Is Wayfarer bad for your mental health?
PkmnTrainerJ-ING
Posts: 5,138 Ambassador
A topic that was raised here, that I thought was worth discussing.
PkmnTrainerJ-ING
Posts: 5,138 Ambassador
A topic that was raised here, that I thought was worth discussing.
Comments
Anything can turn into something that triggers a decline in someone’s mental health, and wayfarer is no exception.
The linked games can create situations that are poor - RNG, bragging, FOMO, one team against another, destruction, malicious play, and “gambling”.
There are also positives - satisfaction in becoming better, team work, reaching goals, community, support from others, activity away from normal life, place to release tension, outdoor activity.
Wayfarer does carry particular risks relating to mental health compared to the parent games. This is because fundamentally it becomes very personal.
You find a potential POI, you take picture, you research, you craft a submission which you feel is a passing effort. You put a lot of yourself up for scrutiny. If it is rejected, especially without reasons, if you are not careful it can feel like a rejection of you. Repeated incidents of this are hard to take as it feels personal.
On the positive side having wayspots accepted, seeing them in a game, interacting with them, and changing the game board to make more people happy to play is a huge plus.
Having a healthy balance between the two is important.
Reviewing again is a personal area as it is all about your judgements.
Reviewing because you feel you have to - long decision time areas is not great.
The lack of details of how the reviewing is going is not great and falling down the rating ladder, with no explanation, and no official support to get back up is very harsh.
What would help?
Better (at least some ) communication from Niantic.
Acknowledge the situation and their part needed to improve it
Take action to ensure your wayfarers feel valued and not a disposable commodity.
Wayfarer is not the issue. In fact, I love exploring and reviewing things from all across Australia. This week, I got to see a mural of a naḱed Donald Trump, a beautiful face sculpture against a violet sunset (although third party image), quirky things from small regional towns and discovering some crystal white beaches. It's like a virtual tourist drive.
The platform itself is robust enough. If there are enough reviewers who review over the amount of nominations that are submitted (whether coal or quality), the queue is whittled down. When I make contributions, I feel as if they're easy to follow through to completion, from the point of submission to when it goes live in the game(s). So that aspect of Wayfarer is very positive to me.
But there are many things I cannot control, such as spam and endless coal, nominations that are taken away from me due to filters, and generally not being listened to by Niantic that don't make me feel valued whatsoever. Still to this day, I feel just as valued as a one-time Wayfinder who submitted a photo of their front door; almost none. Things that I do, such as abuse reports, reporting invalid wayspots are often not taken seriously and any feedback that I provide, also not (bar a few things, such as allowing no more auto-upgrades and also holding nominations, which I am extremely grateful for).
When I get into something like Wayfarer, I put my all into it. When that doesn't translate or is not recognised, it pays a heavy toll on me. I don't report something just for fun or for fraudulent purposes, and every rejection that I do get is a deepening cut. I put in the work on my side and Niantic doesn't on their end. And when they say that they've listened or when they've taken action and it's exceedingly insufficient, that's how much they value their wayfinders.
Good discussion. We should all consider how Wayfaring helps or hinders our mental well-being.
For me...
Great things:
Bad things:
Well, it wasn't great when I had a semi-panic attack from my wayfarer profile being wiped and losing all my nominations/agreements/reviews/edits/etc.
Since then I have learned to not get "too" wrapped up and just kinda, open wayfarer and submit/review when I'm bored...
Dude. I had to start over again from a mistake of my own doing and one that I knew Niantic wouldn't fix. I have rebuilt my profile back up but my stats don't look nearly as impressive as they "should" for the amount of time I've been at it.
Thanks @MargariteDVille-ING for always seeing the fun in our local community. I think the value there is also to know that it's not just "me" when I face the bad parts of WF - y'all are dealing with it, too.
One of the things that most difficult for me to deal with is that Niantic seems to either not care or be completely clueless about how to fix the problems with WF. So at worst we are indentured servants, at best we're dealing with a completely incompetent company who surely can't last too much longer with this level of incompetence.
Wayfarer has actually been good for my mental health.
One of the things that I really missed, especially in the early stages of the lockdown, was being able to get out and travel and explore. Being home all the time was bad for many people's mental health, but it hit me pretty hard since I'm used to getting on an airplane or into my car on a whim. I found myself sitting at home wishing I could go... well, just about anywhere. I used Wayfarer as an outlet for my wanderlust, and often found myself getting lost in Street View for places I was reviewing.
I'm not immune to being frustrated by Wayfarer, mostly around the rampant cheating that I've found in some areas, but overall it's been a net win for me.
.... no? I mean, I get a bit annoyed that my nominations are taking ages to get through, and when they are rejected it's for asinine reasons, bit I doubt it affects my mental health. Ingress was annoying g me near the end of me playing it but that was more the amount of effort I was having g to put in to do my sets of fields against up to 10 players (sometimes spending 5 hours a night getting it all done, only for it to be knocked down and blocked in like half an hour, but thats more just niantics balancing issues and the one sidedness that was in my area. As for pokemon go, I'm happy with it .... except for the outrageous box prices for a lot less stuff than last year (can't use inflation as an excuse, it costs them nothing to make these boxes, they would sell more of they were much better value), and the stupid 7k egg events where I hatch like 70 eggs in 3 days and no shiny (ok, that one I rage at), but if I wanted ro I could stop doing g that
Generally agree with this point:
Anything can turn into something that triggers a decline in someone’s mental health, and wayfarer is no exception.
Pokemon GO is enjoyable if you're only focusing on exploring and catching Pokemon. But when it comes into issues like insufficient Pokeballs, lack of Pokestops or frustrations in PVP, it will start to taking your mental health. Not to mention other things like bugs everytime, overpriced in-game items, and then players' jealousy at the spoofers, special local events like Safari Zones and in-person GO Fests.., and spoofers, as shown by the folks commenting at @PokemonGOApp posts. Same as Wayfarer, I think.
But no matter how each of us took the different approach about mental health, we all agree that Niantic is doing bad job at their side.
Let me be clear wayfarer is a great system for the casual nominator.
It is not a great process for the competent data entry person who wishes to contribute multiple hours/weeks/years worth of work to reflect and maintain a local area.
My mental health is not what is the problem....
It's my brain.
I can't stand the random of decisions. Such a shabby way to handle people's honest attempt to add and edit
It's my time.
I want add and edit without multiple screens. Time delays. Unclear rules. I spent a whole of days submitting things that were too close because they didn't let us know about the 20m rule.
It's my self respect
I have put in so many many hours into wayfarer. Yet no seniority no recognition of for people who have done the work.