On Pokémon GO, the big GO Fest 2022 took place on June 4th and 5th. However, the community had quite a bit of criticism, mainly due to the low shiny yield. Niantic has now commented on the shiny chances. We at MeinMMO will show you what they said.
What event is this about? A few days ago, Pokémon GO held the annual GO Fest. During the two-day event, trainers from all over the world were able to encounter special spawns, defeat interesting raid bosses, solve research tasks, and benefit from bonuses.
Those who purchased a special event ticket for around 17 euros could also expect additional content and thus should have received a higher shiny rate. However, this has been heavily criticized since the GO Fest.
Many trainers who purchased a ticket are now disappointed because they were able to catch hardly any or even no shinies at all. How poor the shiny yield at the GO Fest really was is also shown by our survey.
Michael Steranka (Director of Product at Pokémon GO) has now commented on the criticism in a statement to the online magazine dotesports.
These are Pokémon that visually differ from their normal form by their color. For example, the shiny Gyarados is red instead of blue. Shinies are correspondingly rare to find in the game, which is why they are particularly coveted in the community.
“If shinies occur too often, it harms the game”
As Michael Steranka states according to dotesports, Niantic has acknowledged the criticism from the community regarding the GO Fest 2022 and received a lot of feedback on the event. They intend to take this into account for the planning of future events.
Furthermore, he specifically addresses the criticism of the shiny rate at the GO Fest 2022 and says:
We understand that some trainers judge the quality of a Pokémon GO event primarily by how many shiny Pokémon they catch. We have heard from trainers who told us how lucky they were this year regarding the number of shiny Pokémon they caught, while others had the opposite experience. If shinies occur too often, it harms the game in the long run.
Michael Steranka (via dotesports.com)
Steranka further explains that Niantic’s primary goal in hosting the GO Fest is for trainers to have fun with the event’s content for a weekend, such as catching, raiding, battling, exploring, as well as experiencing the storyline, special research, challenges, and items.
The goal, therefore, is for the overall experience of the GO Fest to be seen as worthwhile.
No reaction to other points of criticism: However, the shiny rate was not the only point of criticism from the trainers. Some players report that they had problems with the incense throughout the entire event. Pokémon that spawned due to the incense disappeared within seconds, making them impossible to catch.
Especially ticket holders were supposed to receive exclusive spawns from the incense, such as Galarian Mr. Mime, Incognito, or Dratini. According to dotesports, Niantic did not address this criticism about the GO Fest 2022 in their statement.
Trainers find “the explanation is just a slap in the face”
Niantic’s statement is particularly a topic of discussion in the reddit community. On the one hand, some trainers are reacting to Niantic’s response, but also to the fact that Steranka did not address the problems with the incense. Some responses can be found there (via reddit.com):
- Runmindor: “They basically admit that the game is a casino (which we obviously knew); ‘we want you to keep paying for the chance to get shinies, but not too many to weaken our main source of income.'”
- tklite: “Half of my incense spawns despawned as soon as they spawned. When I was in the game, incense spawns appeared, I clicked on them, and they despawned immediately. So many Dratini candies are gone.
- JAZpfitts: “This is the worst reaction imaginable. They know that C-Day rates degrade shinies. […] It’s fine to say they don’t want people to get shinies too easily, but they shouldn’t sell tickets (or raid passes or egg incubators) based on increased rates and promote new shinies as a feature when they then turn around and accuse the community of expecting shinies. This is your event. You sold it for $15, and without shinies, it’s… not worth much. […] This explanation is just a slap in the face.”
The strong reactions caused by the GO Fest 2022 were already evident immediately after the event. Whether trainers were disappointed or relieved largely depended on two factors: whether they played with or without a ticket. There was also some positive feedback on the GO Fest 2022, although many players are rather frustrated by the new statement.
What do you think of Niantic’s statement about the shiny rate at the GO Fest 2022? Do you also think that shinies should be rare in the game? Or should Pokémon GO make an exception at such events? Let us know in the comments here on MeinMMO.
June still holds a special surprise for you. The Community Day with Capuno brings back level 4 raids, albeit with a restriction. We will show you what that is.
