The Pokemon Go daily rewards are making Pokemon Go players happy and at the same time, luring back the now passive players to at least open the app and claim the rewards - like me. But did you know that players who are past level 20 will still be stuck despite the daily rewards? Now, you might think I'm acting crazy and all that just for an update that didn't go as I wished it did but if you are going to add something to a game, it better please everyone.
Sure, the daily bonuses may have put a smile on each Pokemon trainer's face, including mine, but then I realized at the seventh streak on my daily login, my level didn't budge at all. So at this point, I said to myself that the daily rewards didn't increase my level so maybe Niantic would really want me to stop sitting on my butt and go out into the world and grind if I want to level up. At least it got me to login again and try the daily bonus, in other words, I just took the bait.
So, I went on and searched how much this daily reward thing give out to players and why it didn't budge my level progress. It turns out that what they actually give out for XP isn't really helpful at all. According to this post by Niantic, and if I'm calculating it correctly, you'll only have a mere 2,500 XP if you complete both daily logins and daily PokeStop visits adds around 11K XP, that isn't enough to move you from level 22 to 23 which takes 100K XP. Well, at least if you just do the same thing for 10 weeks, your level will move without ever catching Pokemon or participating in gyms.
Suggestions to retain higher level players
I'm not sure if it would sound fair for players lower than level 20 but I think giving away XP as daily reward should be proportional to a Pokemon Go trainer's tier. Say if you are in level 20, you should get much higher XP compared to a level 10 trainer. Why? Because the higher level player needs much more XP to level up. That way, more players will be lured back into playing the game.
Another suggestion is just to add a multiplier to the daily bonus. Say a level 20 player has a X5 multiplier if he or she completes a 7 day login and PokeStop streaks, the reward will be multiplied 5 times ergo encouraging the player to play more so that the next player level will be achieved. This is a lot of work in terms of balancing which levels need what multiplier but I'm pretty sure the smart guys at Niantic will figure it out in no time.
Third suggestion is just to let the streak go on and double the rewards per 7 days. Say your 14th day streak reward will be double that of the 7th day and the 21st day reward will be triple that of the 7th day. Doing that as reward will surely keep the players log in Pokemon Go every day without a miss.
It is important to note that Niantic is doing this to retain players, and I think most of the players that started when Pokemon Go launched are already past level 20. Giving them a puny reward system will just make them realize that they have been forgotten, or at least that is what I personally feel. I went on and performed a 7 day streak yet my level didn't budge, so I'll just be passive for now.
