In Pokémon GO, a campaign called “HearUsNiantic” caused a boycott among many trainers a few months ago. Now, the developers have commented on how players have changed the game. We at MeinMMO have reviewed the interview and summarized the key facts for you.
What kind of boycott is it about? In August 2021, Niantic faced considerable criticism from trainers due to their decisions. The cause was the reversal of some corona bonuses that were introduced in 2020 due to contact restrictions and lockdowns in many countries.
This was intended to enable players to play from home during the pandemic. Many trainers felt that the planned measures, including the reversal of bonuses were a slap in the face, and called for a boycott.
What happened during the boycott? To emphasize the intense criticism from players, trainers wrote an open letter to Niantic under the name #HearUsNiantic. This was shared countless times on social media and gained the desired attention from the developers.
A few months later, Michael Steranka (Director of Product Marketing) and Philip Marz (Head of Pokémon GO Marketing, EMEA region) gave an interview to the gaming magazine Gfinity and explained how the trainers changed the game (via gfinityesports.com).
These goals Niantic sets after your boycott
As Michael Steranka explains in the interview, Niantic wants to take the criticism of the trainers to heart. Thus, the “HearUs” campaign primarily focused on communication. In his opinion, this was what tipped the scales for many players, leading to the boycott.
Better communication: The developers want to meet the demand for better communication and more transparency and plan to publish a developer diary at least every two months. Niantic had already announced this as an initial consequence of the strong wave of criticism in August.
Collaboration with the community
Regular discussions: In addition, regular discussions with representatives from the community will continue to take place. They primarily focus on real-time feedback to find out what the trainers are currently concerned about. In this round, various ideas for the game will also be exchanged.
The main goal, according to Michael Steranka, is to take communication a step forward. They want to better inform about issues in the game. However, there should also be more in-depth insights into the background during events, providing trainers with a certain context.
Community feedback: According to Michael Steranka, Niantic primarily wants to deliver the best product with Pokémon GO that remains interesting for a long time. He says: “Internally at Niantic, we refer to Pokémon GO as the ‘everlasting game.’ We do not focus on what will happen next month or next year – we always talk about the next five years” (via gfinityesports.com).
To achieve this, they find it important to receive feedback from the trainers, which is why they greatly value the passion of the Pokémon GO community. They also see other things that could become valuable, long-term features in the game.
The fundamental concept of Niantic
Despite the strong criticism, Niantic aims with Pokémon GO to bring people outdoors, encourage movement, discover new places, and meet others. According to Michael Steranka, they want to maintain this fundamental concept in the future.
Here too, the community is an important factor to further improve the map and create new interesting locations. Additionally, they will continue to focus on community activities that involve special events at specific locations.
In the meantime, Niantic has also responded to one of the demands from the open letter and has reversed the controversial PokéStop changes. Thus, the interaction radius has been reduced back from 80 meters to 40 meters. With this concession, trainers can now continue to interact with a PokéStop or Gym within a radius of 80 meters.
What do you think of the goals Niantic has set after your boycott? Do you think there will be more transparency in the future? Or do you have concerns that it will only be of short duration? Feel free to share your opinions here on MeinMMO in the comments and exchange thoughts with other trainers.
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