RUMOR - Morale At GameFreak at an all time low.

[blueredandgold]

I just so happened to be listening to that very episode.

I fast-forwarded to the time stamp and maybe shouldn't have, because I do still feel like I'm missing a bunch of context - the entire episode certainly has a running theme this week of company employment and morale.

There are so so many Pokemon threads where I've tried to articulate a post but have just ended up leaving it alone. It is extremely off-putting to see so much arguing while the drive-by 'fans of this game/franchise/system are the issue' keep happening as well.

I live for the 'normie' discussions of Game Freak/the main entries of Pokemon on podcasts like Waypoint, because they are just that level of intimacy that I want to hear about in my Pokemon discussions.

 

[Phellps]

I'm afraid I'm out of the loop. What has GameFreak down to necessitate "winning back fans"? I don't really play Pokémon games anymore, but I'm very curious.

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It's debatable that they even need to win back fans at all, let alone the true reason for that.
People are just trying to push a narrative with zero facts.

 

[Mediking]

The leaks... Gamefreak gotta get better at stopping them

 

[Deleted member 49438]

I feel bad for the Pokemon team, as I think they're capable of a lot more but are hamstrung by the overarching pokemon media strategy. They've become victims of their own success. Pokemon fans seem to expect 10/10 when it's very hard to make something that both feels new/fresh but doesn't deviate from the core structure of the gam, especially when they rarely have more than a 2 year gap between major game releases. I think typically they do an admirable job, and this looks like some of their best work. Hopefully they will give more info on Pokemon Home soon to see if it can somehow partially fill in the void left by all of these pokemon being cut from the current release.

 

[Dr Pears]

"Toxic fans" to GF: *constructive criticism*

GF: Our morale is down

"Real fans" to "Toxic fans": TOXIC! GTFO! Leave GF alone!

Real toxic "fans": Hehehe lazy devs

 

[Jbone115]

I mean, they might not being doing that, but if we get another third version over DLC (they have no excuse at this point, platform wise) it'll be just as bad

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A third version is just as bad as addictive micro transactions, silencing free speech, and associating with pedos? Really?!

 

[Horohorohoro]

I don't think the sales are a good argument in favor of lower level employees losing morality. That won't affect any of them. They've already been paid. The higher ups are who make money off of sales.

 

[Aaronrules380]

Weren't you debating that they don't really listen to fans, though?
The presence of widely requested QoL clearly shows otherwise, whether you find them impactful or not.

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They've been trying to improve competitive for ages and while I appreciate that, it's a niche within a niche of hardcore fans, and only one group of them. They've still done literally nothing for fans who want a better single player experience

 

[Raijinto]

If it doesn't do the sales that some of the others have done or its a dissapointment than its going to be a fiasco. there's been tons of issues with this game and the announcement around it.

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So you think that there will be a backlash that will be evident in sales?

 

[Xavi]

"Toxic fans" to GF: *constructive criticism*

GF: Our morale is down

"Real fans" to "Toxic fans": TOXIC! GTFO! Leave GF alone!

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Yes, you totally nailed down the issue. Bravo.

 

[HardRojo]

No no, you are not allow to say good things about what has GF done or else you're a shill.

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Err... you are, people have praised the good decisions, the problem is there are some users who won't let others express criticism, as you will understand.

 

[BeaconofTruth]

There are certainly people who have gone too far, but it's pretty shitty to argue that fans aren't allowed to voice their criticisms or distaste for the direction the series is going because it'd make the devolopers feel bad.

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Those poor devs and their multi million selling franchise being criticized. The unmitigated gall.

 

[Mekanos]

"Toxic fans" to GF: *constructive criticism*

GF: Our morale is down

"Real fans" to "Toxic fans": TOXIC! GTFO! Leave GF alone!

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I've been very critical of Sword/Shield but let's not pretend there weren't people who legitimately harassed GameFreak employees in their quest to be heard. It seems though that many posters here have already made up their mind that anybody disappointed in the games is in that group or condones their actions.

