The Pokémon Go Community Days have been cut in half going forwards, with the events only encompassing 3 hour windows. This decision was understandably met with frustration from fans, however game director Michael Steranka has now provided some context to the changes in an interview with Kotaku.
Crucially, Niantic doesn't want Pokémon Go to be a game that can be played to its fullest extent in the comfort of your own home. Naturally, changes were required to account for the restrictions surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but Niantic is now taking a stance of trusting players to make sensible decisions on how they navigate local rules and restrictions. Steranka states that Niantic "encourages players to follow local guidelines and regulations,” but "that’s not something we are trying to police on our side".
So why the change to 3 hour sessions? Well, it's essentially to encourage people to venture out at the same time where possible. Steranka reiterates the three core pillars to Pokémon Go: "First is exploration, the second is exercise, and the third is real-world social interactions. In terms of what we gain, it’s really us intending to lean into that.”
He also goes on to state that the recent change to Incense, which will now create one encounter every 5 minutes while stationary, as opposed to one every minute previously, was designed to reinforce exploration, exercise, and real-world interactions. “It’s definitely not to make more revenue on Incense. We’re making less revenue, because the item is less useful, right? We never want Pokémon GO to be a product that you can fully complete and enjoy from your couch. And the fact of the matter is, with Incense being as powerful as it was, stationary players were able to do that, right?”
Steranka also stressed that the company is looking into options for disabled people who may not be able to take part in the Community Days, but stopped short of explaining exactly what those plans would entail.
Do you think the changes to the Community Days are justified? Let us know in the usual place.
[source kotaku.com, via gonintendo.com]
Comments 21
Niantic just doesn't get it. People work, and have full time commitments. Limiting community day to three hours is extremely gatekeeping and I (and the majority of the Pokemon Go Community) are not for it at all. Why not have super-boosted spawns/bonus effects during a subset of 3 hours but still have community day last the full 6 so all can participate?
As someone whose job entails a lot of walking, I'm usually compelled to boot up Pokemon GO and Pikmin Bloom at least once per day, five days a week. These changes make it just as hard to participate in Community Day as it is in Pikmin Bloom; I can't enjoy it because it's always on the weekend, when I'm least likely to get up and move.
Ugh, Niantic again ignoring that... People work on weekends?
Oh yes, social exchange.....whilst staring at your phone trying to catch a Pokemon
It needs to be pointed out that when they originally extended the community day event period to 6 hours, they cited the reason as giving players more of an opportunity to participate depending on their needs. This was following figuring out the best time for the 3 hour window, 11am to 2pm or 2pm to 5pm. Different time windows were more or less suitable in different parts of the world due to the seasons.
I recall this was also before covid and the lockdowns were a thing, but I'm not sure.
Whilst I agree with encouraging players to get out and socialise and explore again, I can't agree with cutting the event play-time in half like this, it's less flexible even among players who don't want to play the entire 6 hours as a few may have.
For me, it’s an exercise app number one, just something I boot up when I go for a walk/jog. I don’t really focus on catching anything, just push a button and it catches what it will. I’m pretty much a casual but have met some hardcore folks that these changes will not make happy (though a lot of those folks are retired older people so they will be there no matter what).
This comes from the same school of thought as DRM policies for games. Sure it's done to stop a minority that is exploiting the game, but the people who suffer the most are people playing legitimately.
It doesn't matter what the philosophy behind the game is or was - people don't really play it that way. Nobody complained about the changes made to the game due to COVID. Even the most gregarious and active players with all the free time in the world benefited. So why roll back? It's less money in Niantic's pockets and it alienates and annoys a ton of your players. Make the game more accessible - not less. Make your company more money - not less. This decision is just stupid all around, and just flat out cruel to those with physical disabilities.
@Corum I'm a 'hardcore' player and I'm not happy with these changes, first the incense change that doesn't make sense. Why would you throw on an incense if you walk already with plenty of spawns?
Now we have again the return of the 3 hour Community days (Why is it called 'day' when it's actually 1/8 of a day?). It sucks, we have a life, family commitments and stuff like that. Niantic think people will give up anything to play Pogo but in the end we will see what's happening. The argument that players only play for 3hours anyway is a nonsense argument, people liked the flexibility and I would've expect that they increased the hours for at least 12 hours or so but nope...
Niantic knows perfectly well what is the best for everyone and for the game but their main focus is on the AR project. I have no problems with gathering data etc. (hey its a company, they need to make money) but they are blatantly lying about many things and the biggest problem I have is that they try to hide the main focus, which is their AR project instead of the game itself. In the long term it won't work.
