The next Pokémon GO Community Day will return to the original three-hour time frame, and many players are outraged by this change. The alternate reality mobile game, developed by Niantic, lets players explore their community to catch Pokémon and participate in frequent events. The upcoming Pokémon GO April Community Day, set to arrive on April 23, will introduce the Flailing Pokémon Stufful to the monster collection experience.
Pokémon GO Community Days flood the streets with an abundance of pocket monsters, motivating trainers to leave their homes and gather together to take advantage of the event. On each month's Community Day a certain Pokémon will appear much more frequently, and there are typically additional bonuses like additional experience or extra items to obtain. Community Days ran for only three hours when Pokémon GO first launched, but in 2020 developer Niantic doubled that length to six hours. The upcoming April Community Day will see a return to the original three-hour time frame, however, which will have a dramatic effect on Pokémon GO Community Days moving forward.
Pokémon GO's return to three-hour Community Days has angered fans who appreciated the larger six-hour window. Twitter user JRESeawolf explains that fans must now plan their weekend around the more restrictive three-hour Community Day. They also claim that Niantic's logic, which claims that trainers only participated in Community Days for three hours anyway, is "tone deaf" and needlessly removes flexibility. Twitter user FitzCity echoes these concerns, suggesting that Pokémon GO fans will now be stressed by the unnecessary grind. RyanSwag, also on Twitter, proposes a compromise where Community Day would last for six hours but a three-hour window would offer boosted experience and items.
There are likely many ways to compromise on Pokémon GO Community Day run times, and Niantic has already employed a potential solution. In August 2021 the developer held a two-day Pokémon GO Community Day, giving players a far greater chance to obtain the featured pocket monster Eevee. This concept could potentially be used to find a middle-ground between the three-hour and six-hour Community Day setups, giving players two separate three-hour windows to come together and catch them all. However, this would likely reduce the number of concurrent players on each individual day.
Niantic may have noble intentions with April Community Day, but the Pokémon GO fanbase is not happy with the return to the three-hour time period. The developer's argument that players only participate for three hours is flawed, considering the fact that the six-hour window let trainers participate on their own schedule. Following this backlash, time will tell whether Niantic makes additional changes to Community Day in the future.
Pokémon GO is available on iOS and Android.
Sources: JRESeawolf/Twitter, FitzCity/Twitter, RyanSwag/Twitter