Pokemon Go players are still having problems connecting to the game’s server. (Niantic)
Pokemon Go fans are beginning to turn on the game’s developer, growing increasingly frustrated with the various bugs and with the creator’s refusal to acknowledge complaints.
In recent days, gamers have faced issues such as a glitch where the nearby tracker makes it appear as if every Pokemon is three steps away. As a result, it is virtually impossible to locate Pokemon that are in close proximity to the player. There’s also a bug where the game freezes upon catching Pokemon, and another where the app is unable to recognize a phone’s GPS.
Finally, there are the incredibly unstable servers, which are constantly locking players out of the system.
On Thursday, July 20th, an update was released for the game. But while fans expected it to address at least one of the aforementioned problems, they were disappointed to discover it did nothing but fix an unimportant text bug. Also, the servers immediately crashed as soon as the update launched.
As the days go on, the anger at Niantic Labs, Pokemon Go‘s developer, continues to grow. While most users are understanding of the fact that the game has bugs, many are irked by the lack of response from the studio. Niantic has some Twitter presence, but they never use it to acknowledge any issues or assure players that they’re hard at work ironing out the problems.
In particular, this anger has grown in the game’s subreddit. One user recently posted a picture of an event where 1000 people turned out for a Pokemon Go meetup, only to discover that the servers were down.
Another user shared a story of a local Pokemon Go bar crawl for which hundreds of people came to participate, but they were all forced to return home when the servers crashed.
“This absence from a such an active and genuinely ecstatic community is archaic and unacceptable,” one Reddit user wrote. “The general silence from a company that rushed released a buggy game and is not informing its players what bugs they are working on is downright disrespectful.”
Another user worried that all of these issues were going to kill the game, resulting in most people giving up on the app and never returning. This is especially a concern because the hype for Pokemon Go was so out of control during the first week, and hardcore fans don’t want that to die down.
“Most of the casual players have quit because they got tired of a game that never works eating their battery,” they wrote. “They’ve stopped scheduling time to go into town for Pokemon hunting.”
Another grievance with Niantic is that many gamers have spent real money on items that they subsequently lost due to the game’s bugs. For example, players can purchase lure modules from the shop using actual money, and this item draws Pokemon to the area for 30-minutes. But if the servers go down before those 30 minutes are up, there’s no way to continue the session. Situations like these have lead to hundreds of players losing actual money on the game, and there is no way to receive a refund at this time.
“You guys take our money quietly and couldn’t seem to care less that half the items we use can’t even work while the servers crash,” a player said on Reddit.
Still, others are more forgiving of Niantic, noting that it’s an extremely small company that is clearly overwhelmed with the popularity of this game. Others have said that all of the vitriol is over the top considering the game is free.
Players are still awaiting another software update that addresses some of the issues or at least some sort of comment from Niantic Labs itself. They’ll be holding a panel at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, so hopefully they will give some insight at that time. Stay tuned for updates.