Eight years later being a rural Pokemon Go player still sucks

Pokemon Go came out eight years ago and yet the experience for rural players is still terrible. It’s time for Niantic to fix this problem once and for all.

In the eight years since Pokemon Go’s launch in 2016, Niantic has introduced more content, improvements, and quality-of-life updates than many thought possible. It really is impressive just how far this game has come since its humble beginnings.

However, one of its biggest problems remains largely untouched with a sizable chunk of the playerbase still being forced to have a sub-par experience. As was the case in 2016, being a rural Pokemon Go player still sucks and the lack of meaningful improvements in eight years is disheartening.

Wild spawns nowhere to be found

There are a few reasons why the experience of a rural player differs so much from that of an urban player, but by far the biggest is the wild spawns. While an urban Pokemon Go player can encounter over 30 Pokemon on their screen at once, a rural player is often lucky to see more than one.

Only being able to encounter and catch a fraction of the Pokemon as someone else is frustrating at best and a liability at worst. It also feels thematically wrong to have an easier time finding Pokemon in a busy city than out in the actual wild. I’m not proposing that wilderness exploration should become the meta but the current system doesn’t make much sense either.

This is all compounded by Pokemon Go’s mechanics like evolving and leveling up team members which both require you to catch a lot of Pokemon. It’s the same story with research tasks which often need specific Pokemon to be caught, many of which hardly exist in rural regions.

Small communities make everything harder

The struggle to find Pokemon is only half the battle though. There are other issues such as rural players having fewer Pokestops to farm items from, gyms to earn Pokecoins, and a smaller community which makes many raids impossible. This was only made worse by the infamous Remote Raid nerf in April 2023 which caused irreversible damage to local communities.

Then there’s Shadow Raids which followed in May 2023. Unlike regular raids, there is no option to use remote raid passes in these. Instead, you need to physically attend the raid at its designated location alongside other players to fight and catch powerful legendaries like Shadow Kyogre and Shadow Mewtwo.

This isn’t a problem in large cities where populations are so big that you can stumble across other community members to team up with. However, it’s a whole different game in rural regions where if a raid isn’t solo-friendly, a potential multi-hour drive to the closest major city is your only option.

The terrible experience rural players are stuck with needs to change and the best way to do this is to overhaul Pokemon Go’s wild spawns. It shouldn’t matter if I’m in the middle of London or the middle of nowhere, give me a fair opportunity to catch Pokemon.

As for the raid dilemma, the solution was already implemented when remote raids were more accessible. However, Niantic made its thoughts clear on this when its director stated they were causing “unhealthy” behavior, defending the initial decision to nerf remote raid passes.

Regardless of their reasoning, it’s easy to say that the idea has done far more harm than good. Returning Pokemon Go to how it once was would not only make it more accessible but also more fun for the overwhelming majority of players.