It’s always great to see game developers harnessing their communities to put a little good into the world, which is exactly what Niantic is going to be doing with its second annual Earth Day campaign for its popular augmented-reality games Pokemon Go and Ingress. This year, the studio is partnering with “gaming-for-good engagement platform” Playmob and 15 NGOs to bring players together to get out and clean up their communities by way of in-game incentives.
Players who want to take part can go to Niantic and Playmob’s event website to sign up for an event near them. If there isn’t one, they can get their own group together and tweet Niantic about their efforts to be counted in the event’s participation statistics.
If 2,000 players attend, Pokemon Go players will see increased spawn rates for ground-type Pokemon, and Ingress players will have better chances of acquiring heatsinks, multihacks, shields, and power cubes. If 5,000 players attend, shiny Digletts will start cropping up in Pokemon Go, and Ingress players will get double AP linking. And if the event garners 7,000 or more players, Pokemon Go players will get double stardust from event spawns plus increased chances to find Groudon in raids, while Ingress players will get double AP fielding. The event will begin next month on April 13th, and it’ll run until the 28th, with the in-game rewards following shortly thereafter.
