Was the success of Pokémon GO only short-lived? The mood among fans is getting worse.
Pokémon GO had an impressively good start worldwide and rekindled the Pokémon hype with several million players that had begun years ago on the Gameboy and television. Currently, many fans and players are dissatisfied with Pokémon GO, as the game is no longer what players were originally promised, for example, due to the removal of the “Nearby Feature” .
Pokémon GO has become worse rather than better for many players due to these changes. And actually, an online game should be the other way around.
No Tracks in Pokémon GO
Early players may still remember the feature that allowed tracking wild Pokémon based on displayed tracks. Originally, wild Pokémon were shown in the “Nearby” tab at different distances from the player. If a Pokémon was very close, the tracks disappeared. With a footprint, you still had to walk a few meters to find out where the Pokémon was located. You can learn how exactly this worked with the tracks in this guide on interpreting tracks in Pokémon GO.
Although this feature was not a “self-starter,” as you had to walk in different directions to find out where the sought-after Pokémon was located, you still had the option to hunt a specific Pokémon.
However, after a few days, this feature was faulty and showed that every Pokémon in the “Nearby” tab had 3 tracks—regardless of how close you were to the Pokémon. This led to significant confusion, as the actual tool only displayed random Pokémon that could only be found by luck. The “Nearby Bug” was a hot topic on social media for a long time, and many trainers complained about it in our Pokémon GO German group on Facebook.
As a solution to this bug, fans came up with the idea of creating live maps to record Pokémon locations.
Various tracking apps have since been banned by Niantic
The fact that fans set up an alternative for tracking Pokémon after the original system was full of bugs apparently did not please Niantic. It even went so far that various app operators were sent cease-and-desist letters to quickly stop their services. These apps and maps would “take the fun out of the game.”
This was especially about the services that extracted gameplay data and automatically displayed where which Pokémon stays for how long. However, there are apps built by the community where the locations of the monsters are manually entered. These are not prohibited and could be the last alternative for finding rare Pokémon.
Webedia has developed such an app for Pokémon locations. At “GO Map” you can check and record locations to help other trainers complete their Pokédex.
Promised in the trailer, now removed
Tracking and finding wild Pokémon is an important part of the game concept. It doesn’t have to be that one gets an arrow leading them exactly to a wild Pokémon and just has to follow a kind of navigation system.
On the other hand, the feature as it currently stands in the game is not very helpful either. All one knows is “Ah, there is an Onix nearby, now I just have to randomly walk in the right direction until it suddenly appears before me.”.
If one is going for a walk anyway and catches the Pokémon that come across, the problem is smaller. However, if you are looking for a specific Pokémon “Nearby,” this experience can be quite frustrating. Let’s take another look at the official trailer for Pokémon GO.
At the beginning of Pokémon GO, the developers didn’t think it was such a bad idea to guide players in a certain direction to track and catch wild Pokémon. They assumed it wouldn’t “take the fun out of the game” to know where wild Pokémon are located.
What does Niantic, the developer of Pokémon GO, say about the problems?
A major problem that many players mention is Niantic’s poor communication. A community manager is currently being sought. This is also necessary, as so far players have been left in the dark regarding issues, bugs, or future patches. Concrete plans or solutions to problems have rarely been discussed. Interestingly, the former head of PokéVision, one of the “banned websites” for tracking Pokémon, wants to apply for the community job.
We are curious to see how the largest MMO of all time develops and hope that it gets better again. The first step in the right direction has already been taken – today there was an official statement on the issues on Niantic’s Facebook page. Main topics: Frustration over lack of communication and the missing tracker.
