Apparently, this needs to be said (again):
**Insulting/name-calling/threatening Niantic employees will get you banned on this sub, just like insulting/name-calling/threatening any other user will get you banned on this sub**.
This is also not a Niantic PR account, and while Kestrel is Niantic's Lead Community Manager for Pokémon GO, this is *their* private account and *their* private opinions.
You do not have to agree with them but please be respectful and constructive in the wording of your replies.
Thank you.
They think
1. Everyone lives in New York.
2. Has unlimited time.
3. Has unlimited money to burn on a car and gas.
4. Always has near perfect weather to go out.
5. There are shitload of players everywhere.
6. People are happy doing mindless chores for 12 hours a day everyday.
My least favorite Pokémon is the Squirtle I caught during our quarterly with the C-suite in the conference room! I was written up for time wasting, got a bad performance review and was eventually let go.
6/2/2.
you know what's really messed up is they are getting direct feedback from this community manager. They are having a great time remembering their favorite pokemon.
Yeah. It's a nice sentiment and all, but as a community manager they should be listening to the community, not basing the direction of the game off their own opinion.
Events like raid hour, community days, etc are great for getting people in smaller communities together.
Going out for an in person raid at a random time to never see another person is not a great experience. I don’t know why having remote passes for the second instance people feel like devalues the first.
I sometimes think what if raids didn’t just randomly appear like now and instead we knew a day or so before that they’ll appear? Like elite raids? The way things are now most raids, especially level 5, probably appear and disappear without anyone doing them.
If I knew a day before that a legendary raid will hatch the next day at a certain time, it’ll be much easier to coordinate with others and see if enough of us can show up.
THIS
I would raid so much more if I were not completely DONE with all of the cat herding required to get a group together. Having raids at a predictable time and place would rule out about 90% of that. This is the main reason why I only do group raids during events.
And before anyone says "but, raid hour!", 6pm on a weekday is a terrible time to expect people to go out.
I had raid hour where I would drive in traffic to get to the usual spot to find nobody there because it’s a repeat and nobody care. No game should rely on the number of people that physically play the same game around you.
Also, struggling to make that start time, especially if you're leading the group, can be exhausting if you run it every week.
I had a stint where I lead folks around a trail at a local park every Wednesday. The group was fun at first, but as we gained traction some folks joined that were a lot less casual-friendly, and some only self-serving.
My hope was that if I made a decent core group, we could have enough people present weekly to drown out the negativity. The underwhelming raids on top of the toxic layer of people ruined the core group, and honestly ruined the experience for myself.
Raid hour is good for group play. Lately we've been meeting half an hour early to knock out a few party challenges, making it even better. They really need to rethink the Wednesday dinner hour time slot though. Our core group for the last year or so has been a couple of retirees and a couple of young guys that don't have jobs with a long commute.
Community day has been an epic fail for "community" togetherness if you ask me. For any good Pokemon they've featured the best way to play is to drive around from one shopping center to another catching all the spawns that a busy shopping area get. For the junk they offer you can just sit home and shiny check once in a while. Neither do anything for your social life.
> They really need to rethink the Wednesday dinner hour time slot though.
Yeah I've never once been able to make one. Maybe they could make remote raids unlimited during the raid hours or do *something* to help people who can't attend in person.
I remember the first time I was able to do a Machamp raid (after 3 attempts) and got two shiny Pinsir during the event that it debuted.
The thing is that I did that solo and remember that far more than when we burned a Mewtwo down in 8 seconds with 20 people.
You mean you don't cherish the memory of everyone driving up to starbucks, getting out of their cars and awkwardly standing around the front door as customers looked at all the neckbeards blocking their way to get coffee????
Can't say the neckbeard thing happened, but I can say I didn't enjoy the 25 minute long wait for someone to show up for a legendary raid that I barely wanted to do to begin with (so glad I've gotten to the point where I can duo most legendaries with my brother.)
This was always my biggest complaint about raiding with others. Make a post on discord or whatever and there is always someone who is just 5 minutes away and it takes 15+ for them to get there. So happy that my boys and I can also handle most 5 star now.
This always annoyed me the first few years of raiding but once I had a kid and my time became wildly more precious, these always 5 minutes away folks drove me to quit raiding entirely. Now if I can't do it solo, I'm not doing it unless I luck out and stumble across a lobby that is ready to go which has legit happened once in the past two years.
It's always fun when there's 10+, roll up and the guy who owns the laundry mat call the police.
We've been told by a church we're only allowed in their parking lot to pray.
Remotes have fully removed that fear and embarrassment for me. I no longer have to check the "do not go to this gym" list before attempting to raid.
lol this is exactly what it's like "playing with local communities". Right down to the fact that everyone has to caravan around in cars because you can't walk to raids (even in good weather) except during raid hour for 1 hour, one day a week, during dinner time.
I have such fond memories of the time me and 2 other adult men pulled up to a playground in the middle of a residential block, stood by a car to beat a raid boss and some lady came out, gave us a dirty look, asked what we were doing, and then basically called us losers when we said Pokemon Go (maybe she’s not wrong?). Strangely I can’t even remember what the raid mon was that day.
I remember the first one definitely far better than the 30th, though the first one I just remember being in the car with friends and ping-ponging between them with a pogo group. After that there's really nothing to remember.
I remember my first Mewtwo vividly because I was working in a mall at the time and I was able to go upstairs to the EX Raid with a bunch of the coworkers I played with regularly (including my boss, who okayed us bouncing out for a bit.) I haven't talked to, let alone seen, most of those coworkers in years.
I remember my armored Mewtwo for opposite reasons. Driving home from my office job, years removed from that job at the mall and having people to regularly play with, stopping at a gym hoping there'd be someone there doing the raid. 5-6 cars parked in the gravel parking lot of this empty train yard, not a single person got out of their car (tbf it was raining lightly, I've done one other successful raid there where people did get out to chat briefly.) Just awkwardly nodding to the people parked next to me before they held up their phone to show me they caught it before driving off. A remote pass would have been a much better experience at that point.
my most important pokemon is a hundo lugia i caught by grinding a lugia rotation really hard by hosting remote raids. it was riiiight before the cost increase. this argument is very much subjective, remote raids were absolutely better for the game's health at the initial cost.
Yep my local group chat was dying, remote raiding revitalised it and since the price increase it’s basically me and one other person occasionally posting infographics
there is a local community here but id much rather avoid it. they really should consider players in dead or creepy communities and rural players make up a pretty sizable portion of their playerbase
I actually went to raids more often when remote raid passes were more available. Since I could host the raid.
Sometimes I stand at a gym hoping someone will join but nobody does. I don't enjoy standing around for 20-30 minutes freezing in winter.
Also, when I'm sick or too busy, I know I have no chance of enjoying events. Same for raids. I still miss a lot of mega evolutions since I just can't be bothered to go and look all over the city for a raid and then wait for people who might not show up at all. And hosting the raid often doesn't get me enough players to beat the raid - especially if someone doesn't join!
The gyms here are not that close to each other so I have to walk for 10-20 minutes at the very least. By the time I get to the gym, the raid is over.
I don't even hunt for legendary shinies much since apart from having to run around and ride bus/subway to get to the gym, I failed to get a shiny of some legendaries even after several raids. It's just not worth it for me to run around that much just to get disappointed.
I'm also one of the players that has to travel by public transport to get to a pokestop/gym dense area. At least 30-40 minutes of travel to get there.
One of my most memorable catches is a hundo Mewtwo I got after spamming over 180 remote raids over 4 days while working from home and trying not to scream at excitement while I was talking to my boss on the phone.
I of course agree with their sentiment, but it feels like reminiscing over college days. We aren't going to ever reach that fervor that Pokemon Go originally had.
Those memories are wonderful but I don't want to continue leaving behind rural and suburban players just to chase that high again.
Agreed. I'm older now, got a full-time job and life responsibilities. Guess I'm not supposed to be able to enjoy all of the game's features as other people with more time and money on their hands.
They sound like every old school World of Warcraft played who talked about how hard you used to have to work to get the good items and the game should go back to those days.
And then they’re the first ones that when Classic servers came out just bought their gold/gear from shady third party websites because they realized a game making quality of life improvements isn’t a bad thing 🫠
It is also, frankly, subjective. As a community manager they're a social person, so of course they remember the social things best. As a nonsocial person I remember what I was supposed to be doing when I got all my favorites while sitting in my cave.
It is the crux of so many issues. Niantic having their vision for the game that is mutually exclusive to how some have to (or want to) play.
This is also a literal Niantic employee saying this. Most people don’t work with fellow players and if they do they don’t work at a job where they can freely play while at work. I like the college analogy. This is like reminiscing about college while still living near and hanging out with your friends everyday. Most people don’t have that luxury.
Yeah, these memories are often tied to the frenzy in 2016 and the first raids. Community here is dead here, even though there are 100+ trainers in the same app group, hardly anybody goes out anymore.
Can't remember the last time I was excited about catching a pokemon. Usually after a long grind it's more relief that I can finally move on to the next project. Plus the hatch only ones that need 400 candy, I stopped bothering about it. Last week I missed my first ever collection challenge, because I kept hatching non-Spritzee. Hadn't touched the game the 5 days after that, was gutted
I have amazing memories from pre-covid gameplay. The community presence even in smaller cities was great. If campfire had been a thing prior to covid, I think the community wouldn't have evaporated the way it has. They were too little, too late, and still managed to make it clunky and harder to use (in true Niantic fashion).
I was part of a thriving community but like a lot of people I moved during the pandemic. Remote raiding helped me still connect with the friends I had left behind. Then with the nerf I have almost no connection with them now except sending gifts.
From the conversations I’ve had with folks from the old community, it seems like it really never recovered from the pandemic. People just don’t gather like they used to. How people play the game has changed. Niantic could either lean into that, or try to force folks to go back to an outdated method of playing.
They’re doing the latter.
Not to mention disabled or mobility restricted players. So many accomodations were made that allowed them to be fully included and contributing, are now being clawed back and pushing them back to the margins.
The response from the community manager is frustrating. It feels as if they are playing a different game. I seriously spent a few minutes looking at my Pokémon and thinking which ones were my favorites. There isn't a single favorite that I was physically with another human. It's always a solo grind Pokémon.
For years I worked on the third shift and physically would almost never see a raid. Most of the game was about taking down gyms and catching a few Pokémon on the way to the bus.
When I did do the in- person raids, they were always a horrible social experience. Super awkward, very challenging to coordinate and always felt like a waste of time. I never had a car, so it was a hell of an experience trying to get to them. I remember the extremely cold nights trying to make it to a raid before people left or raid ended. Yeah, super fun...
omfg right?? i haven’t seen anybody else mentioning that the community managers experience just…. Isn’t what anybody’s experience is. Even the people who have active, in person groups. Even actual community leaders.
They’re basing their experience of the game off of…. Having about the absolute best conditions to play the game in? By their own design?
Just because they’ve built their foundation on an idealized version of the game, doesn’t mean anybody else has. I’m so happy someone has a community that they value but I just think it’s a little funny that the only person who seems to have that is an employee.
Yeah that’s nice IF you have other players in your area. And before people say “you won’t find other players by remote raiding” no, there simply are no other players in certain areas
Hell i live in an area with a fairly active discord community. I lead raid hour every week and we ALWAYS have people show.
Yet I see people in the gyms around my house who I don’t know, who I have no way of contacting, so what does it matter that they play?? They’re just a name. Campfire could have been the answer, but if they don’t know to join the local community, it doesn’t matter.
I created a Campfire group for our town and dropped a link for our well established discord group in it. We've been getting a few new players that way. But there are still long term player names that show up in gyms with no way to contact them. Some people just don't want to play with a group.
> I was in the middle of a meeting […] and we all screamed and the guy on Zoom thought we were dying
Poor guy on Zoom, this sounds obnoxious as hell.
Anyway, I don’t usually remember the circumstances of catching particular pokemon - I do like hanging out and playing with friends, but the good memories aren’t “somebody caught a hundo”, it’s stuff unrelated to game itself.
Not everyone has a (suitable) local community to play with though. Niantic would be better off improving the game than trotting out PR tweets on how you just need to do a raid day to reawaken your love of playing.
It’s a wonderful sentiment, but I have fond memories of remote raids as well, when I used to play them often.
I remember this online friend that lived in Spain grinding to level 50. He asked if I could help him do some groudon raids in his area and I was up late at night at like 11pm doing one after another. We were trying to go as quick as possible to farm as much XP. If it wasn’t a good one, run away and join the next lobby. I had to stop and concentrate because I got a hundo.
I moved to a completely different state (AZ from NJ) just after the pandemic state. No pogo friends other than some in the local discord, but I finally lived in an area that had gyms around. I could see 11 gyms from my couch so every week during raid hour once remote raids became popular I’d host my raid hour with my NJ discord friends. Some that I’ve met in person, some that I hadn’t. My favorite thing was the people that kept track of all the AZ shinies they were able to catch during these second raid hours for them.
I remember living in the middle of nowhere Utah and getting a remote invite from a random dude in Australia and ended up getting a hundo Mewtwo. That was dope.
