Player Reviews

Well, I've been a member of the Pokefarm community for.... like... 9 years...? (Started playing during PF1 and have been a fairly active member since then) and man have I seen many changes in this site. From trading in shinies to the wheel in hopes of spinning it for good prizes to trading in the three types of pokemon to make a delta species, this site has gone through drastic changes, most of which were for the better. However, as you can see, I am only giving 2/5 stars for the time being. Over the years I have seen a few things come up that really eked me. (I know people will probably down vote these since I'm going against the waves, but I feel if someone is looking into a site, they should know both sides). First off, the staff. Now, a lot of reviews that pertain to the staff are excruciatingly harsh. However, I have had a few minor instances (either between me and one or from looking through threads) where the staff were not the kindest. For instance, I had a small, and rather short, with a staff member (they more than likely know) where I made a rather detailed argument against something, and instead of having a reasonable discussion about it they focused on one small portion of it leaving a wide variety of logical fallacies within it. I pointed it out and was immediately shot down with a "this discussion is over" type of message. Another that I witnessed was from a forum thread in the suggestions about ranks (which will be discussed shortly). Users didn't like the way Arceus Rank was being obtained, so they expressed their opinions about it, and some in harsh manners. When a staff member responded, the users argued every point and had several solutions to fix both parties ideas. Once the debate was getting very interesting, a staff member posted calling a user out (in my opinion, rather unprofessional) and basically said now they are thinkin about getting rid of it all entirely. This, to me, is rather unprofessional. Why make a comment about getting rid of it all entirely instead of talking through it and coming up with a solution. And for the staff who called the user out, what was to gain about putting their username? Was the goal to consume them with guilt? It was kind of a group effort to be completely honest, why not call the lot of them? My next little issue is with, of course, Arceus Rank. This is the ultimate goal of the entire site and anyone who has it considered amazing. Now, my issue with this is that it is nearly impossible to get. Like, NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE. This site has been around since 2013 and according to recent data, only 133 people on site have it (out of almost 7k active members). Now, I'm not saying anything about making it easier. It's just that with the extreme amounts of new fakemons being released it is making it Extremely hard for the average player to achieve. It's now starting to look like an almost laughable goal due to it's difficulty. If you are looking for a site that is easy to beat, this is definitely not the one for you. My third little issue is with hypermode. Now I know this comes up frequently, that this site is a "pay to play" site. It's not, it's just a "pay to make it easier" site. The staff has done a good job with making things accessible for anyone. Whether it be shiny hunting with the pokeradar+ or weekly bonuses, there are multiple ways around it. However, my issue is that in order to get mass amounts of something, real money is required. Yes, you can trade. I know this and this defense is used to literally ever users that says this. However, trading can only take you so far. You get upwards of 300 GP per week that can be trading for credits. However, I've had threads selling GP for the ratio and have gone 2 weeks without a response (with thread bumping) (not to mention the ration of GP:Credits is slowly rising). So trading is really a luck based defense. One cannot be sure an item will trade which makes it all the harder. I guess my final issue really goes back to my first point with the types of responses the staff gives back. Now I know there is a culture shock between groups since this site is run by people in the UK (I'm fairly certain) and a large population of the site is from the US. However the staff still come off as slightly rude in their remarks. I'm not saying anything a staff member says is snarky, however, I have seen many comments in threads and on other reviews that make the staff seem... a little condescending...? Arrogant...? Snarky...? I don't know if it is just the way I'm reading it or if it is just me reading it that way or if that was the intentions, they just come off rude sometimes. Yes, I gave this site a 2/5 stars for those reasons above. I am one of a few (I think) that can say they've been a part of this site for close to 10 years and will be a part of it for years to come. However, I do feel there are things that should be fixed, or at least looked at. Again, I know my opinions differ largely from other people, that is expected, but a new user should at least know the issues of the site. If a staff member would like to message me about my rating in hopes of increasing it, I will gladly accept the message, but for the time being: 2/5 (I hope this all makes sense. I'm on mobile while writing this so I have auto correct going against me)

After playing this game, I find it extremely frustrating and annoying to find shiny or albino pokemon. I've been playing this game for almost 2 months without finding either.

Well yeah, they're rare :D In seriousness though, you should focus on progressing through the game as a whole first, before specialising into a hunter.

As a minor, this game can be extremely time consuming. Users who can't or won't spend real life currency have to spend a lot more lime selling and doing scour missions to earn game currency.

