"One thing about Go Fest stood out to me: Trading Economy feels anti-fun"

#PokemonGO: I think it is time for Niantic and our community consider a change to the trading economy in Pokemon Go. I went to Go Fest, and my biggest takeaway from the event is how much I now see the trading economy as un-fun. Let me explain:At GoFest, Many Trades Were Killed Due To LimitsAt Go Fest, our "special" trade limit was increased from 1 to 5 for the day. There was near universal praise for this move. Safe to say trading was a goal of Niantic at Go Fest. But on the ground, the increased limit just demonstrated, to me at least, why the limit hurts the game.Go Fest had two kinds of players: casual, and hard-core.An average hard-core, legit player went into GoFest with basically the same handful of needs:Eastern Sea (Blue) ShellosUxie, MespiritChatotTropiusRelicanthVolbeat"Rare" Unown, including F, J, H, X, and Z.Since I'd say that "hard core" players made up at least 3 of 4 players, it felt like everyone, myself included, wanted those.And people had them. On a discord I joined prior to Chicago, one person was offering 40 Carvanine, 30 Corsola, and 30 Heracross. I spoke with players from Tokyo who made the trek. They showed me 50 East Sea Shellos. I met a player with 30 Chatot. I met a player with 9 Relicanth.All of those players went home with most of their inventory. While most of the players who wanted those went home without them. The Chatot guy said this to me:"Everyone wants a Chatot. I'd give so many away just for the fun of it, but I need to get my wants and only have 5 trades."My "wants" were short, because I know I'll eventually get most of the above list (or already have). I wanted an Unown Y and Z. The Y was easy. Then I found the player from Taiwan with a Z."Sorry, no more trades."I was broken.Meanwhile, "casual" players wanted even easier to find things like Riolu and Gible or past event Pokemon they missed during periods of inactivity like Sunglasses Squirtle or Delibird. But these players also didn't have the things the "hardcore" players wanted in return, and with a limit, "hardcore" players weren't offering these (especially for a 500,000k cost!)At GoFest, Many Trades Were Killed Due to Dust500,000 dust is something few players have. 2,500,000 is something fewer players have. There were people looking for Shinies. And people willing to trade them. But dust was a thing.A friend of mine wanted a shiny Pidgey. He found a person who wanted his shiny Onix. The person had Onix registered. My friend didn't have shiny Pidgey registered. The person didn't have 500,000 dust. The end.Later that day, a 10-ish year old kid sees "Shiny Pikachu" on my "I have list" so he got excited. It was a half hour to the end of the day, and I wasn't going to find my Unown Z, so I when he asked "what do you want for it?" I said "a Magikarp." I was ready to make his day and I have no need to hold an extra Shiny Pikachu for another 18 months. His eyes lit up. His Mom said it was okay. I added him. We went to the trade screen. He didn't have 500,000 dust. The end.Somehow, for an event that was trying its best to highlight and encourage trading, it left in the dust (pun intended) many of its players.After GoFest, I Can't Share the Fun of Chicago With Players At HomeNow I'm home and I have 180 inventory slots occupied by Pachirisu and extra Unown. And I am a social player with tons of people here I know and play with. I told them for weeks before I left, "I'll bring you home Chicago fun." Then I realized something:I can trade 1 per day.It will take me 180 days of meeting people to rid my inventory of the extra stuff. PS: I don't raid daily, so each day I don't go meet a local player is wasted. Make it a year.I could be Pokemon Santa Clause right now, sharing a rare Regional with everyone I raid with. I could be the Unown Easter Bunny, and hook up everyone I meet at Ralts community day with an Unown. When I go to Argentina next year, I can bring home 100 Chatot and adorn everyone I meet with that multi-colored songbird.But I can't.Because the system prohibits it.On Raid Happy Hour last Wednesday, I raided with 14 people that I basically always see. 12 of them didn't have Pachirisu. All 14 of them could've used at least one of the Unown. I could've made up to 80 trades last Wednesday.But did I one.The system feels designed to force those of us who went to GoFest to transfer our extra Unown and Pachirisu because of the hoops we must jump through to trade them to people who don't have it registered.That is sad.It's like we are prohibited from sharing the rewards from our travels (to Go Fest or otherwise) with our friends.Which Reminded Me of This Non-GoFest Related Anecdote:I work at schools and I have a student who knows I play and I showed him my inventory. He asked for one each of my Shiny and Normal Sunglasses Squirtles. Since no one else will offer me anything for them, I said yes. But, he needed to build friendship.It took him 3 months to get to Ultra friends with me. Because he is a kid. Because he isn't able to go out and play every day like me.I go to his school once a week. He doesn't always bring his phone. So finally the stars align and we go to Trade. I send him the Shiny. Then he asks for the normal.The stars haven't aligned again yet.My Conclusion: Trade Costs/Limits Are Anti-Fun for the Sake of Fighting CheatersAsk me a year ago, and I was 100% down for the limits!No one at Niantic has said this publicly, but there are two big reasons to make trading so costly:If there is no in-game barrier, people could sell for real money rare Pokemon.If there is no in-game barrier, spoofing is incentivized, as spoofers can ask for hard to find Poke's like shinies in exchange for easy-to-get regionals.For these reasons alone, I agreed.But now that I've experienced that difficult realities of these limits, I hate them.To combat the combination of incentivizing cheating via spoofing and/or cheating by selling Pokemon, Niantic has made trading a feature we can't easily use to actually round out a Pokedex. And given how hard-pressed so many are with space, many will be transferred. And that is tragic.I Feel that Legit Players Are Punished for the Actions of CheatersI wanted to give my student my extra event Squirtles on the day he asked for them. 4 months later, he is still waiting.I could have a Chatot and Unown Z and likely other regionals right now if the players could've traded them, and they wanted to, but limits prevented it.My local players could be enjoying a little slice of Chicago (and I'm not talking Pizza) if it wasn't so dang difficult for us to trade.A 10-year-old-ish kid from Indianapolis should have a shiny Pikachu right now, but doesn't.So, What Now?Ultimately, I'd be 100% for these limits to be relaxed. Screw the cheaters! If some cheaters get an advantage at the cost of me getting to actually have fun, so be it.Why not give a "Special Trade Ticket" for each first spin of the day instead of having a daily limit of 1, and allow players to let them stack. That way, if we skip a day, we can do two (or 10) another day. Grant extras of these at events.Special event Pokemon like at Go Fest, at least, should get an attribute that makes it a low-cost trade. In the RPG games, Pokemon can "carry" an item, and this item could be a "Special Trade Coupon." Since usually, the most expensive factor in a trade determines its cost, if the most expensive factor is caused by the Pokemon carrying the coupon, that fee can be reduced significantly.Regionals shouldn't be special trades, honestly. Make them cost more. Don't apply them to a limit (unless they do tickets, then maybe).At events, a 50% stardust discount is not enough. Seriously, 500,000 dust for a shiny to shiny trade was still prohibitive for most players at Go Fest. It should've been 50,000.That said, overall, costs should be reduced. A 100,000 fee for a Legendary/Shiny/Unregistered trade is still substantial and if reduced by friendship still reason enough to push players into leveling up friendship first.Finally, Community Days are excellent days for Niantic to allow game-wide reduced costs and extra special trades. Why save the fun for just a Go Fest? If I could trade 5 special trades on community day, I will (at least until I'm almost done with Pachirisu).I know TSR is cautious about too many "criticism" posts, so I hope this post adequately analyzes the problem and musters itself above the line for venting a cynicism. We'll see if it survives the mod team. But if it does, I'd love to hear others' thoughts. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://bit.ly/2Fsdlg8