While I understand why Niantic wants a few lvl 5-8 agents, I think they could go about it in a different manner and still possibly get the same (and better) insight.
I’m sure this varies by community and globally, but from my experience when new agents join their local community they are quickly leveled by the vets (in non-pandemic times) so new agents can help with farms/smashing/ops/etc. faster. New agents that stay in the 5-8 range for more than a month or two are usually solo players who tend to avoid community and most online resources.
As a vet who has helped train several new recruits (and plans to train several more when ‘Rona restrictions are lifted), it’s in my best interest to understand how the n00bs think so I know where to focus my efforts in training so the new agents become effective quicker and more importantly so they enjoy the game and actually stick around. This understanding comes from watching them play and asking lots of questions.
If Niantic just wants “inexperienced” XMAs then they should look at time played rather than level which is more difficult to track, but what good things in life are easy? These low leveled players are also unlikely to be plugged in to community and thus not likely to be able to help with many other XMA duties. We have several local lone wolf “YOLO kings” who pop in and out and have been below level 9 for years. Alternatively, Niantic could pull on some training vets to add to this discussion. I’m not sure how the NDA is structured, but perhaps Niantic and the XMAs could come up with ideas and questions for teachers to ask n00bs to report back with.
Overall I really appreciate Niantic wanting to improve the onboarding process, but pulling XMAs for this reason just by looking at player level seems like it would be pretty ineffective.
I wonder if what happened is they looked at the database of agents and saw that there are a huge number of agents who are levels 5-8, and have been for a long time, so they said "This is an important player demographic". However, I would reckon that 5-8 is probably the most likely level range for a player decide they don't like the game and then quit. I sometimes check player stats of the players who submitted old portals where I play, and I often find they are founders around level 5-8 who haven't played since year 2 or 3 (based on the series of annual badges at the top of their medals).
As others have said, if a level 5-8 player is at all active in the community, they won't be that level for very long. Hopefully they will find a few good candidates for XM Ambassador in that group, but by the end of the year they will certainly move up if they play at all.
Is there a reason that a new account called RazorEcu was banned from the program? @InvestigateXM you refuse to quit a another player ( see the comments) from the program arguing that he started with a new account, the account RazorEcu is a new account too and you decide to quit because there is a preference? or something somebody tell you? I dont understand Niantic decisions.. I would like to recieve a feedback from you and the community. Also for you @NianticPooja
@Tyrant103vEA do you really have to ask that? isn't it strange that a level 8 account appears out of nowhere, with gold recharge medal and a silver glyph medal and without any activity in the com?, I can not deny that nowadays you can achieve level up by recharging or glyphing for the benefits granted by the pandemic but do you think that an account with no activity is not suspicious? Wouldn't you consider it a secondary account or a backpack account or that someone else level it up somewhere else and change its codename for him to use? If it were a resistance account wouldn't you suspect all of that? Do you consider that such account is eligible to be an ambassador? I am sorry but I think your answer would be no.
With everything that has happened lately in the game and the recent waves of bans it is to clear to admit that there are errors such as the account of @ChaosGospel that was not really active and was terminated without aparent reason and I admit that even though we are not friends, but I don't think it was a mistake that after noticing how irregular an account like you say is, new, appears at level 8 and is subscribed for the ambassador program not getting reviewed by niantic itself and if niantic finds that it is not a good candidate it is not without a reason, it does it because they found something out of place.
I am sending you this message not to incite the hate between the factions or to point out an agent, but so that first of all we get informed of what is happening within the local community without overlaping anyone.
So, thats your argument? a level account that you didnt see playing in your City? That´s enought evidence to quit from the program. I just mencioned that there agents that are in the program that have the same situation that the agent affected.
@DinDjarin I would like to consider @InvestigateXM and people like @NianticPooja review the account I mention an also tell me why Niantic dont quit the program too, because I have more evidence to argue about that.
Why am I being included again? I'm not a Niantic employee, have no ties to them and am not an XMA, nor do I know any of the affected agents personally. Did I miss something from the discussion, seriously? 😅
Hey, I am pretty sure that this is a good opinion about the case.. but they (Xavidarker) and faction agents, report a green account that was in the program too (RazorEcu) and Niantic decided to quit. So can you tell me why they decide to quit an ENL agent and prefer a RES agent, with the same characteristics (got an account banned and played with a new one).