Albino Pokemon Take Forever To Hatch

That's kind of the point; they're rare! :D

"Staff are rude but helpful" is probably the best summary of the majority of my complaints with Pokefarm. I personally feel a huge lack of professionalism from a few huge players on staff and honestly, I wouldn't care that they are snarky or rude people if they kept these things away from the public eye, however on several occasions they have make posts that everyone is pinged about on the news feed that have been more than a little offensive. Which, stepping out of line would be alright if the apologies and edits didn't feel so sarcastic. Niet is super guilty of this and Garthic defends him. Their response to people saying "I don't like how accusative and backhandedly sarcastic Niet was in this update" has been "You misread me/him and since it wasn't meant to be aggressive (this is just how Niet is, deal with it) we're going to dismiss this and disregard your opinions/feelings then make even bigger jabs at entire portions of the community in our next public update." It's not like just one or two people are complaining about this. So many people have complained about how brash Niet is and it seems like staff and Niet refuse to acknowledge that maybe Niet could tone it down? It very much feels like this should be a "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" situation but instead Niet has to have the last word on everything, like he has to win this argument instead of actually empathizing with users feeling attacked. There are good things about the game and staff. They don't put up with other users bullying or harassing each other and, in my experience, have dealt with the situations quickly and completely, even if I left my one experience with an odd taste in my mouth. Niet is very good at his job. He is a very good programmer. He's constantly making updates to the game and adding features. I've never personally made any suggestions as to what should be added to the game, but little inconveniences here and there (for example, ease of mobility and managing mass amounts of pokemon within fields has been greatly improved on in my years stay on pokefarm). They seem to be developing new events all the time and tweaking old ones if users complain enough (though this is sometimes met with ego and sarcasm from Niet). The game has been made easier as well with the additions of the egg warmer and exp share which rewards activity while allowing people to be less dependent on clicks from other people. Two features seem daunting to me at present. First we have Pokerus which, used to be much easier to get. Only one user can have it ever quarter hour, which was fine about a year ago. Pokefarm's community has taken a huge upturn since I joined and this has lead to a large decrease in ones ability to get 'rus. If Pokefarm's user population continues to increase, I feel a revamp to this feature may be necessary. My gut response is to allow two people to have 'rus at once, but I'm not sure how Niet would want to/has to restructure things to make that work (or if there are better solutions to the problem). The second feature that makes me sad is Hypermode. It makes it incredibly easier to get shinies and it costs real money to obtain (and yeah sure, people can purchase zophan canisters from other users, but hoo boy are they expensive). With a full shiny chain your chances go from something like a 350% to a 2500% boost with Hypermode. That boost is insane to me and it makes Hypermode very appealing, but its nearly 60 USD for a full years Hypermode (which is, of course, the cheapest per canister deal. Lesser subscriptions are more expensive per day.) I'm stuck between "I don't have time to take full advantage of Hypermode, so what's the point" and "Hoo boy that still would make my whole like 10 times easier." So, in my mind the tie breaker is "do I want the staff and developers to receive my money." And at present, no, I don't. There is not enough professional courtesy and I say this as a person who does not go onto the forums at all (the rules there are very strict and very child oriented. This is not a place I see myself doing well, I prefer environments geared more toward 20-30 year olds. On that note, for a site so child oriented, they're setting awful examples of how to deal with differences of opinions. It very much feels like they're speaking to petulant children instead of customers half the time, but now I'm rambling.) I've decided to put my money where my mouth is and not pay for Hypermode unless I see a huge, consistent changes to public relations. (I really do want to support this site. It's very well coded and designed. It is an incredible time sink and provides me a lot of enjoyment. I wish to get more enjoyment out of it, but I also want to feel valued as a customer.) Why a 2/5? Because it is super important that staff respects users. It will drive me away if present behaviors continue. I don't care how good the game is if I feel insulted and disrespected. And if staff's response is "well then get out" then fair enough. I half expect it because this is the tone I've come to fear and know is completely possible.

I don't think you're being fair on Garthic and the rest of staff. The PR problem is me, 100%. I'm working on it, although I will point out that without making mistakes how can anyone improve? The problem is made worse by how British people such as myself do tend to be rather more sarcastic in our humour, which American people generally don't appreciate - that's a bit of a culture shock factor. I do think it is important for us to have some personality, even in "official" places like the Changelog (which I believe is what you're referring to). Nobody likes robots; personality is important. If you want proof of that, I went to the other extreme by posting a DIFF file output as a changelog entry, and lots of people were confused :D Silliness aside, what I'm saying is that I'm going to keep being the one to post announcements and such, for the most part. I do take feedback into consideration. I'm trying to improve but mistakes can and will happen. Moving on, I'm glad you enjoy the game as a whole. And I appreciate your words about my skill as a programmer, that's always nice to hear. With regard to Hypermode, I mean... you're absolutely right. It's like that by design. Pretty much everything that can be purchased on PFQ is optional, but helpful. That's the main thing stopping us from being "pay to win," the other being the fact that you can trade everything, even the premium currency. There are a number of users out there who haven't bought anything, but get their constant Hypermode and other upgrades through trading, which I think is awesome. I'm rambling at this point, I feel. Thank you for your time, and feel free to PM me if you'd like to discuss anything further.

