The Ground-type Gear event starts today in Pokemon Masters, running until May23. (And not news, but another EX added to my collection.)
We also have Espeon now live in Unite. You can receive its License free from an event for a limited time. (Tho the same couldn’t be said of its Holowear.)
There will be an event allowing everyone to get Espeon for free starting May16. Holowear for it goes live the same day.
Sableye guy looking real creepy middle-left panel, last page there.
But the Unite Twitter put out a short, “get to know the characters” mini-manga. There’s more of it upcoming too, but just the first two parts are currently available.
Friendly reminder that hating Pokemon Unite isn’t just about “"no Sinnoh remakes or no let’s Go Johto”“.
Fucking Tencent is the one making it.
Tencent is known for spyware, punishes those who support the Hong Kong protests, are KNOWN to rip off larger companies or buy out larger companies if they’re seen as competition, are extremely rampant with censorship of any kind, and were receiving personal information from Apple such as I.P Addresses, and the CEO is extremely honored by the communist party that supports Muslim concentration camps.
This company is absolutely fucking garbage and it’s pretty obvious from the comment section of the video that everyone who knows about Tencent is chiming in with them dipping the moment they announced it was made by them.
And if that’s not enough to stop you from wanting to play tencent has driven many players who actually did enjoy their games away due to the rampant cheating that occurs and isn’t dealt with in their other online games. They’re known to try and milk their gamers for money with pay to win deals and from the sounds of it ”“free to start”“ means you’ll have to pay eventually no matter what and then continue to keep paying in order to succeed or advance in later levels due to the pay to win structure.
For those who are excited about this there are LITERALLY so many other games on this oversaturated market that spent time on their back grounds, and textures, and design that dont make them look like a dollar store rip off game. Please look into literally anything else.
Pokemon Unite is NOT the way to go
I’m sure that people in the videos comments did a MUCH better job of explaining the dangers of tencent instead of me and theyre most likely a lot more well aware of the first hand experience with them. But please just take my word for it when I say that the ”“unfair hate around this game because it’s not a Sinnoh Remake”“ is bullshit.
There’s hate for a reason
I’ll admit I was skeptical of these points bc there are no links or resources to back em up, so I did a little research.
So Tencent is a ridiculously large conglomerate holding company whose investments in video games ALONE pile up fast:
(Outside of video games, Tencent also invests in “search engine[s], e-commerce, retail, real estate, software, virtual reality, ride-sharing, banking, financial services, fintech, consumer technology, computer technology, automobile, film production, movie ticketing, music production, space technology, natural resources, smartphones, big data, agriculture, medical services, cloud computing, social media, IT, advertising, streaming media, artificial intelligence, robotics, UAVs, food delivery, courier services, e-book, internet services, education, and renewable energy.” Needless to say, the company has a LOT of influence and power.)
Regarding OP’s mention of the Hong Kong protests – Tencent made a partnership with the NBA to secure rights to stream its U.S. games in China, but in October 2019, when Houston Rockets general manager Morey expressed support for the protesters in Hong Kong, “Tencent began sending out refunds to customers after cancelling the broadcast of NBA games” due to NBA executive manager Adam Silver’s support of Morey’s “freedom of political expression.” (x)
Regarding OP’s mention of censorship – oh boy there’s a lot of info that proves their rampant censorship. Most notably, Tencent owns the social media app WeChat (which has “a billion active daily users”) and uses it to facilitate Chinese government surveillance and censorship. Millions of WeChat conversations were found to be relayed to police; people have been interrogated and arrested due to their private conversations. (There have been ”penalties against numerous WeChat users for mocking President Xi Jinping, criticizing judicial officials, commenting on massive floods, sharing information about human rights abuses, or expressing views related to their persecuted religion or ethnicity.”) Also, WeChat SIGNIFICANTLY distorts the news available to its users by using AI to find and delete select topics (including in 2018, the “deletions from some 4,000 public accounts…[of] major news stories like the U.S.-China trade dispute, the arrest in Canada of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, the #MeToo movement and public health scandals”). (x)
Regarding OP’s mention of ripping off other companies – Tencent’s founder and chairman, Pony Ma, has famously said, “[To] copy is not evil.” There are plenty of allegations and remarks out there about his inclination toward copying.
Regarding OP’s mention of Apple – at least in iOS 13, Apple’s “Safari browser uses Tencent’s Safe Browsing system to help fight malicious webpages–but Tencent may log IP addresses in the process.” Apple’s also had many issues with surveillance and censorship in China. (x)
Regarding OP’s mention of Tencent’s money-grabbing – their popular technique of gaining revenue from games is to publish “free-to-play” games, such as Pokemon Unite, and then include in-game transactions so people will pay *after* having gotten into the swing of the game.
TL;DR: Tencent is a despicable company whose hand in a Pokemon game should be a red flag. Don’t support this company.
Y-you are an absolute godsend
I didn’t expect this post to blow up like it did, but that’s probably a poor excuse for no links
Thank you so much for taking the time to find sources
Not the kind of stuff I normally post here, but explains well why it’s the best to stay away from Pokemon Unite!
Some pokemon playing sportsball. I haven’t been able to play since I’m a mess who burns the candle at both ends but I watch my friends play and wanted to draw some of my favs. Might make some more, but not sure yet.
