Feedback about promoting exercise

Dear Community and Niantic,


First of all, I'd like to ask you a favor and take your time to read this feedback. I Understand we are in the middle of a pandemic, and the whole purpose of this feedback is to be considered in a future, hopefully the pandemic doesn't take any longer. My feedback involves Exercise, which is a feature that Niantic promotes, but we all know, not that many players practice it as we expected. Please, take this feedback as a learning experience in 4 years that i have been playing pokemon go.

Now, it is time for me to introduce myself. I am Humberto, a 4 Years Pokemon GO Veteran, nearly 5 in a few months, i can tell you how the game has been changing for good and for bad in some aspects. The most important about this feedback, is to provide relevant information or constructive information to Niantic. But this feedback Involves "Pokestops", which this forum is the right place to post. Pokemon Go has made big changes since it came out, many players were out in the streets, walking , jogging and doing exactly one of the goals that were expected by the company.

As Niantic were releasing Gyms, Raids, new pokemon, Events, etc. More and More people were engaging less and less with outdoor activities [Not including Pandemic times, since it began]. I have been collecting data from different sources, Group's app, Group places in facebook and other social media places where pogo players meets to share information. Over time, people have used transport method to play during community days, includying to collect items from pokestops and gyms. Which means the number of players engaging with outdoor activities such exercise, may be on the decline way before the pandemic started.

What we can do is, Not punishing but giving players a bigger reason or giving them big motivation to bring them back into outdoor activities for future references when the pandemic goes away, as for safety reasons, we have to follow the local authorities intructions on social distancing or lockdown. Current pandemic, won't last forever, one day we have to go outside again and start doing what we used to do before, like the Gofest.

Let me give you this experience, Months before i attended my first go Fest, i started to take trolleys to play during community days very often, for hours. Let me tell you this, I am a healthy person, and should of have been walking in the first place, but taking the trolley has advantages, allow you to take more items, more pokemon very effectively, but it has a price. If you are doing this for too long, and you are one healthy person with no disability, then you are selected to attend a event, lets say a go fest. Which requires you to walk in order to get into different habits for different pokemon, depends how many hours the ticket you purchased, last for. Some has early access, others has regular time. I got tired very easily, didn't give my body the right exercising or training by staying active either by jogging, walking or something to keep my body in good shape. I took my rests, brake but unlike many others, i sat more often than most. I Regret depending to much on transportation for playing purposes, like i mentioned, the trolley.

So, here is the point of my Thread. how can we accomplish to lure more people into exercising, but another question, how can all of this be related to Wayfare? People needs to be lured with some attractive and solution can be quiet more simple than we think! Parks! Parks! Parks! can be quiet the solution we need to bring more people together in a place, that can be a safe place to play! Many players looks for convenient places to play such as Pokestops gatherings. How close they are to each other, how many of them are in a perimeter, pokemon spawn. i Can tell you this for sure, Cities Downtown. Why not? there are tons of them. But if we look closely and i ask you! how many of them are walking? how many of them are using transportation methods, how many of them are spoofing! I Can't give you that number, but what i can give you, is this feedback. I have seen less and less players walking to play, at least in my city.

Parks should be a initiative, yes more than it is now, with certain Pokestops criteria being an exception. Pokestops distance. Of course, we don't want pokestops to be on top of each other, but we have to take the opportunity to place a new wayspot into the game if it is available. Many wayspots are not being shown, because there is already another wayspot on the same cell. I strongly believe PARKS are a good place for good investments, Good place to exercise, Good place and safe to play, to visit and engage outdoor activities with friends and family and most important, keeping many players out of the roads playing and driving at the same time.

As a player, i am very determined to introduce new pokestops if the nominatios are eligible into that park, that i have been working for over 1.5 years or more, and the results have been amazing, which is also reason that i am providing this feedback to you. I wouldn't be posting this, if i didn't have reasons to do so. I am a pokemon go player that has been a victim from another pokemon go trainer, another experience i would like to share.

Placing and nominating pokestops is an amazing contribution into the community, allowing players to visit the place while playing. But, we also have to be careful where we nominate. Some places can become a hazard for other trainers and non players. Currently, pokemon go has a feature against driving and playing, but that didn't stop one trainer from hitting me while on my way to work. 1st. I knew one of their companion or passengers, and the a Pokemon go team tag on their window. Wasn't that hard to realize, they were playing while driving. i am currently suffering upper back problems, near to my left shoulder. No, i don't generalize because of 1, but we have to minimize The hazards as much as we can. There still a minority or a small group of players that drives and plays at the same time. Unfortunately, there is nothing much that can be done, but at least we can start from minimizing places that can become a hazard for others and start building good places for pogo players to play at.

i Apologize if this thread took to long to read, but i believe it was necessary to share. I am not expecting everyone to agree with, partially or all of it, i understand. But, at least something can be taken off and become a useful content that can help Niantic to improve certain things.

