In my opinion it is Niantic's fault for not giving us anything to care about catching. My reasonable Pokedex was done the 1st week of July (when I got Heracross). Since then filled in legendaries somewhat easily. However, I use it most while grocery shopping, so people use it less than you're realizing or imagining
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is GO plus against the spirit of the game?
There's been several posts lately about Go+ use and some have commented about what it means to use it. It's clearly not cheating, but is it too easy? is it different than spending real money to buy coins?
To me the basic essence of this game is go out, walk and catch, the rest (gyms, raids) is bonus. GO+ still makes you walk, but it catches for you...
This game has taken me to some places I would have never been to. I really value this. I go on "adventures" into new neighborhoods not knowing where I'll end up, just chasing stops with white rings, new gyms and lured stops. I'm looking for MY OWN best balance between winning/advancing in the game and keeping it pure, in my mind.
I'm not trying to start a fight here, I'm just really interested how people view it, how it fits into their "philosophy" of the game.
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The step counter on my phone says I walk over 10km during a 12 hour shift at work. I got a go plus to try and get some egg hatching done with all that walking.
When you say the go plus catches for you I don't think you understand just how bad the catch rate is with one. It's not going to catch much of anything that's useful, just the stardust and candy for pidgey evolutions
The people who call it cheating are just ridiculous. It's part of the game whether you like it or not. There's people in the local raid group that would call go plus cheating but use a tracker every day like they don't realize they're the ones cheating
From a game play perspective, it is part of the design of the game...and the developers have chosen for it t be there.
Niantic get money from us for building us the game...buying a Go+ is saying thanks to Nintendo/Pokemon Company for Pokemon as a whole.
I have no problem with players financially supporting the people that gave us the game, by making purchases that the creators have deemed worthy to place in the game.
It is far more in the spirit of the game, than making us drive around from raid to raid in hope of getting an EX Raid pass.
I couldn't say it better. Isn't the spirit of the game to get out and go (walk, bike), rather than drive to raids? The Plus just makes the mindless catching of common mon more convenient, and if you're wise you at least glance at your phone before pushing the button... it will probably not catch a Snorlax for you.
If that's the only thing you spend gold on, you're still basically FTP. But what's wrong with spending some cash and keeping the developer in business? Someone's gotta do it. (I consider it the price if my exercise gym membership ;-)
Go Plus still requires a player to go out and explore to a certain extent. It’s not quite the same as having to manually catch, but definitely not pay to win either. I would actually argue that Raids are absolutely against the spirit of the game. I don’t know anyone anymore who truly walks and explores. Rather, I see loads of people, especially on Discord who drive from raid to raid only to catch Legendaries etc.
I personally resent the fact that this game that was originally about exploring our world is now about only really being able to play when and where Niantic tells us to. (Don’t even get me started on EX raids, lol)
Just the .02 of a level 39 player with over 40,000 caught...
I see what you're saying, but the same argument can be used against your current argument: I would much rather click a piece of plastic and enjoy my surroundings and take in the sensory feedback from my surrounding environment than focus the majority of my senses and brain power towards my phone screen.
I feel like the word 'explore' is relative to the context it's used in; in terms of exploring the game, you are absolutely correct. In terms of exploring the real world, I argue that looking around without having to focus on Go is exploring, compared to devoting my attention to a 3x9-in screen
For me, catching Pokémon isn't fun; I lost the majority of my original interest in the obtaining aspect when the 3-footsteps glitch came about. I live in a suburban area and I originally LOVED this game because of the hunt to find Pokémon with a pseudo-compass. I can see how the footsteps were most likely problematic for city players, as there are so many spawn points compared to where I live, but the search with the original "you're getting hotter/colder" system was something I deceived thrill from.
As to why I still play, I'm * hoping * (crossing my fingers) that a competitive PvP scene will come about in years to come. I'm holding out for this possibility. I don't expect PvP to be great, or possess much of a skill gap when it first releases (a previous interview with a Niantic employee influences my specilation [the interviewer wasn't me]).
