As we are sure you know, tickets for Pokémon GO Fest 2018 went on sale this past Friday. The sale went poorly, and possibly even worse than last year. This article is meant to highlight Niantic's shortcomings (since they won't do it themselves) and think about solutions for future events.
OUR EXPERIENCE: First, we want to share our experience. It starts as many of your's probably did. Once the countdown hit zero, we refreshed the page and clicked the "Buy Tickets" button. We selected the day we wanted to go, the amount of tickets we wanted, and and what gate we wanted to enter from. But when we went to purchase the tickets, we experienced severe lag.
The site's server was overwhelmed with the millions of Trainers, scalpers, and bots rushing to buy the tickets all at once. Once the page failed to load, we kept trying. We even pulled out other devices, running on different browsers and Internet sources, in a last-ditch attempt to get our tickets.
We checked Twitter to see if Niantic had tweeted about any of the issues. We saw that they had said that the tickets were sold out, and then we provided our own update on the situation. We decided to give purchasing tickets one last shot after that. By some miracle, we made it to the purchasing screen this time, and managed to purchase some tickets.
But we know many people weren't as fortunate as us. Scalpers (people who buy tickets for an event they have no intention of going to and reselling them online for astronomical prices) were a problem last year, too, but they seem to have gotten the upper-hand this time.
Despite Niantic's warning shots in their secondary announcement, they did not follow through on their threats of scalping prevention. Niantic knew they'd be a problem, but still made the same mistakes as in 2017. This article is meant to highlight those mistakes so Niantic can (hopefully) fix them.
WEBSITE INSTABILITY: The ticket-selling service that Niantic chose to use this year was not a good choice. It just did not have the capability to handle a Pokémon GO-level of event, and its lag made tickets sell out in much more time than last year.
Many people have suggested online that Niantic should sell tickets in the in-game store for GO Fest 2019 and other such events. While that may alleviate the server lag on websites, we are unsure if Niantic is even able to sell tickets through the in-game shop. Remember that Apple and Google have policies in place regarding in-app purchases, which may be preventing this suggested feature.
BOTS & SCALPERS: Human and bot scalpers were an issue in 2017, and they continued to be one in 2018. But it could have been widely prevented. Niantic said in one of their blog posts that a valid Trainer ID will need to be registered to a ticket in order to activate it. That was clearly a threat to try to deter scalpers, and left out the part that this part of the purchase was done in a registration email.
Again, people online were speculating about this topic. They were suggesting what we interpreted Niantic's threat as: have a Trainer Nickname associated with each ticket upon purchase to avoid scalping. This would mean that only real Trainers, and maybe even ones above a certain level, would be able to purchase a ticket. While that may solve or limit the scalping problem, it would create a whole new problem: children.
Children (more specifically, those under the age of 16), or other people who require adult supervision, will obviously need some sort of parent or guardian to be with them. If that parent or guardian does not play Pokémon GO, they could not get a ticket. And, according to Niantic's rules, all people over the age of three must be a ticket-holder in order to enter the festival.
Even if Niantic made a change to those rules, people would likely lie to take advantage of loopholes and act as one's parent or guardian on order to get into the event without a ticket, even if they were not. Really, this issue has no one, true solution. But one thing that would help alleviate it is a measure right after the "Buy Tickets" button is an easy image puzzle that proves you are a real person, which would stop bots from grabbing tickets ahead of real Trainers.
SELLING ON EBAY: Those bots and scalpers went directly to eBay after purchasing their tickets. They marked up the price drastically. Despite Niantic's explicit statement that it is illegal to resell event tickets in Illinois, scalpers did it anyway. And they held nothing back. These individuals are selling the tickets right now for hundreds, in some cases thousands, of dollars.
Luckily, it seems like most Trainers are smart enough not to bid on or buy these tickets. If you are considering doing so, please reconsider. Since it's a scalped ticket, it could be terminated by Niantic or a scam by the seller. We admire your dedication to the game, but please just report the offer to selling platform instead. It's better to hope that Niantic will resell scalped tickets instead of spending way too much on one.
