Pokémon GO Again (Day 1, iPhone)
Oh how this game could have done so well. Actually, it did really well for the first few months following its release. But due to technical challenges, a rushed product was put out to the public leaving an unfinished game in the hands of millions, quickly killing off much of it’s player base. Along with those difficulties, Pokémon GO simply didn’t have enough variety to keep player’s interests. I was one of those people during the summer. Quickly and fully swept up by the base appeal of the game I thought that this was going to be the beginning of a new era of Pokémon gaming. But the hype fell miles short of the mark. That being said, I jump back into the game with optimism, hoping to have just as much fun as those summer months, only to be again be let down by essentially the same game that was there at the end of summer with only a few changes. Because I have fully explored this game there wasn’t nearly as much if any learning curve to this at all which makes the blogging process somewhat difficult. That being said, I hope to enlighten those who may not know too much about the game to a few tips and tricks over the next few days.
Lund out
Pokémon GO: The Second Generation (Day 2, iPhone)
One of the largest changes that this game has seen since its initial debut is the addition of the second generation of Pokémon to the game. At first I was excited to grow my pokedex even further. But what I found was that I was only finding certain pokemon over and over and over. Just like the pidgey’s and ratatas of the previous generation of pokemon. As of now I’ve seen 90 different pokemon and caught 85 which isn’t bad considering some pokemon simply are harder to find in the Eugene area. However, that is one of my biggest complaints. I personally think that this games is severely limiting in that you cannot find all the pokemon unless you use the app everywhere you go and travel to many different locations to find unique creatures. While this does make sense with the cannon of pokemon and the fact that you do in the game must travel to find all the different kinds, it is much harder to do that in real life. Because of work and school and general non pokemon go leisure time I have no way to explore the way I would need to “catch em all”. If I could change one thing about this game I would increase the variety of pokemon that are common to find. I’m tired of finding the same 12 pokemon over and over. Although some of the other changes that have been added that I do like are the addition of different types of berries to get more pokemon candies for leveling as well as calming them down so that they are not jumping around the screen so often. Those are all my observations for now. I find it hard to find time to play this game. Because if I had an hour to set aside and play a game (especially for a class) I can typically do it without having to dedicate a lot of time and effort to play for an hour, but to play GO I’d need to set off on a walk, which again still won’t do me much good because there aren’t any pokestops around my house. I mostly play around campus.
Lund out
Pokemon GO: Squirtle Squrtle (Day 3-4, iPhone)
Squirtle was the first pokemon that I ever caught in GO. I remember that when you start up the game you design your avatar (which is extremely limited in choices but does appear to have improved if you go back in to edit them… like, there are more options and stuff now as well as things you can buy with real money) and then are presented with three different pokemon. If you’ve ever played the original games you know that the starters are charmander, bulbasaur, and squirtle. I happen to love squirtle and while charizard is great, blastoise was always my go to in the games, so naturally I picked squirtle. But if you look back to my last entry you’ll see that certain pokemon are extremely hard to find in the game based on where you live. Well as it turns out squirtle is really hard for me to find. In fact, I’ve never actually found another one since my original one. So how in the world will I ever get my blastoise?! Well Ill tell you. Finally Niantic did something really good and allowed you to “buddy up” with a pokemon of your choice and as you walked to record distance in the game you would also slowly gain experience for your buddy which would then give you candy to power up that pokemon and later evolve it. I am extremely happy about this and that is the big news for the next two days of playing. Nothing else out of the ordinary has happened apart from that. I find myself really losing interest in the game already as it just feels like I’m constantly grinding pokemon, which if I was a real trainer would not be something I would ethically do. If I were a developer I would like to see the option to battle the pokemon you find in the wild with a set team of 6 just like in the game. You can select 6 of your pokemon to be in your main party and the other simply just get added to your pokedex. Then you can battle with your party and earn candies for them by winning battles and power them up that way. Then all of a sudden there is purpose to actually working on making your pokemon better instead of just waiting till you level up and finding a more powerful one, because the pokemon do scale based on the users level.
