My Suggestion for the Pokemon Go Spin Distance Controversy

There has been much discussion about PokemonGo’s recent changing of the distance you can spin PokeStops and Pokemon Gyms from the extended distance introduced during the Covid pandemic back to the original distance. While Niantic has promised they will look into solutions, many players are still upset with the decision and want the distance to be changed to the extended distance permanently.

I, like many others, got back into the game during the Covid pandemic and the “new” extended distance quickly became the norm for us. While I knew the distance would eventually revert back it still became a standard part of the game that I came to grow accustomed to. I understand why players are upset with the reversion and Niantic’s reason for reverting it back and feel I have come up with a compromise that would satisfy both.

Let’s quickly discuss Niantic’s reason for the original shorter distance to be able to spin and interact with PokeStops and Gyms. For those who do not play the game, Niantic has players nominate places that are of historic/cultural significance, good gathering places, and are safe for pedestrians to access to be PokeStops. In their response to the community, Niantic specifically said they want to use the game to have players explore their community with the PokeStops being the incentive to do so.

So Niantic wants players to explore their communities, which is why they had a shorter distance to interact with the PokeStops and Gyms to force players to be closer to them and thereby “explore them”. But this is where my issue with Niantic’s reasoning and my solution comes in, do I really have to “explore” places I pass daily and have passed daily every day for years?

My compromise with Niantic is to have the original PokeStop/Gym distance on PokeStops and Gyms players have not yet interacted with, either spun, battled or put a Pokemon into, while putting the extended distance on PokeStops and Gyms we have visited already.

This will help Niantic keep with their goal of having us explore new areas where we play better while allowing us to play the game more freely in areas we have already thoroughly explored already. The solution I proposed would be easy to track for Niantic as they already indicate in the game which PokeStops and Gyms we have yet to visit. These are indicated by a white ring around them which would tell us players we would have to get close to interact with it and to get it to the extended distance.

While my solution would not address all the player concerns about the reversion, it would help us maintain the standard of gameplay we, particularly those who started to play during Covid, became accustomed to. The best thing we can do is to be patient while Niantic works on its solutions.

I never truly got into the game the first time I tried it because I didn’t have anyone in my friend group to play with and am glad to have my boyfriend Josh who brought me back into the game. It has been an adjustment for both of us along with much of the community. Niantic will get back to us with their ideas and we can give them feedback on them when they do, it isn’t every day a company responds directly to their customer’s complaints so we should give them the benefit of the doubt before taking further action.

So that is my idea for compromise with Niantic on the PokeStop and Gym distance change, what do you think? Feel free to share this article and to visit my other PokemonGo articles with the links below:

Is it possible to do a 3-Star Raid in Pokemon Go by yourself?

My Suggestions for Pokemon Go