The Benefits of a Larger Pokestop Range

At the beginning of August, Niantic removed a bunch of quality-of-life, pandemic-playing additions. These additions were made just as COVID was becoming more global. Among these changes was a much-liked feature. Pre-pandemic, the range for spinning Pokestops and the life was 40 meters. During the pandemic, this was changed to 80 meters, so we could still play without being as close to each other.

But for some insane reason, Niantic removed this feature, while the pandemic is still on-going. There have been lots of angry community articles written about the reverted Pokestop distance, however many of these articles focus on painting players in a bad light, rather than listing any good reasons for removing this feature.

In this article, I want to talk about why the extended reach is so much nicer than the old (and reverted in the US) 40m distance.

More accommodating for all types of player

The first thing that the 80m range does is accommodate for more than just the average player. That extra reach allows players of all shapes and sizes to comfortably and more safely spin Pokestops. While some may argue that this could make players lazy as they ‘spin home pokestops’, I argue the opposite. A larger range means players are more willing to explore since they could reach Pokestops that were normally otherwise inaccessible.

Most people don’t even have ‘pokestops at home’ anyway. Only a tiny percentage of people can spin a Pokestop from the comfort of their own living room. And people who DO have a Pokestop at home will probably want to explore and spin new Pokestops anyway, because we need both research tasks and a continuous supply of Pokeballs.

I can even offer an anecdote for this. There are a handful of Pokestops near where I live that are awkward to get to. The only path to them is dusty, dirty and requires a lot of going back on yourself. You can only access them via a small dirt path below a cliff. However. with the extended range, I could finally access these Pokestops in a much safer manner, from the cliff above them.

Reduces GPS drift problems

Another big issue that the increased range fixes is when GPS does weird stuff. Your GPS is never 100% accurate, and, occasionally, it can go haywire. When your GPS location drifts away from where you actually are, it can be very frustrating. In both cramped cities and wooded areas, a GPS signal can vary wildly and lose its accuracy due to outside interference. This can cause your character to wander away from Pokestops you want to spin, and can even kick players out of raids if the GPS drift is bad enough.

However, the increased range of 80m actually solves this issue for a huge number of players. 80m gives plenty of leeway for GPS inaccuracies, simply because those 80 meters cover the area where you would normally drift to.

As an example, there are two gyms nearby that get huge amounts of GPS drift, because they are in a tree-filled park. We’ve had to restart so many raids at these gyms because GPS drift kicks people out. The only reliable way to do raids here was with remote passes. However, with the increased range, these gyms are now much more accessible, and people raid there more regularly. The reversal back to 40m will most likely kill those gyms again.

It’s just all-round easier and safer.

Being able to access gyms and Pokestops from a longer distance actually makes things safer. Players can avoid crossing dangerous and busy roads, they can avoid trespassing and we can maintain a safe distance from each other. These are all good changes that make Pokemon GO easier to play for everyone involved.

And while Niantic looks to bribe us with new, smaller permanent changes, they are not really worth it. Why should one care about a second free raid pass every day if they are potentially losing Pokestops and gyms to play at?

THE PANDEMIC ISN’T OVER YET.

I feel like this is by far the biggest issue on this list. The whole point of these COVID changes was to make Pokemon GO safer to play during the pandemic. But the pandemic is on-going. It’s still here and doesn’t look like it will be going away any time soon. Second and third waves of the coronavirus are sweeping across many countries, and some places are even locking back down for the umpteenth time. Since the pandemic is still clearly here and will be for a while, the fact that Niantic feels like it can remove pandemic-based features is insane!

What can we do?

What can the player base do about this? Not very much. Somehow, despite fans across the planet complaining about these changes, Niantic wants to die on this hill. While they’ve released some random corporate article stuff, none of it offers much hope.

In the mean time, I suggest protesting with your wallet. I personally refuse to spend any real money on this game. Others have uninstalled completely. Unfortunately, we need a massive player push for Niantic to even CONSIDER giving us back the 80m distance. But I don’t think they’ll listen, not until they start losing money…