It’s been many, many years since sparkle tokens have been available for players openly. The most recent times have been in auctions, which are far and few between and have seemingly been indefinitely discontinued. One can’t help but wonder if sparkle tokens are on the path to being discontinued as well, but this is another question with no answer.
As with the rest of the game, there has been little transparency from staff regarding the state of sparkle tokens. Moreover, today, one of the few remaining sparkle tokens in the game has been sold to a player from a staff member. I find this highly unethical, as the staff member in question is a firm advocate against sparkle tokens and has even suggested for them to be removed from the game. To profit off of one, while advocating for their scarcity/obsolescence, does not sit right with me. But with my personal grievances out of the way, that’s not the main point of this thread.
What is really bothering me about PMU, as someone who loves PMU and has a long history with it, is that there’s no communication. I’ve seen talk of Mt. Moon and Mobile Scarf nerfs flying about, I’ve heard rumours in my guild of the 2023 Easter HC being secretly bugged in terms of certain shinies (seriously? 0 shiny Wooloos this whole HC?) that are unaddressed by staff to this day, and I’ve heard a lot of promises for positive change and for more permanent content to be released. The problem is, nobody ever explains what’s going on in any of these situations. There are no updates, and even if there are staff willing to speak about these things, they are not allowed to communicate with players in a way that can be productive for the community. This lack of communication makes things worse, admittedly which can be seen with the talk of Mt. Moon nerfs. I know at least four players who have committed to hardcore farming Mt. Moon in anticipation of nerfs for the dungeon and Mobile Scarf, and this is not healthy for the amount of Poke circulating in the game, nor is it healthy for people to panic like this in the first place because of uncertainty regarding how the game will be played in the future.
The lack of permanent releases in this game is also extremely troubling. Having witnessed (and been a part of) HC grinding was an eye-opening experience. Many players including myself will spend more time than is healthy to try and get our desired shinies during HC, because there is not even a hint as to when those Pokemon will ever become available again, whether it be in future HCs or regular dungeons. I don’t know if people here remember how pressed I was for shiny Eiscue, but I guarantee that if I had known it would be released in Snowveil Lair less than half a year later, I would’ve had a much healthier relationship with this past Winter HC, and actually would’ve had time to enjoy the game for everything else it had to offer. And this isn’t an isolated incident; I’m sure everyone can remember in the past two or three HCs, at the very least, the existence of unhealthy grinders wasting their hours away in the game because of the fear of uncertainty. Situations like this create an anxious, temperamental playerbase, especially when nothing is said about anything in regards to how these predicaments should be addressed or avoided in the future.
I think for one, PMU should definitely have a permanent staff member or volunteer(s) that are in charge of communicating and making announcements to the playerbase. Many indie games out there also feature roadmaps, or lists of features they are actively attempting to work on in the game. Having something like this be public would really create a better environment between staff and players, so staff can receive player sympathy and feedback, avoiding a feeling of being rushed/disrespected, and so players can know what they are getting themselves into when they commit time to this game. It would be great to know things like whether or not auctions and sparkle tokens are ever going to make a comeback (if they’re not, killing the hope would be really nice), or plans for new dungeons or Pokemon to become non HC exclusive. We have such a massive backlog of Pokemon that need to be released outside of HC that I feel like some compensation should even be underway, but I digress.
The heart of this post is that PMU definitely needs some change in regards to how things are being handled on the staff team. The players are just as integral to PMU as staff are, and without any idea what’s going on internally, especially from key staff members such as Devs and Admins, it feels like us players are not being given a chance to fairly react to and assess the way the game is now or how it will be in the future. Having such uncertainty clouding over everything in PMU is not a pleasant experience, and I really hope that staff will soon make some moves to address this fact, and hopefully, steer the game towards positive change for everyone.
