ImaJAN Media Network
MeltedJoystick Home
   Games  Members
Search +
Searching... Close  
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?
  
 
  Login Using Facebook
Twitter
 
     

Pokemon G(tF)O

View Nelson Schneider's Profile

By Nelson Schneider - 07/17/16 at 03:44 PM CT

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or are one of those extra ‘special’ isolationists who live in Montana specifically because the state has no infrastructure, you’ve no doubt heard about “Pokemon GO,” the mobile team-up between Nintendo’s Pokemon Company and Google’s Niantic. This new mobile game microtransaction engine completely blew-up during its first week of general availability in the United States, rocketing to the top of every metric chart that matters (and even ones that don’t matter) as people have flooded into public places in search of Pokemon to catch and Poke-Stops to refresh their supplies of pokeballs.

“Pokemon GO” has been such a wildly viral success that it has even been picked-up as a topic by both world and local TV news broadcasts, which never normally happens until months after the fact for stories involving electronic entertainment. The question still remains, though, is “Pokemon GO” anything to actually get excited about?

If you live in a highly urban area and love walking around for hours on end, then sure, “Pokemon GO” might provide you some entertainment. Likewise, if you are an Urban Whale with hundreds of thousands of dollars in literally disposable income (as in, you actually light cigars with $100 bills and ‘make it rain’ everywhere you go), you might get some enjoyment out of buying your way into the top position at every Pokemon Gym you happen to pass.

For the rest of us, “Pokemon GO” is a very iffy piece of ‘entertainment,’ and is missing a lot of the features that made the original ‘Pokemon’ games such an enduring formula (that The Pokemon Company keeps remaking every few years).

You see, “Pokemon GO” isn’t a particularly new or innovative idea. In reality, the game microtransaction engine is just a thinly-veiled re-skin of Niantic’s “Ingress,” which is, itself, a thinly-veiled way of ‘gamifying’ and crowdsourcing the location of landmarks, public art, and gathering places in Google Maps. “Pokemon GO” does mix-up the “Ingress” formula a tiny bit, and is actually significantly less arduous to play as a result.

For those who don’t know, “Ingress” was all about capturing key points on Google Maps for your team (Green or Blue). Captured points could be linked together via straight lines, provided those lines didn’t cross any other lines already in place. Linking together three points on the map would create a field, which would significantly improve the blablabla whatever of the team that held it. The whole thing was just a big PvP sausagefest that required players victims to maintain a patrol route in order to keep their captured points captured and maintain their defenses.

“Pokemon GO” simplifies the process significantly. Each point of interest is now either a simple Poke-Stop or a Pokemon Gym. Poke-Stops allow traveling Poke-Masters in training to spin an icon to receive a random allotment of free goodies ranging from pokeballs for catching Pokemon to potions and revives to keep captured monsters in fighting form after a defeat at an enemy Gym. Pokemon Gyms are now the only places where PvP happens. Friendly Gyms can host sparring matches to improve the Gym’s defensive capabilities, while enemy Gyms can be challenged in order to change their team affiliation (“Pokemon GO” has three colored teams compared to “Ingress’” two). Linking locations is gone. Forming fields is gone. Thus, the burden of playing “Pokemon GO” is significantly less than the burden of maintaining an Ingress account.

In place of the more irksome systems from “Ingress” that were scrapped, “Pokemon GO” features the ability to encounter and capture wild Pokemon everywhere and anywhere… at least that’s what Niantic and The Pokemon Company want us to believe. In reality, wild Pokemon are a decidedly urban phenomenon (even for pokemon that aren’t made out of industrial waste), despite the franchise’s mythology of Pokemon living in all sorts of decidedly uncivilized places, like forests and caves.

As I shared last year, I don’t exactly live in a high-population density area with great infrastructure. In fact, last month I finally rid myself and my farm of the twin plagues of Windstream (delenda est) and Verizon (of the Zero Bars) in exchange for a U.S. Cellular account with home phone connection. U.S. Cellular advertises that they ‘have more bars in more places’ and that they work ‘in the middle of anywhere,’ which is good, because that’s where I live and spend most of my time. Thanks to U.S. Cellular, I actually have between 1 and 3 bars of cell service on the farm for the first time since smartphones have existed… But unfortunately for my half-hearted attempts at playing “Pokemon GO” at home, there are ZERO wild pokemon inhabiting the countryside. If I want to catch any pokemon, I have to drive 4 miles to Ceresco, NE, which is home to two Gyms and 6 Poke-Stops or 10 miles to Wahoo, NE, which has even more Gyms and Stops. For comparison, a slow-speed drive down Main Street in any small, rural Nebraska town will result in a large number of wild pokemon encounters within minutes. On the other hand, a half-hour walk up and down waterways and through fields resulted in lots of heat and sweatiness, but no pokemon.

Because wild pokemon encounters – which are decidedly THE reason to play “Pokemon GO” for everyone who isn’t an Urban Whale willing to pay their way to the tops of Gyms – are so focused in towns, Niantic and The Pokemon Company really screwed-up an opportunity to create a time-filler for long, boring car rides. The stereotype that traveling with children is horrific is true, as the little beasts need something to keep them distracted from the geologic amounts of time that traveling anywhere seems to take in the perspective of a young brain. It would have been fantastic if every highway, interstate, and side street was filled with wild pokemon to keep young travelers placated, but that simply isn’t the case. This past week, I had the dubious privilege of being a passenger on a trip to a small town in Western Iowa. While every podunk location between home and the destination did have Poke-Stops and Gyms, the space between them was practically barren.

