Since summer 2016, Pokemon Go is the mobile reference application for Comicsaga fans, later available in maps and video games. This game ca...
Since summer 2016, Pokemon Go is the mobile reference application for Comicsaga fans, later available in maps and video games. This game can catch and drive Pokémon like Pikachu, Carapuce or Charizard by moving with his mobile phone. The year after the creation of this game, Defense became the hub of the application with the highest concentration of Pokestop, places to get bonuses (Pokeballs, Potions of Life and other objects, Ed) Europe.
In the business district, the important presence of these pokestops in the 4-time shopping center that once belonged to Unibail-Rodamco was important. These were sponsored, meaning a financial partnership that united the creators of the game and the publisher of the application, Niantic, the owner of the Unibail-Rodamco shopping center.
When events occurred as part of the application, many invested in the mall. Last February, the mall hosted another big Pokemon Go event for all fans of the game.
All these Pokestops disappeared last August without notice. A blow to the many actors in the business district who live or work nearby, and sometimes to both. The latter have since opened the business district to play in the Parisian Gardens of Tuileries and Luxembourg, Buttes-Chaumont or Parc de la Villette.
Some players even plan to play the application in the winter: a grief for those first-hour fans who could create a real community of players becomes their friends. Others, however, try to find a way to make the defense attractive: Put the pokestops themselves through the participating part of the game.
"I was at home on my way to defense," remembers 22-year-old Lisa. This young Courbevoisienne "could play a maximum of 2 hours" and "walk around," she said. "Les 4 Temps was the perfect place to play Pokemon Go," said Loïc, a resident of Colombes.
"On the Community Days (a weekend event where a Pokémon appears in numbers, Ed), the high concentration of Pokestmon could capture many Pokémon and retrieve the Pokeballs to catch them," he adds. For a good reason, the Westfield Les 4 Temps mall has focused more than thirty pokestops and three arenas where Pokémon fights are taking place. The goal is to control the arena for as long as possible.
The presence of these pokestops in the mall allowed players to play all year round, even in winter. "We're hot, sitting on sofas with plugs to charge their phones," Lisa recalls. "Once the community day was over, I wanted to eat a slice at McDonald's or Burger King," says Loïc. But that was before.
Since 2017, Unibail-Rodamco, owner of the mall, and Niantic, the publisher of the game for mobile phones, have joined forces. According to several trade media, a sponsored pokestop allows Niantic to regain a defined amount and attract the customer to the players of the application on the ground. While the Pokemon events were still taking place last February, the Australian Westfield takeover of Unibail-Rodamco would have changed the agreement on the positioning of the mall towards Pokemon Go.
"The contract has expired and will not be renewed," says the newspaper, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield Communications Department. Without responding to the question or communicating, the direction of the group thus marked the end of this partnership, without telling the actors or the users of the mall more. Therefore, it is common in August 2019 that the 4-Times Pokestops have gradually disappeared.
In the face of the suppression of the location with one of the largest concentrations of pokestops in Europe, players have indicted the blow. "When they disappeared, many players did not understand what was going on," Lisa recalls. They eliminated the three arenas of the mall first, then the summer pokestops. " 
"I've shortened my playing time a lot," Loic said since the suppression of Pokestops. Because there are not enough interesting places in the area outside the defense. "As for the rest of the business district, there are now some pokestops on the 4 temps and six on the cnit level, with dozens of pokestops scattered across the square and the esplanade.
And the knife was touched in the wound last Tuesday, November 19th. In the evening, all missing pokestops reappeared. "Is it true that the pokestops have appeared four times?" Asked a player early Wednesday morning in the Facebook conversation of the group Pokemon Go, which is dedicated to the defense.
Others of his comrades confirm the information quickly. They are all happy with this news: "We can play warm this winter," says one of them. "At last we will be able to spend good days in communities," another shouted. Some left the next day to enjoy the unexpected return of the Pokestops.
But luck will be short lived. "They gave them temporarily to better eliminate them, Loïc regret. We all had a false joy." A message that desperate players in the Facebook group are present. "Abandoned landscape, what a sadness," said one of them, returning from a new tour of La Défense.
"Big disappointment," regrets another player. "It's like being in the country now ..." Loïc complains. A non-event that, according to communications company Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, would be attributed to the mall "a mistake by Niantic".
Given this gap, the players have resigned. "Some, including me, will shorten our playing time in the winter," Loïc said. Others just stop playing. The toughest move to another place in Île-de-France: the Tuileries Garden, Luxembourg, the Parc de la Villette and the Buttes-Chaumont. "I went to the Tuileries a few weeks ago," says Lisa. I was able to play a good hour for the community day before being frozen.
"The closest and adapted, the Tuileries Garden, which can be reached with the line 1 of the metro, confirms Loïc.For other places it is either too far in La Villette or in Luxembourg is the disappointment, because there are no places more that would be comparable to the defense: it is either the theft of the players or they stop playing for lack of time to move to Paris.
Despite the loss of Pokestops and the Westfield Les 4 Temps Arena and the disappointment caused by the latter's temporary return, the players decide to mobilize. This weekend, a player who participates in the entertainment on Pokemon Go may have found the solution to regain the period of prosperity from 2017 to July 2019 in La Défense.
"By the way, we could again propose pokestops and arenas from 4 times ago," he suggests. Car Pokemon Go is a participatory mobile game. Players can recommend Niantic to install Pokestops in specific locations by taking a picture and adding a description.
In this way, and if Niantic confirms the creation of these pokestops, the defense could be attractive again from the point of view of players returning to nearby Westfield Les 4 Temps. A tempting proposition, but it may not be successful, even if hopes continue thanks to one of the last pokestops organized in the mall in front of the Celio store.
Even if Niantic reinstates the pokestops of all players at Westfield's The 4 Times Shopping Center, the management might ask Niantic to remove them. That would be a return to the first field for all players.
