Pokemon Go Tour: Unova in Los Angeles has come and gone, and one of the cornerstone events for the mobile game went off smoother than the past year. Niantic solved last year’s problem of long queues, and it shrank the play area, making it feel more condensed and lively. Go Tour was staffed so everyone could access attractions at each habitat and find help when needed.
It was an improvement in every way, but at one point, the event could have been much different. Go Tour happened in the wake of the deadly Los Angeles wildfires that devastated the Pacific Palisades and Altadena, which is a short drive from the Rose Bowl, where the event was held.
A DECISION TO HOLD THE EVENT
For Angela Ferguson-Martins, Niantic’s marketing manager of global live events, it was a tough call a month and a half ago when the blazes were raging. She said the future was hard to predict and that the team communicated with Pasadena authorities, The Pokemon Company and the Rose Bowl Authority to see how to proceed. After talking with everyone involved, they decided to hold Go Tour, trusting the authority and community’s knowledge and expertise, knowing it would be safe and accessible, according to the Niantic official.
“It was about bringing communities back together,” she said. “We’re bringing tourism back. One of the biggest pieces of Go Tour was that there’s a citywide experience.”
The event not only drew trainers around the world to the Rose Bowl for the in-person proceedings, but with the extra add-ons, it opened up play across the entire city. Niantic incorporated special stops at Metro Stations and select landmarks, giving players more opportunities to play beyond Pasadena. They could turn Pokemon Go Tour into a larger experience while visiting theme parks and other L.A. attractions.
Of course, Niantic also had plans not to hold the event if the fires continued. She said they had more options than a plan B. “We considered plans A through H,” Ferguson-Martins said. “We discussed options. Some of them lost the spirit of the event. We sketched out more and even considered similar things to the pandemic.” Niantic held its first Go Tour in 2021 as a global event while the world was still facing a challenging situation with COVID-19.
BENEFITTING FROM EXPERIENCE
Niantic’s decision to have Go Tour return to the Rose Bowl had several benefits. The biggest one was that it provided a more polished experience for fans. Because Niantic was familiar with the venue, the team could spend more time upgrading the environment and fixing what didn’t work the previous year. “We could streamline the building blocks,” Ferguson Martins said. “We had more bandwidth so we can plus up the experience.”
That showed in a packed celebration with gyms and stops scattered more evenly around the event space so that players could travel and nearly always be around activity. Each of the four habitats had a photo installation or a centerpiece activity. There were tents with games and quizzes scattered around that provided prizes. Meanwhile, food vendors weren’t coalesced into one space but posted up in multiple locations.
When it came to the atmosphere, Niantic amplified it with music blaring out the speakers. It made trainers feel as if they were inside the game, and when they wanted relief from the sun, they found ample shade under the golf course trees.
ECHOING EARLY POKEMON GO
The event even had secrets that nudged players to explore the grounds through a Timed Research quest. Players found clues to special PokeStops and had to search for them at the venue. It fostered nice interactions with other players as they asked for help finding a specific spot in the “Pokemon Go” scavenger hunt. They had to clear it quickly because the task was only available in the park for the nine-hour event.
The other notable event was a perfect Drilbur that appeared at the edge of the Go Tour event space. A few people found it, and soon, word flooded the Go Tour space. It sent dozens of players flocking to the Spring Soiree zone and people yelling out the location of the Hundo Mole Pokemon and its 1140 combat power. It was one of those serendipitous in-game experiences, one I haven’t seen since the beginning of “Pokemon Go.” It was the most magical part of the Saturday experience.
As for gripes, Niantic alerted players to two rules on portable batteries and clear totes or backpacks a few days before the event. The sudden announcement upset some players who had already packed for the trip. Ferguson-Martin said that was a request from the Rose Bowl operating company that Niantic had to comply with.
It’s something that Niantic will undoubtedly take into account for the next Go Tour as it works to improve an event that has become better as a live experience.