I remember doing raid hour with a discord kid from Costa Rica. I was in middle of cooking dinner when I got the invite for a Giratina raid. And then once we beat it I saw the number and knew it was a hundo. I stopped what I was doing to go to the couch and sit and catch it properly and lo and behold it was a shundo! I was floored and my food definitely overcooked but it was worth it.
I remember being at work in Phoenix for a day when Moltres raids were out. I desperately wanted a shiny moltres caught in Phoenix and my NJ discord friends helped out. I did all the raids I could see from my office and snagged one! It’s a 15/13/15 shiny so definitely one of my favorites.
Community doesn’t have to be in person, sometimes it’s nice to have it, sometimes it’s nice to have an alternate way to play. I don’t like being told how to play the game when I’ve spent more than half my time playing the game completely different. The only thing keeping me engaged to the game are CDs and global gofests, but they’re starting to kill excitement for that as well. Remote raids are a chore but now I do them to help out my nephew who lives in Michigan. He’s low level and can never find anyone to play with. So my brother and I hop on to raids he invites me to and it’s satisfying to know he’s excited to beat a legendary. The game should be more accessible not actively punishing those who like to play for convenience. I’m not gonna walk to throw on an incense when it’s freezing cold or blazing hot. But I would if I could play from my couch. Now? I just don’t engage with this app during this time and I’d rather play video games.
That Moltres sounds awesome, and what a great place to catch it - congratulations!
I have a gold gym badge for a gym on the other side of the world thanks to remote raids. A trainer who spent several months playing with our local community went back to his country, and offered to pick a gym and send raid invites to a few of us just so that we could have that experience. We were able to help him finish off a gym badge here as well. Wouldn't have been possible without remote raids.
The perfect Darkrai that I got from one of those raids certainly made the experience sweeter, haha.
My best Pokémon are caught by myself, hosting, or from Remote raids because that's all I can do.
Maybe if there were actually ways to connect with players in the game... Go and meet people? Sure I'll get right on that, what am I supposed to do, light a flare on Campfire for myself.
I'll take my Shiny Ray I caught remotely in Japan, thanks.
Absolutely agree. I have a community because I live in London, it’s so easy for me. But having this mentality that we should go out and find people, how can you be this delusional? People have other commitments. Maybe they don’t want to be out for an hour playing for raids.
They hindered the possibility of how people can actively play the game by increasing the price of remote and then adding a limit.
They want to push a certain way of playing the game because that’s what they believe in. However, this is simply not the reality of many people.
Shadow weekend raids are also such a privilege thing to be able to participate in. You have to have an active community and also people have to be off during the weekends to do these things.
They're just like all of us, playing Pokemon while at work when we aren't supposed to, or going into sketchy neighborhoods to get Pokemon who felt rare but within a few months definitely weren't worth the risk
Almost a lot of my favorite catches was when I was having fun with myself having a solo adventure. I get why and how being with others is fun playing the game and all, I have friends too you know; But why does everything in the game have to absolutely push the idea that being with others is always the supreme way of playing the game and it’s supposedly always bigger and better? Sometimes people have different schedules and they can’t meet with others. Sometimes people have social anxiety because they’re going through a lot in their life at the moment. Or sometimes people don’t have any people to be around with. There’s also the solo component too. Yes back in the red and blue and gold and silver days Pokémon like seeing people trading and playing with others but for the most part, little Jimmy and you and I were in our room or on the couch playing Pokémon, having a blast making memories BY OURSELVES but SOMETIMES in small amount of moments with others.
Being with or without friends in real life doesn't impact my enjoyment of the game. I play this game mainly to engage with the creatures, and the hundos and shinies that I have obtained via remote raids matter just as much to me as those I caught in physical real world locations.
It's marketing/PR speak to appeal to advertisers. This being a personal account or not, it's echoing Niantics stance.
I have hundos/shundos/shiny T5 mons, but couldn't tell you who was around. Or how them all getting a 2* while I get a Shundo legendary increased my (or their) enjoyment.
But, now they get to shove endless crap paid tickets down our throats and for some reason people buy them all.
Why are they insistent on dictating how players should experience the game? Instead, why not focus on incorporating and maintaining features that enhance gameplay for everyone, whether they prefer solo or group play, remote or in-person interactions? Let's prioritize creating an enjoyable and seamless experience for all types of players.
Good for them but yeah, it’s definitely harder to do this when you don’t literally work for the creators of the game lol. Wasn’t as hard back when I was in college, but I’m not anymore, and that makes playing in groups much more difficult. I do it when I can but also living in the northern part of the US it’s cold as as a witch’s tit right now so I’d rather be able to remote raid
This has the same tone as managers wanting everyone back in the office after successfully working from home for so long... Yeah, what brings you joy and what brings me joy are two separate things.
The only memorable in-person raids I have are Rayquazas last year and the Unown "P" I caught at the end of a pier with my daughter.
Yeah, I think the issue is that Niantic expected everyone to have the same experience or play in the way they wanted, that's a big red flag for literally any gaming company.
You shouldn't limited/punish the players with how they play the game
Or how some of us have to play...
Weather permitting I Go for a walk but there's almost never anyone in any lobby and there's never anyone actually there.
It's not 2017 anymore - i think I've seen four players from the 'old days' irl in the last year but I'm pretty sure they raid in 'one car with alts' groups these days.
There is one group that occasionally raids in person but by the time I could get to where they located the raid will have ended.
If I can't solo it it's remote or hope for a miracle for me.
I’ll never forget waiting in 0 degree Celsius weather for 20 minutes to fill a lobby to raid Thundurus and then he ran <3
These are the moments that make it all worth it.
Yeah I live in a rural town with a few gyms and stops. Ever since they capped the remote raids I really don’t even play anymore. The Facebook group that does exist is toxic as hell and no one really uses it for anything more than “check this shiny or 4* out”
I got my hundo Mewtwo at an in-person raid in September of 2019. I actually do remember it well, there was a screaming match between two different raid groups. The leaders had had a falling out and split the town's raiding community in half, and everything was hugely dramatic. It was super embarrassing to even be slightly associated with them.
My kids and I started playing in 2016. Now my eldest is in another state and my middle child is away at school. My youngest gave his account to his father and my husband and I love the fact that we can get the whole family together to remote raid. Everyone can have a heartwarming story about the way they play. Niantic needs to learn that one of the things remote things can do is bring people who have to be far away from one another together to do things.
Funny, my personal favorite Pokemon are the ones I was actually able to get. I have absolutely no memories of the ones I would have had to drive 30 minutes for and stand outside in weather conditions that were bad enough for the government to send a warning about in the hopes that five other people were dumb enough to do the same thing.
Their own subjective experience of raiding is all well and good but I maintain that raiding would be far better with global lobbies, I live on top of two gyms and I’m sick to death of having to wait for the right raids to pop up in the right place at the right time, if and when any do at all. Just give better incentives for doing it while physically at a gym or something.
That’s a nice sentiment but you have to give players a better way to create groups and communicate. I’m in an area where the community is silent and doesn’t frequently get together.
Adding a time schedule for raids or a sign up feature would help make sure people even show up to attempt a raid.
People are busy and there needs to be some sign of success for them to go out of their way to participate in a raid.
Agreed! I live on a gym and can see 4 gyms total from my house. I’ve never seen anyone in a raid lobby, but the gyms turn over so I KNOW people play, I see pokestops with lures on them. People are out there, but I’ve never met or seen one raid.
I feel you. I had the same experience, lures being placed and gyms getting defeated in my building complex. But still, I’m the guy that’s standing at the complex gazebo in the middle of the night or under a street light in our parking lot.
I can imagine, even if a fellow player looked out their window and saw me, would they assume I’m a fellow player or just a weirdo?
Can’t imagine what my neighbors think lol.
Sadly the campfire app is pretty terrible for coordinating and a feature like raid match ups shouldn’t be in an extra app.
I literally post almost daily.
I’m ignored, and slowly people are leaving just to stop getting messages.
They can come play here if they want, but why would they, they have city players in a major city.
"Get out there more"
I do, no people out there though. But thats okay for me.
I think they forgot that people's experiences may differ, not just "oh it's thunderstorming so I cant go to the raid" but rather the mental being of the person. "Getting out there more" is being treated as a "one size fits all solution" but it may only apply to specific people, like themselves.
I'm heavily introverted. I don't have any friends I play with and all (but 1) of my friends are online. None of which I play Pokemon Go with. I'm content with singleplayer even though there are drawbacks. I understand that others gameplay and mentality is different from mine. I live close to a big city but of course I've been in small towns with 1-3 stops/gyms with pokemon sitting there for 100+ days. I sometimes try to put myself in their shoes. I wouldnt get lots of community day shinies, raiding solely by hosting, and items may be harder to replenish, and I wouldnt have near as much bag space due to my pokemon being stuck for 100+ days.
What needs to be done is more fine tuning to the game. Gifts are right now the primary way of replenish items in rural places. It's highly likely that in a rural community, all of those friends are none in person that they play with One method of solving item issues and "Getting out there more" could involve increasing the item yield of pokestops if there are only x pokestops per x distance.
Of course, there are lots of other features that need more time in the oven first. It will likely be a very long time until a solution is made to equal the playing field of rural and city experiences.
Man, it used to be that I'd go on a daily weekend walk and run into a dozen other people I know playing the game. I walked twice as much as I normally did for the past 4 days and came across one person who might've been playing the game.
I've made more friends online through the game than I have in local communities, and have even physically met most of them at larger in person events.
I don't personally find there is a distinction. I don't feel there is anything all that special about physically being at the spot with other people, or sharing a raid with a bunch of online friends on my friends list. It's ok to like both.
Funny.
I have unfond memories of waiting an hour on a hatch that I call out over several social media channels, then waiting 45 mins at the raid for the 1-3 people who responded saying they'd be there in 10 mins, oh traffic, oh, I'm only 15 away, hey can my other friend join us, he'll be here in 10 mins. Oh, we decided we just were gonna hit this other raid that was closer instead.
I have more fond memories of being able to quickly invite 5-10 remote raiders on discord servers to any raid I'm at, and then we share what we caught right afterwards. Now, I don't avoid raids anymore because I know I can invite my friends, even if they only live 15 mins away, and we'll get it done. There's no fun for me waiting 45+ mins for a raid that might happen. There is fun for me to be able to play with my friends I've already established in this game, be it if they live next to me or not, and then reminisce and share with them the things I've caught online.
Yeah, I **DO** remember being outside a park on Tuesday, June 19, 2018 before work at 7:29 AM where I caught a [shundo Kyogre](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/374633853119102978/1199404456517828729/Screenshot_20240123-122425.png), and the joy I felt from it.
But, you know, I **ALSO** remember the joy of meeting another friend after seeing Paramore on June 10, 2023 at 12:12 AM on Sunday morning, June 11th, 2023 and trading a shiny Numel for a shiny Groudon to get my [shundo Groudon](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/374633853119102978/1199404456958238820/Screenshot_20240123-122435.png).
And just as fond as both of those memories was being able to do 2 Giratina raids back to back after 7 PM on Thursday, Oct 27th, 2022 where I was able to get a [hundo Giratina](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/374633853119102978/1199404457402835096/Screenshot_20240123-122452.png) where the raid had less than 5 mins on it when I saw it, and the only reason I was able to do it is because I could invite remote friends to join me. I even remember the friends I did that raid with, and am so greatful to them for that opportunity. Before that raid, I met a friend I went lucky with to do a lucky trade before he had a soccer game, so he wasn't available to do that raid, but I remember that on Thursday, August 19, 2021 he had invited me to a remote Heracross raid at 12:13 PM (afternoon), while I was eating lunch, that I accepted and got a [hundo Heracross](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/374633853119102978/1199408200080957642/Screenshot_20240123-123949.png) from; and I plan to make this my first Mega Heracross when it comes out.
Not being physically next to someone never devalues my play experience or my ability to remember that experience with that player. If anything the ability to play with close friends I made in this game regardless of whether we can be be next to each other or not only enhances the quality of the experience I have as a trainer.
If my joy in this game gets limited to needing to be able to coordinate and meet with other trainers, the amount of time I can enjoy this game reduces exponentially. My friends that I've made playing this game are all also adults, and while we enjoy this game greatly, we all do have lives and obligations that aren't just allowing us to play this game 24/7/365. But being able to sync up for a few mins and join or host a raid remotely helps us to be able to stay connected much more often than not.
This looks like something that was sent to coworkers and they all thought it was amazing and would really connect with the players. But in reality, was just an echo chamber, how sad for those of us in the real world. She’s basically telling me that I’m playing the game “wrong” by being a solo player.
Cool. Happy for you. Meanwhile, I just walked my kid to the bus stop at the corner of the our street and now have to spend 45 minutes trying to breathe again because asthma doesn't mix with cold weather. So I guess I should just stop playing until summer or something, but have fun raiding with your friends. I look forward to seeing the brag shots of all the shadow Mon I'll never have the chance to catch.
