Pokemon Go Players are Not Happy with the Current Pay-to-Play State of the Game

I know I love games that are free to play without any secret in-game costs. For a very long time, I considered Pokemon GO to be the leader of this group since I did not invest a single penny in it to play as long as I wanted. There were of course some purchases that could be paid with real money, but it was our own choice whether we wanted to do this or not.

In the last few months, it seems that this has changed. For instance, the Spring into Spring event had a Flower Crown Happiny as an event-exclusive Pokemon that was achievable only through hatching Eggs. Indirectly, Niantic made some of us want to spend our money on Incubators so we could get it. Little did we know, its hatch rate was surprisingly low, and there was no guarantee of getting it after 20 hatched Eggs.

Community Days have become a part of this money-pit too. Every Community Day event features a $1 exclusive Special Research Story which is going to be available to you if you pay the amount of money. There are bigger events that you can participate in, but only if you pay the cost of the ticket which is usually over $10.

Many players started realizing that Pokemon GO could become one of those games that suck your money from your wallet for every single thing. One of those players is GabeBito8, the player that wrote a Reddit post containing the smallest details of what is happening in the game.

The beloved Rare Pokemon are now featured as Raid Bosses only or as part of an Egg list, and not to mention the new Field Research tasks that have become quite painful to complete. The problem with the Raids is that you can only participate in them if you have a Raid Pass. If you do now own one and you want to get the Rare Pokemon, you would need to purchase it from the in-game Store. And if you beat it, nobody guarantees you that you will catch the Pokemon.

The irony is that this will not stop as long as the game is making money, but without a doubt, Pokemon GO is one of the most interesting games on the mobile market.

With the latest Pokemon Go update 0.211.0, the game is even worse and players are not happy with the constant freezing and crashing, or could potentially give people seizures.

Also, what will happen when they remove the increased interaction range of PokeStops and Gyms, as well as the increased effectiveness of Incense while not moving?

What’s your opinion on this? Do you think that Pokemon Go is a pay-to-play/win game?