Comments

  • oscarc1-INGoscarc1-ING Posts: 366 ✭✭✭✭✭

    In terms of Pokémon GO, the need to go out and explore has become less and less necessary, not to count the coronavirus changes. The purpose of that game is to "Catch 'em all", but the way they spawn, you literally get the Pokémon everywhere.

    The problem with the way the game works at the moment, is that it doesn't matter where you go, whichever park you choose, you'll get the same things regardless. Therefore there is no incentive to actually explore. Biomes would be nice solution as it would force people to go into different areas, where certain Pokémon will spawn in certain areas.

    Other than that, you can always make your own challenges to explore more, or take up Ingress! Depending on how you play, exploration is critical.

    Lastly, this topic is about the Pokémon GO mechanics and not wayspots or Wayfarer, so it would be best posted to somewhere like Reddit.

  • pkmnsearch2-PGOpkmnsearch2-PGO Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    wrong website to complain

  • TWVer-INGTWVer-ING Posts: 792 ✭✭✭✭✭

    To be fair, there is no official Pokémon Go community forum. Directing people to external sources is not fair. There are official community forums for Wayfarer, Ingress, Harry Potter and Catan, but not for Pokémon. Those players have nowhere else to go. Just waving them off with "wrong place", is not okay, since there is no "right place".

    If Niantic doesn't want Pokémon Go topics in their other community forums, they should provide Pokémon Go players with their own community forum.

    Also, Pokémon Go is not the only Niantic game with this problem.

  • Gazzas89-PGOGazzas89-PGO Posts: 2,619 ✭✭✭✭✭

    To be fair, in Scotland, its usually parks people go and play pogo in. But I do agree more should be done to encourage exploration, unfortunately wayfarer and wayspot submissions don't help that much, to get more pokemom you need more waypoints, but out in the great outdoors, there's not much, if anything, that niantic would pass, so instead they go to the towns and cities where there are loads of stuffs to pass, meaning more eaypoints, meaning more pokemon

  • Aeryle88-PGOAeryle88-PGO Posts: 440 ✭✭✭

    I think Niantic should allow more POI outside cities in order to provide a better gaming experience.

    They go in the right direct by allowing trail markers as POI (but people who evaluate still refused trail markers... So Niantic should insist and indicate clearly that trail markers are OK as 5* POI) but it's not enought.

    Plenty natural features would be great places, but if there are non sign they are rejected. And that's not good to encourage exploration. I don't say that they should allow every tree or every stone. Non, but allowing thing like cascades, like briges on a river (even if there is no sign), like forest entrance (even with any sign), like top of montains, like ford at the crossroads of a path and a river, etc... Every natural place, as long as we can recognize it should be allowed as a POI.

  • sogNinjaman-INGsogNinjaman-ING Posts: 3,313 ✭✭✭✭✭

    In my experience, the average Pokemon player (or Ingress player, or HPWU player), cares not one bit for "exploration" or for the backstory behind a Waypoint. Waypoints are purely there so you can spin them, and Gyms are there purely for raiding. The only time the name is used is when the chat says "meet at the Post Office at xxx to start raid hour." Where the Gyms are acessible by car, a fair number of people drive to the Gyms, so even "excercise" goes out of the Window.

    The aim of the game is to collect Pokemon, not to "excercise" or "explore". Actually getting to a stop is seen as a chore or imposition. The fact that some areas have more stops than others is somehow deemed "unfair", which is why we see a constant stream of "we need more stops / not many stops in the area" when we can clearly see from the map on the review screen a whole cluster of stops 2-300m away from where the submitter has placed his pin. The expectation is herds of Pokemon should be available everywhere and that some how Niantic are "spoiling the game " by not allowing stops to appear anywhere, or by restricting the locations or stops of gyms.

    When Ingress first came out, part of the challenge of the game was actually getting to selected Waypoints, of which there were far less than you have today. With the distances betwwen portals being important for creating larger fields and larger scores, You had to plan your route to ensure things were captured and linked in the right order, and then get there by foot, bike, car or train, so "exploration" and "excerise" were an intergral part of the game. The burnout time on a Portal mean you can't just sit at one point all day and collect items, you had to move. Yes - there was some whingeing and the odd fake Portal, but nothing along the lines of what we see submitted and created today. Nowadays, if a Pokemon doesn't spawn in your living room, or a Gym appear outside your house, "it's not fair".

    (And before the shouting starts, I play all 3 games - Ingress L16, PoGo L41 and HPWU L52).