 

[Dark Cloud]

High sales doesn't mean criticisms employees heard about a game will cure their morale. Those criticisms will always be there

 

[Astandahl]

- return of PSS (+ improvements)
- return of DexNav features like Pokemon available in the area and special Pokemon with improved stats/movesets
- return of rental Pokemon (online feature)

+ features that were asked by fans like :

- ranked online mode
- QoL features regarding breeding
- Being able to play together with friends (true in the Wild area)
- Stronger Pokemon available in the wild
- less hand holding at the begining of the game

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This is great. In the last iterations Pokemon really moved away from the original concept of being able to explore the world since the start and tried a more linear approach. I've nothing against linear games but their forced tutorials and mediocre stories didn't do Pokemon X & Y and Sun/Moon any good.

 

[TimeFire]

The timestamp is ~1:38:00



Sounds like it's been like this since E3.

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Please threadmark this, OP! Solar Puffin

 

[ThatMeanScene]

Must suck to be a GF employee right now. Basically every problem people have with SwSh isnt their fault yet their the ones taking all the blame for it.

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I'm sure they're frustrated with a couple different aspects of the current situation. Not just fan requested things that were cut/not included but the management decisions that lead to them too. And I'm sure there are some team members that wish there were more hours in a day to get the fan requested stuff in.

Its tough to work on a very public product and not be able to do anything about perceived issues and/or missed opportunities on your own. You need management to approve things and then the whole ship has to turn in unison.

 

[Lelouch0612]

They had ranked online already, it's not new, even if it sounds like they improved it a bit.
Who asked for the stronger wild Pokemon thing?
It's cool that they're finally letting us skip tutorials that they should've let us skip ages ago, but doing a few bare minimum changes doesn't impress me that much

Rental pokemon returning are cool, but most people never even knew it existed in SM because of the hoops you needed to jump through so I doubt it's returning due to fan demand.
Not sure how anything is that similar to DexNav

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Lol even in your answer you dismissed the parts of my post you couldnt refute.

You already made your mind and I see that nothing will change it.

 

[Lothars]

The "lazy developers" is always a ridiculous accusation. I'm sure they worked harder than ever but they really messed up their priorities. They should know that fans are very disappointed.

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Exactly, the devs are far from lazy but that doesn't mean the game looks good and hasn't been a constant dissapointment in pretty much every turn.

 

[Deleted member 51691]

"Toxic fans" to GF: *constructive criticism*

GF: Our morale is down

"Real fans" to "Toxic fans": TOXIC! GTFO! Leave GF alone!

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Not sure how thinly-veiled lazy dev rhetoric is constructive criticism

 

[chrisPjelly]

I feel like this has devolved into people accusing each other of either being "toxic haters" or "fanboy shills". Get the fuck over yourselves.

 

[Phellps]

"Toxic fans" to GF: *constructive criticism*

GF: Our morale is down

"Real fans" to "Toxic fans": TOXIC! GTFO! Leave GF alone!

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That's full of shit, but go off

 

[DongBeetle]

I feel bad for them, hopefully the positive reception of Sword and Shield will give them the boost they need. I did my part by telling James Turner that I was excited for the game and thanked him and Game Freak for creating a game based on the UK.



Agreed.

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What positive reception?

 

[Aaronrules380]

I've been very critical of Sword/Shield but let's not pretend there weren't people who legitimately harassed GameFreak employees in their quest to be heard. It seems though that many posters here have already made up their mind that anybody disappointed in the games is in that group or condones their actions.

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Of course there was an incredibly small subset of people doing that amongst people who were upset. It's also totally disingenuous to pretend that those people represent anything more than a small fraction of the people who are upset

 

[Lelouch0612]

What positive reception?

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Previews were very positive

 

[Horohorohoro]

I've been very critical of Sword/Shield but let's not pretend there weren't people who legitimately harassed GameFreak employees in their quest to be heard. It seems though that many posters here have already made up their mind that anybody disappointed in the games is in that group or condones their actions.

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It sure was fun after E3 having everyone with any criticism of the game or Game Freak's decisions be associated with the person who decided to fabricate false accusations toward Masuda. I love not being able to criticize anything in a game because of shit I didn't do.

 

[Rand a. Thor]

Honestly there is a major issue with the games beyond Dexit, but it won't become apparent until we get concrete facts. And if the criticism in that department does get to them it should be taken to heart because it is worrying.

