The “Pokeminers” are an important source of information for players in Pokémon GO. Now the group of data miners wants to restrict their work a bit. They explain what the lack of communication from Niantic has to do with it.
Who are the Pokeminers? The Pokeminers are a group of data miners founded in the summer of 2019 that regularly searches the code of Pokémon GO for changes. In the community, they have established themselves as a reliable source of information about the game.
They provide information about possible upcoming contents like recently the winter map, but also compile posts about current events in the game. They have made a name for themselves with comprehensive analyses of updates.
However, the Pokeminers announced that they want to make some restrictions – also because they are not satisfied with the direction of the game.
“It has become a duty” – Motivation of the Pokeminers is fading
In a post on their website (via pokeminers.com), the data miners explain that they have increasingly become frustrated with the game and developer Niantic in recent weeks and months: “The three admins/partners of PokeMiners (Lew, GM2K, and Marty) have become more and more alienated from the game over the past month due to how Niantic has treated the game we loved so much,” the statement reads.
The Pokeminers criticize various decisions and lack of communication with players. There is too little attention to the quality of the game and the community: “Every event starts with bugs and/or confusion, they take the game offline for 40 minutes [without] mentioning, apologizing, or explaining it, new features are poorly implemented, and the priorities are at best questionable,” say the Pokeminers.
Such problems have already been criticized in the community – for example, the boxes in the shop, missing information, or currently also the paid event tickets.
Thus, the Pokeminers have lost a lot of motivation and love for the game. But they see this as the motivation for their work, which is increasingly time-consuming:
It has become a duty and feels more like a job we have to do than enjoying it like we used to,” say the Pokeminers.
We are very grateful for our generous supporters on Ko-Fi like Leek Duck, PvPoke, and Ahmadinoz (thank you very much!), but together with the money we earn from advertising, we do not earn much, if anything at all,” the statement reads: “To be completely transparent: Marty, for example (who founded PokeMiners 3.5 years ago) cannot even buy the largest PokeCoin package in the year with the money. So we are definitely not doing this for the money, haha.
The group explains that their reports require hours and sometimes days of work behind the scenes. On average, they invest about 30 to 40 hours per week into their work: “This happens in addition to our regular full-time jobs, our other projects, and of course we try, like everyone else, to find time for our family and our lives.”
What will the Pokeminers change? The Pokeminers emphasize that they are not leaving, but they also want to continue reporting on updates, as the communication from Niantic is not sufficient in their view. They hope that most users will hardly notice the changes: “Because let’s be honest, most people don’t even read half of what we publish,” say the Pokeminers.
In such places, they now want to streamline. In certain reports, the focus will be on highlights and concepts, deeper reports will be merged, graphics for current updates will be less elaborate or eliminated. In addition, they will no longer constantly track the source code of Niantic’s network code but will focus on the data in the “Game Master.”
We will simply have to expect less detail from the Pokeminers, but content will still come: “Hopefully, these changes will allow us to at least have fun with PokeMiners again, and hopefully Niantic will start changing things so that the game is fun again,” the statement reads.
What do you think about the topic? Can you understand the decision? And how do you see the current status of the game? Are you missing things, do you want improvements? Or are you satisfied? Tell us in the comments!
What else is happening in Pokémon GO, you can find out in the overview of the December events in Pokémon GO.
