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After playing the game for a little while, I've noticed that Pokestops are chosen seemingly at random locations on the map. A few of them are even in inaccessible places; an abandoned church building, inside of an airforce base, etc. How are these locations chosen as Pokestops?

Montag451
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Aux
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    My guess is that Niantic has for the most part used the portal database build by the Ingress community and for some of them they've used their own Fieldtrip application's database. – Montag451 Jul 07 '16 at 13:22
  • I'm retracting my VTC as while this may have an element of game design, it seems to be more about asking how the mechanic itself works. – two bugs Jul 07 '16 at 13:46
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    VTO, The question would be about Design and Development had it asked why or how the developers chose to implement the Pokestop feature. Asking what requirements are needed for a landmark to be chosen as a Pokestop is just as valid as How does incense work? or How do gyms work? – Aux Jul 07 '16 at 19:10

1 Answers1

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Pokémon GO's database is based on Niantic's portal database for Ingress, which is currently not accepting new requests for more locations while they review the process.

If you want to see every current PokéStop, download and register for Ingress, then go to https://www.ingress.com/intel

There are some plugins you can download to facilitate the discovery of Stops and Gyms based on that information (and even help updating the ones that still aren't registered as either).

Keep in mind that, while every PokéStop and Gym are based on Ingress Portals, not every Portal will be a PokéStop or Gym.

Vian Esterhuizen
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fcm
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    Not all locations in Ingress is converted over to Pokémon Go, the once I have seen missing is where a lot of points are close together in Ingress, guessing there is a minimum distance between multiple PokéStops – Blem Jul 07 '16 at 13:35
  • Which is why I recommended utilizing the plugins to separate what's used in PoGo. While not a 100% reference, it's definitely better than nothing. – fcm Jul 07 '16 at 13:39
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    People might wonder how that database was created so as an addition to the answer: Portals for Ingress were created by the players themselves. They were asked to submit portals at locations that are significant landmarks, mostly cultural or artistic things. Niantic then reviewed these submissions and if they agreed that it was significant enough it became a portal. Due to being unable to review the increasing amount of submissions and I think also because there are enough portals already Niantic disabled the portal submission ability at some point – Ivo Jul 09 '16 at 22:32
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    Yet, in the particular small tourist city where I live(population 15,000) there are no pokestops.. even our major tourist attraction.. I really think their locations need a second or even third look. Not that anyone here can help.. just venting. – DoubleDouble Jul 11 '16 at 00:15
  • Indeed, the name and picture on every PokéStop and Gym you've seen were submitted by an Ingress agent. I suspect we won't be seeing new PoGo location submission for quite a while - Niantic seems to have their hands full with other new features and keeping the servers up. – CarlRJ Jul 11 '16 at 18:41
  • Since Niantic&Nintendo and Google have partnered up on the creation of the app, you'd think they would use landmarks and business locations to determine these locations with proximity limitations (say 400-500m) and have the entire map prepopulated by the massive database that is Google Maps and then have a "Pokestop location request" in order to add more points on the map. – ctwheels Jul 12 '16 at 21:40
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    Looks like they've added a form to request PokeStops and gyms https://support.pokemongo.nianticlabs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=319928 – Vian Esterhuizen Jul 14 '16 at 15:34
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    @VianEsterhuizen Are you sure that's not a form for reporting issues with PokéStops (e.g. dangerous locations)? Another page about reporting issues with PokéStops or Gyms on Niantic's website says quite clearly "we are currently not accepting submissions for new PokéStops or Gyms." – Thunderforge Jul 18 '16 at 04:08
  • @Thunderforge You may be right. I just saw a couple articles on the it being for requests but I see what you mean. I could be wrong. – Vian Esterhuizen Jul 18 '16 at 14:34