>If you've been playing from home for awhile, try to get out there again
I've always really disliked this idea that the people who support remote raiding are some shut-ins that just aren't GO™ing outside enough, it's a very blatantly flawed opinion IMO.
I *tried* going outside to play, but my community has been dead outside of CDs/Fests since 2018, so I'm locked out of doing raids unless I can call people in remotely. I *want* the game to be playable while I'm outside, and that's exactly what remote raiding allows for.
Yeah that bit seems completely detached. I go outside and play every day on my dog walks, and I've gone to a big mall for Tours/Go Fests, and heck I even met a random person playing Go in my local park and we text and would get together for comm days, so I see the sentiment. But also me meeting a stranger in a park is kind of nuts, and also rare, and on top of that, the two of us can't take down a 5 star raid. We'd often meet up and still have to rely on me pulling in remote raiders so the two of us could take something down. But with the remote raid nerf, many times it takes too long to find remote folks, so we just stopped raiding completely.
Yea it's a very odd remark to make and overall a weird assumption to hold on to (others on here have this same detached opinion too). I was part of a great community and have since moved out of state. I'm part of my city's PoGo group chat and we do coordinate raids and all but the times I have been a part of it, I don't recall seeing anyone gathered at the gym. Instead, everyone is in their cars so just how much socializing can you even do?
In a smallish area with a decent amount gyms, I found nobody out raiding Mega Rayquaza. And I don’t live in the arse end of nowhere. The local group chat is that dead I could barely get folk to join remotely. Don’t get me wrong, it was easy enough to duo with my brother so I didn’t miss out, but you can’t force community.
This is great for everyone who's not in rural areas. Most of the stops in my town are on a state highway. Only someone who's suicidal would try to walk on it for over an hour to get 5ish stops and one gym.
That’s a nice sentiment but you have to give players a better way to create groups and communicate. I’m in an area where the community is silent and doesn’t frequently get together.
Adding a time schedule for raids or a sign up feature would help make sure people even show up to attempt a raid.
People are busy and there needs to be some sign of success for them to go out of their way to participate in a raid.
I live in an area where there are 2 maybe 3 players who play daily. But there’s a thing called real life. We depend on remote raids to be able to trio these raids. We can’t just up and go to a raid all Willy nilly.
the way any good game should work: you can enjoy the grind solo, and when you get time to play with friends you can show off everything you got since you last played together. i shouldn’t be required to grind with friends in order to progress in the game.
To disagree with Kestrel here most of my favourite Pokémon were caught remotely. Whilst they are correct in saying that location and timing matters, catching these Pokemon remotely were the only reason I got them in the first place. One of my favourite Pokemon is my shiny high stat regigigas that I caught on Christmas Day
This is really interesting. From the first and last bits, it shows the narrative going on inside Niantic. Kestrel is repeatedly saying "get out there *again*". Niantic has decided that people used to play outside, they stopped during the pandemic, and Niantic needs to encourage (force) people to "play with local communities".
This is delusional in a whole bunch of ways, but really insightful to understand where Niantic is coming from with a lot of the changes being made to the game. Daily Incense, Party Play, and Routes were all directly targeted at requiring players to "leave the house" to participate in for rewards.
What Niantic doesn't realize is how remote play affected local play. My remote interactions used to be with people from my hometown. I've moved several hours away from there, but those people made raiding possible where I am now, and they had raids they couldn't finish if I couldn't help them. The changes to remote raiding ruined that. The last time there was real interaction on raiding in our Discord server was July, and that place used to be constantly active.
Changes have been great for players whose lives and habits haven't changed in the 5 years since the game's peak. However, for those who moved or started families that require attention, got jobs that keep them inside more during the day, or simply found other hobbies, the changes are hurting new AND old players. The remote players are punished for being remote, and the local players are hurt because they are too few to do certain things.
Well sure, it's absolutely better and more fun to play locally.
Here's the rub, Niantec: you don't tell us what's appearing when and where. That means that when a Legendary Bird shows up for a raid? I've got 45 minutes to find at least two other people who can be ready to instantly drop whatever they're doing and book it over to where the raid is. I would **love** to organize a party (I mean literally, have a little POGO party and go out raiding); but that takes time and co-ordination, and the current game mechanics make that impossible.
Is nobody going to point out how they're acting like people who remote raid don't go outside at all, as if that is even remotely comparable? I go on walks for at least half an hour almost daily, more often an hour or even longer, but if it hadn't been for remote raids I wouldn't have had the overwhelming majority of pokemon that I like because there simply is not a community here that actively does raids.
And while I do remember the handful of times I did get to do a raid with people it is only because they are such oddities, not because I like the pokemon or the memories. I love the mf shiny typhlosion I caught on my own walking to the train station way more than the guzzlord I got at the local park.
I am the opposite. Other than big event days, I only raid with my spouse. I don’t know the people we meet at in-person events, and I don’t really stay in touch. However, I also do remote raids with an online community formed for an unrelated reason, so we are already online friends. I typically name the Pokémon after the friend who hosted the raid, and I have good memories every time I see those nicknames.
that’s a great sentiment but it’s no excuse for remote raids to not be more accessible and whether niantic wants to admit it or not it does discourage the amount of raids ppl do and generally makes it harder to play the game as far as raids go.
Lol, they should try playing alone middle of nowhere and celebrate their catches then. Loads and Loads of players have no other option than remote raid and people like this community manager are completely forgetting that
Breaking News: Person with plenty of community members to play with says they have no problem finding people to play with!
We have very small clique-y groups of 4-5 people where I live and they're pretty spread out, I don't raid if it's not remote. I don't have the time to be out walking for hours looking for 1-2 people who might also be looking for raids, only to have them back out in the last 10 seconds because we didn't magically get 20 people on an easily duoable 'mon
I agree shinies are more hype with an audience but sometimes I can't play with my friends when I'm off due to different work schedules. I'd like to use my free raid pass on the legendary everyday if I could. I used to just ignore the legendary and mega raids thinking "not for me" before I found raid hosting sites, hosting on PokeGenie allowed me to get some legendaries I wouldn't get at all before.
Post remote-change, I meet up with my friends on Wednesday and hope our mall has a legendary raid in one of its 2 gyms (sometimes we've got neither because other raids spawned) I can reliably get the legendary for the dex now, but only 1 or 2 for the entire week it's here. And I live in a capital city for my province! I used to live rurally when the game launched raids and just never did them. They shouldn't punish players who rely on remote raids because the game is already hard enough for rural players
My most memorable shiny was when I dipped my toes in the waters of Miami Beach for the first time, opened up the game and a shiny Magikarp appeared. I was by myself lol.
I mean, it's great that Kestrel has such fond memories of getting these specific pokemon, but I hope they aren't presenting their own personal experience to Niantic as some sort of exclusive ideal. People are allowed to be fond of pokemon that they caught at home, or with nobody else around.
I went into to drug cartel territory to get my favorite Pokémon! You can risk your life too and get Pokémon!
I imagine he gets everything free for his account. His experience is not what we experience. I’ll also say it’s nearly impossible for me to be attached to Pokémon because of IVs. I would love to have Pokemon I cherish but ultimately I have to send them to the grinder because they have bad IVs. Give me a way to change IVs so I can truly love any Pokémon I catch.
I still enjoy playing somewhat, but I am a busy person. I do not have time to run out to do a raid all the time. Respect my time for once. The game is not going back to the way it used to be.
My favorite memory is when I caught a shiny rayquaza after 30 raids being so distracted that I shut down the production line and cost the company $2.5billion. I named the Rayquaza “Black Thursday” bc it was on a thursday
Doesn't this kinda state the obvious?
Ofcourse it's (more) fun to play with friends, but if you don't have any that play this game, then there should be a solid alternative..
I dont remember catching many legendaries before the remote raid introduction. And what I do remember is waiting around for people to show up and absolutely wasting my time.
Now with remote raids, I can raid legendaries to my heart's content. I can even pop out of work for 5 minutes and do a raid. I cannot do that with shadow raids because I cannot time that to my shxedule.
What raids do I remember? I remember my first shiny mewtwo, my first shiny Zapdos, my first shiny Ho-Oh, my first shiny of most legendaries... all caught with the amazing help of remote raiders!
Last time time I met people in person was shadow Mewtwo day and I must have wasted at least an hour of that day waiting for people. I did 4 raids. It was miserable
Built up my local community got over 1,000 people to use campfire and have had consistent events. Still waiting to hear back from Ambassador program. Rip. If you’re saying people make this game great then work on empowering those that want to build locally.
I used to remote raid all the time with my family that lives both across the state and in a completely different state. Now it’s too expensive to do so so we just all completely stopped raiding
I live in an area with only one gym within walking distance, and a couple more in biking distance, and never in my couple years of playing have I actually met another person playing in the same area at the same time as me. Basically the only raids I *can* do are ones that I can solo, or in coordinated remote raids off discord raiding communities, where I have also made no friends. But ever since they nearly doubled the price of tickets, I only do raids for a new pokemon I don't have, which means I've only done a handful of raids in the last several months, because Pokemon GO activity is barely even lukewarm in my area, and I can't even flip a gym for 50 coins every day. Sometimes I'll control a gym on my own for days at a time with my pokemon just sitting there one hit from KO.
I still haven't even touched the new party features, because it's just not gonna happen for me. There are a few other people playing in my area, but I've never seen them, and it's not like I only go out during goblin mode hours. I go out in the late morning/lunchtime and in the evening/early night after I have dinner every single day, weather permitting.
I donno, maybe don't make cool things just in raids and eggs then. Getting back out there is boring when the chances of finding something cool are so low. In the first few years a lot of the highlights were finding something really cool in the wild that was available for everybody, and that's mostly gone now.
On the Hoenn tour, I remember running around my town trying to join various groups to do the Primal Groudon and Kyogre raids, managed to do enough to get both primal evolutions but no shiny, then at about 4.50 I get a remote raid invite to a Kyogre raid from the other side of the world from an old remote raiding friend. That was the one raid that brought me a shiny Kyogre, so when I think of how much I adore my shiny Kyogre, I don’t immediately think ofthe numerous in person raids I did, nor the fleeting small talk with a group of strangers that immediately dispersed, I think of how thankful I was for remote raids and how even a single long distance friendship can be such an incredible thing.
I miss those days.
I have never hated the game more than I have during in-person raid days. I actually hate them so much that I have stopped raiding anything I can't beat by myself or with my one friend who is with me. My mom (the biggest Pokemon Go fan I know) got so mad at dealing with her local raid group that she actually quit the game for a week or two to cool off
In-person raiding is fun if you have a friend group to do it with, but not everyone has a group of friends who play. I actually do have a group of friends who play, but we are scattered and still have to raid remotely if we want to raid together
Not meant as an insult, but I remember a remote raid Kestrel joined me for that resulted in a shiny Gyarados, but i can barely remember my 98% perfect shiny Kyogre. Even though i was at the Vegas Tour when i got it, the event bugs, lack of close friends who could go, and rapid fire nature of those raids just made it forgettable. It's really about the context.
I believe they should let people enjoy the game however they want to enjoy it. They should not set things to purposely discourage a way of playing that doesn’t line up with their way of playing, not everyone fits into the same box.
The main problem here is people won't go out if there's no ***INCENTIVE***
New features are nice and all, but not when they're broken on launch, take ages to be approved, [stay broken for months on end](https://old.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/19ckbuq/0297_you_may_see_and_participate_showcases_while/kj0uqka/?context=3), and don't *reward* players for their time. Most players complete the special research for these, then never touch Routes or Party Play again.
For example, routes weekly rewards bonus are pitiful, it's just more of the same items we always get. Throw us a bone, throw an XL Rare Candy in there.
In my honest to god opinion, to get players out more, we need to be incentivised, and *Niantic needs to respect our time and effort more.*
-**Improve field research**: Earn 3 buddy candies for a Bunnelby, or win 2 raids for a Kanto Marowak aren't going to get ANYONE hyped to go searching for them. Show us what encounter we'll earn too.
-**Nests**: We've had a few more interesting species the past couple months, but nests are still incredibly outdated, hard to track, and sometimes have no clear indicator of their boundaries.
-**Team GO Rocket**: A small QOL update, let us see what type the grunt specialises in from afar. If I see they're a Ground, Fairy or Dragon grunt down the road, I'll be likely to go out and battle it.
-***RARE CANDY XL***: Make the in-person boost for RC XL **PERMENANT**. I can NOT overstate this enough, this singular resource has been the most dividing factor for player balance.
Master League is "pay2win", or even pay to access in some peoples opinions. I've been level 50 since Swablu CD, over 2 years. I've completed EVERY level up challenge, I use my daily free raid pass almost *every single day*, and I *still* only have 255 RC XL.
I can't max out a single Mythical Pokemon despite being the most active player in my community. Before anyone mentions RC XL is only meant to be a "top up" to maxing Pokemon, where else are people going to get XL candy for Mythicals? Walking 20km for a CHANCE of a singular XL candy is dreadful. You can't trade or catch multiple of many Mythical pokemon.
This Winter has been bitterly cold in the Northern Hemisphere, and my local chats are more quiet than ever. Even with a new meta-viable pokemon in Thunderus-T with its signature move, literally only me and 1 person came out for raid hour last Wednesday.
