Pokémon Go gamers aren’t glad concerning the current Shadow Lugia raid weekend. In a baffling design choice, Niantic made Shadow Lugia inaccessible to gamers utilizing a Distant Raid go, so it might solely be accomplished with an in-person group.
“[It] is the stupidest factor they might do,” a participant posted to Reddit on Oct. 31.”I went to 4 totally different raids within the span of three hours. No person got here even in excessive site visitors areas. It’s very irritating to actively need to play this recreation and get locked out as a result of no person is keen to indicate up,” wrote the thread’s author. “Niantic is simply capturing themselves within the foot at this level.”
Shadow Lugia was launched to Pokémon Go for the primary time within the Halloween event. It appeared in five-star Raids for 2 days, on Oct. 28 and 29, however might solely be defeated by in-person events to spotlight the brand new Occasion Play characteristic. Now it’s gone, and gamers are understandably upset.
Pokémon Go followers flocked to Reddit to complain, and plenty of agreed with the thread’s creator. Gamers expressed frustration over the truth that sure Pokémon Go options are locked behind Party Play, so solo gamers can not get pleasure from all of the content material from occasions.
Within the feedback, Redditors additionally lamented over Niantic’s questionable monetization choices. They argued Distant Raid Passes didn’t convey that a lot cash to the developer in comparison with “promoting location knowledge” and recruiting new gamers.
Occasion Play is a part of Niantic’s new course focusing on in-person play again, fairly than long-distance options, following the lifting of COVID restrictions.
The adjustments to Distant Raid Passes in Spring 2023 sparked controversy, and Pokémon Go gamers are nonetheless pissed off, as extra adjustments are coming that may seemingly make the issues worse. These adjustments are making Pokémon Go much less accessible to gamers situated in distant areas and people with restricted mobility, which may solely be a foul factor.
It’s additionally a blow to informal gamers like myself. I used to play with associates again when the sport launched in 2016, however I’ve much less free time now, and it’s not as simple to rearrange a time to satisfy your folks for Pokémon Go simply so you’ll be able to keep away from lacking out on key content material.
Getting the rarest or strongest Pokémon does require extra effort, and I might get them if I put within the time. However some gamers merely can’t play with others in-person, which means this unique content material is just out of attain. Whereas Occasion Play did introduce new potentialities for sure gamers, it takes content material away from the unfortunate ones.
Niantic nonetheless has but to reply to gamers’ issues concerning the characteristic. It’s unclear whether or not the developer will add extra content material unique to Occasion Play sooner or later, because it solely launched in October 2023, however time will inform.
