What issue are we talking about? Trainers in Pokémon GO not only have the ability to catch Pokémon, but they can also compete in Raids, secure tasks at PokéStops, occupy arenas, and battle against other trainers as well as Team GO Rocket.

However, village players in particular feel disadvantaged in some of these functions compared to players in (major) cities. This is mainly because there are often only a few PokéStops and arenas in rural areas.

In order to do a raid or earn coins in the arena, such players then often have to travel to larger cities first. For this reason, those affected have been calling for solutions for some time.

This is what Niantic says about the problem of village players

Just recently, the discussion about the disadvantage of village players in Pokémon GO boiled up again in social networks, because the research day held in June was only successful for trainers who live in the right place.

As a result, players in rural areas were only able to secure isolated event tasks due to the lack of PokéStops, which is why they had less of a chance to win a Shiny overall.

At GO Fest in Berlin, we caught up with Philip Marz, Head of Regional Marketing Pokémon GO (EMEA), and asked him how Niantic is dealing with this issue.

“That’s where you would deviate from the core of the game ambition”.

What solutions could coaches come up with? One idea from the community to help solve the problem is to set up additional PokéStops in areas that currently have few of these points. At least something like this would be conceivable for certain events on the part of some players.

Such an approach was also suggested by reddit user 000666777888 following Research Day (via reddit.com): “You could add additional temporary stops so that every cell, no matter how big it’s supposed to be, suddenly has at least x stops. You add these temporary stops at GO Fest events and the like.”

What does Niantic say about this proposal? According to Philip Marz, however, this is not an option for Niantic. As he explains to us in the interview, an important part of Niantic’s ambition is that PokéStops and arenas have a fixed reference to an interesting object in the real world. Thus, it contradicts their ideas if they simply expand the playing field and set additional stops.

Specifically, he makes the following comments:

We are of course aware of the challenge of the game experience in places that are not located in a metropolitan region, and we are also actively working on solutions to address precisely this issue. For us, it’s fundamentally important that these waypoints in the game always have a link to the real world, of course. That means that if there are these waypoints, whether it’s PokéStop or Gym [Arena]it’s also very, very important that they are linked to an element that is, let’s say, interesting for the public and that actually exists.

That’s the basic ambition, and that’s what makes it so difficult, even with this ambition, to simply say that we’re going to make a broader game board here, because in principle you would be deviating from the core of the game ambition.

But we’re actively working on it and there’s a very timely opportunity to look forward to. Also for those fans who live or play in remote areas, that there is also a way to make their own gaming experience more diverse, more appealing. I can’t say anything about that yet, but we are aware of the challenge and we are of course actively working on it.

Philip Marz from Pokémon GO says about it.

According to this, the criticism of the village players has been heard at Niantic and, according to Marz, a solution is being actively worked on. So these trainers should also soon be able to benefit from a better gaming experience. However, he could not yet tell us exactly what the solution will look like. Those affected will have to be patient for a while.

What does Niantic say about ex-raids, Kecleon, and Giovanni?

In addition to criticism from village players, we also confronted Philip Marz with other topics from the community in the interview. We wanted to know if the coaches can still expect a return of the ex-raids in 2022, when Kecleon will finally come into play and if Giovanni will be found more often in the future.

Return of ex-Raids: Until the start of the Corona Pandemic, Pokémon GO regularly hosted Ex-Raids. These were special raids to which you had to receive an invitation in order to participate.

This allowed you to compete against an exclusive raid boss at an ex-raid arena at a time set by Niantic. However, due to contact restrictions, ex-raids have been put on hold for the time being. Now, however, many trainers would like to see a return, which is why we asked Philip Marz if that will still be the case in 2022.

We know, of course, that it was a very special experience. Not only the experience of gathering in the real world on these occasions at the appropriate locations, but of course the Pokemon that were featured. We’re very aware of that, of course. As for the exact planning and also implementation, I can’t say today.

Philip Marz says

Kecleon: And Kecleon, a Normal-type Pokémon from the 3rd generation of games, is also sorely missed by many players in the game. The reason for this is the completion of the PokéDex of the Hoenn region, as well as the associated Platinum Medal. To achieve this, all Pokémon of this region must be caught.