Anniversary event - yay or nay?

[bobandbill]

I've seen some discussion in the megathread already, but might as well encourage making new threads.

What are your opinions of the Anniversary event? [Ash-hat Pikachu and an Anniversary box.]

Myself - while a novelty Pokemon is alright, yet another hat on a pikachu loses some luster the third time around. And the anniversary box is crazy. I haven't earned 1,200 coins in the one year myself, never mind having that at the moment. It's not that great a discount either - I can get the incubators and raid passes for 1,100 coins and the rest from pokestops anyway (while having 100+ ultra balls). I'd have been much more interested if they repeated the Christmas box sales - that had three tiers and more on offer imo.

 

[Bguy7]

I really love the Pikachu. I don't care if it's our third Pikachu with a hat, because the Ash hat alone makes it ten times more awesome than anything we've gotten before. Can't wait to catch mine.

Now the gift box is an entirely different situation. I already did my rant on another thread, so I'll just post a quote of it here for simplicity sake:

I'm not really impressed by this Anniversary Box like I was by the Christmas Boxes. The worst part is probably that it costs 1200 coins. I've been stockpiling coins without spending them for two and a half months now, and I only have 859 coins (which is the most I've ever had at once), and that's with the new gym system giving me more coins than I would have gotten before. I can't imagine there are going to be that many players who can afford this thing without actually spending money. And then there's the matter of the bundle itself. Six incubators would cost 900 coins, 2 raid passes 200 coins, and 6 Max Revives 180 coins. You can't buy Ultra Balls in the shop, but 20 Pokéballs cost 100 coins, so let's say the Ultra Balls are worth 200. That's a total of 1480 coins. So with this bundle you're only saving 280 coins, which isn't much considering how much it costs to begin with. Not only that, but, in all honesty, the Max Revives and Ultra Balls are worthless, as you can find those for free from Pokéstops, making the realistic value of the bundle only 1100, so you'd actually be wasting 100 coins if you buy the box. Back when they did the Christmas boxes, the cost of the incubators alone made the bundle worth buying, and all the other items were just perks. That is certainly not the case this time. Am I just over-thinking things, or does anyone else agree?

That all said, I don't think this is all for the event. The event lasts two weeks, and that's a long time for just a sale and a Pikachu. Last time we had a to week event, it had two parts. The first was special Pikachu and gift box sales from the Christmas event, while the second was the Starter spawns for New Years. Doesn't that first part sound familiar? It mirrors exactly what's going on now.

 

[Locormus]

I really love the Pikachu. I don't care if it's our third Pikachu with a hat, because the Ash hat alone makes it ten times more awesome than anything we've gotten before. Can't wait to catch mine.

That all said, I don't think this is all for the event. The event lasts two weeks, and that's a long time for just a sale and a Pikachu. Last time we had a to week event, it had two parts. The first was special Pikachu and gift box sales from the Christmas event, while the second was the Starter spawns for New Years. Doesn't that first part sound familiar? It mirrors exactly what's going on now.

Got to agree with everything you're saying here.

I've caught two Ash-Pikachu today. They both have crap IV's, so I know they're the real deal. Though I must say, I'm kind of disappointed that you can hatch Pichu with the hat, as well as evolve the Pikachu - as well that you can catch female Ash-Pikachu, Ash's is male. Niantic is once again showing that they don't commit 100% to the theme, looking at the Eggstravaganza puns and there not being an "Eggcelent"-throw bonus..

As for the giftboxt, it really isn't a gift at all. Like you said, you can get Ultra Balls and Max Revives from the Pokéstops - while Max Revives aren't too common though. But yeah, if you just look at the prices for the Incubators and Raid Passes, you're overspending by 100coins. If you value the Max Revives, then you've saved a whopping 80 coins/SARCASM.

Honestly, I spent a long time Pre-Rework hording coins so I could buy enough incubators for a 9x10 - so I know your pain. Long story short, I had 9 10km eggs, but no coins for the incubators, so I ran one 10km egg and started doing gyms more frequently so I could get enough coins by the time I filled up with 10k's again. By that time, I also had enough for a Box-update, which was sweet as well. With this rework, I've been incredibly fortunate to get coins really fast. Since the update, I've probably missed one day (didn't feel like I was up to gym battles) and another I only got 9 coins. Every other day I got the full fifty, which is tons more than I've ever had before. My box is at 357/400, so it's not the biggest, but my bag was cramped a lot of times since it could only hold 350 items pre-Rework. Now it can hold 650. And it still feels cramped, cause it's at 653 with all the extra items being introduced and my focus now being towards potions (because of the gyms draining my roster quite fast) rather than balls, since I don't frequent Nest's anymore since I've caught a lot of every nest pokémon I needed - but I still want to keep around 80 Great Balls and 100 Ultra Balls and 100 Razz and Pinap Berries for when I do hit a Nest for giggles.

Long story short, I'd much rather spent 1200 coins on box and bag space. Or Incubators and Lucky Eggs for that matter.

As for what the second week might bring. Well, GoFest obviously and whatever comes with that..

 

[Bguy7]

Though I must say, I'm kind of disappointed that you can hatch Pichu with the hat, as well as evolve the Pikachu - as well that you can catch female Ash-Pikachu, Ash's is male. Niantic is once again showing that they don't commit 100% to the theme, looking at the Eggstravaganza puns and there not being an "Eggcelent"-throw bonus..

The first Ash Pikachu I found today was a female, so I was making fun of it for that, but you know, I don't really mind that much, which is odd, considering the fact I consider myself a purist. Obviously the Pikachu we're catching aren't Ash's Pikachu, or else we'd only be able to catch one of them.

 

[Playful Latios]

Niantic really dropped the ball on the Anniversary Event. The Anniversary Box isn't even a good deal. I was really hoping to see a double stardust event because there hasn't been an event for that in quite some time plus with them taking away the 5000 from gyms its harder to get now.