And I have the feeling that no matter how much I hype up Landorus-T for this upcoming raid hour, no one will come out once again.
I legitimately feel like they'd get a lot more engagement of they just treated it like raid dens in SwSh. You use a pass to unlock a raid at any gym, and it connects you to a worldwide lobby for that pokemon. No waiting, no wondering, no blocking a gym for 45 mins. You'd still have to physically go to a gym in person. Gyms could have a cool-down to make you go to more than one.
There are no "raid hours" in small towns. During special raid days, I drive around and I might see an online friend from my community in their car pull up to the same stop and we end up in the raid together, but that is very unlikely. We have never met in person. I play with no one but my dogs who join me on walks. Please stop trying to force me together with people who don't exist or don't want to play together. I remember catching shinies walking down my street- alone...every single time.
This is based on a small sample size of employees at Niantic under Pokémon GO versus roughly 83 million active Pokémon GO players according to ActivePlayer as of Nov. 30, 2023.
Niantic shouldn’t be putting limitations on how players should enjoy the game. Every player should be able to enjoy playing the game however they want.
And some of my personal favorite memories are the relationships I’ve made in remote communities, or grinding 200 remote raids in a week hunting something. Seems like both options being available for both kinds of people doesn’t hurt anything, while cutting off my favorite aspects of the game has got me barely logging in.
Yes, it is definitely a lot more fun having a group of people to play with that all share in the excitement of the game, but it's not a reality many get to experience in certain areas. Even in active communities it can still be extremely difficult to get everyone together in one place. Shadow Raid Weekends are a great example.
They ***could*** get people excited and together for the big shadow raids, but since they refuse to give us a set schedule and mix the shadow raids in with the regular raids people quickly lose interest. Who has time to sit around in one spot all weekend just hoping the desired raid shows up frequently enough to make it all worth it?
Also, this person seems to imply when someone remote raids that they are always playing with strangers by doing so. Many of my remote raids are with local trainers in instances where we just couldn't meet up for some reason. One of my favorite memories was my wife and I joining a local trainer's remote invite, and we both ended up getting shiny Xerneas from it.
My favorites are my hundo Blissey for its many gyms defended, and my hundo Dialga for its Master League/Team Rocket-beating prowess, I got them in trades, I don't remember from whom. They're my favorites because they do their job well. I can't think of any special memories around my other 7000 Pokémon, a lot of which is junk I'm waiting to transfer or trade.
When my partner and I play in person, we pull up in our car and don't say hi to anyone, because either there's no one around, or the other people are also in cars and it would be weird to go up to strangers who we don't know if they are playing Pokémon Go or just random people sitting in their cars.
for me it's the exact opposite
none of my irl friends play the game, so all the shinies i've gotten from raids have been from either raiding alone or getting invited to raids by friends who live elsewhere in the world
I caught my shundo Rayquaza from a remote raid in my apartment lounge and I’ll never forget that. I swear they need to try harder and convince us that remote raiding is actually bad for this game. 💀
My brother and I live on opposite sides of the country and remote raiding allows us to do something together consistently. He really wanted a shiny rayquaza so we spent a good portion of the day on the phone while i was running around campus inviting him to raids. we both managed to pull a shiny on the very last spawn in my area. That's personally my most memorable catch and it strictly because of remote raiding.
I completely understand the point about community. Some of my favourite mons are also ones I raided with my brother or with friends. But I feel like these comments are pretty disconnected from the user experience these days. We aren’t whooping and cheering about Pokemon at work. I’m actually working during 8-5:30 most days and can’t play during that time. It would be nice to be able to remote a raid if I’m unable to play during an event because of life priorities, without spending several dollars so I get something like a Tornadus before it’s out of rotation once again.
That’s great that you have friends to play with and local stuff to participate in!
Now for the rest of us, this CM needs to tell Niantic to screw off with actively strangling our best way to join in on the fun. I have plenty of Pokemon I remember well, even the ones from remote raids I did at home. The twin Virizion shinies I got during my first weeks at my first job during November, curled in bed after work sore and tired and doing my five remotes a day to nab a favored shiny? The absolutely shocking two shiny Suicune in only 5 raids a few months back? The Absol that caught me by surprise a couple weeks ago standing right outside my house waiting for me at 5 AM (after not getting to bed until 11:30 the prior night courtesy of a late shift) to do store inventory (and with bad weather rolling in later to boot, a real disaster omen that one). The PvP-grade shiny Axew I caught back in June sitting in a chair that became a GL staple for me despite being stuck at home with my sister coming home and not even having the ticket for that event?
I remember those and so many more. Heck, my friend’s list is a testament to that. Or the names I racked up in a Discord server to coordinate larger remote teams during the Hoenn tour due to the difficulty of facing down Kyogre/Groudon/the Lati duo with only the normal 6 in a remote team. I remember.
I also remember the first few months in late 2022, playing but too sickly (sleep apnea) to risk driving into town. Frantically spinning stops and catching anything I could anytime I was able to grab a ride for errands or appointments in the passenger seat. I remember those starving days, especially before I learned about gifts as a lifeline for items, and the first shinies, Dratini and Teddiursa on their community days. Even now, an Ursaluna and Dragonite are some of my highest CP Pokemon I call on when I can’t leverage a type advantage and need brute force.
And I remember my first remote raids, December 2022. Virizion raid hour, stuck at home, and I couldn’t stand it any longer having to miss out constantly. Then I did Reshiram once, and got a shiny; that Reshiram is a staple for me I use against Rockets pretty much every day. Again, a remote raid done from my home.
Or how about the Latias I found at the bottom of my driveway (a bigass 180 foot driveway, mind, and a stupidly sharp grade) back in the Hoenn event? Ran up and down our backend street looking for her. Even snapped a pic with her to remember that encounter. Saw several that day, but I caught her and I’ll cherish that. I don’t like to walk out here, the weather is horrid in Texas most of the year due to the heat and the neighbors aren’t all exactly friendly and I don’t like constantly getting grilled by family for it, but I made an exception.
I’m sick of this perspective that somehow remote raiding is a substitute for anything. It’s a replacement for what *doesn’t exist* out here, because the game is not engineered for rural players. Not to mention cases like what I used to be, medically unsafe to drive and thus stranded far from anything. But the remote raids offered a way to play. Heck, I originally was intrigued by GO because of all the super low level legendaries on the GTS in Home; remote raids enabled me to finally get a few of my own.
It’s a valid opinion, and I get where they’re coming from, but that’s ONE type of player….and there are millions of us. It’s a huge complex game and there are tons of ways each player gleans joy from it, let’s keep an open perspective and not railroad millions of people
I have fond memories of waiting almost an hour at a random park for some help with a shadow lugia raid to which I couldn’t invite a single buddy to help me :) such great times <333
Most of my social pokemon go stories make me sad. Like all the people I used to play with who quit, and who i almost never hang out with anymore. Or the Discord i got banned from because i told a mod not to use certain slurs. Or the time an old man called the cops on me because i asked him to stop feeding bread to the ducks at the park where most of the local pokemon go community hangs out that i had to stop going to because it now smells entirely of duck poo and i get nauseous smelling it.
I get that this is PR, it's just really weak and sad PR trying to encourage gameplay that the game will not reward or assist in encouraging. I also wish the game had better social features, and the fact that bad game design is no longer getting people to gather in groups is not our fault.
Wanna get people in groups? then make a group-up feature that is worthwhile. have people in groups or on routes hatch eggs faster, or get a raid spawn or something. campfire was a good idea, but it sucks. want people to organize in the game then put the organization features in the game and not in a separate app that closes the game half the time.
Seriously, think about this- if the group feature in the game had more manageable tasks that rewarded premier balls, and at the end of 30 minutes, you got to try and catch a raid boss based based on how far the group collectively moved during that time, would you go on walks with friends in order to get those kidna catches? even if it only worked once per day, or maybe cost a pass.
That’s nice. Mine aren’t.
Mine are literally the multiple Rayquaza my gf and I were able to remote duo the last time they were in a raid hour, because we didn’t have to wait for anyone and could cram in as many as we could reach from our apartment before time ran out. If we had been out and raiding in person we *might* have got 4 total, plus lost 20+ minutes walking there and back. Oh, and I wouldn’t have been available for work calls if they happened to need me for something.
I think people forget that some people live in little farm towns and no one in the little farm town plays Pokémon go except for you and all your friends that do play live in another country/state. There is a single gym within a 30 mile radius of me. I HAVE to do remote raids. Hell yeah I remember them! I was in a chick fil a when I got my shiny darkrai! Remote raids are there for people who live in areas that kind of ruin the game.
I suppose it's different for everyone. Personally I don't agree at all. What's more, my local area no longer has an active raiding community, so it just isn't possible.
Though to be fair, I barely remotely raid these days either. There's not much worth playing for.
The compromise at the very least, and I’ve probably said this 1000 times or more, is in person matchmaking for raids.
If you want GPS data from me you better damn well make sure I’m able to do the activity when I arrive somewhere. Otherwise, have fun selling GPS data for Tokyo/LA over and over again.
I remember when I tried to raid with the local community. A swarm of older men gathered around local attractions and sat in silence tapping on their phones before moving on to the next raid. Was super awkward and uncomfortable and I never tried again.
Cool, he's still pushing an outdated concept. Punishing the player base by forcing people to interact with toxic communities is a bad gatekeeping concept.
The 5/day limit while hurtful, is still not as terrible as the 2x price increase. Was that also done so that people could go out and reminisce about the good ole days? BS.
Some people enjoy pokemon but don’t like interacting with other people. Some people don’t have friends who like to play pokemon. Some people find it difficult to make friends because they’re neurodivergent.
Some people may not be able to meet up with others in person because they’re adults with kids they have to take care of. Or because they’re at work and can go outside (but are able still play - yes, we exist)
Forcing people to go out and interact can be triggering. It can turn some players off from the game. It’s gate-keeping and ablest in many ways. It also punishes adults who have other things going at the time but might still be able to do remote raids.
Yeah I still remember who I raided with when I caught my 1st hundo Mewtwo.
Not because of the people tho but because I caught a hundo freaking Mewtwo that day.
When you are doing 100s of raids, every single one becomes less memorable.
I have lots of memories of Kleavor raid day and those were all solo or remote. It also happened to be during a trip out of state to a cousin's wedding.
Amazing how this stuff is subjective, innit?
I know a grand total of two people who play the game and I have no interest in meeting strangers to catch digital monsters.
I enjoyed remote raiding and would often do extra just because it was a reasonable price. Since the increase, I rarely do it and just spend my coins on upgrading my item bag instead.
If only there was some way to make a note or maybe rename a pokemon about where it was caught, who sent the remote raid or where the remote raid was ....
Remote raids allow us to connect to overseas communities that we would otherwise have no access to (with no help from Niantic having no ability to communicate between players)
My most memorable raid were EX raids but where did they go? Binned without reason, so not sure how having a subjective view on what is memorable or not contributes to how they eliminate or nerf features. At the end of the day, they want outdoor data and I doubt people will be convinced otherwise.
Apparently, this needs to be said (again): **Insulting/name-calling/threatening Niantic employees will get you banned on this sub, just like insulting/name-calling/threatening any other user will get you banned on this sub**. This is also not a Niantic PR account, and while Kestrel is Niantic's Lead Community Manager for Pokémon GO, this is *their* private account and *their* private opinions. You do not have to agree with them but please be respectful and constructive in the wording of your replies. Thank you.
Yeah, that's fine and dandy, but when your town has 5 stops and 2 gyms and you're one of 3 total players, the sentiment doesn't resonate as well.
Exactly, they are unempathetic. They built the game for themselves
They think 1. Everyone lives in New York. 2. Has unlimited time. 3. Has unlimited money to burn on a car and gas. 4. Always has near perfect weather to go out. 5. There are shitload of players everywhere. 6. People are happy doing mindless chores for 12 hours a day everyday.
You forgot "and can play throughout important (in-person!!) work meetings"
My least favorite Pokémon is the Squirtle I caught during our quarterly with the C-suite in the conference room! I was written up for time wasting, got a bad performance review and was eventually let go. 6/2/2.
Under rated post
you know what's really messed up is they are getting direct feedback from this community manager. They are having a great time remembering their favorite pokemon.
Yeah. It's a nice sentiment and all, but as a community manager they should be listening to the community, not basing the direction of the game off their own opinion.
Maybe they interpret the job title to mean we need to be managed.
Some of their follow up comments lend credibility to this theory. Lol
Almost right. They think everyone live in San Francisco.
bro I live in a CITY and all the local discords have been dead for years
Events like raid hour, community days, etc are great for getting people in smaller communities together. Going out for an in person raid at a random time to never see another person is not a great experience. I don’t know why having remote passes for the second instance people feel like devalues the first.
I sometimes think what if raids didn’t just randomly appear like now and instead we knew a day or so before that they’ll appear? Like elite raids? The way things are now most raids, especially level 5, probably appear and disappear without anyone doing them. If I knew a day before that a legendary raid will hatch the next day at a certain time, it’ll be much easier to coordinate with others and see if enough of us can show up.
