Pokemon GO reverts change to Gym training

December 3, 2016. Posted by: Alex Wong

Niantic has just reverted a change they made to Gym prestiging several weeks back. In order to understand the change, it is helpful to understand what Gym prestiging is.

Just as a quick refresher, Gyms in Pokemon Go are locations twhere people can battle their Pokemon. If the Gym belongs to your team, you can put your Pokemon in it.

Someone from the Blue team named Parafawks leaves her Vaporean Pokemon at her Gym

Pokemon in a Gym will defend a Gym until an enemy team finally defeats it. The number of Pokemon you can leave in a Pokemon is directly tied to its level. A level 2 Gym can hold 2 Pokemon, a level 4 Gym can hold 4. Gyms can go up to level 10.

This Gym is level 6

Gym Prestiging is when a player increases the Gym's level, thereby allowing for more Pokemon to sit in a Gym and also increasing its strength. The stronger a Gym is, the harder it is to defeat it.

In order to level up a Gym in Pokemon GO, a player had to fight the Pokemon inside a Gym. Once a player successfully defeated the Pokemon in a friendly Gym, the Gym would increase by a certain number of levels.

Several weeks ago, however, Niantic decided to lower the amount of levels a Gym gained when training it by half. In the past, it might take ten minutes to increase a Gym by two levels. Now it would take twenty minutes.

This outraged a huge number of players, with many taking to social media to voice their frustration. A great number of players felt like they were being punished for playing the game properly. Niantic initially refused to budge; however, after several weeks of continuous complaints the company decided to reverted the change.

Many people are happy that Niantic is finally listening to what its customers have to say, and think this, among several other changes, are reflective of a shift in attitude at Niantic.

I am very happy this change has been implemented. Ever since the change, I completely stopped trying to level up Gyms, believing the effort to be pointless.

But now that Niantic has rescinded their change to Gyms, I will once again try to power up any friendly Gyms I see. This is a step in the right direction for Pokemon GO, as it once again gives players a meaningful objective other than catching Pokemon.