Tag: Super Poke Pets

Super Poke Pets Find a New Resting Place

Ever since Google announced that they were shutting down their recently acquired social game company Slide, users of one particular casualty of that decision have made their feelings quite clear.

Super Poke Pet users are pretty upset that Google is shutting down the game, a move that will eliminate a hobby in which many users have invested hundreds of dollars.

Last week we posted some YouTube videos that show an admittedly atypical portrayal of a Super Poke Pets user. In the videos, a woman goes on quite the epic rant when she can’t get the app to load. Some SPP users made it clear that these videos were a poor representation of the SPP community. Other SPP users got a good laugh out of it.

Many Super Poke Pets players have wondered what will become of their pets. Today, they get their answer.

[Note: This video is intended to be humorous. To our knowledge, the SPP Cemetery doesn’t exist (yet). Many people care a great deal about the game, and we know that. But sometimes humor is a good way to deal with things, don’t you think?]

September 7, 2011
The Angriest Reaction to Not Being Able to Play Super Poke Pets Yet?

As discussed previously, people are upset that Google is shutting down Slide, and Super Poke Pets in particular. We ran across the following video on YouTube depicting the “passion” some players have truly had about this game.

The video below shows a guy laughing at his mother, who is a player, and is upset that the game is not working. This video was uploaded in May 2010. I can’t imagine how upset this person must be now.

Still, one of the points she raises has been echoed many times since the announcement. “As much money and time as people spend on here…”

Be warned that there is some strong language.

And here is the reaction when Super Poke Pets was finally loaded:

It wouldn’t be fair to say that this video is representative of all Super Poke Pets players, as we’ve seen various reactions to the news, but you can imagine how upset some are with Google’s decision.

August 31, 2011
Super Poke Pets Users Not Impressed with Google’s Halloween Costume Comparison

As you may or may not know, Google recently announced that it would be shutting down Slide and various applications and games that it created, including the popular Super Poke Pets.

As reported earlier, users are less than thrilled with this decision. Some are upset as they have invested real money into the gameplay. One user sent me a huge list of transaction receipts. Some of the transactions were as much as $25 a piece, and I’m guessing there have been plenty that have been larger than that, judging from the amount of passion users have displayed since the news came out.

We looked at a response from Google’s Super Poke Pets team. In that response, the team said, “The closest real-life analog[y] to SPP items is probably a Halloween costume. You purchase it to dress up and enjoy the experience, but likely don’t wear that costume day in and day out, or for every Halloween thereafter. Unlike a costume, there are still months ahead for you to make the most of the items in your inventory and we are working on tools to help you export some of your SPP content/items to keep and access outside of SPP. We are still in the process of working out the details of what these tools might be and will update you as soon as we have more information to share.”

That was only part of the response (you can read the whole thing here), but as users have been commenting on that article, it’s clear that they’re not buying the halloween costume analogy. Here’s what some of our readers have had to say about it:

Tracey Sheets:….”The Halloween costume analogy is a SLAP IN THE FACE!!! I am deeply offended. I have been playing SPP since April 2009. I love my little bunny named Snowball and I don’t understand why they can’t offer SPP on Google+. Playing social games is the ONLY reason I was going to try out Google+. I am disabled and SPP is art therapy and social interaction for me.”

Bente Wisth:…And no, the halloween costume analogy is not a good one… I could still put my halloween costume on next year, can’t I?

Terri Kurburski: “How can you compare this game to a Halloween costume. Halloween comes once a year. This game is entertainment for those of us who are disabled and so many others. We have made so many friends and interact together and there is no other game like this. We have spent our money on Gold items and it is so wrong to make us lose all that we love. Find a way to use these things offline if not keeping our game. I will be so hurt to lose the one thing that I can do when I am hurting and can’t get around and do other things. But mostly I will miss so many friends.”