 

[Treestump]

This is the part all these ridiculous "game will sell lots, they'll be fine" posts are missing, but I've learned not to expect better from many Era users, they tend to ignore plenty of things.

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"Toxic fans" to GF: *constructive criticism*

GF: Our morale is down

"Real fans" to "Toxic fans": TOXIC! GTFO! Leave GF alone!

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For my own curiosity's sake and the sake of this thread, can you two explain your points and how GF aren't listening to fans? Maybe if we actually get the ball rolling instead of complaining about each other, we can have some sort of discussion.

 

[Deleted member 2791]

"Toxic fans" to GF: *constructive criticism*

GF: Our morale is down

"Real fans" to "Toxic fans": TOXIC! GTFO! Leave GF alone!

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Lmao how embarrassing of a post this is

 

[Astandahl]

Previews were very positive

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Reviewers have always been positive towards Pokemon. I'm expecting high scores this time as well.

 

[PortisheadBiscuit]

Right or wrong I imagine it sucks to put hours and hours of work into something only to be called lazy pieces of shit by their fans.

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This. Never seen such ungratefulness from a fanbase ever.

 

[Sandfox]

I don't understand the "People won't let me be negative without calling me

I feel bad for lower level employees and their morale, of course, because they're the ones who will get the internal blame, which absolutely sucks and will never ever be okay. But the higher ups are the ones who are going to make the money off of this game which is going to get Pokemon sales + Switch boost, so I can't really feel that bad for the higher ups.

Not a fan of people painting any criticism as toxicity though, Pokemon for some reason is something a lot of people get really upset about any criticism toward, to the point of getting excessively mad about a 7.8 review or whatever. There are bad eggs anywhere in this fandom.

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That's not what's happening though. Some people are going to be like that, but for the most part people don't care about normal criticism.

Also, that review thing isn't Pokemon exclusive. Just look at what happened with Twilight Princess, Uncharted 2, and even the Death Stranding thread had to set guidelines from post #1.

"Toxic fans" to GF: *constructive criticism*

GF: Our morale is down

"Real fans" to "Toxic fans": TOXIC! GTFO! Leave GF alone!

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lol at "constructive criticism"

 

[Seafoam Gaming]

https://gonintendo.com/stories/348697-rumor-morale-at-game-freak-at-an-all-time-low

Honestly, if it's true, maybe the SwSh fiasco will finally be the kick in the pants they need to decide to start listening to the fanbase instead of ignoring them.

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or maybe it's because they've had to deal with assholes constantly calling them lazy, assholes getting mad at the team who did their own passion project off to the side, along with jerks who spammed BBND tweets to Masuda on stuff such as:

-His tweet congratulating someone on their wedding
-His tweet honoring the victims of Nagasaki's Atomic Bombing
-His Tweets on fanart people send him
-Random Psyduck stuff he tweets (it's his favorite mon yet some people think it's a Gen 1 pandering conspiracy?)

Yeah if I worked there even if I was proud as heck of my product I'd be an anxious wreck nervous to death. This combined with if they have crunch (I honestly suspect they do) is just not a good combination. Not to mention this is the fanbase that has begged and raged for yearly releases anytime it seems like we won't get one: In 2015 when Super MD was the holiday release, in 2017 when people wanted a next gen or Stars/eclipse on Switch, and in 2018 when people expected the Gen 8 pokemon game to be thrown out that same year and were mad that LGPE weren't it.

Quite honestly, I just feel bad for the company more than anything. Especially considering how they deserve absolutely none of the behavior and harrassment sent their way. I say that as someone who was very mad by how ORAS turned out, BTW. I hated the games and even tweeted to Masuda that it disappointed me greatly but I left it at that one tweet and found other games in 2014 to play instead. There's a difference between feedback and harassment like they've been getting, if r/Pokemon and twitter are any indicators.

 

[Deleted member 54073]

Imagine having to create hundreds of unique looking creatures, I'd run out of ideas after about five.

 

[HardRojo]

I've been very critical of Sword/Shield but let's not pretend there weren't people who legitimately harassed GameFreak employees in their quest to be heard. It seems though that many posters here have already made up their mind that anybody disappointed in the games is in that group or condones their actions.

