get cubes. I've been advocating for Niantic to make cubes more available for people so they don't have to leave the house. Niantic put L8 cubes in the store recently. It was a step in the right direction. But because they aren't free, I don't think that will be sustainable for some agents. So I think the next steps that make sense are to reduce the decay rate and give us cube passcodes so that people can keep their stuff charged without having to worry about going out.

  • Yes i see your point, however the downside of that is with the app still active, addictive people will still want their fix no matter what authorities say as per seen in my own Country. Furthermore you are asking Nia, to build code to restrict gameplay, just simple to turn it off really. Have a break and fresh'n up for when its turned back on.

  • aaronviannoaaronvianno ✭✭✭✭

    I believe Niantic has made some changes in all its games to accommodate the current situation. But there are some changes that need additional development time which is why they haven't done those yet. Ingress game mechanics prevent more changes from happening, but quite a few have already happened. They have made a few mistakes, yes. And I think most of them have been recognised by the dev team. They've even made changes to the only event they have going on right now to make sure people aren't going out. You could probably point out specific changes that need to be made, and they'll figure out how and if it can be done. Niantic could probably do a bit on their social media to ask people to stay home, etc. Completely shutting down the game seems impractical.

  • GrnTyrantGrnTyrant ✭✭
    edited March 2020

    That would be in an ideal world if all abide by the rules, unfortunately we have seen blatant ignorance and arrogance out there showing the opposite occurs, prime example from those highlighted earlier who are addicted and who quite frankly only care about their stats etc. You can't tell me going around fielding, linking etc cargressing around multiple areas is "exercise" or in anyway associated to walking.

    If you can't exercise without being attached to an AR game then your got bigger problems to solve.

  • Unfortunately we are dealing with a World Wide crisis and we know Nia's communication record is deplorable. I have yet to see a robust argument for it to remain active. As we know the app crashes regularly, therefore unusable or unavailable. So how impractical is it to just turn the thing off?

  • This essentially is the same argument like local government had here - There are a few celebrating "corona parties" and whatever - and if this does not stop all (the whole population) will get under curfew. If people do not stop misbehaving, everyone will have to pay. Either by a quicker raise of the curve - or by confinement. We got kind of confinement now (no more than two not-same-household-people together outside).

    Yet, Ingress generally is not a game you have to play in groups or close by to any other person. (not even Pokemon Go is - even with raids etc) You can play decently - distant from everyone, walk somewhere (health officials say fresh air is good - especially to maintain a healthy respiratory system) and even get some motivation to get out from it. You keep your distance. Or you can misbehave.

    So for those people partying... They are doing that illegally. And that's the same for those people playing ingress in groups close to each other. That has nothing to do with the game itself.

    There are a million reasons to get out of the house for recreation/sports, but it has to do with the cr**py mindset focusing on one's ego of some people who totally disregard health and well being of others. If people use ingress as an excuse to cluster, and ingress was gone, they would be playing something else outside and still cluster. Or find some other reason to party.

  • Unfortunately you will never rid the naysayers that rebel against the state and that goes for Ingress players as we have seen. So Nia needs to now make the move to mitigate this issue by suspending the app. Therefore we can avoid collateral damage from a game that the general public don't give a stuff about.

  • GrnTyrantGrnTyrant ✭✭
    edited March 2020

    Yes, PLEASE listen to the experts & your Government! Stay home don't leave unless its absolutely essential otherwise you are putting the population at risk!!!! Ingress is NOT essential travel, what part don't you get? Yes good advice stay home and play Minecraft (I agree with that).

This discussion has been closed.