When getting 100 coins a day sucks: the woe of being an Achiever
Some parts of this post will seem braggy, but I just want to say upfront that it is never my intent to brag, just a genuine attempt to describe the situation.
I started playing PoGo for the same reason as many people: to catch 'em all! And that's what I did for 1st gen. I grinded and grinded, mostly in my moderate size city, until I got all the non-exclusive Pokemon. The last one was Kabutops, probably sometime in November or December.
After that, like many people, I began to lose interest. To continue playing the game I had to set a new goal for myself. And so I did: I intended to regularly hold 10 gyms and get 100 coins per day.
That proved difficult because in my area the gym scene has always been cutthroat, with spoofing, botting and shaving being commonplace. The bottom mon in a third of the gyms in my area are at 3,0XX CP or higher. It was so damn hard to not bottom out and get shaved off.
But again I grinded and grinded, trying my best to get the species with high max CP and level them up to the adequate level of CP to keep their spots.
And I succeeded. About a week ago I began to be able to keep at least 10 mon in gyms everyday. In the past few days I have regularly had control over 15 gyms. I have been getting 100 coins per day for a whole week. Considering that I mostly place the mon in stable gyms (my city has a clear Mystic area, with the other parts being Valor and Instinct battleground where Mystic is basically nonexistent), I don't expect to dip below 10 mon anytime soon.
And that's when it begins to suck: I'm starting to lose interest in the game again. The weirdest part, at least for me, is that I don't even feel like collecting 2nd gen at this point. I couldn't care less what the next 10k hatch will be. It is as if I made a decision to forego that goal, then got stuck mentally and now cannot move back to it.
I recently watched a video from Extra Credits about Bartle's Taxonomy (great channel btw, check it out at the link below), which defined four types of players in the gaming community. The two most important types in this situation are Explorers, who wish to explore and experience the game, and Achievers, who wish to prove their abilities in the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxpW2ltDNow
It seems that when I made the decision to forego collecting and switch to pursuing 100 coins per day, I switched my mindset from being an Explorer to be an Achiever. And now that my goal has been achieved, I somehow cannot move back to being an Explorer again.
I don't know what I can do to regain interest in the game, nor do I know if I even want to regain interest. But I just think that this is a weird experience that I have (imo), and there happens to be a set of vocabulary to talk about it. So I'm just sharing the story here. Maybe people can share if something similar has happened to them, or if they know a good way out of this.
Cheers,
Answers
At it's heart, I think most of us would agree that Pokemon Go is a pretty "bad" game. Gameplay is pretty non-existant and many high level players in my area are actually grandparents who have unlimited time to play (retired). At least the highest level players are from seeing who they were...
Similar to another posts here with similar comments (getting annoyed playing, Ninantic game changes, gym shavers, spot stealers, etc...), I think once it stops being "fun" and you look at it as work, it's time to take a break or stop for a while.
Honestly, getting 100 Pokecoins, unless you try to sell your account isn't worth much in real life and most would agree near any activity or other Pokemon game is much more fun.
When I used to play the TGCO, I had loads of coins and many tradeable booster packs as well, but stopped after POGO came out and played this instead.
My account is still there, but ultimately, we only have 24 hours a day and there are plenty of funner games IMO to play if you aren't enjoying it. Like I can't see myself sitting at a spot farming EXP non-stop for 16 hours a day like some of these youtubers just to be level 40.
The gym scene, unfortunately is dictated by your area (not skill) and what mons you are lucky enough to get/hatch...
Like I mentioned before, I've maxed 2 Lapras which, if they were Snorlax, I'd have 2 more easy gym defenders now due to CP.
I'd say maybe just login, press collect, and play something else (if you enjoy gaming).
No matter what, I doubt as a mobile game, this would ever be that complex of a game and it's far easier to "finish" a mobile game than a regular PC game (or console).
I'm playing X3: Terran Conflict (if you're familiar with that game) on PC again and there are still tons of things for me to still do like setup a whole trading empire, tons of ships I don't own, just built my first station, etc...tons of content to do/try/missions/ships, etc...
Good luck...