  • Jtronmoore-PGOJtronmoore-PGO Posts: 1,581 ✭✭✭✭✭

    You are semi wrong here. So not all pokemon spawn everywhere. For one theres regionals which be specific to each region. As well there is biomes that help certain pokemon spawn in certain areas. Also generally anywhere thats a “park” in the game can have a pokemon nest that causes a certain pokemon to spawn for a week. You still have to go out and do your tasks, and if you want use your free raid pass for the day (you have to be at the gym to use it). So in short yes things spawn everywhere but the chances of you to get all them at your house is generally slim to none

  • FrealafGB-PGOFrealafGB-PGO Posts: 354 ✭✭✭✭

    I 100% agree that parks should be better places to play than busy town centres. Going for a nice walk while playing is much preferable to me than dodging shoppers and businesspeople in the centre, getting in people's way if you want to pause to catch something etc. I've made it a project to make the parks in my local area better places and they are now sufficient to mean I don't have to play in town anymore, which has been such a relief.

    I do think pokemon players care what the stop is. I know people seek out stops with beautiful or meaningful pictures to send to people as gifts, because the gifts come with the image and name of the waypoint. Also I always enjoy reading descriptions of new waypoints.

  • oscarc1-INGoscarc1-ING Posts: 366 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Wasn't referring to regionals or nests, but proper biomes; go to water areas for water Pokemon, go to the ice-capped mountains for ice-types, cemeteries for ghost types, etc. Similar to how the original Pokemon games did it (Red/Blue, Gold/Silver). Having these sorts of areas would force people to go to different locations and explore, rather than just going to a local park and expecting everything to come the player.

  • SilverShadow222-PGOSilverShadow222-PGO Posts: 17
    edited February 2021

    I nominated a cemetery for a Pokestop and would love to be able to get ghost-type 'mons to spawn there. It is about 1.6 miles from my house and I've challenged myself to walk there daily if possible. I don't leave the house much since I started working from home full-time and can't get my daily Pokestop anymore. I would love to be able to walk a half-hour from my house, place a lure module, catch 'mons for half an hour, then walk back. There are streams and ponds along the way, and it is a wooded area.

    It's the perfect park-like Pokestop location, and yet the community just rejected it, dashing my hopes to encourage daily exercise and achieve my Daily Pokestop streak while living in the middle of nowhere.

    Maybe they really DON'T care about exercise and the outdoors anymore.

  • Hosette-INGHosette-ING Posts: 3,470 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @SilverShadow222-PGO It may simply be that cemeteries generally don't meet the criteria for acceptance. I doubt that anyone who reviewed it was thinking, "Well, someone probably submitted this because they want to walk there regularly to get exercise."

    When thinking about something being a great place for exercise the idea is that it's a destination where someone would go to get exercise, such as a hiking trail or a sports field or or a park. It's not, "Well, someone might walk here and get exercise while they're en route", since that would apply to nearly every location in the world.

    I don't think the rejection of a cemetery is a rejection of the goal of exercise.

    https://wayfarer.nianticlabs.com/criteria#eligibility

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I am reminded of the very first iteration of Pokemon Go's "nearby" function. Three steps equals far, two steps you're getting closer, one step you're almost at it. Now unless there are absolutely no Pokestops anywhere, that screen would always show that Pokemon are just bundled up and gather at stops.

    I'm really not sure what OP is trying to get at. Are they just promoting parks? Despite the pandemic, is their point really to bring back Pokemon Go players back into walking in real life? Are they saying that people would rather camp at a cluster of Pokestops in one area, but do absolutely nothing but just stay there while catching Pokemon and spinning things for gifts? Is this not what they want?

    Sure, reconsidering the playing game could be a good idea down the track, but given that the rona gameplay changes have almost been around for an entire year, there will be an absolute reckoning when the Pokestop interaction radius goes back to normal, incense effectiveness gets cut down, and the remote raid passes are absolutely nerfed to oblivion.

    People are hampered down by the restrictions and lockdowns, so they'll look for their own ways to play. People will spoof because they well... can. Despite Niantic's post saying that over 5,000,000 cheaters had some sort of punishment or ban, that's really just scratching the surface really.

    And this attitude of most Pokemon Go players not caring about exploration or exercise makes me wonder whether they actually care about the criteria. Which nowadays... really can't tell. I know some people get irked at the most grammatically incorrect and uncapitalised Pokestops. Some people actually like it when the Pokestop photo is great. Some players also get surprised when they see a new Pokestop come out and wonder "I've never really noticed it before, how interesting!"

    Never downplay anyone else's attitude of wonder or exploration by saying to them "it's just another pokestop".

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