5 ms·

That was a thought I had the other day. I wonder how long it will be before a business can signup to be a Pokestop.

by sosuke 10y ago

exolymph 10y ago
That would be a really smart strategy for Niantic on the face of things, assuming they charged for it, but second-order effects might be weird / uncomfortable. For example, more and more Pokestops concentrated in higher-income areas, which is already an issue — see https://twitter.com/KendraJames_/status/753212999758934019 https://twitter.com/KendraJames_/status/753212999758934019
- hx87 10y ago
  Having more low-income gamers wander into my high income neighborhood wouldn't exactly be a bad thing for either of us.
  - exolymph 10y ago
    No, it wouldn't, nor would the vice-versa option. But wouldn't it be nice if it were easier for low-income players to participate while going about their daily lives?
- Meegul 10y ago
  Perhaps the solution would be to just have a set amount of pokecenters/points of interest based on population density, and then auction off the spot for X amount of months?
- stryan 10y ago
  Unless the game's popularity dies down considerably (which it most likely will but we'll have to see, Pokemon is a strong IP after all), that probably wouldn't be sustainable. Every shop that could afford it would have one which would have unwanted effects on both game balance and small businesses (Oh, you just opened up a cafe? Good luck competing against all the ones that already have Pokestops on them). The disparity between urban/high-income areas and rural/low-income areas is a shame but not surprising. Niantic pulled their location data from Ingress which has a, from what I've seen, generally urban, mid to high income, tech savy playerbase. Crowd-sourced submissions reflect that, as well as the fact that they used cellular activity.
- dclowd9901 10y ago
  Wow, I didn't even think about this, but yeah, my neighborhood (which is traditionally low-income for the area), has very few pokestops compared to other neighborhoods in the area. Anecdotal, but that's a bummer.
- reustle 10y ago
  Can someone enlighten me as to how the tweeter equates not having many pokestops in their town to being racist?
  - vectorpush 10y ago
    They detail their reasoning in their tweet, otherwise I'd suggest you ask them, but I'd suggest that we avoid a speculative discussion about race based on some random person's twitter rant.
  - Torgo 10y ago
    Look who she writes for, it is literally her livelihood to make everything that issue.

That was a thought I had the other day. I wonder how long it will be before a business can signup to be a Pokestop.

by sosuke 10y ago

That was a thought I had the other day. I wonder how long it will be before a business can signup to be a Pokestop.

That would be a really smart strategy for Niantic on the face of things, assuming they charged for it, but second-order effects might be weird / uncomfortable. For example, more and more Pokestops concentrated in higher-income areas, which is already an issue — see https://twitter.com/KendraJames_/status/753212999758934019 https://twitter.com/KendraJames_/status/753212999758934019

hx87 10y ago
Having more low-income gamers wander into my high income neighborhood wouldn't exactly be a bad thing for either of us.
- exolymph 10y ago
  No, it wouldn't, nor would the vice-versa option. But wouldn't it be nice if it were easier for low-income players to participate while going about their daily lives?
Meegul 10y ago
Perhaps the solution would be to just have a set amount of pokecenters/points of interest based on population density, and then auction off the spot for X amount of months?
stryan 10y ago
Unless the game's popularity dies down considerably (which it most likely will but we'll have to see, Pokemon is a strong IP after all), that probably wouldn't be sustainable. Every shop that could afford it would have one which would have unwanted effects on both game balance and small businesses (Oh, you just opened up a cafe? Good luck competing against all the ones that already have Pokestops on them). The disparity between urban/high-income areas and rural/low-income areas is a shame but not surprising. Niantic pulled their location data from Ingress which has a, from what I've seen, generally urban, mid to high income, tech savy playerbase. Crowd-sourced submissions reflect that, as well as the fact that they used cellular activity.
dclowd9901 10y ago
Wow, I didn't even think about this, but yeah, my neighborhood (which is traditionally low-income for the area), has very few pokestops compared to other neighborhoods in the area. Anecdotal, but that's a bummer.
reustle 10y ago
Can someone enlighten me as to how the tweeter equates not having many pokestops in their town to being racist?
- vectorpush 10y ago
  They detail their reasoning in their tweet, otherwise I'd suggest you ask them, but I'd suggest that we avoid a speculative discussion about race based on some random person's twitter rant.
- Torgo 10y ago
  Look who she writes for, it is literally her livelihood to make everything that issue.