You said that there is no problem, so why do they quit the program to that agent (RazorEcu)?
I never write in the forum or participate in a active game, but I considered unfair if you ask me.
So can you tell me why they decide to quit an ENL agent and prefer a RES agent, with the same characteristics (got an account banned and played with a new one).
You're assuming that what you're highlighting is why they chose to act one way in one case, and another way in another. Niantic sees "all", not just what people tell them about.
Similar. Took me about 60 days to reach lvl 8. A lot of that time was called collecting open portals, keys and occasionally linking, and not even touching Aegis portals. I did not find others until lvl 5, reg meetups at 6 and big world play the run up to the 2019 New Orleans anomaly which I got to 8 about a week before.
Do you really think specific player would be 100% dedicated to a faction, let's say RES in this case, if he/she was banned for some reasons (definitely some sorts of violations) of his/her previous account that belongs to a different faction, let's say ENL in this case?
I mean, does faction really matters here? Is it helpful by calling him/her by his "faction" which was chosen after Niantic offered a second chance? If someone switches between factions very easily at will then it's nothing relevant to the faction and not that unfair as you said.
There are a lot of bugs and we seem to get some of the blame. Yes, I feel that many of us feel frustrated when our technology does not work as expected.
So, is there a code of conduct for XMAs that must be followed, which includes not being overly negative on nearly every forum post? Might need to give at least one XMA that's active on the forums a discussion on constructive criticism versus telling every agent they're wrong in every post.
Comments
While I understand why Niantic wants a few lvl 5-8 agents, I think they could go about it in a different manner and still possibly get the same (and better) insight.
I’m sure this varies by community and globally, but from my experience when new agents join their local community they are quickly leveled by the vets (in non-pandemic times) so new agents can help with farms/smashing/ops/etc. faster. New agents that stay in the 5-8 range for more than a month or two are usually solo players who tend to avoid community and most online resources.
As a vet who has helped train several new recruits (and plans to train several more when ‘Rona restrictions are lifted), it’s in my best interest to understand how the n00bs think so I know where to focus my efforts in training so the new agents become effective quicker and more importantly so they enjoy the game and actually stick around. This understanding comes from watching them play and asking lots of questions.
If Niantic just wants “inexperienced” XMAs then they should look at time played rather than level which is more difficult to track, but what good things in life are easy? These low leveled players are also unlikely to be plugged in to community and thus not likely to be able to help with many other XMA duties. We have several local lone wolf “YOLO kings” who pop in and out and have been below level 9 for years. Alternatively, Niantic could pull on some training vets to add to this discussion. I’m not sure how the NDA is structured, but perhaps Niantic and the XMAs could come up with ideas and questions for teachers to ask n00bs to report back with.
Overall I really appreciate Niantic wanting to improve the onboarding process, but pulling XMAs for this reason just by looking at player level seems like it would be pretty ineffective.
I think I addressed that point where I mentioned how long it took first time.
It was still a very narrow window of time. Would think 1-8 better, a lot of agents start and don't progress much.
If you are level 6-7 you will very probably be 8 soon.
I wonder if what happened is they looked at the database of agents and saw that there are a huge number of agents who are levels 5-8, and have been for a long time, so they said "This is an important player demographic". However, I would reckon that 5-8 is probably the most likely level range for a player decide they don't like the game and then quit. I sometimes check player stats of the players who submitted old portals where I play, and I often find they are founders around level 5-8 who haven't played since year 2 or 3 (based on the series of annual badges at the top of their medals).
As others have said, if a level 5-8 player is at all active in the community, they won't be that level for very long. Hopefully they will find a few good candidates for XM Ambassador in that group, but by the end of the year they will certainly move up if they play at all.
When I started it took me 20 days to get to level 8. People who get into the game don't stay there long.
But the people who don't get into it that quickly, represent an important voice that needs to be heard as to "why".
My first impression of Ingress was "Make triangles to gain AP, destroy triangles to gain AP". Didn't appear very exciting at first glance.
