Stop Making Remote Raids Worse And Make In-Person Raids Better
It’s no secret that Niantic doesn’t like how convenient Pokemon Go has become. After reverting many of the pandemic enhancements, nerfing Incense, and halving the length of Community Days, game director Michael Steranka told Kotaku that the changes were in line with Niantic’s three pillars: exploration, exercise, and real-world social interactions. “We really want players to have that sense of their local community, and create bonds,” Steranka said. “Because we really feel like that’s what sets our products apart from any other game out there.”
Niantic hopes that by scaling back features that have allowed people to play at home during the pandemic, they’ll be encouraged to get back outside and recreate the glory days of early Pokemon Go. The approach may have worked eventually if not for the most significant pandemic feature, remote raiding, which has fundamentally changed the way people play. Niantic has already taken some steps to devalue remote raiding, but has yet to address the real problem - in-person raiding just isn’t worth it.
Remote raiding was introduced in April 2020 as a way for friends in different places around the world to raid together. Almost immediately, Discord raid servers and app like PokeRaid emerged to streamline the remote raiding process, making finding and joining raids from the comfort of your home trivial. As a result, attendance has dropped for in-person raiding, which in-turn makes in-person raiding more difficult, forcing people to switch to remote raiding. It’s a cycle that Niantic is hoping to break, but so far all it’s managed to do is frustrate the community with poorly communicated nerfs to remote raiding.
Related: Please Don’t Reduce Ultra Beasts To Just Another Raid Boss
Last
Read more on thegamer.com
