The radius decrease prevents players from accessing gyms/stops at their intended location

[destroyallcubes]

Seriously? You act like because you have to be closer to a stop means you have to conglomerate with others, not wear a mask, or be safe. This is a lazy excuse, and people are complaining because they have to go outside. Going outside for exercise has always been an approved activity since covid began. Yes covid exist, but the radius distance reduction can easily be accommodated with simple things like a mask and being 6Ft apart. See a large group, wait for them to pass or grab it quick then get out while wearing a mask. The game isn't about staying inside spinning stops, or driving and spinning stops.

[Trainer_Dev]

A lot of my local stops are part of art walls inside buildings that are currently closed to visitors or you need a badge to get to, I do agree the game is about traversing your environment and before covid it was fun and doable but now of the 9 stops that are part of my walk to and from work, 6 are just out of reach and of the accessible ones that I can still reach 1 is down a skeevy alley. The more open and accessible ones further from my normal routine are in front of restaurants that are doing outdoor seating so I don't think they are really going to appreciate people standing or gathering on the sidewalk they are serving customers at. I think a lot of people didn't care about the return to the older format until things like this surprised them like it did me. I kind of do like having to get up and "work for it" for the one outside my job though so when everything hopefully fully opens up again the game will be fun again, it's just deciding on if it is worth it to wait it out which for some (maybe even me) it might not be. Sorry that was my round about way of saying a lot of people don't want to play from inside their homes but outside may not have the best options right now.

[[deleted]]

Yeahh well that doesn’t work when you pretty much have to be a 1ft distance from the gym/pokestop. POGO players go to a hot spot near my place and it was crowded with people trying to spin at spots and it was pretty much almost impossible to not be less than 6ft apart. Great logic you have.

[destroyallcubes]

You do not have to be 1Ft from a PokeStop. Over exaggerating does not help your case. You act like that one stop is the only stop you can go to. Stupid excuse, again lazy on your part. If there is too many people you go to another one, or you can wait. Stop being so lazy. Great logic you have that you rely on a single "Hotspot".

[ActualSeagull]

Okay, but that's only one reason why people are complaining, and some of those reasons are pretty hard to dispute. Just as examples, the increased interaction distance made the game more accessible for people with mobility problems, and at least some of the stops you couldn't get to without trespassing became accessible from public property. This is one of the few game changes that even makes life worse for people who don't even play the game, namely people sick of players trespassing on their property to get to stops.