I've seen a lot of recent discourse over the way Niantic handled G maxing and Dynamaxing and questions over how this was released in the state it has been, the design philosophy behind the game, and overall people questioning the point of even playing with the features and the game as a whole.

What I don't see as much of but I feel important to note is that there is a lot of social pressure being put on the players with the additions of this new system. It's predatory and if Niantic still believes their "core audience" are grandmas who pull out their phone to play while on a morning walks with her friends, it's messed up that they're trying to design systems in the game that prey on people's fear of missing out and sense of community.

I asked myself all these questions yesterday while sitting at my local event trying to battle the same Gmax raid 3 times in row. After we eventually finished, the rush was so great even if I didn't get anything because I could see that everyone else around me was relieved and happy too. Personally it was a cool experience. But I ran out of particles. I didn't want to let them down and leave, we already struggled as is. That's by design.

The mp limit. The partcle collection limit. The packs in the shop. Even the code that gives you a freebie raid. It's all made to make you taste the high and fear losing it. The eventual promise of legendaries and exclusive pokemon through the system only serves as more fuel to the fire theyre trying to start to get people to fork over cash for a system completely separate from the main gameplay. They built a new game inside of their most successful product and are shipping it out with high prices and a hell of a lot of social pressure