In Pokémon GO, you have been able to send event tickets to friends for some time now. However, a trainer is now showing why that might not be such a good idea and is also calling for a new feature in the game. We from MeinMMO explain what this is about.
What feature is being discussed? In addition to the free content that Pokémon GO mainly offers, certain events occasionally take place, for which you need a paid ticket, such as the GO Fest or for the special research during Community Days.
In order to play these events together with friends and family, Niantic introduced a gifting feature in May. This way, you can purchase the event ticket in the in-game shop not only for your own account but also gift it to friends if you have at least the best friends status.
And everyone loves receiving such a gift. Or do they? Because this new gifting feature for event tickets is currently causing quite a stir in the reddit community. We explain why.
That’s why a gifted ticket causes trouble
Those who enjoy and especially regularly play Pokémon GO will surely be happy about a gifted event ticket. This is what a friend of the reddit user KappaCritic evidently thought, although he doesn’t know him personally at all.
This person reported in his reddit post that he received a ticket for the finale event of the GO Fest 2022 as a gift from one of his friends. And even though he is grateful to this friend for the gift, he is not satisfied with the current feature at all.
Because as well-intended as the other trainer was in enabling him to participate in this special event, KappaCritic has no time to take part that day. However, his friend couldn’t have known that, as KappaCritic explains in the comments, they have never met.
For this reason, he is annoyed that another player has spent extra money on a ticket that will not be used and cannot be returned or re-gifted. Therefore, he is calling for the introduction of a “No Gift Tickets” feature.
What is the requested feature about?
With the help of such a feature, KappaCritic wants to avoid such situations in the future. Ideally, he would like to have the option to set that he does not want to receive any tickets. This way, in the best case, no tickets can be gifted to him, and players do not find themselves in such a situation at all.
From his perspective, it would also be conceivable for Niantic to at least implement an option to decline such gifts, return them, or alternatively gift them to another trainer, so that the paid ticket does not expire at least.
Support from the community
The other trainers in the reddit community share this view and support the opinion that there should at least be an option to accept or decline such a gift.
In addition, the user dawnward118 points out that she has already seen players rename their buddies accordingly: to “no gifts please” (via reddit.com). It seems KappaCritic is not the first player in Pokémon GO to experience something like this.
Why do trainers do this? Many cannot understand why trainers simply gift event tickets to other players. Because as with KappaCritic, they often do not even know each other in real life or have exchanged only a few words over social networks.
Additionally, there is the fixed event time during which the ticket can only be used, which has also led to problems for KappaCritic.
User zGnRz writes (via reddit.com): “Honestly, it’s crazy when some people gift something for $10 in a mobile game, but apart from that, why would you gift someone something with a time constraint? I mean, nice gesture, but I only use the gift feature for people I know will be there…”
And swanny246 would also like to know why KappaCritic was gifted a ticket by another trainer he doesn’t even know (via reddit.com): “Yeah, I’m really curious why OP was gifted a ticket at all. I received my original GO Fest ticket as a birthday gift, and it was only given to me after they asked if I had bought a ticket and if I wanted to play.”
What motivated the friendly trainer to be so generous and just gift him a ticket is unknown. However, KappaCritic suspects that he was simply at the top of his friend list.
Is Niantic already planning a change to the gifting feature?
The Pokéminers, a group of dataminers, recently came across a text passage in the game’s source code that hints at a future option to control whether to receive paid gifts (via pokeminers.com).
This is an initial indication that such a feature might be in the works. However, whether and when this feature will actually arrive is still uncertain at this time. Should there be any official information from Niantic, you will of course learn about it here on MeinMMO.
In the meantime, you should probably ask your friends in advance if they already have a ticket and if they want to play at this event before gifting them one. Because then they will surely appreciate your surprise.
What do you think of the gifting feature in Pokémon GO? Have you used it yet? Or have you received event tickets from other players? Feel free to share your opinion on this here on MeinMMO in the comments and discuss it with other trainers.
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