An old debate about the fairness of Niantic's "Pokémon Go" has resurfaced once again, and this time, players have set up a petition to strengthen their call.
"Pokémon Go" was released in July 2016 to enthusiastic response from fans all over the world, who took to the streets to capture Pokémons and battle each other as PokéMasters. For many, it was a dream come true. One year later, however, developer company Niantic is being accused of having produced a game that is unfair and sapping players of their wallets' contents.
The game regained its top spots at the app store's top grossing charts after the Raid System update. Players received only one Free Raid Pass per day, which encouraged many to purchase Premium Raid Passes, which sell for $1 each. The update also allowed for Max Revives and Max Potions to be purchasable in the store.
With the addition of another way for the developers to make money, however, came a call that asked Niantic to be more considerate to its players. A petition at Change.org asks the developer to make the first three levels of "Pokémon Go" to be free of charge.
"The recent addition of raids into Pokemon Go has stimulated player interest to participate more in the mobile game. However, since trainers only receive one free raid pass per day, trainers are very selective on which raids they will buy premium passes for," the petition said.
Meanwhile, YouTube account Trainer Tips opened the debate on how unfair the game is with a 19-minute video titled "Pokémon GO is not fair," which has more than 400,000 views as of press time.
The video came following Trainer Tips' owner's successful catch of the Pokémon Mewtwo after participating in the Pikachu Outbreak Festival in Yokohama, Japan. The event featured special Pokémon spawns and allowed players who attended the event to catch Mewtwo, two weeks earlier than all other users.
Existing complaints against the game include how players in rural areas have less access to Pokémons and how live events exclude players far from urban areas where these events are held.
Niantic has yet to respond to any of the complaints or the petition itself.