THIS I would raid so much more if I were not completely DONE with all of the cat herding required to get a group together. Having raids at a predictable time and place would rule out about 90% of that. This is the main reason why I only do group raids during events. And before anyone says "but, raid hour!", 6pm on a weekday is a terrible time to expect people to go out.
I had raid hour where I would drive in traffic to get to the usual spot to find nobody there because it’s a repeat and nobody care. No game should rely on the number of people that physically play the same game around you.
Also, struggling to make that start time, especially if you're leading the group, can be exhausting if you run it every week. I had a stint where I lead folks around a trail at a local park every Wednesday. The group was fun at first, but as we gained traction some folks joined that were a lot less casual-friendly, and some only self-serving. My hope was that if I made a decent core group, we could have enough people present weekly to drown out the negativity. The underwhelming raids on top of the toxic layer of people ruined the core group, and honestly ruined the experience for myself.
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Raid hour is good for group play. Lately we've been meeting half an hour early to knock out a few party challenges, making it even better. They really need to rethink the Wednesday dinner hour time slot though. Our core group for the last year or so has been a couple of retirees and a couple of young guys that don't have jobs with a long commute. Community day has been an epic fail for "community" togetherness if you ask me. For any good Pokemon they've featured the best way to play is to drive around from one shopping center to another catching all the spawns that a busy shopping area get. For the junk they offer you can just sit home and shiny check once in a while. Neither do anything for your social life.
> They really need to rethink the Wednesday dinner hour time slot though. Yeah I've never once been able to make one. Maybe they could make remote raids unlimited during the raid hours or do *something* to help people who can't attend in person.
I remember the first time I was able to do a Machamp raid (after 3 attempts) and got two shiny Pinsir during the event that it debuted. The thing is that I did that solo and remember that far more than when we burned a Mewtwo down in 8 seconds with 20 people.
You mean you don't cherish the memory of everyone driving up to starbucks, getting out of their cars and awkwardly standing around the front door as customers looked at all the neckbeards blocking their way to get coffee????
Can't say the neckbeard thing happened, but I can say I didn't enjoy the 25 minute long wait for someone to show up for a legendary raid that I barely wanted to do to begin with (so glad I've gotten to the point where I can duo most legendaries with my brother.)
This was always my biggest complaint about raiding with others. Make a post on discord or whatever and there is always someone who is just 5 minutes away and it takes 15+ for them to get there. So happy that my boys and I can also handle most 5 star now.
This always annoyed me the first few years of raiding but once I had a kid and my time became wildly more precious, these always 5 minutes away folks drove me to quit raiding entirely. Now if I can't do it solo, I'm not doing it unless I luck out and stumble across a lobby that is ready to go which has legit happened once in the past two years.
You guys got out of your cars? We just sat in the Starbucks parking lot with the engine running. Oh, the memories
Y’all got out of your cars? Bunch of weirdos. Gotta stay in your car and all drive off at the same time
It's always fun when there's 10+, roll up and the guy who owns the laundry mat call the police. We've been told by a church we're only allowed in their parking lot to pray. Remotes have fully removed that fear and embarrassment for me. I no longer have to check the "do not go to this gym" list before attempting to raid.
Just pray and ask for a good raid. Loophole!
Dear PokeGod... I've been an active player since launch and still don't have a shundo legendary. Let it be worthy to show off to all. Ahhhhman.
Dear Arceus…
lol this is exactly what it's like "playing with local communities". Right down to the fact that everyone has to caravan around in cars because you can't walk to raids (even in good weather) except during raid hour for 1 hour, one day a week, during dinner time.
I have such fond memories of the time me and 2 other adult men pulled up to a playground in the middle of a residential block, stood by a car to beat a raid boss and some lady came out, gave us a dirty look, asked what we were doing, and then basically called us losers when we said Pokemon Go (maybe she’s not wrong?). Strangely I can’t even remember what the raid mon was that day.
I remember my first mewtwo quite vividly. My 110th not so much.
I remember the first one definitely far better than the 30th, though the first one I just remember being in the car with friends and ping-ponging between them with a pogo group. After that there's really nothing to remember.
I remember my first Mewtwo vividly because I was working in a mall at the time and I was able to go upstairs to the EX Raid with a bunch of the coworkers I played with regularly (including my boss, who okayed us bouncing out for a bit.) I haven't talked to, let alone seen, most of those coworkers in years. I remember my armored Mewtwo for opposite reasons. Driving home from my office job, years removed from that job at the mall and having people to regularly play with, stopping at a gym hoping there'd be someone there doing the raid. 5-6 cars parked in the gravel parking lot of this empty train yard, not a single person got out of their car (tbf it was raining lightly, I've done one other successful raid there where people did get out to chat briefly.) Just awkwardly nodding to the people parked next to me before they held up their phone to show me they caught it before driving off. A remote pass would have been a much better experience at that point.
my most important pokemon is a hundo lugia i caught by grinding a lugia rotation really hard by hosting remote raids. it was riiiight before the cost increase. this argument is very much subjective, remote raids were absolutely better for the game's health at the initial cost.
Yep my local group chat was dying, remote raiding revitalised it and since the price increase it’s basically me and one other person occasionally posting infographics
there is a local community here but id much rather avoid it. they really should consider players in dead or creepy communities and rural players make up a pretty sizable portion of their playerbase
The same happened to mine. It was real active when remote raiding was cheaper but now no one wants to even remote raid, let alone in person
I actually went to raids more often when remote raid passes were more available. Since I could host the raid. Sometimes I stand at a gym hoping someone will join but nobody does. I don't enjoy standing around for 20-30 minutes freezing in winter. Also, when I'm sick or too busy, I know I have no chance of enjoying events. Same for raids. I still miss a lot of mega evolutions since I just can't be bothered to go and look all over the city for a raid and then wait for people who might not show up at all. And hosting the raid often doesn't get me enough players to beat the raid - especially if someone doesn't join! The gyms here are not that close to each other so I have to walk for 10-20 minutes at the very least. By the time I get to the gym, the raid is over. I don't even hunt for legendary shinies much since apart from having to run around and ride bus/subway to get to the gym, I failed to get a shiny of some legendaries even after several raids. It's just not worth it for me to run around that much just to get disappointed. I'm also one of the players that has to travel by public transport to get to a pokestop/gym dense area. At least 30-40 minutes of travel to get there.
One of my most memorable catches is a hundo Mewtwo I got after spamming over 180 remote raids over 4 days while working from home and trying not to scream at excitement while I was talking to my boss on the phone.
I of course agree with their sentiment, but it feels like reminiscing over college days. We aren't going to ever reach that fervor that Pokemon Go originally had. Those memories are wonderful but I don't want to continue leaving behind rural and suburban players just to chase that high again.
Agreed. I'm older now, got a full-time job and life responsibilities. Guess I'm not supposed to be able to enjoy all of the game's features as other people with more time and money on their hands.
They sound like every old school World of Warcraft played who talked about how hard you used to have to work to get the good items and the game should go back to those days. And then they’re the first ones that when Classic servers came out just bought their gold/gear from shady third party websites because they realized a game making quality of life improvements isn’t a bad thing 🫠
It is also, frankly, subjective. As a community manager they're a social person, so of course they remember the social things best. As a nonsocial person I remember what I was supposed to be doing when I got all my favorites while sitting in my cave. It is the crux of so many issues. Niantic having their vision for the game that is mutually exclusive to how some have to (or want to) play.
This is also a literal Niantic employee saying this. Most people don’t work with fellow players and if they do they don’t work at a job where they can freely play while at work. I like the college analogy. This is like reminiscing about college while still living near and hanging out with your friends everyday. Most people don’t have that luxury.
Yeah, these memories are often tied to the frenzy in 2016 and the first raids. Community here is dead here, even though there are 100+ trainers in the same app group, hardly anybody goes out anymore. Can't remember the last time I was excited about catching a pokemon. Usually after a long grind it's more relief that I can finally move on to the next project. Plus the hatch only ones that need 400 candy, I stopped bothering about it. Last week I missed my first ever collection challenge, because I kept hatching non-Spritzee. Hadn't touched the game the 5 days after that, was gutted
I have amazing memories from pre-covid gameplay. The community presence even in smaller cities was great. If campfire had been a thing prior to covid, I think the community wouldn't have evaporated the way it has. They were too little, too late, and still managed to make it clunky and harder to use (in true Niantic fashion).
I was part of a thriving community but like a lot of people I moved during the pandemic. Remote raiding helped me still connect with the friends I had left behind. Then with the nerf I have almost no connection with them now except sending gifts. From the conversations I’ve had with folks from the old community, it seems like it really never recovered from the pandemic. People just don’t gather like they used to. How people play the game has changed. Niantic could either lean into that, or try to force folks to go back to an outdated method of playing. They’re doing the latter.
Not to mention disabled or mobility restricted players. So many accomodations were made that allowed them to be fully included and contributing, are now being clawed back and pushing them back to the margins.
Exactly! Im on crutches for a month right now and I’ve just been grateful that I haven’t wanted to grind any of the T5’s this month anyways lol
The response from the community manager is frustrating. It feels as if they are playing a different game. I seriously spent a few minutes looking at my Pokémon and thinking which ones were my favorites. There isn't a single favorite that I was physically with another human. It's always a solo grind Pokémon. For years I worked on the third shift and physically would almost never see a raid. Most of the game was about taking down gyms and catching a few Pokémon on the way to the bus. When I did do the in- person raids, they were always a horrible social experience. Super awkward, very challenging to coordinate and always felt like a waste of time. I never had a car, so it was a hell of an experience trying to get to them. I remember the extremely cold nights trying to make it to a raid before people left or raid ended. Yeah, super fun...
omfg right?? i haven’t seen anybody else mentioning that the community managers experience just…. Isn’t what anybody’s experience is. Even the people who have active, in person groups. Even actual community leaders. They’re basing their experience of the game off of…. Having about the absolute best conditions to play the game in? By their own design? Just because they’ve built their foundation on an idealized version of the game, doesn’t mean anybody else has. I’m so happy someone has a community that they value but I just think it’s a little funny that the only person who seems to have that is an employee.
Niantic still believe they can bring back 2017 Pokemon GO
Yeah that’s nice IF you have other players in your area. And before people say “you won’t find other players by remote raiding” no, there simply are no other players in certain areas
Hell i live in an area with a fairly active discord community. I lead raid hour every week and we ALWAYS have people show. Yet I see people in the gyms around my house who I don’t know, who I have no way of contacting, so what does it matter that they play?? They’re just a name. Campfire could have been the answer, but if they don’t know to join the local community, it doesn’t matter.
Campfire would have been much more useful if it was part of the GO app, not to mention the staggered release and invite codes
I created a Campfire group for our town and dropped a link for our well established discord group in it. We've been getting a few new players that way. But there are still long term player names that show up in gyms with no way to contact them. Some people just don't want to play with a group.
> I was in the middle of a meeting […] and we all screamed and the guy on Zoom thought we were dying Poor guy on Zoom, this sounds obnoxious as hell. Anyway, I don’t usually remember the circumstances of catching particular pokemon - I do like hanging out and playing with friends, but the good memories aren’t “somebody caught a hundo”, it’s stuff unrelated to game itself. Not everyone has a (suitable) local community to play with though. Niantic would be better off improving the game than trotting out PR tweets on how you just need to do a raid day to reawaken your love of playing.
Right? I’m WFH so sure I’ve loaded up the game to see what’s around me during a cameras off call. this just seems rude as hell 😂
Square enix announces FFXVII will be 16-bit because that’s how the developer remembers playing FF with friends
Memory cards will cost double what they did before too.
That would honestly be pretty fire.
Got a hundo legendary from remote raid. Walked it 18 months + for XL candies, believe me i remember him.
What about legends from weekly research breakthroughs. Had to walk those forever to get enough candy.
It’s a wonderful sentiment, but I have fond memories of remote raids as well, when I used to play them often. I remember this online friend that lived in Spain grinding to level 50. He asked if I could help him do some groudon raids in his area and I was up late at night at like 11pm doing one after another. We were trying to go as quick as possible to farm as much XP. If it wasn’t a good one, run away and join the next lobby. I had to stop and concentrate because I got a hundo. I moved to a completely different state (AZ from NJ) just after the pandemic state. No pogo friends other than some in the local discord, but I finally lived in an area that had gyms around. I could see 11 gyms from my couch so every week during raid hour once remote raids became popular I’d host my raid hour with my NJ discord friends. Some that I’ve met in person, some that I hadn’t. My favorite thing was the people that kept track of all the AZ shinies they were able to catch during these second raid hours for them. I remember living in the middle of nowhere Utah and getting a remote invite from a random dude in Australia and ended up getting a hundo Mewtwo. That was dope. I remember doing raid hour with a discord kid from Costa Rica. I was in middle of cooking dinner when I got the invite for a Giratina raid. And then once we beat it I saw the number and knew it was a hundo. I stopped what I was doing to go to the couch and sit and catch it properly and lo and behold it was a shundo! I was floored and my food definitely overcooked but it was worth it. I remember being at work in Phoenix for a day when Moltres raids were out. I desperately wanted a shiny moltres caught in Phoenix and my NJ discord friends helped out. I did all the raids I could see from my office and snagged one! It’s a 15/13/15 shiny so definitely one of my favorites. Community doesn’t have to be in person, sometimes it’s nice to have it, sometimes it’s nice to have an alternate way to play. I don’t like being told how to play the game when I’ve spent more than half my time playing the game completely different. The only thing keeping me engaged to the game are CDs and global gofests, but they’re starting to kill excitement for that as well. Remote raids are a chore but now I do them to help out my nephew who lives in Michigan. He’s low level and can never find anyone to play with. So my brother and I hop on to raids he invites me to and it’s satisfying to know he’s excited to beat a legendary. The game should be more accessible not actively punishing those who like to play for convenience. I’m not gonna walk to throw on an incense when it’s freezing cold or blazing hot. But I would if I could play from my couch. Now? I just don’t engage with this app during this time and I’d rather play video games.