Jennifer: “I cannot believe you all are going to take away all of our pets and our extended family. I have been with them since they started out. what did you do with all the money you made off of us? I know you at least made millions and billions off of us. we should get a refund for all we spent and time we used. You see they are not taking the violent games away but the family ones they are. I was mad when you started charging us money but then I thought this is a fun clean game and its worth it, Look how many people of all ages you have on there. some of us you have kept out of trouble. And most of us have found a “new Family” The Halloween costume analogy is a joke and i am offended by it. You are making fun of each and every person who is or has used this. since you guys think its funny why not give all the money you have took from us and loan it to the government to get them out of debt. Or better yet return it to us since you sold things to us. You are unfair by doing this I know a lot of elderly people on here that this is their life line to the outside world and with out spp they would be lonely and sad.

Alicia B: “I would say the Halloween costume analogy is not a good one. To the players of SPP I think a nightgown would be a better analogy. You are not (hopefully) going to wear your nightgown all the time, but you will wear it for a while each day, a comfortable cozy part.”

“Google clearly does not get what this game means to the people who play it. It is a unique way to interact with friends and family, with the guilty pleasure of an escape from the stresses of daily life.”
“Clearly everyone who plays will survive without the game, we will just be sleeping in a burlap nightgown.”

Bobbie Weidner: “Is the Halloween costume a good analogy of the items people have purchased in this game? ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY NO!!! The items in the game represent such a tiny fraction of the whole … a family oriented, somewhat educational, creative environment which has fostered kindness and generosity and subsequently developed into clubs & groups of friends where there are no social prejudices & none of the problems associated with games that are based on violence & competitiveness & greed. I don’t understand why a company as huge as Google does not see and take advantage of the chance they have at this time to enhance their reputation and listen to their customers and users of this game….”

Dacholiday Dach: “The Halloween analogy is so off base. If I buy a Halloween costume I can use it as many times and as long as I like.”

“I don’t really care so much about the money. I just want to keep all my stuff and my pets. I have several pets on SPP they are all named after my real pets, alive and no longer with me. Now Google is making me loose my deceased and beloved Hali again. Hali is a puppy pet on SPP(SuperPoke Pets)I love my SPP pets and I love all of my SPP pets “pets”. Dogs are my passion so now I will loose all of my dogs that I paid for, as well as my Pets too.”

Maryanne Terpstra: “Yes, I am a SPP user. I have been playing for nearly three years now. I have invested quite a bit of time and money into my pet, Katia! Plus, I have managed to make some wonderful friends from all over the world! I love my the club that I a member of, which is TDP (Total Daily Players). It’s great to know that you are the member of an organization in which you can always count on your friends and fellow club members to be there for you. When my younger sister died suddenly last October, all my friends rallied around me and they helped me through it!”

“No, the Halloween costume analogy is neither relevant nor effective. Besides, you are allowed to keep your Halloween costumes. Whereas, it looks as if I could lose my Katia forever.”

“By the way, in case you’re wondering, I have multiple degrees. One of the best things about SPP is that I have been able to find intelligent and loyal friends to play with!”

I’m sure there will be plenty more reactions as time goes on. What do you think of the analogy?

If nothing else, even if your’e not a player of the game (which I’m not), it shows how truly passionate users can be about the products you develop, and that simply pulling the plug on them can always create a massive backlash and damage one’s reputation. Google’s big enough where this will probably do little to tarnish its reparation and usage overall, but it’s clearly left a stain for some users in this particular group. For a smaller business, that stain could be much greater.

August 29, 2011
Slide, Super Poke Pets Fans Furious Over Google’s Planned Shut Down

Last week, it was revealed that Google is shutting down Slide, the social game company it bought last summer. The move was quite surprising to the tech/social media industry, as the company had only just launched games for its new social network Google+. It also caught users off guard, as has been made abundantly clear in the comments of our previous coverage.

Some users of Slide’s games (mostly Super Poke Pets) are upset that they have put invested money into the game with the impression that it would be around for a while. Others are more worried about losing relationships that they have established with other players as they have engaged in the game.

