In Pokémon GO, the times for Community Days have been reduced to three hours by Niantic. For this reason, we wanted to know from you what Community Day format you desire. Here on MeinMMO, we show you your answers.

What changes are happening? Every month, there is a Community Day in Pokémon GO that highlights a specific Pokémon, making it more frequently catchable. In connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, Niantic had set the event duration to 6 hours over the past two years.

With the announcement of the Community Day in April with Velursi, on March 23, Pokémon GO announced that these events will now take place only from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM local time, thus for 3 hours.

Why should Community Days be shortened?

Niantic justified their decision with the explicit wish of trainers, which led to many questions and misunderstanding within the community. After the Twitter user JreSeawolf, a known player from The Silph Road community, addressed Niantic and its Game Director Michael Steranka with public feedback, a personal conversation took place.

In this conversation, Michael Steranka reiterated Niantic’s reasoning. According to him, the trigger for their decision was feedback from individual trainers and YouTubers, which led them to check their numbers and conclude that only about 5% of trainers play longer than 3 hours.

Another point that played a central role in this decision was the vision that Niantic pursues with Pokémon GO. It is important to them that people go outside, explore their surroundings, and meet new people.

Community Days are meant to emphasize this with a sense of community. For this reason, shorter events are better suited for meeting other trainers, playing together, and also spending time together after the Community Day. The Community Day with Velursi is therefore intended as an experiment.

What Michael Steranka also mentioned in his conversation with JreSeawolf and how you feel about it will be shown in this article:

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What format do you wish for Community Days?

Even after Niantic has taken a position on their decision, many trainers cannot believe and understand these reasons. This is especially evident through the reactions on social networks.

For this reason, we wanted to know from you, what Community Day format you would wish for. You could choose between C-Days that last 3 hours and those that last 6 hours. Additionally, you had the choice of how often such a Community Day should take place: once or twice a month.

As of March 30, 2022 at 10:25 AM, a total of 4,201 readers participated in our survey. Here is how you responded:

• 51% (2,154 votes) for “C-Day for 6 hours (1x per month)”
• 27% (1,128 votes) for “C-Day for 6 hours (2x per month)”
• 14% (570 votes) for “C-Day for 3 hours (2x per month)”
• 8% (349 votes) for “C-Day for 3 hours (1x per month)”

You have thus expressed a clear opinion about Community Days. Overall, 78% of participants wish that the event duration of 6 hours is maintained. About one-third of them would even be happy with a second Community Day in the month.

Just 8% favor a three-hour Community Day per month. The remaining 14% can imagine having two Community Days per month, each lasting three hours.

Reasons for your decision

Some trainers have also shared in the comments under our survey, as well as in our Facebook group, why they made their respective choices. Here, it also becomes evident that many players are dissatisfied with Pokémon GO’s decision (via MeinMMO and Facebook):

• Ascy: “It just doesn’t make sense what Niantic is saying there. There may well be players who only play for 3 hours, but they have a time frame of 6 hours available. I’m not sure if Niantic considers that there are players who sometimes have jobs. Here, it really makes a difference whether I have a 6- or 3-hour period. Just the event at the end of February showed us that the factor of time seems to be very important for many players.”

• Sascha: “I honestly find it quite miserable. I now have only 60 – 90 minutes of effective time for the CD due to the change. I actually liked the 6 hours. Since I always go for a walk with my child from about 12:30 to 15:30, I’m just missing time now.”

• angelika: “Well, everyone can only play their 3 hours, 6 hours are not compulsory
  There are just people for whom the new 3 hours are simply the wrong time.”

• Sven J.: “Generally, the time doesn’t really bother me, but having a ‘new’ C-Day in February and additionally reintroducing a classic would be the most sensible for me.”

• Timo K.: “Why go back to 3 hours? For people who have to work on weekends, that’s really annoying. They should just make the day from 00:00 to 23:59. Then everyone can participate whenever they have time. And for those who think shorter C-Days are better: no one forces you to play all day?”

Reasons why you like the shorter Community Days

However, there are not only negative voices regarding Niantic’s decision. In the comments here on MeinMMO and in our Facebook group, you can also find opinions supporting the reduction to 3 hours (via MeinMMO and Facebook):

• P0ledra: “I actually prefer the shorter time. If you live in rural areas, it is hard enough to find players for difficult raids. We always found enough players during 3-hour C-Days. With the 6 hours, there often aren’t enough players out at the same time.”

• Xpiya: “But there aren’t that many interesting C-Days anyway, and at the end of the year, there is one that repeats everything. Even during the 6 hours, I only played actively for a maximum of 2 hours, which was enough for everything. In the end, yes, the 6-hour time window was cool, but the world won’t end with 3 hours. I don’t really see the necessity or the advantage of now having 3 hours (except maybe to protect addicts from themselves and gift them 3 hours of life). Personal matters come first, which is why I’ve already missed many C-Days. If every Saturday and Sunday, between 12 – 16 hours, going for a walk is sacred to you, then you have to live with it. As a tip, throw a smoke, use the Plus device, and reconnect every 30 – 40 meters. That’s more than enough to catch everything on C-Day (as long as you go for a walk) without looking at your smartphone. For example, I intentionally kept everything free for the Kaumalat C-Day because I definitely did not want to miss it… where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

• Christian P.: “I don’t know how the rest sees it, but I’m glad we have three hours again. It was fine back then, and no one complained. No one has to play the C-Day, no one has to play for 6 hours, no one has to, etc., etc.”

As Pokémon GO has communicated, the change is initially intended to be an experiment. It remains to be seen whether Niantic will maintain this decision or address the strong criticism from the community and extend the Community Days again.

How do you find the decision that Community Days will only last 3 hours in the future? Is that enough for you, or do you want to be more flexible? Feel free to share your thoughts with us here on MeinMMO in the comments.

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