[VikingCoder]

If you want to be sure people don't try to organize things like this in the future, this is how you do it.

a) They already refunded all the money the received.

b) And now it's costing them even more money...

c) And a big portion of the problem was "Widespread cellular connectivity," which, yes, a sophisticated organizer can mitigate... But really, it's not their fault. Users "BYOB" (Bring Your Own Bandwidth.)

So, it was supposed to be fun, and it turned into a liability instead. This precedent makes it way less likely for people to ever want to do something similar again.

They're paying $75 per person, because the people didn't get to play a game when they got there.

Thanks, lawyers.

This is why we can't have nice things.

[GuiA]

> If you want to be sure people don't try to organize things like this in the future, this is how you do it.

If by “things like this” you mean poorly organized events, then yes, this is how we discourage companies from organizing an event like this unless they actually have done their homework properly.

Plenty of events like this get organized all around the world, go very well, and people are happy to return the following year. There’s not going to be a shortage of festivals, conventions, etc any time soon.

If these sort of lawsuits discourage the Fyre and Niantic people who have no clue as to what they’re doing, then great.

[sincerely]

Why are you blaming lawyers instead of the company that should have been able to predict this?

[kbutler]

Because the lawyers are the ones making a solid profit on the whole thing?

What entities in this case are trying to create value?

Sounds like the company did a "best effort" to make it work, then made reasonable attempts to make it right.

The way class action lawsuits work, the lawyers pushing it get a large percentage of the award - commonly 30% or more. Notice that the lawyer's bar association also stands to divide up any remaining money.

So the lawyers win. Consumers may break even. The company loses, and they probably would not have made a direct profit on the event in any case. Future consumers also lose because anyone who sees this result will hesitate to try again.

[make3]

Niantic were 100% responsible of making sure the connections would work. They are a large organisation and 100% should have hired technicians to test the networks before organizing the event. That's basic due diligence.

That's like organizing an event on the roof of a building, but the roof wasn't made to support so many people and it caves in during the event. Sure they didn't build the building, but they still should've checked it could handle their needs.

[bastawhiz]

So where do we draw the line? If Niantic says "hang out on a boat and we'll give you rare water pokémon" and players charter a boat and the boat sinks, is it Niantic's fault? What if there's inclement weather that makes it impossible to play in the area that some players are in? To what end should Niantic be responsible for things that are prerequisite to using their service?

Let's say I held a picnic potluck that required you to bring some potato salad to get in. The local Trader Joe's is out of potato salad, so lots of people can't get in (despite there being other ways of procuring potato salad). Is it my fault that I didn't coordinate with grocery stores to make sure there would be enough?

[make3]

Your first example isn't representative, unless Niantic organised the event in a place where there was only one boat people could possibly rent for practical reasons in the area. I would argue this makes it really stupid planning by Niantic.

In your second example, if Trader Joe is the only potato shop remotely close, then it was indeed also really stupid planning by Niantic

[VikingCoder]

> making sure the connections would work

The cellular data connections? From all the mobile providers?

And it's not good enough to refund, but they have to PAY?

If your cellular connection goes down, do you get a refund? Do you sue? Is that really your relationship with your provider? And now somehow someone making a GAME is supposed to make that relationship BETTER? How exactly?