Pogo's Negative Patterns & Refusal to Listen
Today, I saw the notice that three games are being retired: A Way with Words, Anagrams, and Quinn's Aquarium. This genuinely came as a shock to me because Pogo just sunsetted a bunch of games semi-recently and because Quinn's was notoriously one of the most popular games. The elimination of games after Java obviously made sense, but with the cries of players everywhere yearning for the traditional game files to be revitalized...Pogo and EA have been extremely passive when it comes to their fanbase.
Worse still and yet, perhaps most notably, the newest games are going to be similar to Solitaire Home Story, Viola's Diner, etc. which again, players have been VERY vocal in saying that these types of games are not desired. The stylization is more juvenile, the gameplay tends to be more similar to what one could get on thousands of other sites, and they are all driven by a similar building structure. Rather than getting to play at your own leisure, there are energy requirements and the focus shifts to buying in-game items. Essentially, it seems to be a desperate appeal toward younger generations and gaining more money from in-site purchases.
Part of their message included the following quote: "Retiring older titles allows us to focus our efforts on building exciting new experiences and continuing to strengthen the Pogo platform for the future." However, in reading the message, the vast majority of people are constantly noting their plans to cancel memberships (if they have not already). The forums are bursting with pleas wishing for how the site and games used to be. The newer games could just as easily be retired to focus their efforts elsewhere, but they choose older games for some bizarre reason. Even then...Quinn's still had some components of a building-based game, albeit with unlimited energy and a much preferred interface for the majority of us. I cannot fathom why Pogo has to sunset it; they could even just leave it there to play infinitely instead of washing it from the site.
There is no resolution to this that I myself can provide, nor anyone else on this platform, I am sure. I more so needed a place to lay out my thoughts, which I know many of you share based on some other posts. The website now holds barely 60 games, many of which are subpar & that players dislike (or may be neutral toward at best). With one game being sunsetted after another - and with such poor, glitchy, juvenile, basic games replacing them - Pogo is shifting to a site that I may no longer yearn to frequent.
