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As you may know, the Pokémon GO team just announced that From now on, 80 yards will be the base interaction radius for PokéStops and Gyms around the world. This announcement follows the recent #HearUsNiantic protest campaign, which brought together content creators, media influencers and gamers.
Today we want to share a bit of the story behind this change, including parts of the discussions we – and many other content creators – have had with Niantic employees and members of the Niantic task force.
Please note that in order to protect the privacy of Niantic employees, we are not permitted to share their names, but we are permitted to share what has been discussed.
Meeting with the Niantic working group
On August 13, we received a curious message from the Niantic community team, inviting us to a meeting where we would be free to chat with members of the Niantic task force and provide direct feedback to decision makers at the company. .
We were a little surprised by the invitation, but decided to accept it. We have a direct channel of communication with Niantic that we can always tap into, but this was the first time they’ve asked for feedback in such a direct and direct manner.
We reached out to Twitter and asked our community the following question:
If you had the opportunity to share something with the Niantic Task Force, what would your feedback be? ??
How would you solve the PokéStop’s remote interaction issue?
Ask a friend. Share your comments below.
More information on the working group: https://t.co/FRI9tmslor
– Pokémon GO Hub (@PokemonGOHubNet) August 13, 2021
Have we asked these questions and provided your comments? You bet we did. Here’s what we learned from our hour-long conversation with Niantic.
Interaction distance increase was initiated too quickly
One of the first topics covered was how the 80m interaction distance was introduced in the first place.
Niantic admitted that increasing the interaction distance was a knee-jerk reaction to COVID-19, rather than a well-thought-out strategy.
The company said it internally believes the pandemic (and the COVID in-game bonuses) will not last longer than 3-4 months.
Of course, the pandemic lasted a bit longer, which led to the developers keeping the bonuses active for much longer than they originally planned.
And how did the 80-meter number come into play? They just doubled the original number, without too much testing in the game.
Niantic said they’re unhappy with the decision they’ve made, primarily because the increased distance interaction is in direct contrast to the company’s vision that promotes exploration and movement.
We were shown what the PokéStop interaction looks like from 40 yards and 80 yards away, and we have to say the difference is quite staggering.
In most cases, 80 yards is too much for Niantic’s liking, as players can barely see the PokéStop and there are often objects obstructing the view – roads, trees, signs, etc.
Sponsored PokéStops have nothing to do with this
One of the more notorious questions we wanted to ask Niantic was whether the reduced distance was put in place to promote interaction with Sponsored PokéStops.
Niantic employees have confirmed that this is not the case and that the revenue generated by Sponsored PokéStops is not large enough to warrant major gameplay changes.
Sponsored PokéStops are treated like normal PokéStops in terms of gameplay.
A game designed around exploration
Niantic has spent a lot of time discussing one of the key pillars of their game design: exploration. We cannot stress this enough.
In everything the team does, this is the one aspect that will never be overlooked.
Much feedback from our community has focused on the notion of “There is nothing more to explore, so give us 80 meters”, which Niantic strongly disagrees with.
They haven’t outlined any upcoming plans or features, but have confirmed that their primary mission is to “get people out and play”.
Go ahead and reestablish the relationship with the community
At the end of the meetings with Niantic, it was pretty obvious from our perspective what to do: The PokéStop interaction distance should be reduced to 80 yards.
And that’s exactly what happened this morning, marking a radical departure from Niantic’s previous behavior towards its player base:
Thank you to everyone who made your voice heard. We have heard you and understand that this has been a welcome advantage for many players. We’ll share more next week. (2/2)
– Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) 25 August 2021
As this ad rolled out, Niantic reached out to us again, sharing that this was just one of the first changes to come in the near future:
Thank you all for your contribution and meeting with us as the working group discussed, your comments that this change has been a great improvement in the quality of life have been heard.
Excited to see everyone seeing the full proposal arrive on September 1st; We will continue to develop the ideas we have so far to motivate actions around our pillars and improve communication with all of you and the rest of the PGO community.
And soon after, the message was shared again, reassuring us that we are not backing down, but moving forward, in terms of communication, community engagement, and future interactions with the company:
I just want to reiterate that this is the first change we are making. There will be more in the coming days. We’ll also share the full proposal, including product, communication and community engagement recommendations by September 1, with you for your feedback. We hope this is a step forward in rebuilding trust and partnership with our great community of which you are the core members.
Farewell words
Well, first of all, we’re happy to report that Niantic is indeed not a demonic, money-hungry, soul-hungry company as the Twitter threads claim.
In fact, it couldn’t be further from the truth.
During our time with them, we (and other media) shared a ton of reviews about the game, in-game performance, bugs, and quality of life features we’d love to see. (button ready for raids, for example).
The company is very receptive to feedback, but admitted it could have done a much better job communicating the changes and letting the player base know their feedback has been heard.
We have been assured over and over again that this is something that will be improved in the future.
We left the meeting feeling strongly that the people working on Pokémon GO at Niantic are as passionate about the game as we are and are aware of the challenges they face as a business when it comes to the game. ” interact with the community.
Media influencers, such as GO Hub, are a great way to keep the community informed, but we are by no means a tool that Niantic should and could rely on to get their message out.
This, combined with their eagerness to rebuild trust with the player base, makes us quite optimistic about the future of the game.
We’ll know more on (or around) September 1, but that’s what we wanted to share with you today.
Stay safe and keep playing Trainers!
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