I haven't been apart of this site for too long but I do have experience with these kind of forum/click games. This site runs very well considering it isn't done by a huge company but by individuals working on independent code. Sometimes this does cause problems with how the website runs but I've seen that Niet actively wants to fix these issues and has. The biggest issue I have with this site (and why I am giving it 2 instead of 5 stars) are the people who believe it is necessary to criticize and -for lack of a better word- **** on the work of the Staff, and then get angry when the Staff respond as human beings and not robots. People expect this website to be run in the style of "retail" customer service where the customer is always correct and demands unconditional respect. Unfortunately, that mentality does not work in a user based environment, where there is direct contact from the owner to the consumers in almost a "boss-employee" kind of address. If you don't agree with your boss at work you would never be outright rude to them and expect respect and understanding back. Goes the same way with the staff here, if you are rude they are under no obligations to be sweet and respectful to you. I do apologize for the less than perfect rating for something that isn't within staff control but this issue does involve aspects of the website.

I appreciate your feedback, but swearing is not acceptable even if you can't find a better word. I have edited the offending word out of your review.

It's okay I guess, but I feel there could be more. What that is I don't know.

Unfortunately we can't really help improve the site if you don't know what could be done to improve it. And it seems our users agree, as your review has received a number of downvotes... Perhaps you could check out the Suggestions forum. There are a variety of ideas there and you can submit your own.

minor discrepancies. overall great game.

If I may ask, what "minor discrepancies" cause us to warrant a 2-star rating? I'd like to know more, so please feel free to contact either myself or Garthic because... well, what have we done wrong in your eyes?

The site itself can be addicting, the egg clicking is actually something I don't put much effort into, I find the most fun roaming the shelter. Perhaps not the way the site was meant to be played but the need for people to click you back as much as it's needed to get high levels or hatch a lot of eggs is only something I'll do if I'm really bored. Shinies and albinos have very limited chains for free players as well, the low odds don't inspire me to click like there's no tomorrow. I have issues with the staff as a lot of people would tell you. My issue stems from the rules being too strict on forums. I get spamming can be an issue but one "bump" post every two days is against the rules, posting too much in a row is frowned upon, there's little room to speak freely and the mods are not afraid to remind you of that. The staff issue isn't making me quit but it certainly gets me contemplating it. I've also been checking out these reviews and the replies from Niet are very salty for low star ratings. It's actually a good read, I recommend it. All in all, two stars from me. Overall not too much to do, a lot of links aren't working or take a while to get fixed. The game is unbalanced with pay to win standards, the staff don't leave room for negative opinions, and I feel like I can't connect with the community because the forum rules are limiting.

I'm going to keep this short, because I can't comment on your opinion of shiny/albino hunting beyond the fact that your playstyle just doesn't fit with hunting or chaining. Nothing wrong with that, but I will also mention that even "pay to win" won't work for your playstyle, since all paid options are just accelerators, not instant wins. My saltiness, if any, stems from the fact that these reviews are meant to help people. They should help new users decide if they want to join, but they should also help us to improve. That's why reviews like "3/5 meh" aren't helpful to anyone. Higher reviews reinforce that we're doing well, which is great. Lower reviews mean we're failing somehow and so I'm trying to start discussions. I will, however, take umbrage with your comment that "a lot of links aren't working". That was true... 15 months ago. Unless something's been hiding in a dark corner, everything works now and has for quite a while. If I'm wrong about this, please do let me know with specific details and I'll get on it!

Could use some work toward being fair to all players. as of the time writing this is panders to people who have alot of time on their hands and try-hard the website. Alot of people who don't have much time for this or have medical issues hindering their ability to play this are not getting most of the content - and it's not their fault that they can't spend as much time here. Other than that this is one of the best pokemon games I can find online. It's entertaining and time consuming for those who need to spend their time on something.

I'm sorry but I'm confused. Don't *all* games follow the idea of "the more you play, the more stuff you get"? I guess an exception can be made for Idle Games, but even they "reward" you for being present more frequently (ie. to upgrade facilities). I just don't really understand why this is a problem. Why is rewarding people for playing more, a problem? Please do contact me about this because I would like to understand.