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Exactly, which is why you see posters like Xavi generalizing and trying to act as if there wasn't actual constructive criticism within Era, but it's to be expected, we've been dancing this dance for months now.

 

[Dark Cloud]

I feel like this has devolved into people accusing each other of either being "toxic" or "shills".

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It's like people can't acknowledge there's more than Shills and toxic people. You have toxic people who call Game Freak lazy, but you also have people who realize Game Freak is not lazy and have actual criticism of the games. Don't lump everyone under one category

 

[Deleted member 48434]

Please threadmark this, OP! Solar Puffin

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I'm not quite sure how to thread mark someone else's post.

Edit: Never mind, I got it.
I didn't have the option to do it on phone.

 

[Aaronrules380]

Lol even in your answer you dismissed the parts of my post you couldnt refute.

You already made your mind and I see that nothing will change it.

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I'm still getting the game, I've just been disappointed in the direction Masuda and Ohmori have been taking the franchise for ages. There's a lot of exciting stuff about sword and shield, but that doesn't negate how disappointing some aspects of it are or mean I shouldn't be allowed to express the choices they made that I dislike

 

[NHarmonic.]

"Toxic fans" to GF: *constructive criticism*

GF: Our morale is down

"Real fans" to "Toxic fans": TOXIC! GTFO! Leave GF alone!

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I'm seeing a lot of that here, with shit like "Whining losers".

 

[DontHateTheBacon]

Honestly, if it's true, maybe the SwSh fiasco will finally be the kick in the pants they (Edit: By which I mean Masuda, and the rest of the higher ups, the actual devs at faultless here.) need to decide to start listening to the fanbase instead of ignoring them.

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Wouldn't it just be amazing if this were the reason that developers there are at an all time low, if it's even true at all?

I would want absolutely nothing to do with the Pokémon fanbase. They're insufferable and all of the more casual and younger people that the game is actually targeted at rarely make their positive voices heard over the chorus of negativity from the toxic portions.

No thanks. At some point, you become a game developer because you have ideas about what you think would be fun. It has to be tiring just doing what everyone else "wants" you to do every day.

 

[B4mv]

Wonder how much the toxic fanbase is to blame for that.
People are relentless.

 

[Egida]

I feel like this has devolved into people accusing each other of either being "toxic" or "shills". Get the fuck over yourselves.

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As someone who doesn't really care about these games, that's been exactly the case since the beginning. It's really entertaining.

 

[Xavi]

Err... you are, people have praised the good decisions, the problem is there are some users who won't let others express criticism, as you will understand.

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And I'm sure you can understand that a lot of us, who are not bothered by the dex cut, understand that there are disappointed fans about it and don't think all criticism towards GF is some kind of toxicity.

Shh, we've already established that absolutely any and all kinds of criticism is toxic, expressing such things will not be allowed, it'll be generalized as toxic behavior expected from assholes.

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[Zen Hero]

I really appreciate the work that Gamefreak does! Pokemon is better than ever in my eyes!

 

[HK-47]

I've been very critical of Sword/Shield but let's not pretend there weren't people who legitimately harassed GameFreak employees in their quest to be heard. It seems though that many posters here have already made up their mind that anybody disappointed in the games is in that group or condones their actions.

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Bad apples spoil the bunch is a big perception problem.

 

[Phellps]

What positive reception?

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The reception was overwhelmingly positive when the game started to leak and it turned to shit when people found out which Pokemon were cut.
So the positive reception was about everything other than the dex.

 

[That Naive Cube!!]

Extremely excited for when these games end up reviewing overwhelmingly well, and sell millions


Urgh, fuck this take

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Agree with all of this and second your opinion about the quote you referenced

 

[PancakeFlip]

It's not the leaks, its probably the reaction to everything and the fact that a significant amount of media surrounding the game is negative. All you have to do is google the games and tons of bad news pops up along with the regular stuff.

 

[DongBeetle]

There's no fiasco and they're constantly listening at the fanbase, wich reflects in the games. You're just being toxic, and part of the problem

Also, saying this without giving details is just being sensationalist

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Lmao dude can you not criticize a game without being toxic? Even if it's your favorite game

 

[Linde]

-people relentless shit on your games and studio as whole, usually undeservedly
-game leaks weeks in advance, spoiling some amazing designs
can't blame em