Seeing as Pokémon GO is taking over the world right about now, I wanted to talk about it and share my thoughts and experiences so far.
Everything from the Art style, to the Music in the game is absolutely stellar.
The Game is Amazing
However, the issue comes with it’s longevity in my view. It’s about a week or so in right now and I’m still finding the urge to open the app constantly, and check it for absolutely no reason. But how long will that last? Lot’s of people are already getting a bit fatigued with the novelty. Personally, I think that while there will be an expected (and mostly unavoidable) drop-off on the number of active players since the novelty (while amazing) will undoubtedly wear off, it won’t be nearly as bad as many other games experience.
The Pokédex gives you a lot to look forward to initially.
The true strength of the Pokémon franchise is it’s longevity, and nostalgia, in almost equal parts. While Pokémon GO taps into both in a pretty strong fashion, there will be people who completely stop playing once they’ve gotten ‘their fill’. The difference between this and what many other overnight hit games experience a few weeks to months after launch (The Division, I’m looking at you) is the franchise and the mechanics of the game.
True, Ingress came before, but the reason why Ingress doesn’t (and never had) the following of Pokémon GO is purely because of the franchise. Just as there are people flocking to buy and play Pokémon Red and Blue all over again for the hundredth time, people will continue to play Pokémon GO. The gameplay offered also has it’s own drawing power. Many people, myself included, haven’t gone for a solid walk around the neighborhood in many years; suddenly we find ourselves walking further than we have, for longer than we have, more often than we ever have as well. All of this, because there’s a Scyther somewhere nearby.
You even have to walk to hatch your eggs, which give you a chance to spawn some pretty neat Pokémon, including all 3 starters from 2 KM eggs.
The unique gameplay combined with the Franchise in general will give this game the lasting power it needs. Combined with some pretty lofty promises by Niantic for bi-weekly updates, and a to-do list which pretty closely mirrors everyone’s wish-list for the game, we have a game changer in the mobile scene on our hands.
The Pokéshop offers most of the game’s items as well as upgrades for sale.
Pokemon GO already comes close to Twitter’s active daily users on Android ALONE; people are posting pictures of dozens or sometimes almost a hundred people gathered in the common goal of playing Pokémon GO. Facebook groups have started to coordinate team gym takeovers, and people are experiencing a whole world that didn’t exist a few weeks ago.
How will this affect mobile gaming in the future? How can a free game, that’s not time gated, become as popular as Tinder, or Twitter overnight? Will Nintendo decide to release more top-tier names onto the Mobile space? Will we begin to see Mario, Metroid, or Zelda games released on Mobile because of Pokémon GO’s incredible success? I mean, I sure as hell hope so, but only time will tell. I think there’s a great opportunity here for Nintendo. Hopefully they think the same thing, and give us a game equally as fresh and exciting as Pokémon GO, for their other IP’s. The issue comes about with how long Niantic can keep people coming back, and how much Nintendo is going to take away from their Pokémon GO experience.
IAP are fairly contained, and not at all needed to be successful at the game. You can even earn coins through pure gameplay.
Will Niantic follow through with their promises, unlike so many other game developers out there? Will there be enough content for people to keep coming back daily, or even every few days? The game WILL experience a drop in interest one day, but how far will it fall?
If it falls too far, will it affect Nintendo’s potential future Mobile releases?
The way I feel about it, is that Pokémon GO will most definitely continue to be the most popular Mobile game, and retain a large percentage of it’s crazy initial user base. But the drop-off WILL be noticeable, and just like everything else, the media frenzy will fade with time.
It’s up to us as a community to keep the game going strong with dedicated theory-crafters, and a loyal community to keep not only Pokémon GO a thriving game, but to show companies like Nintendo, that Mobile should no longer be an afterthought. I’d suggest checking out a few subreddits dedicated to Pokémon GO if you’re interested, as they give me the same impression as Destiny’s subreddit gave me when it first started, hope. I’d suggest both /r/pokemongo, as well as /r/TheSilphRoad, each has a dedicated and loyal community that will be essential in keeping the game going strong in it’s later years.
What I’ve Learned
Even playing casually, it’s pretty easy to catch some awesome stuff. Visiting a major populated area, or a theme park helps a lot as well.
Since the game came out, admittedly, I haven’t been walking around as much as I’ve liked. But full disclosure, I’m halfway through level 13, I’ve completed about 1/3rd of the Pokédex, and I’ve exhaustively read every post regarding player experiences from those more experienced than me (and almost anyone at this point), as well as those who have put some time in to discover the ins and outs of the game. Here are some of my basic experiences:
Evolving too early can lead to having amazing Pokémon, that seem to be weaker than what a lot of people have at this point.
Don’t try to run before you walk
Starting out on my first day of Pokémon GO, finding a sweet Scyther on my first day, I was extremely stoked. No one at this point knew how things progress in the higher levels, and no one really knew what the BEST way to level, and develop your Pokémon was. Based off the information available now, it’s really not a good idea to try and do too much, too early. What I mean by this is at the early levels, don’t worry about preparing yourself for Gym battles at level 5, don’t sweat leveling up your favorite catches with stardust, and don’t go crazy evolving that Kakuna into a Beedrill. It’s best to just go for a walk and catch things. Explore the area around you, check out the cool Pokéstops.
There’s a lot to explore in the game (just not by where I work apparently), and the tracker at the bottom right can help keep you on the right path.
I’ve learned that at the early levels, and really anything before level 10, it’s almost a waste evolving catches, or leveling things to try and take down a Gym; while you can definitely do these things, you have to take into consideration how quickly you level in the game if you’re continuously catching new Pokémon and filling out your Pokédex. Every new entry in your Pokédex get’s you a huge boost of experience, and there’s plenty new to catch starting out from level 1. When you level up, you now have higher CP Pokémon available when you stumble across new wild ones. For example, those CP 10 Pidgey’s and Rattata’s you used to find, will start to creep up to CP 100 and higher. It’s believed that Pokémon CP is directly tied to your character’s level. Just as in an MMO where your gear is constantly replaced with better gear as your character get’s stronger, the same can be said for Pokémon GO.
Another aspect of character level and CP comes into play with the CP arc on each individual Pokémon’s status page. The arc will seemingly decrease as your character’s level increases. This is to show the additional potential to raise your Pokémon’s stats. However, this is a lot less effective than say, just simply catching a new Pokémon of the same species that’s already a higher way up it’s CP arc than the one you had before. Transferring the weaker ones for candy, and keeping the newly caught stronger one’s seems to be the best way to go.
What is currently unknown, is the relationship between Weight, Height, and Pokémon stats. On top of this, it’s suggested that you hold off on evolving Pokémon until you get to about level 10+, that way you can ensure high CP wild catches, and thus higher CP evolutions. But none of that is truly necessary until you decide to start attacking Gyms. But be warned, it’s typically not very easy to hold a Gym for longer than a day without the help of fellow team members; having said that, long live Team Instinct!
To Wrap Up
This game is special. Not only does it invoke tons of nostalgia from all of us around to play a brand new copy of Pokémon Blue or Red, but it truly adds something very fresh and exciting, not only to the Pokémon franchise, but mobile gaming in general. The art is beautiful, the gameplay is fresh, the music is spectacular, and overall the only negative I have about the game comes from unstable servers during the rolled out launch. What other games can say they have absolutely no issues during launch? Regardless, server’s are working a lot more stable the past few days, and it’s really easy to get lost (figuratively and literally) spending a ton of time in the game.
9.5/10
Diversion Theory 
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