Pokemon Go Warns Players Not to Use Incense as Issues Plague Safari Zone Event
Pokemon Go's first live event of the summer has been plagued by major network issues both inside [...]
Pokemon Go's first live event of the summer has been plagued by major network issues both inside and outside of the event, including a major gamebreaking issue involving incense.
Pokemon Go has an ambitious summer planned, anchored by three major "live events" in Germany, the United States, and Japan. The game's first event was a Safari Zone event in Dortmund, Germany, centered around the city's Westfalenpark.
The game developers were hoping to avoid another "Pokemon Go Fest" situation, in which the game was all but unplayable for those who attended the event. The developers brought in portable cell towers and expanded the increased spawns and other perks of the events to the entire city, so that players didn't need to physically be in the park to enjoy the event. They also expanded the event to two days in order to decrease some of the pressure on servers.
Unfortunately, Niantic's precautions weren't enough as many players in the park reported getting a "Failed to get Game Data from the Server" error when logging into the game. While many players complained they couldn't log into the game in and around the Safari Zone event, there were even some brief game outages and major lags for all players.
The biggest issue seems to occur when players try to use incense, which somehow totally breaks the game and prevents players from logging in. What's more - the outage seems to affect ALL players, even those not at the Safari Zone event.
Pokemon Go claims they've fixed the bulk of the login issues, but they're warning players not to use incense for the time being.
We've implemented changes in an effort to resolve log-in issues. Some Trainers have reported that they've been able to log-in successfully, but we're continuing to investigate to ensure this has been fully addressed.
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) June 30, 2018
As we investigate, please avoid using Incense. Stay tuned for more information. Thank you for your patience. #SafariZoneDortmund
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) June 30, 2018
Obviously, this isn't what Pokemon Go was hoping for this weekend. While the event was free to attend, many players paid travel and hotel costs to go to the Safari Zone event, and some headed home in frustration instead of waiting for a fix.
On the plus side, Pokemon Go's response time seems to have improved. We watched Pokemon Go Fest go down in flames last year as Niantic was powerless to fix the issues plaguing that event, and it seems that Niantic was eventually able to get a fix out for players.
If you're playing Pokemon Go this weekend, avoid using Incense. Hopefully, this weekend's issues haven't plagued your gameplay too much!
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