Pokémon Go

[Ominous Gamer]

Valve already sent out C&D letters to the enabler sites under the pretense that what they were doing was a violation of the EULA. Of course it's to late to starve off the lawsuit, just like their refund policy was a reaction to those lawsuits.

These types of microtransactions aren't new. It being such a blatant gamble is why you can't buy individual items directly. With Steam you have to use your steam wallet, with Pokemon you have to first buy their coins. That way when the game of chance doesn't go your way you can't do a charge back or file complaints. You were given what you paid for, whatever you gambled that on is your own decision.

[Ominous Gamer]

Its fun screwing with people like this. For how little reward there is people are taking gym ownership way to seriously.

[Loki]

You'd think they'd copy just about every other game and provide some boosts as long as your team holds the closest gym.

[Lewkowski]

It's still on going, I think.

But when you can gamble for in game items which can be sold in the Steam Market place for pretend Steam money, and there are third party sites that can easily be used to turn pretend Steam money in to real money it's clear that that even if they do win the laws will soon be changed to cover this loophole.

Mobile Gaming may face some issues with freemium games that rely on luck outside of this too. A lot of nanny states are looking to heavily regulate it because oh noes gambling. Funny side of this is that it isn't the Right that's doing it - its the Leftists who feel that companies are cruelly 'taking advantage' of the consumer.

[Steely Glint]

You're OK with children gambling?

[Aimless]

That is interesting, can you provide a list containing a lot of nanny states that have done that? It's just that when say stuff there's always a lot of detail missing and I'd prefer to learn the specifics.

[Lewkowski]

You're OK with children gambling?

Needing a valid CC and if someone on the CC is of majority than it is up to them to police the transactions on the card, not the company.

[Lewkowski]

That is interesting, can you provide a list containing a lot of nanny states that have done that? It's just that when say stuff there's always a lot of detail missing and I'd prefer to learn the specifics.

http://www.wsj.com/news/article_emai...MDEwNjExNDYyWj

http://www.cnet.com/news/eu-to-apple...ps-yeah-right/

http://www.cheatsheet.com/technology...tml/?a=viewall

Can't find the specific thing I read but those are a few additional nanny state stuff I found.

[Aimless]

That's useless, can you please provide some information that has to do with your actual claim?

[Lewkowski]

That's useless, can you please provide some information that has to do with your actual claim?

"A lot of nanny states are looking to heavily regulate"

They all apply to the essential part of my claim.

[Loki]

The nanny part is pretty ironic since the law here is trying to keep companies from taking money from children who don't know better.

[Lewkowski]

The nanny part is pretty ironic since the law here is trying to keep companies from taking money from children who don't know better.

How many children have their own credit card? I'm fairly certain password is defaulted for purchases on your phone (YMMV with the explosion of different phones but it was true for mine). You can also elect not even store the information on the device you want your child to use. I don't particularly mind clear and concise verbiage requirement that a purchase is being made however regulations saying you can't advertise a game as 'free' because you have the option to do In App Purchases is silly. The vast, vast majority of those games have gotten 0 dollars from me even though I've played some for over a year.

[Flixy]

After I paid one app with my credit card it automatically stored the info and suddenly I could make in game purchases with two clicks and no confirmation whatsoever. That may have changed by now, but if so, pressure like in those articles helped.

[Ominous Gamer]

it's clear Niantic couldn't organize a pissup in a brewery, and they have the whole techbro laissez-faire, hands off, crowd sourcing-solves-everything attitude that you see with companies like reddit or Valve.

Well, this all came to pass much sooner than I thought. When the game blew up ingress players provided a steady stream of warning. People took the first update of "minor text fixes" as a joke and the ingress players sounded their warning again. Now Niantic has forced the shutdown of the more popular community created tracking sites and have turned the game from an AR version of Marco Polo to a bland version of hide and seek. All without a single word to the players. Now the Ingress players are all saying told you so.

[GGT]

And now places like Arlington National Cemetery, the Holocaust Museum, and Japan's WWII Memorial have asked the game developers to somehow block those places from being a Pokestop....because players are trampling on hallowed ground to play the game.

So yeah, Rand, I think the game developers should have been more responsible -- we're talking about real places and people (and not just children) in augmented reality, that's different from virtual reality games. They should have done a better job at anticipating stupid human behavior, especially since the game depends on herd-mentality, instead of making the players responsible for "quality control" by default.

[Hazir]

You do not actually have to enter any of these places.

[GGT]

That's not the point I'm making, Hazir. The fact is that players are showing up in places they're not welcomed. And (IMO) the game developers should have anticipated this, and done more to make the game opt-in, instead of opt-out.

[RandBlade]

And now places like Arlington National Cemetery, the Holocaust Museum, and Japan's WWII Memorial have asked the game developers to somehow block those places from being a Pokestop....because players are trampling on hallowed ground to play the game.

