After a full day of raiding and multiple used Premium Raid Passes, we’ve come to terms with the upsides and downsides of the current Raid System.
Like many others, we managed to waste a number of Raid Passes on Tier 3 and Tier 4 Raids, almost exclusively while trying to combat the Boss with less-than-ideal Raid size. There is something off with the current system, but luckily, it’s very easy to fix.
We argue two things:
- Pokémon GO needs a localised Raid Map – you can’t have cooperative gameplay experiences with no means of local organisation/communication
- Raids need to be less frequent – Raids are special events and having so many Raids leads to player base fragmentation and alienates players who can not afford multiple Premium Raid Passes a day
A localised Raid Map
Let’s look at the current system at face value: player engagement and your local Raiding scene is strictly tied to what you see on your phone. As Raids have a similar radius as the Nearby tracker, you are limited to an area of roughly 500 meters from your current location.
In a world where you need 4-5 Trainers to beat a high Tier raid, this does not translate well into engaging experiences, meeting people and actually getting down bosses. Additionally, there are no means of organising the local player base, as they all see their little, constrained, portions of the Poké world.
As multiple third party scanners are now allowing players to scan for nearby raids, it’s hard to imagine that a local Raid map is that difficult to implement.
We suggest the following: add additional information to the Gym Badge map. Let the Badge map show Raids taking place at that Gym. Restrict the map to show only Raids on Gyms where you have collected badges.
Less frequent Raids
Our full day experience Raiding showed the following: players tend to save their Free Raid Pass for the best available Raid. If they fail to do so, a number of free-to-play players leaves the group and returns home, as they have no means of participating in Raids anymore.
Additionally, the current amount of Raids leads to players de-syncing and constantly trying to work out if everyone in their group wants to do a particular Raid or if they already spent their Raid Pass.
Just take a look at the Normal Raid Egg Boss List (Pink Egg List) and Rare Raid Egg Boss List (Yellow Egg List), and you’ll understand why. The Yellow List has so much more benefits to offer, that the majority of players simply ignore Normal Raid Eggs!
We suggest the following: reduce the frequency of raids. This will make it easier for players to organise, as the question is no longer “do you want to do this raid”, but rather “guys, can we do this so we don’t waste a day of Raiding”.
What are your thoughts Trainers?
