When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, Niantic remote raid To Pokémon GO, which allowed people to access raids from the comfort of their own homes.Remote raid allowed people to keep playing during lockdown, keeping Pokémon GO alive in a time when people never went outBut as player interest moved away from the pandemic, remote raids remained a way to make Pokémon GO more accessible to everyone, especially those with disabilities and those living in rural communities.
Three years into the pandemic, Niantic is raising prices and capping remote raid passes to encourage people to play the game as they did pre-pandemic, but the Pokémon GO community disagrees. doing.
yesterday, blog postthe Pokémon GO team has revealed adjustments to how remote raids work, including a significant price increase for remote raid passes and rewards for players participating in face-to-face raids. Players will now be able to enter up to 5 per day, starting April 6th at 11am PT.
Not surprisingly, fans took to Twitter and Reddit to speak out against Niantic’s decision to make accessibility features less accessible.
The movement to undo these changes has been largely driven by fans with disabilities, many of whom are using remote raids to play.Able Gamers Senior Director Stephen Spawn .
In summary, Niantic is doubling the cost of playing Pokémon GO remotely and limiting how much you can play.
This is called the disability tax. If you live in an inaccessible area where you can’t leave your home, you can still play, but it’s expensive and you don’t get to play much. https://t.co/hDPj3QmACD
— Stephen Spawn (Spawn) (@stevenspohn) March 30, 2023
“In this case, remote play is great for those who prefer to play that way, but for those who have mobility issues, can’t leave their homes, or live in rural/inaccessible areas. is literally the only way to play,” Spawn said in a Twitter DM. “Limiting the number of times he can participate in raids to five a day is just limiting content to convince people to play differently, but again, if you literally can’t what should I do?”
as pointed out by Kotaku, these changes will also disproportionately affect people living in rural areas where PokéStops, Gyms and Raids are sparse. But fans with physical access to Raids are also excited. Reddit user octocodeLiving in a big city, he simply likes the flexibility and convenience of remote raids for those with time constraints.
Through a DM on Reddit, octocode said, “I like the ‘go’ aspect of this game, but not this system.” , I don’t need to explore, I just want to play on my schedule.”
For some fans, beyond convenience, this update hints at the loss of community.
“Remote Raid essentially changed my life,” Twitter user Xinis said in a DM. “Because of that, I’ve made a lot of friends around the world and here in America. The weakening basically made it impossible for me to enjoy the game or hang out with friends. It’s absolutely too expensive.”
With less than a week left until the update is released, fans are flocking to convince Niantic to change course. 1 Reddit user encouraged the players to strike By limiting face-to-face raids without purchasing remote raid passes, other players I started contacting Niantic and leave a bad review.
A deleted post from r/pokemongo urging players to strike out by not playing the game for a week. It has 6,900 upvotes. sauce: https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/comments/126z3dk/its_happening_starting_april_6th_the_strike_is_on/
Some players quit altogether. Or at least until Niantic reverses the decisionSome Pokémon GO fans, especially Many disabled fans of the gameI really have no choice.
“Niantic needs to realize that not everyone can drop everything and walk out,” said octocode. “Sometimes you can’t physically do it. You need some flexibility.”
Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer for IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, she contributes to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find us on Twitter: @ameliazollner.
