Dear Pokemon Go,

I can't believe it's almost been a year. Last summer on July 6, you came out and became an international phenomenon. Millions of people were swept up through nostalgia, Pokemon geekiness, and the sheer novelty of the concept: It's Pokemon, but in real life! I admit I was one of them. I wrote a fangirling article the week of its release (ugh, I was so naive then), proclaiming you as the future of technology and gaming. