Don't Worry, Be Happy
With all the negativity/whining about this free game that was created to be a walking/social game with a Pokemon theme, not a hardcore, full-fledged Pokemon game like the handhelds, I want to take a look at the positive. What is something positive or some good experiences you've had with the game?
For me when it first came out I was unemployed, so that summer I would ride my bike a lot already and the game coming out made those rides more fun/purposeful. Now, my roommate, and 2 girls I met in my apartment complex who have become good friends have since downloaded and started playing the game, which has made the experience so much better having a group of friends to go around and raid/walk around on CDs with.
Is the game perfect? No, but let's take it for what it is, a free game that was meant to get people up and moving, meeting new people, and a nostalgic experience as a lot of us probably grew up watching the show and playing the games.
Answers
Pokemon Go and Ingress are the only 2 games I'm willing to play on a smartphone. Everything else I play on a console with an actual controller the way God intended.
So I'll give Niantic all the credit in the world for taking advantage of the 1 strength smartphones have over consoles and handhelds (GPS) and keeping those 2 games alive for the long haul.
For a game that still pulls in millions of dollars every month, I don't think it should be free from criticism though. There are still alot of baffling decisions that have been implemented in the game that need to be addressed
You pretty much took the words out of my mouth. For all its faults PoGo is the only game where I've made exceptions regarding my stance on mobile gaming and all the pros/cons about it. And for as much fun as I've had playing it, it's not free from criticism.
A lot of people think that because it's a mobile game a lot of questionable and at times scummy decisions should get a free pass. Games like this need to be held to higher standards, there's no other way to put it.
Mobile gaming in general being a P2W fest and how some of those design choices are bleeding into console/PC gaming. In the more recent Assassin's Creed games you can spend money on some sort of in-game currency to get items faster, essentially paying more money to not play the game. Payday 2 has so much DLC that the base game feels incomplete. Literally any EA game in close to the last decade. Even with LGPE the only way to get Mew is behind the $50 paywall that is the Pokeball Plus.
Arguably Go's raid days are the closest thing to fall into this group, or raiding in general emulating the "energy cooldown" method present in F2P mobile gaming. I don't know if I'm too sucked into Go by saying it's admittedly not as bad as other mobile games but it's there to some degree.
For the examples mentioned above, why should I have to shell out additional money after spending it on the game itself? Someone shells out $60 for a brand new game, how is that not enough? It's not like EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Nintendo, etc. are hurting for money. If they're concerned about making up profits from slumping game sales maybe they should focus on making better games that sell more copies instead of nickel and dime'ing the people who already paid for the game?
And why should niantic have to limit themselves if people are willing to drop the cash on it? If you feel like you shouldn’t drop any more money, that is your choice and a good one. However, niantic is going to do whatever they can to pry money out of peoples pockets like any company until they don’t. Nothing is scummy about that’s that’s capitalism. This is a mobile game. Nothing about it is absolutely necessary. Missing out on something in this game is notnin any way life affecting. If you feel otherwise, you need help.
Casinos are for-profit companies. Are they closer to "respectable" or to "scummy", if "scummy scale" was a thing?
Mobile games are based on freemium models that take advantage of how easy it is for customers spend money from their linked credit card by pressing an in-game button. There is no upper limit to how much they can charge for virtual purchases. A lot of the developers are too greedy.
I'm not saying they shouldn't be making any money... but in-game purchases should be regulated by law. It will happen in due time, but we're not there yet.
In game purchases regulated by law?!? No one is forcing you to buy anything. And no one should be limited if they feel like spending a million dollars. Those models you mentioned above may have worked before but if people want to drop money otherwise, so be it. Is niantic using incentives? Of course the hell they are! You want to get them to stop? Stop playing the game. They don’t owe you shit. Take the game for what it is and if it incenses you that much, juts drop it
Btw, casinos aren’t scummy becaue they make money. They exacerbate societal problems and often use/ promote violence. Nothing about anything that is being talked about here about niantics practices are even in the same planet as that
Mew has always been locked behind some sort of wall. The only way to get Mew in the original game was to abuse a glitch, buy a gameshark, or attend and exclusive pokemon event. So you can't really use the LGPE doing that as something that hasn't been the standard. Mythical pokemon are almost always locked behind a paywall.