FAQS: This point is one that we haven't heard much complaining about, but it is something that we think is important. The Frequently-Asked Questions sections of the GO Fest page on Pokémon GO's website did not go live until the tickets did. It would be nice to be able to read or glance at those first, so we can determine if their is a regulation that would make it impossible for one to go to GO Fest.
SPEAK UP, NIANTIC: (From here on, we are going to be very blunt and critical of Niantic). To be frank, Niantic has been weak and pathetically silent on this issue. This whole situation was caused by Niantic not taking the proper precautions to prepare for scalpers, and they need to take responsibility for it.
Niantic has issued no public statement in five days condemning the scalpers or offering proof that they are actively working to try to take down the ticket sales on eBay and other online platforms. Even if it was on Niantic CEO John Hanke's personal Twitter account, it would be better than nothing. Niantic is leaving it to the community to report the ticket resales to eBay and come to the realization that the ticket sales went poorly. It's their event, and it's their responsibility.
Acknowledging their shortcomings always seems to be challenging for Niantic. It took them months to acknowledge that we were unhappy with EX Raids. And with GO Fest 2017, they never gave us an explanation for why the day went so poorly. They left that to the sponsored YouTubers, which we cannot count as a credible source on the matter unless we see the contracts they had with Niantic.
ALREADY A FAILURE?: The reason we want Niantic to speak up about the ticket sales is to acknowledge the fact that this part of the event went poorly. If the actual GO Fest goes well, they'll be off the hook for this. For the sake of future GO Fests, we cannot let that happen.
For the sake of GO Fest 2018, we cannot let that happen. The experience has been soured from the start, and we are less confident heading into the actual event after the ticket flop. We would like to remind Niantic of the hostility in the community for a quite a while after GO Fest 2017 and Pokémon GO Stadium. If they fail this event, too, they will loose the confidence we have in them.
Let us know what you think of all of this on Twitter. Thanks for reading, Trainers!
OUR EXPERIENCE: First, we want to share our experience. It starts as many of your's probably did. Once the countdown hit zero, we refreshed the page and clicked the "Buy Tickets" button. We selected the day we wanted to go, the amount of tickets we wanted, and and what gate we wanted to enter from. But when we went to purchase the tickets, we experienced severe lag.
The site's server was overwhelmed with the millions of Trainers, scalpers, and bots rushing to buy the tickets all at once. Once the page failed to load, we kept trying. We even pulled out other devices, running on different browsers and Internet sources, in a last-ditch attempt to get our tickets.
We checked Twitter to see if Niantic had tweeted about any of the issues. We saw that they had said that the tickets were sold out, and then we provided our own update on the situation. We decided to give purchasing tickets one last shot after that. By some miracle, we made it to the purchasing screen this time, and managed to purchase some tickets.
But we know many people weren't as fortunate as us. Scalpers (people who buy tickets for an event they have no intention of going to and reselling them online for astronomical prices) were a problem last year, too, but they seem to have gotten the upper-hand this time.
Despite Niantic's warning shots in their secondary announcement, they did not follow through on their threats of scalping prevention. Niantic knew they'd be a problem, but still made the same mistakes as in 2017. This article is meant to highlight those mistakes so Niantic can (hopefully) fix them.
WEBSITE INSTABILITY: The ticket-selling service that Niantic chose to use this year was not a good choice. It just did not have the capability to handle a Pokémon GO-level of event, and its lag made tickets sell out in much more time than last year.
Many people have suggested online that Niantic should sell tickets in the in-game store for GO Fest 2019 and other such events. While that may alleviate the server lag on websites, we are unsure if Niantic is even able to sell tickets through the in-game shop. Remember that Apple and Google have policies in place regarding in-app purchases, which may be preventing this suggested feature.