Some have vowed to stop using Google services altogether because of the ordeal. Others have even suggested a potential class action lawsuit.

“Since I have been with the Super Poke Pets I can say I have spent over $200. And $60 of it was when they announced that they where not making anymore Animated gifts , toys & habitats,” Chris (from PA) tells WebProNews. “Mad? Yes, I am mad. They stated they were not closing down. If I would have known I would have cut my loses & just played till the end & begged for them to keep the game up & running.”

“I put up with the glitches & the poor tech services, but [it] was the game that we loved,” she adds. “There are not many games out there that are not time measured, stressful & that anyone can play. This was one of the few that was just that, no violence no stress & a great family to play with.”

A reader named Reba said in comment on another article, “I’m a SPP player who has invested hundreds and hundreds of dollars in this game and I am so upset. I was assured this site would not close , so I continued to play and purchase now we are left out in the cold. This should be illegal!!! Had I been told the site would be leaving I would not have spent my money. This game is very important to us , some of us are disabled or sick, and we have made very good friends with this site, we need it to stay. At the very least they need to return our money and rest assured if they shut us down I’ll never invest myself in any other games.”

We contacted Google about the the whole thing, and a spokesperson directed us to the original Slide announcement we shared before, and a forum post from the SuperPoke Pets team discussing SuperPoke Pets specifically. Here is the text of that in its entirety:

SPPers,

We understand that the last few days have been difficult for many of you. We are reading your posts and wanted to provide more information about several of the themes and topics we’ve seen emerge.

Since stopping active development on SPP, we’ve seen quite a bit of speculation about Slide turning off SPP altogether. We want you all to know that, until this week, we did not have a plan to shut down SPP. In our June announcement about the changes, you can see that at the time, we saw very little reason to turn off SPP and intended to keep it running for the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately, as all of us have experienced, the future is not very predictable. As you may have read in our recent Slide blog post or other articles, the Slide group will be splitting up to join other areas within Google. Unfortunately, this means that we will be shutting down almost all of our products, including SPP and several that we just launched. This is not something we anticipated or planned for when we made our announcements about SPP back in June.

Many people also brought up questions about the value of items on SPP and we want you to know that we have spent a lot of time thinking about this very topic. You can use and enjoy virtual items however much you want – and over the course of SPP, we’re sure that there are items you’ve used for hours, even months. While you can use SPP items in a number of different ways: trade, decoration, gifting, and collecting, one thing you can’t do is bring them home and keep them forever.

The closest real-life analog to SPP items is probably a Halloween costume. You purchase it to dress up and enjoy the experience, but likely don’t wear that costume day in and day out, or for every Halloween thereafter. Unlike a costume, there are still months ahead for you to make the most of the items in your inventory and we are working on tools to help you export some of your SPP content/items to keep and access outside of SPP. We are still in the process of working out the details of what these tools might be and will update you as soon as we have more information to share.

We know that the SPP community, and the friends you have made here, are incredibly important to many of you. We encourage you to transition the relationships you’ve built on SPP to an outside platform so that they may continue to grow and flourish. As an example, Nicole established a FB group for SPP users as a place where you can go to make these sorts of connections:http://www.facebook.com/groups/104602236311763/. I also anticipate that some of you will have groups of your own that you will wish to promote or invite your SPP friends to. We are also looking into whether we can find an existing public forum that might host SPP Community rooms so that you can continue your interactions there. If we are able to find something we can implement, we will communicate the details here. As I mentioned in my original post, we will not be shutting SPP down for about six months. One of our hopes is that this will provide you with plenty of time to re-establish these connections outside of SPP.

There is still a lot to plan and do as part of the SPP shut down, and as mentioned above, you will continue to hear from us. We are saddened by the eventual loss of SPP and committed to doing what we can to make this transition as smooth as it can be for you, the incredible SPP community.

Thank you,
The SPP Team

Are you a user? Do you think the Halloween costume analogy is a good one?

August 29, 2011