A Pokemon Go Player Expectation of Use (PEU).

Niantic Tos, and What USERS should Expect From Niantic

Recently Niantic released a new TOS (Terms of Service) for their Pokemon Go product, in the wake of a very publicly noticeable account suspension ever, who, it's estimated, has spent thousands of dollars on the game, but it seemed that his playing mode got the best of him and industry insiders believe that his suspension is permanent.

Either way, in the wake of this power player getting kicked out of the game, Niantic released an updated ToS for Pokemon Go, the first update since the game's inception back in 2006.

The most important thing that we as players can take away from this ToS update is that you should never bank your coins or supplies in the game to the point where you will lost a lot of money, if a suspension or a mistaken suspension occurs.

As we've seen in the case of YouTuber LuckyBunz, Niantic sticking to their word of reinstatement of suspended accounts isn't always on spot. He was mistakenly suspended (the game observed another app installation folder on his phone that was mistaken for a spoofer's app) and they have blown him off about his situation.

Then again, Niantic is not the best at getting back to user inquiries these days.

Since they have released a new ToS, I think, we, the players, should put out our own ToS, or, A Pokemon Go's Players Expectations of Use (PEU).

Game Performance and Consistency.

Stop with the Pokemon appearing and disappearing on the users screens.

I hate seeing a herd of mons, only to see them cycle off my screen and come back later. I hate tapping one monster to catch, then when I get out of the capture screen, finding the rest of them gone. What is up with that? It's a known performance commodity that even the most seasoned PoGo YouTubers take note of. The sad part is that players just accept it and move on when in fact, we should be getting angry and letting Niantic know about this.

Animations Blocking Game Play

Stop with the egg hatch animations and splash screen animations when we're approaching gyms or raids or starting the game. Put them somewhere else that we can look if we want to see them.  I can't tell you how many times I've been hosed by egg hatches when I had only 30 seconds to get into a raid that I ran for from down the block. It's pretty discouraging to bust your ass and then get screwed by a game mechanic such as an unwanted animation. The animations are just fluff, since the hatched monster is already in our inventory before we see the animation.

Pussy Ass Research Rewards

With the exception of filling the Pokedex, ALL Research Reward catches aren't worth a shit unless we drop time and money on powering them up. Level 15s and 20 research rewards are pretty much a slap in the face after the first catch. I know you (Niantic) push players into spending time and money into playing once a day and powering up things, but seriously, after seven days of completing tasks, you would think we'd actually be rewarded with something that is new, but also awesome to use and feel good catching. But instead, it's almost always trash fodder.

Suggested Battle Teams Are Nearly A Waste of Raid Passes

Whether it be a raid or just a gym battle, you need to suggest more aggressive battle teams, like EVERY OTHER companion site that tracks our monsters does.

It's sad that third party websites suggest MUCH BETTER battle teams than Niantic. I can go online and find the best counters for Bosses, but the suggested line ups SUCK.

But again, I go back to spending money and if it takes a player two or more passes to take down a Raid Boss, that's all good for Niantic, but not the players who have tight budgets.  I seriously can't stand when I use suggested battle teams and see 'not very effective' messages with my battle hits. WTF are you thinking Niantic? Give us ass kickers so we can actually have a chance to win. A few times I've used your suggestion, to only have my ass handed to me. Then I use a third party website app suggestions and within a few minutes I've taken down the raid boss and only one or two monsters need medical attention. Not an entire team. That's pretty sad folks. Sad.

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The bottom line is that we want a more consistent and rewarding gaming experience if we're going to be playing, head-down, in your phone for many of our waking hours.

Just saying.

Header image and some info via LuckyBunz on YouTube.

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