Lund out
Pokemon GO: I don’t care if I’m not the very best like no one ever was (Day 5, iPhone)
Okay, since I started the game back up I haven’t tried any gym battles in which you fight for control of a gym representing your affiliation to a team. However, I long abandoned any actions for my team when I quit playing in the summer. But some people kept playing and they got very strong pokemon now who just sit at the gym and are nearly impossible to defeat without also having stupid strong pokemon. I actually feel pretty bad for the people in the class who are just starting as they simply have no chance in winning any of the gyms on campus or the surrounding area. That being said I finally attempted a gym battle today and got absolutely slaughtered. I only took out 2 of the 8 pokemon at the gym and I even used the best ones I had. I found myself getting very annoyed by how some people have pokemon with over 3000 CP. 3000! My highest pokemon has 1700, just over half of theirs. There was literally no way I wanted to involve myself with trying over and over and using all my resources just to take that gym for perhaps a day until all those super strong pokemon come back and take it over again. Because that’s exactly what would happen. The game seems to have a very high entry barrier for new players who want to really compete and have fun in gym battles and stuff. Just like the other issues I have which this game, I also have a recommendation for how to fix this one. Because the gym’s are based on landmarks, I feel like smaller landmarks such as a fire hydrant or a mural can be smaller gyms in which there is a limit placed on how strong a pokemon can be in that gym. Limiting the gym at something like 400 would allow newer players to compete and give them something to do while they work on getting stronger pokemon. This similar model could then be applied to other gyms and really big areas like parks or banks or something can be large gyms that allow very strong pokemon to hold. I find this idea oddly simple and feel as if Niantic should have thought of this in the first place. But I can’t say I’m quite surprised. They have Muk-ed this game up pretty bad from week 1 (pun there was fully intended)
Lund out
Pokemon GO: Can I please top now (Day 7 iPhone)
So everyday you get a bonus for going to a pokestop and as each day passes, if you go to a pokestop that bonus will get bigger and reward you with more, and better items. I made it 5 days straight making pokestops and finally forgot to play yesterday. I thought nothing of it until I logged in today on my walk to class and passed a pokestop and say that I definitely was set back at only one day in a row for pokestops. I just lost all my buildup and the little meter that counts the days for you was almost full. This was very deflating actally and the game is becoming quite the chore. I can’t play it at home on my computer, I have to actually be out and about and moving. This is a big problem. Not because I hate being out and about but because I simply do not have the time to do it. This game is actually very resource heavy both for me and my phone. Oh that’s another thing. This game still drains my battery like nobody’s business. I find myself having to charge my phone all day long because I’m trying to do my homework. I have no fix for this however. I know the game has the battery save mode but why oh why can’t they just let me lock the phone (from the pokemon go app) and let it track me that way. The maps application on my iphone keeps running when I lock my phone, I feel like pokemon go can easily do that as well. That way the game will allow me to step, but also not have to use my battery the entire time. I’ve also bee thinking a bit about the time this game released and why that may have been the only reason people loved it. Because the game came out in the summer, many students were out of school and the days were longer for you to play. Had the game came out in the fall or winter it most likely would not have risen in popularity like it did. I seriously have little to no time to play this game and I feel like that isn’t unique to me. It also gets dark quicker and I don’t want to be out in the dark looking down at my phone instead of around me making sure I’m safe. But that realization about the release time being critical to the success of the game was actually very enlightening and has made me think about the importance of release dates for many other games and even some movies. Interesting stuff going on there.
Lund out
Pokemon GO Away (Last Day 3/12/17), iPhone)
Finally, the last day has arrived and I only have to play this a few more times while fitting it into my schedule. I wan’t this last post to be more about this game as an assignment rather than about the game. My opinion on the game are that it’s bad and it needs a lot of work if it will ever be good again. That being said, this game was the hardest to play out of all four games we did play. Not because the game was actually hard (Civilization holds that title), but because this game required the most effort to play. I found myself only really playing while I was on campus or even in class. I will say that the game did get me walking more and taking the bus less but I still had to account for that time in my schedule. Saying to your professor that you were late because you were playing pokemon go isn’t really what I would call a good excuse. Had the assignment been to play a mobile game that wasn’t so interactive might have worked a bit more. Something that I can play wherever I am regardless of movement or geographical location. Those limits meant that I couldn’t even play from home (which is where I do most all my work). Will I keep playing this game? Ehh… probably not. I might open every once in a while but the game has evolved into a niche market game now and newcomers will find that because none of the game caters to newer players, it will be very hard to gain any traction of the entirety of the game the way that Niantic probably intended for them to. I am however happy to see Nintendo allowing people to use the Pokemon franchise. It shows that they are finally willing to work with developers outside of their own studio and create more content. I hope that pokemon go was the spark for an even better mobile pokemon installment because the nostalgia for those few months of summer was fantastic and amazing, but that spark was never ignited this second time around. I was simply going through the motions. Long load times and an app still littered with bugs, as well as the dominant player base have sucked any joy out of this game for me and I’m very glad to be done with it.
Lund out