I went to this fest. I had two tickets. I was there the entire day. (Got an intense sunburn on my chest because I got sunscreen on everywhere except on my collarbone lol)
…Honestly, people are exaggerating about the suck. There were some pissy people yelling and bitching and booing, and the majority were dissatisfied with the server issues at the start, but the overall mood for the weekend was exasperated enjoyment.
TLDR; Y’all underestimate the technological miracle they were trying to pull off. They actually did pretty good. Don’t compare this to Dashcon, the media is sensationalizing things. Niantic tried their best to do good, and most people walked away still playing pogo.
Legendaries were released. All the tickets were refunded. There WAS unlimited free, cold water available all over the parks. There were a ton of rare spawns - including some regional-specific spawns that you could only get by traveling to another country. - Niantec DID NOT say ‘Oh its fine because here’s rare pokemon’, they were already spawning before things started going wrong.
There were ambulances on-site and a well-stocked med-tent in case of heat stroke or other injuries. There were shaded tents and hundreds of charging stations. A lot of really cool props.
The blank screens and youtubers being cut off were because of HECKLERS shouting over everything. Trying to be on stage just seemed to encourage them to be noisier and more aggressive.
They HAD free wifi in the beginning, but there were too many people and it shorted out all the wifi. (One of the festival volunteers said it was because they didn’t realize there was a specific specialty type of wifi router that was needed to be able to handle that level of traffic) After that, all the connection issues were due to local cell towers not being able to handle the strain of such a data-heavy program being used by so many people in such a densely concentrated area.
The Niantec exec who came on stage to apologize for what was going on sounded like he was on the verge of crying, and this was early in the day. They all knew things were fucking up.
They expanded the area of rare spawns to 2 miles out from the fest site, and encouraged people to go spread out to ease the strain on the cell towers AND IT WORKED. Once the majority of those 20,000+ people were outside of that ONE park, the app worked again.
People were catching pokemon, doing raid battles. It was fun! It felt like the first summer of pokemon Go again. Groups of people were sprinting across a field because someone shouted that a Porygon spawned, and I met a lot of really great people who generally seemed a bit frustrated that Niantec hadn’t been more prepared, but overall understanding and having a good time.
“Pay thousands of dollars” is sucky, yes, but the tickets themselves were 20$ - everything else was travel costs and lodging. They refunded the tickets, everyone who attended the event got a 100% catch rate on the legendaries (which, now that this catch rate is back to ‘normal’ - is ridiculously difficult to obtain) and promised everyone who attended the event would get 100$ worth of in-game coins. As soon as they announced this, pretty much everyone chilled and no one chanted anymore.
Would I go to a Niantec-hosted event again? Yeah, honestly, I would.
I think they’re a company of nerds who didn’t hire a proper team for event planning who would know about the technological strain this would cause on the local infrastructure, and how to mitigate it effectively. This is NEW. This kind of cellphone-centered festival, the kind of requirements to pull this off, is INCREDIBLY NEW.
Anyone who has ever attended a big music festival knows that your cell reception basically shrinks to zero, because cell networks are incredibly inefficient. Niantec HAD Sprint and Boost Mobile on-site to help boost up cell reception, but it wasn’t enough. The app RELIES on a strong cell connection, and the idea of having a festival that relies on a strong cell connection is basically asking for a miracle.
They put in a billion times more effort and money and love into this event than the whole dashcon disaster.
Aside from a couple shouty assholes, I honestly feel like the majority of people I met at the event still love pogo, and will continue to play it.
So chill. It wasn’t that bad.
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