BOTS & SCALPERS: Human and bot scalpers were an issue in 2017, and they continued to be one in 2018. But it could have been widely prevented. Niantic said in one of their blog posts that a valid Trainer ID will need to be registered to a ticket in order to activate it. That was clearly a threat to try to deter scalpers, and left out the part that this part of the purchase was done in a registration email.
Again, people online were speculating about this topic. They were suggesting what we interpreted Niantic's threat as: have a Trainer Nickname associated with each ticket upon purchase to avoid scalping. This would mean that only real Trainers, and maybe even ones above a certain level, would be able to purchase a ticket. While that may solve or limit the scalping problem, it would create a whole new problem: children.
Children (more specifically, those under the age of 16), or other people who require adult supervision, will obviously need some sort of parent or guardian to be with them. If that parent or guardian does not play Pokémon GO, they could not get a ticket. And, according to Niantic's rules, all people over the age of three must be a ticket-holder in order to enter the festival.
Even if Niantic made a change to those rules, people would likely lie to take advantage of loopholes and act as one's parent or guardian on order to get into the event without a ticket, even if they were not. Really, this issue has no one, true solution. But one thing that would help alleviate it is a measure right after the "Buy Tickets" button is an easy image puzzle that proves you are a real person, which would stop bots from grabbing tickets ahead of real Trainers.
SELLING ON EBAY: Those bots and scalpers went directly to eBay after purchasing their tickets. They marked up the price drastically. Despite Niantic's explicit statement that it is illegal to resell event tickets in Illinois, scalpers did it anyway. And they held nothing back. These individuals are selling the tickets right now for hundreds, in some cases thousands, of dollars.
Luckily, it seems like most Trainers are smart enough not to bid on or buy these tickets. If you are considering doing so, please reconsider. Since it's a scalped ticket, it could be terminated by Niantic or a scam by the seller. We admire your dedication to the game, but please just report the offer to selling platform instead. It's better to hope that Niantic will resell scalped tickets instead of spending way too much on one.
FAQS: This point is one that we haven't heard much complaining about, but it is something that we think is important. The Frequently-Asked Questions sections of the GO Fest page on Pokémon GO's website did not go live until the tickets did. It would be nice to be able to read or glance at those first, so we can determine if their is a regulation that would make it impossible for one to go to GO Fest.
SPEAK UP, NIANTIC: (From here on, we are going to be very blunt and critical of Niantic). To be frank, Niantic has been weak and pathetically silent on this issue. This whole situation was caused by Niantic not taking the proper precautions to prepare for scalpers, and they need to take responsibility for it.
Niantic has issued no public statement in five days condemning the scalpers or offering proof that they are actively working to try to take down the ticket sales on eBay and other online platforms. Even if it was on Niantic CEO John Hanke's personal Twitter account, it would be better than nothing. Niantic is leaving it to the community to report the ticket resales to eBay and come to the realization that the ticket sales went poorly. It's their event, and it's their responsibility.
Acknowledging their shortcomings always seems to be challenging for Niantic. It took them months to acknowledge that we were unhappy with EX Raids. And with GO Fest 2017, they never gave us an explanation for why the day went so poorly. They left that to the sponsored YouTubers, which we cannot count as a credible source on the matter unless we see the contracts they had with Niantic.
ALREADY A FAILURE?: The reason we want Niantic to speak up about the ticket sales is to acknowledge the fact that this part of the event went poorly. If the actual GO Fest goes well, they'll be off the hook for this. For the sake of future GO Fests, we cannot let that happen.
For the sake of GO Fest 2018, we cannot let that happen. The experience has been soured from the start, and we are less confident heading into the actual event after the ticket flop. We would like to remind Niantic of the hostility in the community for a quite a while after GO Fest 2017 and Pokémon GO Stadium. If they fail this event, too, they will loose the confidence we have in them.
Let us know what you think of all of this on Twitter. Thanks for reading, Trainers!