"We need to talk about coins"

#PokemonGO: Everyone’s having different experiences based on their local area, but one thing that seems to be true in general is that the new system is much less rewarding for the same amount of time/day invested in the game.Previously, players in high-turnover areas could expect to claim at minimum 10 coins/day with 5-30 minutes of time investment. Players in low-turnover areas could invest perhaps 8 hours per week (sometimes less) and claim 50-100 coins/day.Right now, players in high-turnover areas cannot claim any coins, because of the 1 hour minimum time limit. Players in low-turnover areas can be defending multiple gyms but still have zero coins because there are no rival players battling to return their pokemon.In my region, we have a decent sized Facebook group with dozens of people on each team. With the old system we'd organize a big raid every week or two, spend 6-8 hours in the weekend and often be set for the next week with 100 coins/day. That averages to roughly 1 hour/day for 100 coins. (Yes, we were amongst the lucky ones.)This new system requires, at minimum, 5x the time investment for the same results. You are limited to 1 coin/hour per pokemon, and no more than 20 gyms. Even IF you can hold that many gyms, that’s a best case investment of 5 hours across 20 gyms to achieve 100 coins/day. And you don’t even see any of that unless a rival player battles the gym to return your pokemon.Furthermore, it’s now possible that players from your own team can (inadvertently) hurt you by feeding your pokemon and preventing it from returning with coins that day. It’s hard to avoid feeling that this new system is incredibly punishing after what we were given for the previous 12 months.So, how do we fix this? Here are three major ideas:Attacker bonus - Reward 1 coin per rival pokemon defeated.Defender bonus - Reward 5-10 coins instantly upon setting a defender.Real-time earnings - The 1 coin/hour from pokemon in gyms goes directly to your inventory as it is earned (not upon defeat).Implementing any or all of these options would further encourage players to actively battle in gyms, given bonus rewards they can actually control. Of course, the hard cap of 100 coins/day across all options would still remain.But hang on! Wouldn’t that just mean anyone who plays for an hour or two can claim 100 coins?Yes! That’s exactly the point. And why should this be a problem?100 coins/day is not that valuable. It’s 2 incubators every 3 days, or a bag upgrade every 2 days, or an extra raid pass for today. These are the kind of small rewards that players investing 1-2 hours per day should be able to access.As part of a group of dozens of players in my city that claimed the 100 coin/day reward on most days for the better part of a year, I can confirm that it did not prevent many of us from purchasing additional coins many times over for extra incubators and bag space. Far from it - 100 coins/day is a nice little taster that whets your appetite for more!I can understand the goal with this update was to encourage more gym activity. For the moment, while this system is fresh and new, I’m sure there is indeed more activity. But if the system doesn’t change so that players get rewarded fairly for their time invested, it’s hard to see how gym activity won’t rapidly decline in the near future – which is surely in no-one’s interest. :) via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2sID3Fp