One strange change that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic that kept most people staying at home or maintaining a safe social distance is how Niantic altered the access distances for major Pokemon Go features. However, as Niantic prepares to return these Pokemon Go pandemic features to what they were before the COVID-related update, players are quickly gathering online to voice their distain.
The specific change involves the minimum distance required in order to interact with PokeStops and Gyms while playing Pokemon Go, which allowed players to keep greater social distance while playing during the pandemic. With or without the needs to social distance, this update has previously been one of the most popular changes in the game's history, causing a negative response from players.
As a result of this fan outcry for Niantic to keep Pokemon Go's PokeStop and Gym distances the way they have been during the pandemic, some players have created a Change.org petition to stop the rollback. At the time of this writing the petition has over 68,000 signatures gathered from fans over the course of its first two days since initially being posted. This means that the petition has already become one of the top signed petition on Change.org thanks to how many players have gathered to voice their intent to keep the Pokestop and Gym distances the way they are.
The petition itself specifically mentions the way that previous Niantic comments had claimed that the distance changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic would be a permanent change to the game. This is where most fans find issue with the changes, as the Pokemon Go community specifically mentions this step backwards as both not listening to players as well as going back on Niantic's own promises. So, seeing this incredibly popular update get pulled back has resulted in a strong enough reaction to get tens of thousands of signatures in only a few days since the update's announcement.
It doesn't look like Niantic has yet considered following the fan outcry to keep the changes made during the pandemic now that many areas are starting to reopen. Considering how some areas still haven't completely opened up from the COVID-19 pandemic and some fans might still be at risk of being infected when going out, it may at the very least be too soon for these changes to be rolled back. That being said, methods like the Change.org petition and civil discussion on public forums are the best ways to inform the developer how Pokemon Go should move forward, as opposed to harassing Niantic employees over this controversial decision.
Source: Change.org