I play now primarily using the Go Plus to rack in stardust. I think raids have become stale but I found the interactions with other players a positive and somewhat-fun addition to the game! But to fully answer your question, the fun for me is the hope, and to get out into nature once-in-a-while. I conveniently live near a park in the form of a small mountain with many trails, Pokémon, and stops.
Sorry for the long reply
I agree with all of the above, and I can see how it could be cheating to some, but what can you do about it? It does let trainers rack up insane amounts of the coveted stardust, which puts them at an advantage in developing their armies quickly, and it does seem unfair, but they are still walking around so I dunno really what to think of it. Every time I hear someone talking about the cheaters, I wonder these certain things. I wonder how trainers (or Niantic) would react if someone made an app that does exactly what the go plus does, no more and no less, but just on your phone instead when you're not looking...if it did EXACTLY the same thing as the go plus does during say, battery saver mode, would that be cheating?
Quite the contrary in fact: thanks to go+, one can appreciate the "go" aspect of pogo a lot more imo. Staring at the screen all the time makes you miss the scenery and is rather unsocial when you are in company. You also get less annoyed - we all know that irritating feeling when a trash tier mon keeps breaking out of your pokeballs.
"To me the basic essence of this game is go out, walk and catch, the rest (gyms, raids) is bonus. GO+ still makes you walk, but it catches for you..."
That's just it, the basic essence to you. When a game comes out, some people just want to grind as quickly as possible to get to the end game, whilst some just want to play casually to have fun. The best games are the ones that cater to many different play styles and just because someone plays different to you, doesn't make it wrong. The go+ is not against the TOS, so I'm not sure how it can be considered bad.
To call it cheating makes no sense since the games developers themselves sell and recommend it.
That the true compeditive players consider it poor shortcutting on the other hand makes a lot of sense to me.
Any reward the game might offer to them must feel earned by personal efford, not just bought.
But, like it or not, this is a pay to win game.
So people pay and will continue to, even if they cannot win, regardless of how much they are prepared to pay for it.
It surely fits into the markets philosophy.
Pokémon Go, in a Nutshell:
Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Hatch Something Useful/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Raid Battle/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Is that a Wild DRATINI?!?/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/SCYTHER NEST!/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Hatch Something Useful/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Raid Battle/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind/Grind....
And for those of us who don't have the time to "Explore New Area's" - as I don't, being a husband, father, full time worker who has to commute for 2+ hours a day, and who has a 7 year old still broken New Years resolution to get a healthy amount of sleep. I can't decide to go to a new place even in my own city without a great deal of careful planning. (Who is watching the kids? Are the kids with me? What are they doing if they're with me? How do I get there? Can I park there for free? How much time do I have before I have to stop? Etc.) I can't simply go off and explore.
And I want to be part of the entire game, not just the Explore and Walk - that means Grinding. It's not a stretch to say that for every 1 useful Attacker, you need to catch 900 Pokemon and walk 900 km. (You want that awesome Tyranitar? Caught a 100% during a Raid? Still need 100 candies to get up to level 32, which is 500km of walking! Oh, and to get that Ttar, you need at least 1 powerful Machamp - more likely 2 or 3 - which is another 300 candies and that's another 900km of walking (well, maybe you can knock off about 150 candies due to how often Machop's spawn and that they're 2km eggs so you might hatch 3 or 4), so that Level 32 Ttar cost you about 950km of walking! And... oh, wow... look at the Stardust you need. 90,000 or so per Machamp and Tyranitar. That's... 270,000 Stardust, so looking at 2700 Pokemon you need to catch. Or about 900 each. Sure, you can lessen that with all the useless hatches and spinning a pokestop every day)
Even with the PoGo plus, the game isn't "too easy". It's less of a Grind (mentally, anyway) - and that's a hell of a good thing. Anything to lessen the feeling of Grinding is a good thing.
Original poster here.
Thank you all for the thoughtful replies and variety of opinions. I will use them to make up my mind. This game allows different people to find different things in it, isn't that great?
I'm way overthinking this of course, but if you write on this forum then so are you :-) and overthinking a game is part of the fun.
