For any "Pokemon Go" player, finding the nearest PokeStop may be an issue. While the game does its modest shares of gyms and PokeStops, the fact remains that there are players who still have to get up and travel to the nearest one - the distance of which varies.
Niantic is working on ways to address this need, identifying key landmarks and places to help the growing number of players enjoy the augmented reality game. The problem some foresee is that local folks would know better which places deserve to have gyms or PokeStops, a possible reason why they have introduced the PokeStop nomination feature, Game Rant said.
There are several things to take note of about this. One is that a player can only nominate if the Pokemon trainer is already at level 40. To check, all one has to do is head on to the settings screen and a New PokeStop button should appear (if the account is eligible to make nominations).
The bad news is that this feature is still in beta and available only in limited territories. There is one in Brazil and, just recently, in Thailand as shared by @PokemonGoApp. Being in the testing stage, players from Brazil have ended up frustrated, claiming that the nominations have had no impact in the game.
Being a key part of the game, it is understandable that the verification process needs some time. But with Niantic solely relying on players to review the nominated PokeStops, it seems that the whole thing is hardly making progress with some waiting for months to find out if their nominations are accepted or rejected.
It is a sensitive process where Niantic is trying to weed out authentic and bogus nominations. But the process of doing see obviously needs to be revisited and improved if it was designed to make life easier for "Pokemon Go" players.
Being a new feature added to Thailand augmented reality players, it remains to be seen if they too will encounter the same issues that their Brazilian counterparts are experiencing. The only good thing to get out of it all is that Niantic is open to adding new stops for as long as they are legitimate and sensible.
There is no official word yet on which other regions the PokeStop nomination feature will be made available. Seeing however that there are still loose ends, it may be best for Niantic and their team to address the concerns of players from Brazil (and possibly Thailand) before offering it to other regions.
