‘Imagine being disabled’: Pokemon GO slammed for Riolu Hatch Day Event
Like it or not, Pokemon GO is refusing to say die just yet, and its persistence is pretty admirable when you look at the drop-off that the game has seen. Of course, there are still dedicated players, but the cultural wave it spawned has well and truly ended.
While there's still plenty of content for existing and returning fans to enjoy, Niantic is facing a problem. With continued complaints across the board, many fans have been absolutely lambasting the game's recent event.
Riolu Egg Hatching event in Pokemon GO was a disaster
Click to enlargeA new wave of content came to Pokemon GO recently, offering players the chance to hatch eggs housing little Riolu. It also allowed them to level them into Lucario, a fan-favourite Pokemon - but there was a major problem with the event.
The event itself lasted for only three hours on July 22, meaning that fans had an immensely short window in which to wander around enough to hatch the egg itself. Plus, if you wanted to get your hands on nine eggs from the event, you'd have to walk 60 kilometers in that time.
With the inability to merely discard eggs, players had to empty their incubated eggs before inserting the new ones, leading to a lot of players not being able to participate.
It doesn't seem like a reasonable expectation to us, and we weren't alone. Fans were deeply frustrated, and they haven't wasted any time in expressing it. Yet again, Niantic is being called out for a lack of accessibility options for players that might not be as mobile.
Fans react to terrible Riolu egg event
"I wasn't able to participate in the Riolu event cuz I couldn't hatch my already incubated egg in time," reads a new post in the Pokemon GO subreddit.
"Not saying OP is, but imagine being disabled…" says another comment, with many others rallying to assert that their own disabilities held them back from playing the inaccessible event.
"I also couldn't get the current egg hatched in time, but I accepted that since, well, I have MS and I'm also dealing with some pain," says one user. "I can and do walk around, but I have fatigue and sometimes get humidity/heat headaches (it was 85 degrees).
"So I just figured it wasn't happening, and missed it. I did a remote raid and caught Regieleki on my third attempt (first time was the debut in-person raid, second was days ago, and finally, today worked)."
It's such a shame that disabilities have boxed players out of a Pokemon GO event, and it's even more frustrating that this wasn't considered by developers. Pokemon GO needs to do better before it loses those who stuck around.