That Moltres sounds awesome, and what a great place to catch it - congratulations! I have a gold gym badge for a gym on the other side of the world thanks to remote raids. A trainer who spent several months playing with our local community went back to his country, and offered to pick a gym and send raid invites to a few of us just so that we could have that experience. We were able to help him finish off a gym badge here as well. Wouldn't have been possible without remote raids. The perfect Darkrai that I got from one of those raids certainly made the experience sweeter, haha.
My best Pokémon are caught by myself, hosting, or from Remote raids because that's all I can do. Maybe if there were actually ways to connect with players in the game... Go and meet people? Sure I'll get right on that, what am I supposed to do, light a flare on Campfire for myself. I'll take my Shiny Ray I caught remotely in Japan, thanks.
Absolutely agree. I have a community because I live in London, it’s so easy for me. But having this mentality that we should go out and find people, how can you be this delusional? People have other commitments. Maybe they don’t want to be out for an hour playing for raids. They hindered the possibility of how people can actively play the game by increasing the price of remote and then adding a limit. They want to push a certain way of playing the game because that’s what they believe in. However, this is simply not the reality of many people. Shadow weekend raids are also such a privilege thing to be able to participate in. You have to have an active community and also people have to be off during the weekends to do these things.
They're just like all of us, playing Pokemon while at work when we aren't supposed to, or going into sketchy neighborhoods to get Pokemon who felt rare but within a few months definitely weren't worth the risk
Almost a lot of my favorite catches was when I was having fun with myself having a solo adventure. I get why and how being with others is fun playing the game and all, I have friends too you know; But why does everything in the game have to absolutely push the idea that being with others is always the supreme way of playing the game and it’s supposedly always bigger and better? Sometimes people have different schedules and they can’t meet with others. Sometimes people have social anxiety because they’re going through a lot in their life at the moment. Or sometimes people don’t have any people to be around with. There’s also the solo component too. Yes back in the red and blue and gold and silver days Pokémon like seeing people trading and playing with others but for the most part, little Jimmy and you and I were in our room or on the couch playing Pokémon, having a blast making memories BY OURSELVES but SOMETIMES in small amount of moments with others.
“I am a childless adult who plays this game with my coworkers during work in San Francisco, why can’t you guys just do that too?”
Being with or without friends in real life doesn't impact my enjoyment of the game. I play this game mainly to engage with the creatures, and the hundos and shinies that I have obtained via remote raids matter just as much to me as those I caught in physical real world locations.
It's marketing/PR speak to appeal to advertisers. This being a personal account or not, it's echoing Niantics stance. I have hundos/shundos/shiny T5 mons, but couldn't tell you who was around. Or how them all getting a 2* while I get a Shundo legendary increased my (or their) enjoyment. But, now they get to shove endless crap paid tickets down our throats and for some reason people buy them all.
Why are they insistent on dictating how players should experience the game? Instead, why not focus on incorporating and maintaining features that enhance gameplay for everyone, whether they prefer solo or group play, remote or in-person interactions? Let's prioritize creating an enjoyable and seamless experience for all types of players.
"My personal experiences are clearly more important than direct feedback from thousands of players from the community" - Lead Community Manager
good for them, not my case
Idk, I remember the shiny Xerneas and Yveltal I caught back to back in remote raids just fine
Good for them but yeah, it’s definitely harder to do this when you don’t literally work for the creators of the game lol. Wasn’t as hard back when I was in college, but I’m not anymore, and that makes playing in groups much more difficult. I do it when I can but also living in the northern part of the US it’s cold as as a witch’s tit right now so I’d rather be able to remote raid
This has the same tone as managers wanting everyone back in the office after successfully working from home for so long... Yeah, what brings you joy and what brings me joy are two separate things. The only memorable in-person raids I have are Rayquazas last year and the Unown "P" I caught at the end of a pier with my daughter.
Good for some but not for all.
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Yeah, I think the issue is that Niantic expected everyone to have the same experience or play in the way they wanted, that's a big red flag for literally any gaming company. You shouldn't limited/punish the players with how they play the game
Or how some of us have to play... Weather permitting I Go for a walk but there's almost never anyone in any lobby and there's never anyone actually there. It's not 2017 anymore - i think I've seen four players from the 'old days' irl in the last year but I'm pretty sure they raid in 'one car with alts' groups these days. There is one group that occasionally raids in person but by the time I could get to where they located the raid will have ended. If I can't solo it it's remote or hope for a miracle for me.
I’ll never forget waiting in 0 degree Celsius weather for 20 minutes to fill a lobby to raid Thundurus and then he ran <3 These are the moments that make it all worth it.
"Just move to San Francisco bruh" - a Niantic employee.
Yeah I live in a rural town with a few gyms and stops. Ever since they capped the remote raids I really don’t even play anymore. The Facebook group that does exist is toxic as hell and no one really uses it for anything more than “check this shiny or 4* out”
This has huge "extrovert explaining why introverts are WRONG" energy and I don't like it.
I got my hundo Mewtwo at an in-person raid in September of 2019. I actually do remember it well, there was a screaming match between two different raid groups. The leaders had had a falling out and split the town's raiding community in half, and everything was hugely dramatic. It was super embarrassing to even be slightly associated with them.
My kids and I started playing in 2016. Now my eldest is in another state and my middle child is away at school. My youngest gave his account to his father and my husband and I love the fact that we can get the whole family together to remote raid. Everyone can have a heartwarming story about the way they play. Niantic needs to learn that one of the things remote things can do is bring people who have to be far away from one another together to do things.
Funny, my personal favorite Pokemon are the ones I was actually able to get. I have absolutely no memories of the ones I would have had to drive 30 minutes for and stand outside in weather conditions that were bad enough for the government to send a warning about in the hopes that five other people were dumb enough to do the same thing.
Their own subjective experience of raiding is all well and good but I maintain that raiding would be far better with global lobbies, I live on top of two gyms and I’m sick to death of having to wait for the right raids to pop up in the right place at the right time, if and when any do at all. Just give better incentives for doing it while physically at a gym or something.
I also live on top of a gym and honestly? Most days I don’t use my daily raid pass. There’s just nothing worth it
That’s a nice sentiment but you have to give players a better way to create groups and communicate. I’m in an area where the community is silent and doesn’t frequently get together. Adding a time schedule for raids or a sign up feature would help make sure people even show up to attempt a raid. People are busy and there needs to be some sign of success for them to go out of their way to participate in a raid.
Agreed! I live on a gym and can see 4 gyms total from my house. I’ve never seen anyone in a raid lobby, but the gyms turn over so I KNOW people play, I see pokestops with lures on them. People are out there, but I’ve never met or seen one raid.
I feel you. I had the same experience, lures being placed and gyms getting defeated in my building complex. But still, I’m the guy that’s standing at the complex gazebo in the middle of the night or under a street light in our parking lot. I can imagine, even if a fellow player looked out their window and saw me, would they assume I’m a fellow player or just a weirdo? Can’t imagine what my neighbors think lol. Sadly the campfire app is pretty terrible for coordinating and a feature like raid match ups shouldn’t be in an extra app.
I literally post almost daily. I’m ignored, and slowly people are leaving just to stop getting messages. They can come play here if they want, but why would they, they have city players in a major city.
"Get out there more" I do, no people out there though. But thats okay for me. I think they forgot that people's experiences may differ, not just "oh it's thunderstorming so I cant go to the raid" but rather the mental being of the person. "Getting out there more" is being treated as a "one size fits all solution" but it may only apply to specific people, like themselves. I'm heavily introverted. I don't have any friends I play with and all (but 1) of my friends are online. None of which I play Pokemon Go with. I'm content with singleplayer even though there are drawbacks. I understand that others gameplay and mentality is different from mine. I live close to a big city but of course I've been in small towns with 1-3 stops/gyms with pokemon sitting there for 100+ days. I sometimes try to put myself in their shoes. I wouldnt get lots of community day shinies, raiding solely by hosting, and items may be harder to replenish, and I wouldnt have near as much bag space due to my pokemon being stuck for 100+ days. What needs to be done is more fine tuning to the game. Gifts are right now the primary way of replenish items in rural places. It's highly likely that in a rural community, all of those friends are none in person that they play with One method of solving item issues and "Getting out there more" could involve increasing the item yield of pokestops if there are only x pokestops per x distance. Of course, there are lots of other features that need more time in the oven first. It will likely be a very long time until a solution is made to equal the playing field of rural and city experiences.
Man, it used to be that I'd go on a daily weekend walk and run into a dozen other people I know playing the game. I walked twice as much as I normally did for the past 4 days and came across one person who might've been playing the game.
I've made more friends online through the game than I have in local communities, and have even physically met most of them at larger in person events. I don't personally find there is a distinction. I don't feel there is anything all that special about physically being at the spot with other people, or sharing a raid with a bunch of online friends on my friends list. It's ok to like both.
All the communities in my area have long since died, and meeting up with people is harder than ever
Jokes on them, I can't remember where I caught anything, ever.
correct
Funny. I have unfond memories of waiting an hour on a hatch that I call out over several social media channels, then waiting 45 mins at the raid for the 1-3 people who responded saying they'd be there in 10 mins, oh traffic, oh, I'm only 15 away, hey can my other friend join us, he'll be here in 10 mins. Oh, we decided we just were gonna hit this other raid that was closer instead. I have more fond memories of being able to quickly invite 5-10 remote raiders on discord servers to any raid I'm at, and then we share what we caught right afterwards. Now, I don't avoid raids anymore because I know I can invite my friends, even if they only live 15 mins away, and we'll get it done. There's no fun for me waiting 45+ mins for a raid that might happen. There is fun for me to be able to play with my friends I've already established in this game, be it if they live next to me or not, and then reminisce and share with them the things I've caught online. Yeah, I **DO** remember being outside a park on Tuesday, June 19, 2018 before work at 7:29 AM where I caught a [shundo Kyogre](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/374633853119102978/1199404456517828729/Screenshot_20240123-122425.png), and the joy I felt from it. But, you know, I **ALSO** remember the joy of meeting another friend after seeing Paramore on June 10, 2023 at 12:12 AM on Sunday morning, June 11th, 2023 and trading a shiny Numel for a shiny Groudon to get my [shundo Groudon](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/374633853119102978/1199404456958238820/Screenshot_20240123-122435.png). And just as fond as both of those memories was being able to do 2 Giratina raids back to back after 7 PM on Thursday, Oct 27th, 2022 where I was able to get a [hundo Giratina](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/374633853119102978/1199404457402835096/Screenshot_20240123-122452.png) where the raid had less than 5 mins on it when I saw it, and the only reason I was able to do it is because I could invite remote friends to join me. I even remember the friends I did that raid with, and am so greatful to them for that opportunity. Before that raid, I met a friend I went lucky with to do a lucky trade before he had a soccer game, so he wasn't available to do that raid, but I remember that on Thursday, August 19, 2021 he had invited me to a remote Heracross raid at 12:13 PM (afternoon), while I was eating lunch, that I accepted and got a [hundo Heracross](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/374633853119102978/1199408200080957642/Screenshot_20240123-123949.png) from; and I plan to make this my first Mega Heracross when it comes out. Not being physically next to someone never devalues my play experience or my ability to remember that experience with that player. If anything the ability to play with close friends I made in this game regardless of whether we can be be next to each other or not only enhances the quality of the experience I have as a trainer. If my joy in this game gets limited to needing to be able to coordinate and meet with other trainers, the amount of time I can enjoy this game reduces exponentially. My friends that I've made playing this game are all also adults, and while we enjoy this game greatly, we all do have lives and obligations that aren't just allowing us to play this game 24/7/365. But being able to sync up for a few mins and join or host a raid remotely helps us to be able to stay connected much more often than not.
Hmmmmmm. A lot of playing at work during meetings… Makes sense why some things get missed…
This looks like something that was sent to coworkers and they all thought it was amazing and would really connect with the players. But in reality, was just an echo chamber, how sad for those of us in the real world. She’s basically telling me that I’m playing the game “wrong” by being a solo player.