So yeah, Rand, I think the game developers should have been more responsible -- we're talking about real places and people (and not just children) in augmented reality, that's different from virtual reality games. They should have done a better job at anticipating stupid human behavior, especially since the game depends on herd-mentality, instead of making the players responsible for "quality control" by default.

The developers have said they are taking places like the Holocaust Memorial out of the game, so they are being responsible. The simple fact is that this is a mammoth real-world augmented reality game and this kind of thing happens and so long as its dealt with (as it is being done so) then that is all that a reasonable person can expect.

[GGT]

The developers have said they are taking places like the Holocaust Memorial out of the game, so they are being responsible. The simple fact is that this is a mammoth real-world augmented reality game and this kind of thing happens and so long as its dealt with (as it is being done so) then that is all that a reasonable person can expect.

I expected more from them, as the creators of the game. Why you're so willing to make excuses on their behalf?

[GGT]

The developers have said they are taking places like the Holocaust Memorial out of the game, so they are being responsible. The simple fact is that this is a mammoth real-world augmented reality game and this kind of thing happens and so long as its dealt with (as it is being done so) then that is all that a reasonable person can expect.

I expected more from them, as the creators of the game. Why are you so willing to make excuses on their behalf?


I know you're in the middle of a new business venture, and perhaps you're looking at the game from a business model perspective......so in that context why shouldn't the greater burden be put on the business, and not the consumer?

[Aimless]

If you'd been a developer, how would you have reliably identified the places that should not be designated pokéstops?

[RandBlade]

Not making excuses just being realistic.

[GGT]

I don't understand how game developers wouldn't anticipate that players might end up on private property, let alone public spaces, that wouldn't want to be part of their game. Or maybe they did, but didn't care.....so long as it gave their game high numbers of participants, and ultimately high ad revenues, and profits. Gapitalism?

[Aimless]

Okay but how would you propose they go about identifying the areas that should be off-limits?

[GGT]

Seems to me that cemeteries and burial grounds should automatically be protected. It's not like Google maps hasn't already identified those sites....

[Ominous Gamer]

I do think Niantic holds some of the blame for not vetting the more basic locations. Turning a Nazi concentration camp into a gym is just fucking stupid. If the game can use such a restrictive filter on usernames someone could have spent a work day searching the database for possible no go locations.

But the locations are also over reacting. The game has a lot of interest right now, give it time to calm down. Learn to roll with it.

Humans being stupid fucking assholes are also to blame. Remember that news article I posted up there of the guy getting arrested? The police have decided to request that the entire park be removed from the game. Because they have been called out to the park every night since that arrest to chase away 100+ people. Putting stops in cemeteries would actually be cool. Drawing people towards important locations is a good thing. But people stampeding through burial services is...stupid on the level of deserving a punch in the junk.

[Ominous Gamer]

Looks like the mini revolt the fans have been having over the past couple of days brough Niantic out of their comfort zone, they issued actual communication.

Trainers,

As many of you know, we recently made some changes to Pokémon GO.

- We have removed the ‘3-step’ display in order to improve upon the underlying design. The original feature, although enjoyed by many, was also confusing and did not meet our underlying product goals. We will keep you posted as we strive to improve this feature.

- We have limited access by third-party services which were interfering with our ability to maintain quality of service for our users and to bring Pokémon GO to users around the world. The large number of users has made the roll-out of Pokémon GO around the world an... interesting… challenge. And we aren’t done yet! Yes, Brazil, we want to bring the game to you (and many other countries where it is not yet available).

We have read your posts and emails and we hear the frustration from folks in places where we haven’t launched yet, and from those of you who miss these features. We want you to know that we have been working crazy hours to keep the game running as we continue to launch globally. If you haven’t heard us Tweeting much it’s because we’ve been heads down working on the game. But we’ll do our best going forward to keep you posted on what’s going on.

Be safe, be nice to your fellow trainers, and keep on exploring.

The Pokémon GO team

[Echovirus]

It certainly did them no favors by attracting the ire of The Pokemon Company after the game hit below 2 stars in the Japanese iOS App Store. The global flood of requests for refunds all weekend definitely exacerbated things, especially Google being directly contacted for Niantic violating the Play Store ToS by having an unmonitored email address listed.

[Ominous Gamer]

Niantic has slowed the game refresh mechanics down to the point that the game reportedly no longer works if you're riding a bike. Oh and anyone can request a location be removed, and thats causing pokestops to drop like flies. To the point that we already have a governor asking for the stops to be put back in the game.

Twitter Link


All the shit they are changing and making worse, what the hell is going through their head?

[Echovirus]

Yeah, this is going to really blow up in their faces for third parties requesting removals.

When it was first reported, The S.C. Department of Administration and state Department of Public Safety said Friday they had not requested the game’s developer remove the pokestops. A few days later, it was reported a spokesman for the game’s developer, Niantic Labs, could not say why the State House pokestops had been removed.

As far as all the idiotic shit they keep pulling goes, maybe they hired the fuckwits from the Hangouts team?