The professor has been on board since the release of Pokémon GO in 2016. He always has something to tell. But that doesn’t seem to interest everyone.
Quiz question! What is the name of the man you can see up there in the title image?
The answer: The colleague is called Professor Willow and is for all Pokémon GO players what Professor Oak was in the red, blue, or yellow edition: A researcher dealing with the great mysteries of the Pokémon world.
Over the years, Willow has experienced a lot. He constantly discovers new Pokémon that he then lets you search for, or he tells you all sorts of things about the monsters, Team GO Rocket, or other things that you can find in the game during special research. You also send him the monsters you have sorted out from your collection.
He was even abducted to another dimension once and returned with a crazy motorcycle jacket.
Willow is, with few exceptions, the man who presents the quests to you in the game. And for each quest section, he actually always has something to say.
But: Many players don’t seem to be particularly interested in that.
“I actually don’t know his name” – Do you read what Willow tells?
A post in the reddit community about Pokémon GO garnered a lot of attention with over 2,700 upvotes and more than 140 comments. In it, a user tells that he never listens to what the professor has to say – and receives a lot of agreement.
Numerous users describe that they largely skip the professor’s dialogues to quickly get to the new tasks. Some say they read it before, but now there are just too many researches. Other voices sound like this:
- “I just click through,” says a user (via reddit).
- “tap tap tap tap” is read multiple times
- “I always wonder if anyone reads all this” (via reddit).
- “I actually don’t know his name, damn” (via reddit).
At the same time, however, some players also come to the defense of the professor. They tell that they always read what Willow has to say. One user says, “For my part, I love his long dialogues” (via reddit).
Are you missing something? Basically, you don’t miss anything that would prevent you from playing the game. The gameplay in Pokémon GO works even without context or story. Ironically, Pokémon GO distributed some of its most interesting teasers even outside the game.
However, it is indeed the case that the professor has interesting things to tell about Pokémon in his long texts if you engage with it and have something for lore. You can learn a lot about the monsters you catch. Especially with special releases of monsters like Gierspenst, it was well done how the riddle about the new monster unfolded. Additionally, through Willow, you can sometimes discover small hints on future events or monsters.
How about you? Basically, it probably depends on your own interest in background information. You can search for and defeat 15 Rocket Grunts without knowing why. Or? We want to know: How do you see this topic? Do you read Willow’s texts, or do you just click through until the new tasks come? Tell us in the comments! And you can find the new events in May 2024 for Pokémon GO here.
