Pokemon Go is approaching its sixth anniversary, but with last weekend’s Go Fest in the rearview mirror, more and more fans are getting more and more unhappy. Here are some things Niantic needs to adjust.
Festival events are meant to bring the community together and recreate excitement for mobile or current games, but over the past few years there has been a growing chorus of disappointment among fans. Pokemon Go base after every major summer show. Niantic’s juggernaut has weathered the pandemic with record profits thanks to some careful concessions, like allowing players to join raids remotely or turn stops from a greater distance. Now that most parts of the world are slowly returning to some definition of normality, society has tried to undo some of those changes, and is only pushing the bear further.
While the game’s supremacy in its unique mobile gaming niche isn’t exactly in jeopardy yet, there are still a few changes that need to be made to ensure Pokemon Go does not completely alienate its most dedicated users:
Remote Raid Passes and Public Play Incentive
The introduction of remote raids was monumental, not only allowing players to participate safely at the height of the pandemic, but opening up the game to others who were already disillusioned with the whole concept of raiding. Gathering a party to undertake a raid has become truly doable for the majority of players for the first time since the mechanic was introduced.
However, last month Niantic announced that it would no longer give away free Remote Raid Passes to all players every week and would increase the cost of these items. They still cost 100 Pokécoins each, but a set of three now costs 300, instead of the discounted rate of 250, removing the discount entirely. Pokemon Go Live game director Michael Steranka told Polygon that “his team’s goal is to redress the balance towards the fun of raiding together in person again” and using 1-piece offers. to highlight other aspects of gameplay.
This view, however, is naïve. Many players simply refrained from participating in raids instead, and by penalizing those players for preferring to play in a different way, Pokemon Go just push them away. If the company really wants to re-emphasize the in-person aspect, it should instead offer incentives to players who raid in-person, for example, offering better EXP and Stardust rewards, bonus Pokéballs for catching featured Pokemon, etc. After all, in-person passes are already fairly easy to find, compared to remote passes, so the incentive is already there. Punishing a group of players for preferring a standard, legal method of participation is not the answer.
Change Daily Pokécoin System
Speaking of Pokecoins, Pokemon GoGym rewards need to be changed. Since the game’s inception, players can earn up to 50 Pokécoins per day by having their Pokémon run a gym. However, you only get paid if your Pokemon is deleted of this gymnasium. If, for example, you run a gym for several days or even a week, you still only receive those 50 coins when your champion is inevitably deleted.
Admittedly, Pokécoins are also a paid currency, so Niantic doesn’t exactly want to give them away so easily. It could be harmful for Pokemon Gothe overall balance of , especially since there are gyms very far away that people can hold without challenge, for example years, in some cases. However, it’s still unfair to those holding the line for a modest number of days.
Instead of giving away up to 50 Pokécoins per day, a more adaptive approach would boost players’ morale a lot. Pay the trainers daily instead: either start them at 50 coins for the first 24 hours of detention and reduce the daily amount from there, such as 40 for the second day and 30 for the third, and so on; or build them up to 50 pieces per day. The current system actually encourages players to wish their Pokémon down, while a new model could encourage real competition.
Make regional exclusives accessible via eggs
If you played Pokemon Go For some time now, you’ve probably had a few glaring holes in your Pokédex that just can’t be filled: regional exclusives. Try as you can, spin stops and exchanging gifts won’t help. Only a hop on a plane will give you a chance to catch that elusive Klefki, which can only be found in France.
Niantic sometimes holds events where you can catch these region-locked monsters, but they’re rare. However, it would be safer if they allowed exclusives to be obtained between these ephemeral opportunities.
Take Unova’s trio of monkeys for example: Pansage, Pansear, and Panpour. Panpour is exclusive to the Americas; Pansear to Europe, Africa and the Middle East; and Pansage for Asia-Pacific. If a trainer in Canada has a friend living in Japan, they should be able to hatch a Pansage from eggs received from that friend, and vice versa with Panpour. Or, perhaps allow Trainers who are best friends to trade remotely over an unlimited distance once in a blue moon, so Trainers can directly send their local specialties to friends overseas. For now, regional exclusives are reserved for paid events.
Make a Day of Community Day
Each month, one day on a weekend is designated Community Day, highlighting a particular Pokémon. All trainers will find them on the map, and those who purchase paid tickets gain access to other research objectives and benefits. However, the window for these events was recently shortened by three hours, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Steranka later told Dotesports that they were “prompted” to reassess the length of the event by “calls from trainers to bring it down to three hours.” Niantic assessed the situation and found that “less than five percent of players played more than three hours on Community Day.”
This is not the cumulative time trainers spend on the event, but the availability window. Careful and experienced coaches can usually run an event in a total of one hour. But if they are working during the event or have other obligations, they may not have the chance to start later in the afternoon. In my experience, if you don’t have time to join and fully complete a Community Day, Special Research can also linger in your queue for incredibly long periods of time – when I was interrupted By the events of Community Day, these featured creatures just haven’t spawned in the wild since.
By doing the monthly events only three hours, Pokemon Go pushes players back again. It’s just not in the interest of players to have less accessibility to special events. And after all, a three-hour event is more like a “community brunch” or a “community lunch” than a “day”.
Improve consistency of rewards (or lower prices)
During Pokemon GoDuring Community Day events, you can catch many featured Pokemon, possibly shiny ones, and get a modest stack of item rewards. But it’s not uncommon to walk away with just one or two that get three-star ratings. Worse still, after paying for a Pokémon Go Fest ticket to gain access to a Mythical Pokémon like Shaymin, you might find that your new ultra-rare catch has horrible stats. Not that every Shaymin should rank in the 90s – that would be demoralizing in a totally different way – but it would be nice to see these paid captures rank at least in the low 3 star range so they can be useful in some context, other than filling out your dex.
Not to mention that these opportunities are only exclusive for a limited window. Old highlights like Victini or Regigigas were featured in free searches or raid battles, for example. Ultimately, this reduces opportunities like Pokémon Go Fest to little more than bragging rights and extra candy. After all, every Pokémon should eventually become accessible to all players, otherwise Niantic is risking some Battlefront 2next-level tyranny. Avoiding pay-to-win can be a fine line for mobile games.
If you’re likely to get questionably weak Pokémon and minor rewards, like common items or, at best, exclusive avatar items, from paid events, why pay up to $20 for Pokemon Go events? For the fleeting opportunity to say you have an otherwise unreachable mythic you might not even use and might have a better chance of catching in a few months? Last year’s Fifth Anniversary Festival only cost $5, and with a reduced investment, prices seemed more attractive.
Niantic would be wise to re-evaluate either side of the equation here, either giving paying players more for their money (without alienating non-paying players) or cutting prices drastically. Rewards must justify the price tag, and at the current standard, Pokemon Go doesn’t offer enough value to keep trainers on board.
This power imbalance between the players and the game is at the heart of all these proposals. Pokemon Go leads more with stick than carrot lately, and players are justified in feeling drained or exploited by it. As things stand, it feels like you’re bleeding through a thousand little cuts.
