Recently, Pokemon Go developer Niantic made some changes to the game that didn't exactly sit right with fans. Specifically, Niantic reverted some changes that they made to the game during the early days of the pandemic (that's still a thing btw). Niantic had made it so that players could interact with Pokestops from further away, something that was a really smart move during this ongoing time of "social distancing."
Unfortunately, Niantic has decided to revert that change and others and fans are pretty upset about it. Today, Niantic offered a response to the community via their blog.
In short, Niantic say that the decision to revert the interaction distance from 80 meters back to 40 meters was made because it wants "people to connect to real places in the real world, and to visit places that are worth exploring." They at least admit that they have heard the complaints from the community regarding the changes to the Pokestop Gym interaction distance. Niantic says that they "are assembling an internal cross-functional team to develop proposals designed to preserve our mission of inspiring people to explore the world together, while also addressing specific concerns that have been raised regarding interaction distance."
They continue on to say that they'll be "reaching out to community leaders in the coming days to join us in this dialogue." Niantic say that they will share their findings by September 1.
We are assembling an internal cross-functional team to develop proposals designed to preserve our mission of inspiring people to explore the world together, while also addressing specific concerns that have been raised regarding interaction distance. We will share the findings of this task force by the next in game season change (September 1). As part of this process, we will also be reaching out to community leaders in the coming days to join us in this dialogue.
