Since Pokemon GO launched, one of the most frequent requests from hardcore players has been an easier way to submit suggestions for Pokestops and a way for the community to review and approve or deny them. Most of this has taken place through a system exclusive to Ingress (one of Niantic's other games) so far, but the company is finally rolling out a unified system for reviewing and rating point of interest suggestions for all of its AR games.
Niantic Wayfarer was announced earlier this week and the company plans to roll out the system before the end of the calendar year. So what does this mean for Pokemon GO trainers? Quite a bit, actually. Niantic Wayfarer will be rolling out to eligible Pokemon GO players before the end of the year. We're not 100% who is going to be considered "eligible", but hopefully the system is open to level 30+ trainers around the world. Once the system is available, users will be able to review locations submitted for Pokestop consideration and give them a ranking from one to five stars.
The recommended points of interest are called Wayspots in Wayfarer and could eventually be added to Pokemon GO or Ingress if the community gives them high enough ratings. For years the Pokemon GO community has been relying on Ingress players to help generate and rate new POIs for future Pokestops or Gyms, so the opportunity to have a vote in the decision making process is incredibly exciting. Having a say in where the next Gym shows up to host EX or Legendary Raid Battles in your town is a great motivation to use the upcoming tool.
“Wayfarer has its origins in Operation Portal Recon, which was originally built to enable Ingress Agents to nominate and review Portals and enrich their gameplay experiences. With Niantic Wayfarer, eligible players will be able to review nominations of local points-of-interest (museums, art installations, historical markers, etc.) so they can be added to Niantic products (e.g. Portals, PokéStops and Gyms). We value your perspective in helping us make our game experiences more meaningful!”
The preview of the system looks incredibly user-friendly and seems like it will make reviewing and rating POI submissions easier than every. Qualified reviewers need to keep Niantic's rules in mind and not just give 5-stars to everything in hopes of having tons of POIs in their town. The goal is to identify real, permanent points of interest that aren't on school grounds or in dangerous areas. Locations that are seasonal or on a private residence are also out of the question.
Not only does the tool give users the chance to rate the submitted location, but Wayfarer users should also be reading the suggested POI name and short description to check for accuracy, spelling, and level of interest. Only after considering all of these points together should reviewers come to a decision and give the location a rating. A 1-star rating basically means "no way, this should never be a POI" and a 5-star rating is reserved for cases where the reviewer finds themselves thinking, "How is this not a POI already?!"
With a worldwide map that needs to be filled in and constantly kept up to date, it only makes sense that Niantic needs to turn to the community to help fill in the blanks and provide as much data as possible for the games to grow. The challenge is making sure that only responsible and trustworthy community members are using the rating system. For the original Ingress review process, this was accomplished by only allowing players who had reach a certain in-game level to be reviewers. It hasn't been confirmed if that will be the case for Wayfarer and Pokemon GO users yet, but it seems very likely that there will be some find of limitation or restriction on who is allowed to take on the role of reviewer when the system launches later this year.
As Pokemon GO players continue to catch the available Gen 5 Pokemon in the mobile AR game, this new tool is an exciting opportunity to look forward to later this fall. Hopefully the experience will be available in the US at launch, but no regions have been confirmed at this point. As Niantic gets closer to an official launch, it seems likely that we'll learn at lot more details in November or early December. Either way, start brainstorming which areas on your local down most deserve to become Pokestops of Gyms in the near future.
That’s everything we know at this point! Check back for more Pokemon GO updates closer to the event. Until then, good luck out there, trainers!
Pokemon GO is available now in select regions on Android and iOS devices.