Pokemon Go and Niantic by the time you read this, will have launched a new feature: routes. While we covered the event and a few safety tips on our July event page, there’s a lot going on here that deserves to be mentioned. In this Massively on the Go, we’ll discuss Niantic’s history with this kind of content as well as how Niantic does do testing – but has a long tradition of choosing to ignore feedback from its own privately selected unpaid testers.
While we knew routes were coming, Niantic’s sudden feature and event announcement meant New Zealand “beta testers” had mere hours as a heads-up for both the event and the impact of the new feature. The thing is, even in the Twitter announcement, the Niantic-selected Route Maker beta testers have noted their frustrations with the feature and review process: routes taking too long to go through, routes being rejected for no apparent reason, routes being accepted and then rejected, the total absence of routes, and so on.
In short, the feature does not seem ready. Given that, in combination with an event and new tacked-on bonuses that haven’t been tested, I wouldn’t be surprised if the event launches broken, just as the recent Showcases in July did.
Sharing walking routes to strangers is a bold move considering a lot of children/young adults play this game https://t.co/qxwyIcXosQ
— Pirate King Buggy (@LifeOfTy__) July 20, 2023
But this is no ordinary feature: Route maker asks players to create real-world routes for other players to follow. Niantic itself tried to pitch the feature to Kotaku as a kind of personal tour guide feature; Kotaku noted that Niantic admitted to using AI for some filtering of potential issues, plus free labor volunteers (which have actually abused the system themselves in various ways, including stalking, as we’ve covered at length), but the company is largely pushing the responsibility off to everyone else in terms of safety.
In other words, Niantic is continuing to build systems on top of the already problematic, long-abused ones in place, with AI being the only new guardrail that, uh, I guess will help prevent the creation of penis-shaped routes?
So it’s probably a good idea to keep in mind some basic safety tips: Don’t follow routes in sketchy-looking areas, and don’t create routes in your private neighborhood or of your personalized paths. When making a path, consider who may follow you in a worst-case scenario. Your walking path from your house to the cafe down the street? Bad idea. A path on the nearby walking loop at the park? Probably better.
Keep the natural world in mind as well. As much as I love my local paths, I am constantly seeing people ignore signs to stick to the path. These people destroy habitats we’ve been trying to cultivate to preserve endangered species. As often as I walk these areas and guide friends/family down them, there’s no way I’m sharing them with more unaccompanied strangers, especially the ones that obliviously cross through angry raccoon territory.
You may also want to keep traffic in mind. Even if you’re walking through empty streets at night, making a path through there may not account for daytime traffic or how busy the area could be in the future, assuming Pokemon GO is still around then.
Now, covering this game is often kind of a bummer for those of us who are ethical and safety-conscious, so let’s end with two less-dour tips. Assuming the rewards actually work and routes themselves function in-game as announced, you can consider using routes to find regionals using incense. The first time you take a route gives an incense bonus, but as incense are premium items, you probably don’t want to use these on local routes. Instead, save them for travel, though again, be aware of your surroundings and stay in public areas.
There are also Buddy Hearts and Candy to earn. Again, the Buddy System is already quite bloated, but routes could make grinding friendship hearts or (XL) candy easier, especially on legendary+ pokemon. Route benefits seem to be quite underwhelming compared to the potential harassment/danger one might endure from their use, but if you’re able to use them safely, they could work as a new Daily Quest task, if you really need more of those.
Yei!! So much fun ❤️🥵👌 https://t.co/KcNX1SkOAe pic.twitter.com/AfNQClrfBA
— Superior kuropuchi (@KuroPuchi) July 21, 2023
7/21 Update: As predicted, the feature has launched incomplete. Feedback is largely negative. Many are reporting no routes nearby at all nor the mass ability to create them, despite the fact that the event has a route-specific bonus and a quest that involves them. Route creation is leading to crashes and unsafe route creation AI despite creators’ best intentions. Those who have access to routes note issues attempting them. Android crashes specifically linked to doing routes are a thing. While Elite TM rewards right now appear to be rare, the average rewards are minimal while spawning pokemon locals are sick of. And, of course, the featured Zygarde cell drops are incredibly stingy. Again, we knew this feature wasn’t ready, but Niantic pushed it out anyway.
Massively OP’s Andrew Ross is an admitted Pokemon geek and expert ARG-watcher. Nobody knows Niantic and Nintendo like he does! His Massively on the Go column covers Pokemon Go as well as other mobile MMOs and augmented reality titles!
