Posted in: Games, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, Mobile Games, Niantic | Tagged: harry potter, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, hpwu, Niantic, Wizards Unite

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite January 2021 Community Day Review

This past weekend, Niantic hosted an extended Community Day in Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Did this extra half-day of gameplay enrich this event? Let's take a look at what worked and what didn't work in this Harry Potter: Wizards Unite January 2021 Community Day.

What Worked in This Harry Potter: Wizards Unite Event

• The Special Assignment: Niantic has done a lot of work to make these less annoying. While the non-narrative events always pale in comparison to the Brilliant Events which offer an actual story, the Special Assignments during Community Day used to grate because of their absurd difficulty, especially during the quarantine. They have gotten quite a bit better and it shows here.
• The focus: While it was a bit odd that both the Brilliant Events and the Adversaries event focused on Goblet of Fire-themed encounters and this didn't, the Hogwarts Express focus was a fun bit of nostalgia.

What Didn't Work in This Harry Potter: Wizards Unite Event

• The scheduling: Niantic shortened the Adversaries event so that it wouldn't overlap with Community Day and then extended Community Day because… well, it's hard to say. While the end result was fine, it was odd to see the Adversaries event, only the second ever, get the short end of the stick especially because fans seem to… well, they seem to hate it. It seemed like Niantic were faced with a call to improve Adversaries as a feature and Adversaries Events as a recurring element and, instead, they just popped the next one in the schedule, realized their error, and then threw their hands up instead of re-scheduling or working on a fix. It underlines what some fans fear: a lack of foresight, communication with the player base, and thoughtful planning.

Overall

Overall, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite January 2021 Community Day was fine. While these have never really offered much more than a regular day of gameplay, Niantic has certainly stopped them from being an actual chore, which is a big step. Hopefully, these, as well as the Adversaries Events, can continue to be altered until they're a bigger draw.

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