I haven’t even addressed the game’s microtransaction engine’s technical issues yet. Niantic has been desperately struggling to keep the servers running under unpredicted popularity, resulting in an app that can sometimes lose data or become unresponsive. I’ve lost more than one pokemon capture due to the app freezing right as the pokeball clicked shut. Perhaps the worst issue I’ve had with the app is how finicky it is when switching between cell towers and tiers of service. Traveling through semi-rural Nebraska and Iowa is a sketchy proposition for cell service, and it is common to waver between a strong 4GLTE signal on hilltops to a weaker 3G signal to an abysmal 1X signal within the span of a few minutes. “Pokemon GO” doesn’t like this, and can’t adapt, instead resorting to an infinite loading animation with no actual data being loaded until the app receives a manual restart.

Let’s sum up: What does “Pokemon GO” provide? Well, it’s a less competitive take on “Ingress’” location-based gameplay. PvP is completely optional (and should be avoided until approximately player level 20, based on the outrageous power I’ve seen on podunk rural Gym pokemon), and the main gimmick of “Gotta Catch ‘em All!” is back in full force, though the number of pokemon in “Pokemon GO’s” PokeDex is only a fraction of the complete PokeDex. Compared to a traditional handheld ‘Pokemon’ game, “Pokemon GO” is missing a LOT of features, such as trading monsters and battling against friends. Maybe these things will be added at some point in the future, maybe not. For those whose location is off the beaten path, “Pokemon GO” might as well be a paperweight for its non-urban entertainment value, though it can still be a mildly entertaining distraction while riding as a passenger through an urban hub, no matter how small.

Share:    
MeltedJoystick Gaming Blog RSS Feed
Comments
0 comments
Name: 

Avoid spam Captcha: Sign Up + or Log In +   



 

Bloggers

Previous Blog Posts

Archive

All Posts

March 2024

February 2024

January 2024

December 2023

November 2023

October 2023

September 2023

August 2023

July 2023

June 2023

May 2023

April 2023

March 2023

February 2023

January 2023

December 2022

November 2022

October 2022

September 2022

August 2022

July 2022

June 2022

May 2022

April 2022

March 2022

February 2022

January 2022

December 2021

November 2021

October 2021

September 2021

August 2021

July 2021

June 2021

May 2021

April 2021

March 2021

February 2021

January 2021

December 2020

November 2020

October 2020

September 2020

August 2020

July 2020

June 2020

May 2020

April 2020

March 2020

February 2020

January 2020

December 2019

November 2019

October 2019

September 2019

August 2019

July 2019

June 2019

May 2019

April 2019

March 2019

February 2019

January 2019

December 2018

November 2018

October 2018

September 2018

August 2018

July 2018

June 2018

May 2018

April 2018

March 2018

February 2018

January 2018

December 2017

November 2017

October 2017

September 2017

August 2017

July 2017

June 2017

May 2017

April 2017

March 2017

February 2017

January 2017

December 2016

November 2016

October 2016

September 2016

August 2016

July 2016

June 2016

May 2016

April 2016

March 2016

February 2016

January 2016

December 2015

November 2015

October 2015

September 2015

August 2015

July 2015

June 2015

May 2015

April 2015

March 2015

February 2015

January 2015

December 2014

November 2014

October 2014

September 2014

August 2014

July 2014

June 2014

May 2014

April 2014

March 2014

February 2014

January 2014

December 2013

November 2013

October 2013

September 2013

August 2013

July 2013

June 2013

May 2013

April 2013

March 2013

February 2013

January 2013

December 2012

November 2012

October 2012

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

June 2012

May 2012

April 2012

March 2012

February 2012

January 2012

December 2011

November 2011

October 2011

September 2011

August 2011

July 2011

June 2011

May 2011

April 2011

March 2011

February 2011

 
Log In
 
For members wanting to use FB to login, click here
remember me
 
 

What Members Are Doing

Comments about...

New Game Reviews

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams game review by Megadrive
Sunset Overdrive game review by Chris Kavan
The Vagrant game review by Chris Kavan
Honkai: Star Rail game review by Chris Kavan
Assassin's Creed IV: Black... game review by Nelson Schneider
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands game review by Nelson Schneider
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart game review by Nelson Schneider
Cthulhu Saves Christmas game review by Nick

New Game Lists

Backlog by Nelson Schneider
Top Wii Games by Megadrive
My Backlog by Chris Kavan
Games I Own: Switch Digital by dbarry_22
Top Nintendo (NES) Games by Nick
Backlog by Matt
Top Game List by SIngli6
Top Game List by Jonzor

 

 

 

Contact Us Public Relations MeltedJoystick Friends    

Advertise and Business

Contacts Us

Jobs

About us

SiteMap

 

Support Us

FAQ and Help

News and Press

Terms of Use

Privacy

Hitfix.com

Amazon.com

OVGuide.com

   
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?
  
Are you sure you want to delete this blog?