My 'hate' towards Niantic is getting bigger over time, they ruin the game bit by bit, reverting quality of life changes (Yes they were Covid changes but they were ingame for 2 years, some don't even know better and it made the game better overall). I must say since they tried to change the interaction distance for gyms and stops to 40m instead of 80m I spend less time and money in this game and from there on I'm really suspicious towards Niantic.
It's a sneaky case and they are definitely the worst 'game' company on the planet. It's obvious that they give zero ducks about the players.
Btw for people here who don't know anything about this game, 1 of the many ***** moves they made : You can buy remote raid passes 250 coins for 3 passes or 100 for 1 (1 coin is 1 cent) and you can raid in a group, you have of course shiny odds like in the main game, sometimes its boosted and sometimes it isn't, in raids its mainly boosted (Not 1 in 20 like legendary) and during Johto fest (a few weeks ago) they put Corsola in the pool but the shiny odds were full odds and people spend literally hundreds of bucks to get a shiny Corsola, Corsola is rare for the most players so they went all out but Niantic is nasty and didn't turn on the boosted shiny odds.
@RupeeClock True, but these changes made the game better, I don't see any reason to revert it. In meantime they don't revert the Remote Passes.. hmm... Incense and 3hr CDs were bad before covid as well, everyone complained about it, heck even players tossed incense out of the inventory because it was useless.
@Aezetz
Yes, when remote raids were introduced it was with the stipulation that they would reduce the damage dealt by remote raiders at a later time.
That never came because it turned out that remote raid passes were massively profitable, owing to how they won't sell them in bulk and limit the player to carrying only a few at a time.
Incenses have been a recurring issue, they don't know where to make them effective for players who stay at home or going for walks, but designed them in a way that to use them you need to walk really fast, whilst not so fast that spawns stop entirely.
As compared to lure modules, which reward you for staying in a single player where you can farm items, and multiple players can enjoy the benefits.
This change just stress the players in there environnement and create accident. From when the World is managed by statistics ? Better pepole with there Brain...
@RupeeClock It would be better and more encouraging to increase the chance of better IVs or something if you walk with an incense on and leave like it was if you are stationary. They will never manage to make something like this possible with their spaghetti code. lol.
@Aezetz agreed, they should call it community time instead of community day for how short they make the window and I can’t remember the last time I used an incense. Seems like this move will only lose Niantic money.
Addition: thinking about it, Niantic must be hoping to increase the FOMO of the rare Pokémon. I’ve met some folks that have spent thousands and will do anything to “catch them all” with shiny perfect IV stats. Gonna give some people anxiety disorders.
Another addition: just spoke with my sister, she has spent several hundred on the game and I’ve talked with her in the past about it. She isn’t happy at all about this either but just trying to keep her from spending anymore on it. These mobile games can be a real (edit: money sink) for some people with that kind of addictive personality.
These changes are disappointing. It was nice having a six hour window since the winter where I live is brutal. On top of that I live in a small town. Not every player is an urbanite in a temperate region.
People play this game for the Pokémon, not the social interaction. As a small female with autoimmune problems I DO NOT want strangers coming up trying to chat me up while I’m catching my Pokémon. Thanks for making this game a great way for creeps to harass and stalk female gamers.
I've been playing PoGo from day one and ... I just don't think they are handling the game properly. I know everyone has their own ideas on what would make any game "better," but, yea... I feel like the changes I would make are kinda no-brainers.
@Agames I can't even tell if you're joking. But I think it's safe to say the game is not being designed "for creeps to harass and stalk female gamers."
I'm an active everyday POGO player and I didn't see the need to reduce Community Day hours from 6 to 3 hour. It only gives me less hours to play when I usually play the entire event walking around and about catching as many as I could. Now it's less time to catch as many. Niantic should reconsider leaving it back at 6 hours; more time to catch PKMN, obtain candies/XL, stardust, etc.
As someone who is both immunocompromised and physically disabled I'm really disappointed in Niantic for this. A lot of us can't go out full time all the time bc of work, college & ya know, not being able to walk for long periods bc of chronic pain.
I am an active player, but I live in Arizona and it is already too hot to go outside in the afternoon. I have to play in the morning or after the sun goes down. Limiting community day time to the hottest part of the afternoon, which will be 90s in April and 100s-110s in May/June/July/August/September, is just ridiculous. Everyone slow trolls park parking lots in their air conditioned cars and we don't talk to each other.
The changes are bad and keep getting worse. Sandshrew day was the start of the backslide. Our group was set to play at the park and it's not really conducive to hang near the pokestops so hanging out and chatting without incense to boost the rates was really an impact so we broke up and went our own ways early. After that I took my disabled wife home and went pre-pandemic and drove strip mall parking lot around the town until I got enough shinies for both of us to get two of each type. It can only get worse for stuffel as 3 hours will eliminate that meet up time in favor of me driving around looking for the 400 candy on both as well as the shinies.
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