Pokémon GO is a special game that brings players together in its best moments and provides great experiences in the real world. However, the original magic of the game has faded – and only very rarely comes back, says MeinMMO author Max Handwerk.
When Pokémon GO was released, it achieved something that few video games manage: it made headlines outside the gaming world.
All kinds of people had an opinion on the big trend that swept around the world in summer 2016. About the huge trainer groups that populated parks and launched real capturing campaigns from streetcars. About all the people running around in every direction because a Dragonite appeared at some corner.
For several weeks, Pokémon GO was more or less omnipresent.
To this day, I am a little sad that I missed that hype back then – because my outdated smartphone was indeed not capable of playing this game. I only started in February 2018.
However, even though I missed the “big” early days of PoGo, the game managed to capture me. Because it was just incredibly fun to step outside and be surprised. There was always something exciting to look for.
Every monster made me happy because it was either new or brought me closer to the next evolution. It took weeks before I encountered Snorlax for the first time and took forever to catch it. In my first raid, I suddenly stood with 15 people around a restaurant – only to not catch the legendary Rayquaza in the end. These things have stuck with me until today.
When you start with Pokémon GO, there’s so much to do and especially to discover. It’s worth going outside and looking around. But over time, that unfortunately decreases – and the game hardly manages to surprise you anymore.
No other feature is as good as new monsters
One thing up front: I am completely aware that we are now in 2022 and the game is six years old – and that I’ve also been part of it for four years. That’s a very long time compared to other games and probably already an art in itself to keep you engaged for so long.
At the same time, Pokémon GO as a live-service game, which always brings new content, is not a game that claims to be “completed”. Nevertheless, it now feels exactly like that to me: completed.
While I used to go out motivated every time to discover something new, Pokémon GO actually only ever brings more of the old. I don’t know how many Staravia I’ve already seen and caught. It’s definitely enough.
What has changed? No more monster generations are released all at once that you could search for in the “wild”. Instead, there are bit by bit one to two new monsters at events that you can catch after 20 minutes of wandering around. You can then catch and evolve them x times – and then it’s done.
There is no more “Explorer” mode in Pokémon GO, so to speak, but only targeted searching, catching, and improving. And that is somehow a shame.
Sure, there are rare exceptions like Miniras, or earlier Milza and Kaumalat. And I don’t want to deny that the game makes you happy when you find something like that. At the same time, those are so vanishingly rare that such moments hardly occur either. The same goes for shiny monsters.
Stepping outside and getting surprised – Pokémon GO basically only manages that very, very rarely anymore. Instead, you go outside, catch more of the same, and at the end wonder why.
Of course, Pokémon GO also has many other features that I can appreciate. Raids, PvP League, Team GO Rocket, leveling up – a lot has happened since the release and it’s all nice. But it is not the core of the game.
For me, Pokémon GO was primarily special because it is a collecting game that invites exploration. The problem with collecting games is just that they can become stale eventually when you have more or less everything. And that is how Pokémon GO feels to me now: Like a Panini sticker album that is 99% full. And at some point, I wouldn’t buy sticker packs anymore either.
What is the solution? It’s difficult, I admit. How can you surprise players again who have basically found everything? One idea could be to simply throw an entire generation of new monsters into the game at once. Back in the 2nd generation, it was still done like that. Or at least 20 to 40 monsters again.
They could then be hidden in different places instead of being tied to time factors like events. So that it would be worthwhile to search again in the forest or by the lake instead of waiting for the next event and then collecting the special spawn. Right now it feels more like you find the same things everywhere.
But that doesn’t seem to be how Pokémon GO works anymore today. Instead, there are usually only a few new monsters at events or special Pokémon that you can then look for in raids. But the hunt for such monsters usually also ends quickly again.
At the same time, it’s clear that Niantic cannot simply release all possible monsters at once. Because: What else would they bring into the game afterwards, other than new versions of the old?
What do you think? Is the collecting factor in Pokémon GO also crucial for you – or is it not a problem for you at all? Are the other features in the game enough for you, do you think there’s still plenty to discover? Tell us in the comments!