Sure, very nice sentiments. Some of us enjoy our communities better from a distance, however.
Cool. Happy for you. Meanwhile, I just walked my kid to the bus stop at the corner of the our street and now have to spend 45 minutes trying to breathe again because asthma doesn't mix with cold weather. So I guess I should just stop playing until summer or something, but have fun raiding with your friends. I look forward to seeing the brag shots of all the shadow Mon I'll never have the chance to catch.
>If you've been playing from home for awhile, try to get out there again I've always really disliked this idea that the people who support remote raiding are some shut-ins that just aren't GO™ing outside enough, it's a very blatantly flawed opinion IMO. I *tried* going outside to play, but my community has been dead outside of CDs/Fests since 2018, so I'm locked out of doing raids unless I can call people in remotely. I *want* the game to be playable while I'm outside, and that's exactly what remote raiding allows for.
Yeah that bit seems completely detached. I go outside and play every day on my dog walks, and I've gone to a big mall for Tours/Go Fests, and heck I even met a random person playing Go in my local park and we text and would get together for comm days, so I see the sentiment. But also me meeting a stranger in a park is kind of nuts, and also rare, and on top of that, the two of us can't take down a 5 star raid. We'd often meet up and still have to rely on me pulling in remote raiders so the two of us could take something down. But with the remote raid nerf, many times it takes too long to find remote folks, so we just stopped raiding completely.
Yea it's a very odd remark to make and overall a weird assumption to hold on to (others on here have this same detached opinion too). I was part of a great community and have since moved out of state. I'm part of my city's PoGo group chat and we do coordinate raids and all but the times I have been a part of it, I don't recall seeing anyone gathered at the gym. Instead, everyone is in their cars so just how much socializing can you even do?
In a smallish area with a decent amount gyms, I found nobody out raiding Mega Rayquaza. And I don’t live in the arse end of nowhere. The local group chat is that dead I could barely get folk to join remotely. Don’t get me wrong, it was easy enough to duo with my brother so I didn’t miss out, but you can’t force community.
One person's preference for playing shouldn't dictate how others play though.
I guess I’m the opposite. I never want to met another player and don’t care at all about when or where I got the shiny.
This is great for everyone who's not in rural areas. Most of the stops in my town are on a state highway. Only someone who's suicidal would try to walk on it for over an hour to get 5ish stops and one gym.
That’s a nice sentiment but you have to give players a better way to create groups and communicate. I’m in an area where the community is silent and doesn’t frequently get together. Adding a time schedule for raids or a sign up feature would help make sure people even show up to attempt a raid. People are busy and there needs to be some sign of success for them to go out of their way to participate in a raid.
I live in an area where there are 2 maybe 3 players who play daily. But there’s a thing called real life. We depend on remote raids to be able to trio these raids. We can’t just up and go to a raid all Willy nilly.
Sure, I have similar fun memories. But you know what else I remember? The raid day where I had to stop playing because I was getting heat sick.
the way any good game should work: you can enjoy the grind solo, and when you get time to play with friends you can show off everything you got since you last played together. i shouldn’t be required to grind with friends in order to progress in the game.
To disagree with Kestrel here most of my favourite Pokémon were caught remotely. Whilst they are correct in saying that location and timing matters, catching these Pokemon remotely were the only reason I got them in the first place. One of my favourite Pokemon is my shiny high stat regigigas that I caught on Christmas Day
This is really interesting. From the first and last bits, it shows the narrative going on inside Niantic. Kestrel is repeatedly saying "get out there *again*". Niantic has decided that people used to play outside, they stopped during the pandemic, and Niantic needs to encourage (force) people to "play with local communities". This is delusional in a whole bunch of ways, but really insightful to understand where Niantic is coming from with a lot of the changes being made to the game. Daily Incense, Party Play, and Routes were all directly targeted at requiring players to "leave the house" to participate in for rewards.
What Niantic doesn't realize is how remote play affected local play. My remote interactions used to be with people from my hometown. I've moved several hours away from there, but those people made raiding possible where I am now, and they had raids they couldn't finish if I couldn't help them. The changes to remote raiding ruined that. The last time there was real interaction on raiding in our Discord server was July, and that place used to be constantly active. Changes have been great for players whose lives and habits haven't changed in the 5 years since the game's peak. However, for those who moved or started families that require attention, got jobs that keep them inside more during the day, or simply found other hobbies, the changes are hurting new AND old players. The remote players are punished for being remote, and the local players are hurt because they are too few to do certain things.
"The local community" (proceeds to describe pokemon he caught while at work)
My favorite is my 98% Shinny Rayquaza I remoted.
Not all of us have Pokémon go friend privilege like he does.
Well sure, it's absolutely better and more fun to play locally. Here's the rub, Niantec: you don't tell us what's appearing when and where. That means that when a Legendary Bird shows up for a raid? I've got 45 minutes to find at least two other people who can be ready to instantly drop whatever they're doing and book it over to where the raid is. I would **love** to organize a party (I mean literally, have a little POGO party and go out raiding); but that takes time and co-ordination, and the current game mechanics make that impossible.
Is nobody going to point out how they're acting like people who remote raid don't go outside at all, as if that is even remotely comparable? I go on walks for at least half an hour almost daily, more often an hour or even longer, but if it hadn't been for remote raids I wouldn't have had the overwhelming majority of pokemon that I like because there simply is not a community here that actively does raids. And while I do remember the handful of times I did get to do a raid with people it is only because they are such oddities, not because I like the pokemon or the memories. I love the mf shiny typhlosion I caught on my own walking to the train station way more than the guzzlord I got at the local park.
I am the opposite. Other than big event days, I only raid with my spouse. I don’t know the people we meet at in-person events, and I don’t really stay in touch. However, I also do remote raids with an online community formed for an unrelated reason, so we are already online friends. I typically name the Pokémon after the friend who hosted the raid, and I have good memories every time I see those nicknames.
that’s a great sentiment but it’s no excuse for remote raids to not be more accessible and whether niantic wants to admit it or not it does discourage the amount of raids ppl do and generally makes it harder to play the game as far as raids go.
Lol, they should try playing alone middle of nowhere and celebrate their catches then. Loads and Loads of players have no other option than remote raid and people like this community manager are completely forgetting that
Breaking News: Person with plenty of community members to play with says they have no problem finding people to play with! We have very small clique-y groups of 4-5 people where I live and they're pretty spread out, I don't raid if it's not remote. I don't have the time to be out walking for hours looking for 1-2 people who might also be looking for raids, only to have them back out in the last 10 seconds because we didn't magically get 20 people on an easily duoable 'mon
I agree shinies are more hype with an audience but sometimes I can't play with my friends when I'm off due to different work schedules. I'd like to use my free raid pass on the legendary everyday if I could. I used to just ignore the legendary and mega raids thinking "not for me" before I found raid hosting sites, hosting on PokeGenie allowed me to get some legendaries I wouldn't get at all before. Post remote-change, I meet up with my friends on Wednesday and hope our mall has a legendary raid in one of its 2 gyms (sometimes we've got neither because other raids spawned) I can reliably get the legendary for the dex now, but only 1 or 2 for the entire week it's here. And I live in a capital city for my province! I used to live rurally when the game launched raids and just never did them. They shouldn't punish players who rely on remote raids because the game is already hard enough for rural players
My most memorable shiny was when I dipped my toes in the waters of Miami Beach for the first time, opened up the game and a shiny Magikarp appeared. I was by myself lol.
I mean, it's great that Kestrel has such fond memories of getting these specific pokemon, but I hope they aren't presenting their own personal experience to Niantic as some sort of exclusive ideal. People are allowed to be fond of pokemon that they caught at home, or with nobody else around.
Thing is, people don't go back to the "old way", take away features and they just stop playing.
I went into to drug cartel territory to get my favorite Pokémon! You can risk your life too and get Pokémon! I imagine he gets everything free for his account. His experience is not what we experience. I’ll also say it’s nearly impossible for me to be attached to Pokémon because of IVs. I would love to have Pokemon I cherish but ultimately I have to send them to the grinder because they have bad IVs. Give me a way to change IVs so I can truly love any Pokémon I catch.
I still enjoy playing somewhat, but I am a busy person. I do not have time to run out to do a raid all the time. Respect my time for once. The game is not going back to the way it used to be.
My favorite memory is when I caught a shiny rayquaza after 30 raids being so distracted that I shut down the production line and cost the company $2.5billion. I named the Rayquaza “Black Thursday” bc it was on a thursday
Doesn't this kinda state the obvious? Ofcourse it's (more) fun to play with friends, but if you don't have any that play this game, then there should be a solid alternative..
I dont remember catching many legendaries before the remote raid introduction. And what I do remember is waiting around for people to show up and absolutely wasting my time. Now with remote raids, I can raid legendaries to my heart's content. I can even pop out of work for 5 minutes and do a raid. I cannot do that with shadow raids because I cannot time that to my shxedule. What raids do I remember? I remember my first shiny mewtwo, my first shiny Zapdos, my first shiny Ho-Oh, my first shiny of most legendaries... all caught with the amazing help of remote raiders! Last time time I met people in person was shadow Mewtwo day and I must have wasted at least an hour of that day waiting for people. I did 4 raids. It was miserable
Yeah I just did not do 5* raids because I knew no one else who played.
Nothing is forever. Holding on to the past is most likely a very, very bad strategy.
Not to be rude, but who is this and why should I care that they have a Krabby?
Built up my local community got over 1,000 people to use campfire and have had consistent events. Still waiting to hear back from Ambassador program. Rip. If you’re saying people make this game great then work on empowering those that want to build locally.
I want to like the essence of their comment but it sounds very let them eat cake to me. Idk.
I used to remote raid all the time with my family that lives both across the state and in a completely different state. Now it’s too expensive to do so so we just all completely stopped raiding
I live in an area with only one gym within walking distance, and a couple more in biking distance, and never in my couple years of playing have I actually met another person playing in the same area at the same time as me. Basically the only raids I *can* do are ones that I can solo, or in coordinated remote raids off discord raiding communities, where I have also made no friends. But ever since they nearly doubled the price of tickets, I only do raids for a new pokemon I don't have, which means I've only done a handful of raids in the last several months, because Pokemon GO activity is barely even lukewarm in my area, and I can't even flip a gym for 50 coins every day. Sometimes I'll control a gym on my own for days at a time with my pokemon just sitting there one hit from KO. I still haven't even touched the new party features, because it's just not gonna happen for me. There are a few other people playing in my area, but I've never seen them, and it's not like I only go out during goblin mode hours. I go out in the late morning/lunchtime and in the evening/early night after I have dinner every single day, weather permitting.
Funny because I made a list of my favorite mons I’ve caught and literally all of them were caught while I was playing by myself.
I donno, maybe don't make cool things just in raids and eggs then. Getting back out there is boring when the chances of finding something cool are so low. In the first few years a lot of the highlights were finding something really cool in the wild that was available for everybody, and that's mostly gone now.
On the Hoenn tour, I remember running around my town trying to join various groups to do the Primal Groudon and Kyogre raids, managed to do enough to get both primal evolutions but no shiny, then at about 4.50 I get a remote raid invite to a Kyogre raid from the other side of the world from an old remote raiding friend. That was the one raid that brought me a shiny Kyogre, so when I think of how much I adore my shiny Kyogre, I don’t immediately think ofthe numerous in person raids I did, nor the fleeting small talk with a group of strangers that immediately dispersed, I think of how thankful I was for remote raids and how even a single long distance friendship can be such an incredible thing. I miss those days.
How the hell would I remember in what circumstances I caught this or that Pokemon. There are 2,300 of them
I have never hated the game more than I have during in-person raid days. I actually hate them so much that I have stopped raiding anything I can't beat by myself or with my one friend who is with me. My mom (the biggest Pokemon Go fan I know) got so mad at dealing with her local raid group that she actually quit the game for a week or two to cool off In-person raiding is fun if you have a friend group to do it with, but not everyone has a group of friends who play. I actually do have a group of friends who play, but we are scattered and still have to raid remotely if we want to raid together
Not meant as an insult, but I remember a remote raid Kestrel joined me for that resulted in a shiny Gyarados, but i can barely remember my 98% perfect shiny Kyogre. Even though i was at the Vegas Tour when i got it, the event bugs, lack of close friends who could go, and rapid fire nature of those raids just made it forgettable. It's really about the context.
So they're never gonna change. Got it.
I believe they should let people enjoy the game however they want to enjoy it. They should not set things to purposely discourage a way of playing that doesn’t line up with their way of playing, not everyone fits into the same box.
It must be nice to be the 1% and not live in rural areas (and have friends who play pogo).