Is there a reason that a new account called RazorEcu was banned from the program? @InvestigateXM you refuse to quit a another player ( see the comments) from the program arguing that he started with a new account, the account RazorEcu is a new account too and you decide to quit because there is a preference? or something somebody tell you? I dont understand Niantic decisions.. I would like to recieve a feedback from you and the community. Also for you @NianticPooja
I never was an XMA, I was never picked 🙈
@Tyrant103vEA do you really have to ask that? isn't it strange that a level 8 account appears out of nowhere, with gold recharge medal and a silver glyph medal and without any activity in the com?, I can not deny that nowadays you can achieve level up by recharging or glyphing for the benefits granted by the pandemic but do you think that an account with no activity is not suspicious? Wouldn't you consider it a secondary account or a backpack account or that someone else level it up somewhere else and change its codename for him to use? If it were a resistance account wouldn't you suspect all of that? Do you consider that such account is eligible to be an ambassador? I am sorry but I think your answer would be no.
With everything that has happened lately in the game and the recent waves of bans it is to clear to admit that there are errors such as the account of @ChaosGospel that was not really active and was terminated without aparent reason and I admit that even though we are not friends, but I don't think it was a mistake that after noticing how irregular an account like you say is, new, appears at level 8 and is subscribed for the ambassador program not getting reviewed by niantic itself and if niantic finds that it is not a good candidate it is not without a reason, it does it because they found something out of place.
I am sending you this message not to incite the hate between the factions or to point out an agent, but so that first of all we get informed of what is happening within the local community without overlaping anyone.
So, thats your argument? a level account that you didnt see playing in your City? That´s enought evidence to quit from the program. I just mencioned that there agents that are in the program that have the same situation that the agent affected.
@DinDjarin I would like to consider @InvestigateXM and people like @NianticPooja review the account I mention an also tell me why Niantic dont quit the program too, because I have more evidence to argue about that.
Why am I being included again? I'm not a Niantic employee, have no ties to them and am not an XMA, nor do I know any of the affected agents personally. Did I miss something from the discussion, seriously? 😅
I suspect that your name makes some players think you are official in some way. I also thought you might be the first time I saw a post from you.
Too knowledgeable to be mistaken as one. No offense, it is my compliment.
Hey, I am pretty sure that this is a good opinion about the case.. but they (Xavidarker) and faction agents, report a green account that was in the program too (RazorEcu) and Niantic decided to quit. So can you tell me why they decide to quit an ENL agent and prefer a RES agent, with the same characteristics (got an account banned and played with a new one).
You said that there is no problem, so why do they quit the program to that agent (RazorEcu)?
I never write in the forum or participate in a active game, but I considered unfair if you ask me.
@NianticPooja
So can you tell me why they decide to quit an ENL agent and prefer a RES agent, with the same characteristics (got an account banned and played with a new one).
You're assuming that what you're highlighting is why they chose to act one way in one case, and another way in another. Niantic sees "all", not just what people tell them about.
Similar. Took me about 60 days to reach lvl 8. A lot of that time was called collecting open portals, keys and occasionally linking, and not even touching Aegis portals. I did not find others until lvl 5, reg meetups at 6 and big world play the run up to the 2019 New Orleans anomaly which I got to 8 about a week before.
Do you really think specific player would be 100% dedicated to a faction, let's say RES in this case, if he/she was banned for some reasons (definitely some sorts of violations) of his/her previous account that belongs to a different faction, let's say ENL in this case?
I mean, does faction really matters here? Is it helpful by calling him/her by his "faction" which was chosen after Niantic offered a second chance? If someone switches between factions very easily at will then it's nothing relevant to the faction and not that unfair as you said.
Felicidades @Vanyushka
So, any ambassadors wanna say how things are going?
I'm no XMA but I can forecast these recent changes will have a positive impact.
The club jackets are still on backorder, but the catering at our secret meetings is amazing.
How optimistic of you ;)
The team has been jelling. There is a lot of variety in the team.
XMAs are on the NDA
Does it means Not Doing Anything?
No.
LOOOL Assuming that he/she already knows of the NDA
Someone must warn them!
🤫🤭
There are a lot of bugs and we seem to get some of the blame. Yes, I feel that many of us feel frustrated when our technology does not work as expected.
So, is there a code of conduct for XMAs that must be followed, which includes not being overly negative on nearly every forum post? Might need to give at least one XMA that's active on the forums a discussion on constructive criticism versus telling every agent they're wrong in every post.