I’m like OP in that the game came at a time when I was feeling a bit down and the game gave me a fun little distraction and something else to focus on during long wandering walks that I might have otherwise spent creating more noise in my head. Since then, I have met some cool people and it still provides me a fun little distraction.
The OP asked for a change of pace from the usual complaining so I am going to stick with that instead of trying to sneak in yet another caveat about why the first world problems this game creates should be held to light
Thank you, nowhere did i say the game was above criticism. Obviously it has its faults but it's just so boring seeing this Q&A section turn into people complaining all day. Thought it would be nice for people to actually share some positives but seeing lots of others' responses to this I guess there will always be negativity. I'm glad you were able to use it to get through a tough time
I've given it a thought or two, but the most positive thing I can say about it is that I use it to get to know new environments and help to find the way back by remembering gyms or Pokestop patterns.
I honestly dont have much positive to say about it. I've played it because of nostalgically purposes and because I'm sensitive to game addictions.
As for me, we it first came out I found it interesting but that dropped and for a year, a year and a half I would play on and off.
Best moments came when I was unemployed. At the same time a friend of mine explained to me more about the raids and I started to think the game more strategic. So it brought a bit of fun at a time that was not that fun.
I would say as well, as l live in a country that is not my homeland, I have met people through the game and that helped me a lot to settle down in my new life. And at the same time keeping in touch with my old friends, talking about our latest caught and so on...
Its a shit game and a disgrace for its franchise. No reason to ruin what could have been a good thing. With bugs hanging around for +2 years and servers unsustainable at events, this game has become a bigger joke than the announcement of Activision Diablo Immortal. And yet sheeple keep on feeding the beast for good game design?? GG
How do you keep your bile inside you without spilling your inner acids every time you do any head motion?
Your points are valid, but they way you approach them reveal severe mental disfunction regarding anger management issues that need to be attended. Swimming in so much hate towards a free game suggests you approach everything in life with very low tolerance for failure and disappointment and that CAN KILL YOU. Take a step back and reconsider if it's really worth it to feel so negatively about things that should be inconsequential to you before you get sick.
Really, you need to chill tfd
Salt much? You act like this game was supposed to be perfect, its not. Every game has problems, yeah niantics screwed up, yes there are bugs in the game but its not like no other game has those, the original games were actually even MORE buggy than this, came problems on events only happen for the first few minutes if that because of everything happening at once, after that it smooths out to being unnoticeable.
This isn't even on the same level of bad as Diablo Immortal, that's a whole other realm. An experience like Pokemon Go is something a lot of people wanted, or at least jumped on board with when it was revealed. Literally NOBODY wanted a mobile Diablo game. Its announcement as the crown jewel of Blizzcon and the "Do you guys not have phones?" comment is a testament to how out of touch they are with the Diablo fanbase. Put simply, PoGo may have had its faults but hasn't even come close to that realm of fuck-uppery.
You can disagree with the tone and language of this post.... But Niantic is a horrible game developer.... Pokémon Go is plagued with bugs and glitches some of which have been with us from the beginning.... The Asia Pacific region can’t have a Raid or Community day with out the servers crashing ..... Probably most annoyingly, Niantic can’t even get out basic information such as date or time correctly.... If I didn’t truly enjoy the social aspect of the game I would have quit ages ago.... Considering how this is the first taste of the Pokémon universe for many I honestly cannot believe Niantic hasn’t had their license pulled
I feel GO was an experiment using an existing framework combined with a beloved franchise to extract as much money as they could from people appealing to nostalgia. The state of the game in 2016 was a shame and felt a lot like a demo/Beta.
Having said that two years after release i'm quite content with the features implemented and the soon to be added PvP can bring a completely new layer to the player experience. I have met so many new people and made friends with some of them too!! I can only wonder if the global phenomenom it was in 2016 could have carried on if the game was more complete at release.
I can understand the frustrations of so many however. There was an standard of quality and content associated with the Pokemon brand that Niantic still hasn't been able to achieve. Being free to play is no excuse anymore when you are playing in the big leagues. I play for free and even though i believe it's completely idiotic to dump hundreds of dollars in any videogame, i can understand the anger the constant bugs and slow implementation can cause in some spending players (and many non paying players too!)