The main problem here is people won't go out if there's no ***INCENTIVE*** New features are nice and all, but not when they're broken on launch, take ages to be approved, [stay broken for months on end](https://old.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/19ckbuq/0297_you_may_see_and_participate_showcases_while/kj0uqka/?context=3), and don't *reward* players for their time. Most players complete the special research for these, then never touch Routes or Party Play again. For example, routes weekly rewards bonus are pitiful, it's just more of the same items we always get. Throw us a bone, throw an XL Rare Candy in there. In my honest to god opinion, to get players out more, we need to be incentivised, and *Niantic needs to respect our time and effort more.* -**Improve field research**: Earn 3 buddy candies for a Bunnelby, or win 2 raids for a Kanto Marowak aren't going to get ANYONE hyped to go searching for them. Show us what encounter we'll earn too. -**Nests**: We've had a few more interesting species the past couple months, but nests are still incredibly outdated, hard to track, and sometimes have no clear indicator of their boundaries. -**Team GO Rocket**: A small QOL update, let us see what type the grunt specialises in from afar. If I see they're a Ground, Fairy or Dragon grunt down the road, I'll be likely to go out and battle it. -***RARE CANDY XL***: Make the in-person boost for RC XL **PERMENANT**. I can NOT overstate this enough, this singular resource has been the most dividing factor for player balance. Master League is "pay2win", or even pay to access in some peoples opinions. I've been level 50 since Swablu CD, over 2 years. I've completed EVERY level up challenge, I use my daily free raid pass almost *every single day*, and I *still* only have 255 RC XL. I can't max out a single Mythical Pokemon despite being the most active player in my community. Before anyone mentions RC XL is only meant to be a "top up" to maxing Pokemon, where else are people going to get XL candy for Mythicals? Walking 20km for a CHANCE of a singular XL candy is dreadful. You can't trade or catch multiple of many Mythical pokemon. This Winter has been bitterly cold in the Northern Hemisphere, and my local chats are more quiet than ever. Even with a new meta-viable pokemon in Thunderus-T with its signature move, literally only me and 1 person came out for raid hour last Wednesday. And I have the feeling that no matter how much I hype up Landorus-T for this upcoming raid hour, no one will come out once again.
I legitimately feel like they'd get a lot more engagement of they just treated it like raid dens in SwSh. You use a pass to unlock a raid at any gym, and it connects you to a worldwide lobby for that pokemon. No waiting, no wondering, no blocking a gym for 45 mins. You'd still have to physically go to a gym in person. Gyms could have a cool-down to make you go to more than one.
There are no "raid hours" in small towns. During special raid days, I drive around and I might see an online friend from my community in their car pull up to the same stop and we end up in the raid together, but that is very unlikely. We have never met in person. I play with no one but my dogs who join me on walks. Please stop trying to force me together with people who don't exist or don't want to play together. I remember catching shinies walking down my street- alone...every single time.
This is based on a small sample size of employees at Niantic under Pokémon GO versus roughly 83 million active Pokémon GO players according to ActivePlayer as of Nov. 30, 2023. Niantic shouldn’t be putting limitations on how players should enjoy the game. Every player should be able to enjoy playing the game however they want.
And some of my personal favorite memories are the relationships I’ve made in remote communities, or grinding 200 remote raids in a week hunting something. Seems like both options being available for both kinds of people doesn’t hurt anything, while cutting off my favorite aspects of the game has got me barely logging in.
Nailed it.
Yes, it is definitely a lot more fun having a group of people to play with that all share in the excitement of the game, but it's not a reality many get to experience in certain areas. Even in active communities it can still be extremely difficult to get everyone together in one place. Shadow Raid Weekends are a great example. They ***could*** get people excited and together for the big shadow raids, but since they refuse to give us a set schedule and mix the shadow raids in with the regular raids people quickly lose interest. Who has time to sit around in one spot all weekend just hoping the desired raid shows up frequently enough to make it all worth it? Also, this person seems to imply when someone remote raids that they are always playing with strangers by doing so. Many of my remote raids are with local trainers in instances where we just couldn't meet up for some reason. One of my favorite memories was my wife and I joining a local trainer's remote invite, and we both ended up getting shiny Xerneas from it.
My favorites are my hundo Blissey for its many gyms defended, and my hundo Dialga for its Master League/Team Rocket-beating prowess, I got them in trades, I don't remember from whom. They're my favorites because they do their job well. I can't think of any special memories around my other 7000 Pokémon, a lot of which is junk I'm waiting to transfer or trade. When my partner and I play in person, we pull up in our car and don't say hi to anyone, because either there's no one around, or the other people are also in cars and it would be weird to go up to strangers who we don't know if they are playing Pokémon Go or just random people sitting in their cars.
for me it's the exact opposite none of my irl friends play the game, so all the shinies i've gotten from raids have been from either raiding alone or getting invited to raids by friends who live elsewhere in the world
I caught my shundo Rayquaza from a remote raid in my apartment lounge and I’ll never forget that. I swear they need to try harder and convince us that remote raiding is actually bad for this game. 💀
Breaking news: games are more fun with friends
My brother and I live on opposite sides of the country and remote raiding allows us to do something together consistently. He really wanted a shiny rayquaza so we spent a good portion of the day on the phone while i was running around campus inviting him to raids. we both managed to pull a shiny on the very last spawn in my area. That's personally my most memorable catch and it strictly because of remote raiding.
I completely understand the point about community. Some of my favourite mons are also ones I raided with my brother or with friends. But I feel like these comments are pretty disconnected from the user experience these days. We aren’t whooping and cheering about Pokemon at work. I’m actually working during 8-5:30 most days and can’t play during that time. It would be nice to be able to remote a raid if I’m unable to play during an event because of life priorities, without spending several dollars so I get something like a Tornadus before it’s out of rotation once again.
That’s great that you have friends to play with and local stuff to participate in! Now for the rest of us, this CM needs to tell Niantic to screw off with actively strangling our best way to join in on the fun. I have plenty of Pokemon I remember well, even the ones from remote raids I did at home. The twin Virizion shinies I got during my first weeks at my first job during November, curled in bed after work sore and tired and doing my five remotes a day to nab a favored shiny? The absolutely shocking two shiny Suicune in only 5 raids a few months back? The Absol that caught me by surprise a couple weeks ago standing right outside my house waiting for me at 5 AM (after not getting to bed until 11:30 the prior night courtesy of a late shift) to do store inventory (and with bad weather rolling in later to boot, a real disaster omen that one). The PvP-grade shiny Axew I caught back in June sitting in a chair that became a GL staple for me despite being stuck at home with my sister coming home and not even having the ticket for that event? I remember those and so many more. Heck, my friend’s list is a testament to that. Or the names I racked up in a Discord server to coordinate larger remote teams during the Hoenn tour due to the difficulty of facing down Kyogre/Groudon/the Lati duo with only the normal 6 in a remote team. I remember. I also remember the first few months in late 2022, playing but too sickly (sleep apnea) to risk driving into town. Frantically spinning stops and catching anything I could anytime I was able to grab a ride for errands or appointments in the passenger seat. I remember those starving days, especially before I learned about gifts as a lifeline for items, and the first shinies, Dratini and Teddiursa on their community days. Even now, an Ursaluna and Dragonite are some of my highest CP Pokemon I call on when I can’t leverage a type advantage and need brute force. And I remember my first remote raids, December 2022. Virizion raid hour, stuck at home, and I couldn’t stand it any longer having to miss out constantly. Then I did Reshiram once, and got a shiny; that Reshiram is a staple for me I use against Rockets pretty much every day. Again, a remote raid done from my home. Or how about the Latias I found at the bottom of my driveway (a bigass 180 foot driveway, mind, and a stupidly sharp grade) back in the Hoenn event? Ran up and down our backend street looking for her. Even snapped a pic with her to remember that encounter. Saw several that day, but I caught her and I’ll cherish that. I don’t like to walk out here, the weather is horrid in Texas most of the year due to the heat and the neighbors aren’t all exactly friendly and I don’t like constantly getting grilled by family for it, but I made an exception. I’m sick of this perspective that somehow remote raiding is a substitute for anything. It’s a replacement for what *doesn’t exist* out here, because the game is not engineered for rural players. Not to mention cases like what I used to be, medically unsafe to drive and thus stranded far from anything. But the remote raids offered a way to play. Heck, I originally was intrigued by GO because of all the super low level legendaries on the GTS in Home; remote raids enabled me to finally get a few of my own.
It’s a valid opinion, and I get where they’re coming from, but that’s ONE type of player….and there are millions of us. It’s a huge complex game and there are tons of ways each player gleans joy from it, let’s keep an open perspective and not railroad millions of people
I have fond memories of waiting almost an hour at a random park for some help with a shadow lugia raid to which I couldn’t invite a single buddy to help me :) such great times <333
Most of my social pokemon go stories make me sad. Like all the people I used to play with who quit, and who i almost never hang out with anymore. Or the Discord i got banned from because i told a mod not to use certain slurs. Or the time an old man called the cops on me because i asked him to stop feeding bread to the ducks at the park where most of the local pokemon go community hangs out that i had to stop going to because it now smells entirely of duck poo and i get nauseous smelling it. I get that this is PR, it's just really weak and sad PR trying to encourage gameplay that the game will not reward or assist in encouraging. I also wish the game had better social features, and the fact that bad game design is no longer getting people to gather in groups is not our fault. Wanna get people in groups? then make a group-up feature that is worthwhile. have people in groups or on routes hatch eggs faster, or get a raid spawn or something. campfire was a good idea, but it sucks. want people to organize in the game then put the organization features in the game and not in a separate app that closes the game half the time. Seriously, think about this- if the group feature in the game had more manageable tasks that rewarded premier balls, and at the end of 30 minutes, you got to try and catch a raid boss based based on how far the group collectively moved during that time, would you go on walks with friends in order to get those kidna catches? even if it only worked once per day, or maybe cost a pass.
How many times do I have to tell these people that I don’t have friends?
im so glad that they can play the game at work.... i uh, might get fired for doing so
That’s nice. Mine aren’t. Mine are literally the multiple Rayquaza my gf and I were able to remote duo the last time they were in a raid hour, because we didn’t have to wait for anyone and could cram in as many as we could reach from our apartment before time ran out. If we had been out and raiding in person we *might* have got 4 total, plus lost 20+ minutes walking there and back. Oh, and I wouldn’t have been available for work calls if they happened to need me for something.
I think people forget that some people live in little farm towns and no one in the little farm town plays Pokémon go except for you and all your friends that do play live in another country/state. There is a single gym within a 30 mile radius of me. I HAVE to do remote raids. Hell yeah I remember them! I was in a chick fil a when I got my shiny darkrai! Remote raids are there for people who live in areas that kind of ruin the game.
People have a community in their town? I’d have to drive like 15 miles for one. No thnx
I suppose it's different for everyone. Personally I don't agree at all. What's more, my local area no longer has an active raiding community, so it just isn't possible. Though to be fair, I barely remotely raid these days either. There's not much worth playing for.
The compromise at the very least, and I’ve probably said this 1000 times or more, is in person matchmaking for raids. If you want GPS data from me you better damn well make sure I’m able to do the activity when I arrive somewhere. Otherwise, have fun selling GPS data for Tokyo/LA over and over again.
I remember when I tried to raid with the local community. A swarm of older men gathered around local attractions and sat in silence tapping on their phones before moving on to the next raid. Was super awkward and uncomfortable and I never tried again.
Cool, he's still pushing an outdated concept. Punishing the player base by forcing people to interact with toxic communities is a bad gatekeeping concept.
The 5/day limit while hurtful, is still not as terrible as the 2x price increase. Was that also done so that people could go out and reminisce about the good ole days? BS.
Some people enjoy pokemon but don’t like interacting with other people. Some people don’t have friends who like to play pokemon. Some people find it difficult to make friends because they’re neurodivergent. Some people may not be able to meet up with others in person because they’re adults with kids they have to take care of. Or because they’re at work and can go outside (but are able still play - yes, we exist) Forcing people to go out and interact can be triggering. It can turn some players off from the game. It’s gate-keeping and ablest in many ways. It also punishes adults who have other things going at the time but might still be able to do remote raids.
[удалено]
But what is with the case, that we hate other people. I mean Pokemon are okay.
Hey, my favorite memories of the Mainline games are also when I was with friends! We should tell TPC to make Switch games multiplayer-only, I guess.
Then reduce the cost please 😭
Yeah I still remember who I raided with when I caught my 1st hundo Mewtwo. Not because of the people tho but because I caught a hundo freaking Mewtwo that day. When you are doing 100s of raids, every single one becomes less memorable.
I have lots of memories of Kleavor raid day and those were all solo or remote. It also happened to be during a trip out of state to a cousin's wedding. Amazing how this stuff is subjective, innit?
Does he know Sceptile had a CD and nobody cares anymore for a shiny ?
I know a grand total of two people who play the game and I have no interest in meeting strangers to catch digital monsters. I enjoyed remote raiding and would often do extra just because it was a reasonable price. Since the increase, I rarely do it and just spend my coins on upgrading my item bag instead.
If only there was some way to make a note or maybe rename a pokemon about where it was caught, who sent the remote raid or where the remote raid was .... Remote raids allow us to connect to overseas communities that we would otherwise have no access to (with no help from Niantic having no ability to communicate between players) My most memorable raid were EX raids but where did they go? Binned without reason, so not sure how having a subjective view on what is memorable or not contributes to how they eliminate or nerf features. At the end of the day, they want outdoor data and I doubt people will be convinced otherwise.