It’s safe to say, that the week Pokémon Go was released, was the closest humanity had ever come to world peace. People were bonding in the streets over their latest and greatest finds, people of all ages were walking out in the summer heat to “catch ‘em all.” However, a few weeks on, the honeymoon period was over, and some obvious issues reared their head in the game. The servers were a mess and were constantly crashing. The grind of evolving certain Pokémon was tedious and often times, completely unrewarding. The lack of a rounded battle system and no trading system whatsoever, made the game feel like a Pokémon game in name only. Developer, Niantic did not help matters, remaining painfully disconnected from the user base and not giving any insight into how they planned on addressing these issues, if at all. Two years on, however, the game is more fun than it has ever been. The game has an enthusiastic, committed community of players. In many ways this is the perfect time to jump back in, or even start playing for the first time. Due to many of the teething issues of the initial release having been addressed, and a plethora of new content being added, making Pokémon Go more appealing than ever.
For those of you who may have missed out on Pokémon Go (quite a remarkable feat if you did, even Hillary Clinton mentioned it during the 2016 American presidential elections.) the concept is simple. You walk around with your smartphone which is paired with Google Maps, and you randomly encounter Pokémon to catch. By catching multiple Pokémon and transferring the extra ones you don’t want, you accumulate candy. These candies can be used to level up your Pokémon, or evolve them into stronger Pokémon. This is akin to the bestselling series of RPGs. Battles in Pokémon Go take place at gyms, real world locations that players can claim for their team with the help of their Pokémon. Controlling gyms allows you to accumulate coins which can be used to purchase in-game items that aid you in game.
The issues with Pokémon Go at launch, apart from the glaring technical stability issues, were much to do with this gym system. Gyms were packed with multiples of the same Pokémon, that were simply better than most.
Intelligent play and knowing the nuances of each Pokémon no longer mattered. There was no strategy in the games anymore. Simply having certain pokemon and tapping your screen, always guaranteed victory. The game encouraged stacking the gyms with high power Pokémon such as Gyrados and Vaporeon. This, in turn, allowed small groups of people to hold gyms indefinitely. They claimed in game rewards daily, making their Gyrados and Vaporeons even more powerful, strengthening their grip on the gyms. Training in Pokémon Go was also not efficient, there was no way of grinding with your favourite pokemon to take down these stacked gyms. This was demoralising, and also went against one of the most cherished aspects of the franchise, building a weird connection with the virtual monsters on screen (who doesn’t remember their first starter Pokémon, afterall?). It wasn’t long before causal players, and even avid players, got tired of the same one dimensional battles that they could not win.
This problem was largely due to the coin system, which encouraged cheating and enabled the hoarding of in-game resources by a small number of players, and alienating everyone else
On top of this, the distribution of Pokémon were horribly unbalanced. Rattatas, Pidgeys and Caterpies were all most people would see for days on end. These Pokémon were also extremely common in eggs (Pokémon eggs can be acquired in-game and have to be walked a certain distance to be hatched), and nothing was more frustrating than walking 2.5 or even 10 kilometres to hatch an egg for a Pokémon you had no use for.
These issues all combined to make a game that was extremely unrewarding and very stagnant. For most players, there simply was no incentive to play anymore.
So what’s changed? How have Niantic switched up this grind? The first, and most important change was an overhaul of the gym system. Now, Pokémon lose their strength (‘combat power’ or ‘CP’) over time. It can be topped-up, but only in small amounts by other players on the same team who are physically at the gym with the new in-game berries. This means that the gyms change teams much more frequently. You can only gain a maximum of fifty coins per Pokémon in a given gym and you can only have one of each species of Pokémon per gym, regardless of how long it has been there. This eliminates the problem of the gym being held by the same type of Pokémon for days on end, as whatever Pokémon is placed by a team member is there until defeated.
On a day-to-day basis, Niantic have introduced ‘research tasks’. These tasks range in difficulty and give various rewards, such as items, experience and sometimes even rare Pokémon. A similar mechanism to many online freemium games such as Fortnite and League of Legends. Everyday that you complete a research task you receive a stamp, and when you collect seven you can claim the chance to battle a very rare Pokémon. This mechanic gives a great incentive to play daily and makes the completion of the Pokédex actually seem feasible, by rewarding encounters with Pokémon you may otherwise not encounter.
The last big change, and arguably the most important, is the decision to foster a community. Several times per day legendary Pokémon spawn at the gyms for a short periods of time but to catch them, you will need to battle alongside other trainers. This has helped to bring back some of the camaraderie that was lost within days of the initial launch. There are also community days when a given Pokémon spawns more frequently, with the probability of finding a shiny (alternate) version of said Pokémon increased. These events can be a lot of fun and if you head up to your local park, you’re sure to see many people of all ages, genders and ethnicities getting excited over the new additions to their Pokédex. Niantic also issues global tasks, with global rewards, to keep things interesting. All of these changes have helped greatly in making the game engaging and worth returning to. The thrill of taking down Mewtwo with a group of thirty like minded Poké-nerds feels special and exhilarating, like fighting him in the original colour games did, but with the benefit of a shared experience.
Overall, Pokémon Go has come a long way in the last two years. Its game mechanics are developing and the grind-to-reward ratio is beginning to balance out nicely. With the recent addition of trades and the upcoming interactions between the app and the newest main RPG instalment on Nintendo Switch Pokémon Lets Go, it’s beginning to look like Niantic may finally deliver on their vision and promises from the initial teaser trailers.
This review previously featured in our print edition, available now across campus and in select locations across Dublin.
