Pokémon GO has become an absolute favorite game for MeinMMO author Noah Struthoff since its release in 2016. Right now, however, he is taking a break. Why?
This is how I played: I consider myself to be one of the extreme players in Pokémon GO. I have nearly 300,000 catches and have played daily since the release in summer 2016 – often for several hours a day.
Sure, there are much more extreme players, but in my city, I am the trainer with the most catches and XP.
In recent weeks, however, I have slowed down in Pokémon GO a bit. There are days when I take a complete break and only do my daily catch and PokéStop visit. On other days, I play more, but find myself asking classic noob questions and not being as engaged in the game anymore.
Pokémon GO slows down – So I do the same
Why am I playing less? Even at the beginning of the year, Niantic started making decisions that I didn’t quite agree with. There were special Shinies only through raids or eggs, new Pokémon are being introduced more and more slowly, and many events just feel disappointing to me.
A recent example of this was the Dragon Week, which has just recently ended. Dratini, Surskit, and other dragon Pokémon everywhere. That sounds really cool for newcomers because these are strong and actually rare Pokémon. However, I have played the community days of Surskit and Dratini and already have enough candies and Shinies.
A real novelty, namely Shiny Swablu, was introduced, but the rarity of it has been heavily discussed in the Pokémon GO community.
The last community days were quite a disappointment for me as well. Swablu, Surskit, Gastly, and most recently Magikarp. All Pokémon that are really weak or had already been introduced as Shiny previously in the game. This was not a big incentive for me to play.
This particularly bothers me: My biggest goal in Pokémon GO is to complete the PokéDex and hunt for new Pokémon. Therefore, the release of the 5th generation is a huge disappointment for me. This generation has been gradually released for about a year now. In recent months, it’s been even slower.
Again and again, a new Pokémon is added that can be found anywhere during an event, and then becomes quite rare again afterward.
So when you play the event, you have no problems finding the new Pokémon, and it’s not a challenge at all.
This feels good: Don’t get me wrong, Pokémon GO is still my absolute favorite game and I will dive back in after my break, but this pause feels good.
Lastly, I noticed that I was playing events that weren’t that much fun anymore, and in the end, a game should make you happy and entertain. That’s why I took the break.
Now I’m wandering around my city a bit clueless and playing somewhat like a noob. During my two-week vacation, I sporadically followed the news about Pokémon GO and was pleasantly surprised each time. There were cool raid bosses and the rewards in the field research felt refreshing and good.
After accompanying every step of Pokémon GO for about 4 years, I can now rediscover the actual benefits of the AR game with some distance.
The Enigma Week is already much more to my liking, and I have played more than in the previous weeks. Now the compensation event for the GO Fest is coming up, and the Unova Week also sounds really good to me. So I’m looking forward to the next period in Pokémon GO – something I have said rather rarely in recent weeks.