Appreciate the time spent and care shown through your post. I still went out this morning to maintain my gym count, but I am pondering hard about what to do.
In a way, everything I have built up till now is an investment, so I am reluctant to let it go. But on the other hand that thought is a sunk cost fallacy at its prime. Maybe I will reach a conclusion in a few days.
I set a similar goal about 2 months ago, and I have generally held 10+ gyms every day since. I've dipped down to 7 gyms a few times. Generally what I'll do is devote an afternoon to gyms and drive around my city looking for opportunities, then add enough gyms so I'm at 15 or so. Then I'll sit on those for a week or two until I'm close to dipping below 10. (Note - there are also my neighborhood gyms that are all hotly contested, so I'm often in those too, but never more than a day)
But here's what I don't understand about your post....do you think you're going to hold those 10 gyms forever?
For me, my new goal is to continue to build up my army, increasing the CP of my top gym defenders. The PG community as a whole is getting stronger and stronger.
Set a new goal of maintaining your 10 gyms.
In my area I was the first one to get Gen1 filled. They wanted to interview me for two newspaper articles for it. I declined, because I didn't want to make a number of it.
Now on Gen2 I'm missing plenty (johto being 75) but to my knowledge I'm still on top on my area, at least ahead of the most active competition.
Gym Wise we've started getting a bit more opposition since Gen2 release but I can still get my 10 each day, though often times I will settle for 8-9. It's been like that since september.
I've never had my interest waning, though I'm not as die hard towards the game as I was in the beginning.
What made a world of difference for me is that I got my wife to try the game as well and just today she's reaching my level (34) even though she started a month later than me (thanks to me buying her the plus bracelet which I don't have).
Few of our friends play the game and thwir kids adore us because we're so heavily into the game. Sure their parents play too but they're not as "good" as we are.
We also have a local cross-faction Telegram chat group that sparks some nice conversations from time to time.
Sometimes when I pick up my daughter from school her school mates ask if I'm and then they ask what's my strongest pokemon and such.
In the end I would say the social and competitive aspect is the one that keeps me playing. Never would have thought it would be that as I'm more of a single player gamer.
What I would suggest to keep interest up is to find new people to play with or get to know other players from both your team and other teams.
Yeah, the social aspect in my city is certainly lacking. I'm sure a lot of people are still playing, but there is simply no coordinated effort to meet up or anything. People just play as individuals or only in closed circles.
There is a PoGo fb group for the city with about 600 members. About a week ago I made a post urging people to comeout more, explore new parks for possible nests, and add new entries into the Global Nest Atlas. So far, the post has garnered a grand total of four likes, zero comment, and zero new entry in the Atlas.
I don't think you're alone. I think Niantec is aware of this situation, and they've announced that they will address it with a gym mechanic overhaul. If they do this effectively, it will bring new life to the game. If they don't, the game will become even more stale and people will leave en masse.
I have limited time to play the game, so I've spent most of my time collecting. Lately, the game has lost some appeal, so I've contemplated switching gears to battling, rather than walking/hatching, but that eliminates the core reason that I play, which is exercise.
Ultimately, they are linked. If mechanics were changed to, for instance, limit one Pokemon of each species, it would make the game more playable for most hardcore players, no matter their playing style.
I lost interest cus of winter.
Thou i nailed my tablet above my computer screen and keep pogo running 24/7 so i can see tracker.
Anyways, soon i will travel into big city with over 100+ gyms compared my city 5 gyms.
So i realized that i need much more 3000+ cp pokemons to get myself high in the gyms.
So now im hatching eggs to get dust and same time walking candys for my chansey, to get my first blissey.
Well at least trying, its still winter so some days are colder than others.
I wont go outside if it is too cold.
Wow that's a problem. I try to fight everyday quick so I can get at least 50 coins a day rushing gyms before someone take it down.
I mean I see your problems like "I have millons of millons of dollars and I even own an island, what else can I got?" I see you are an uber hardcore player, Is hard to controll 10 gyms and I can't even imagine 15.
You don't have problems you control the game so stop playing for a moment if you are way too sucessful.. I don't really know what to say.
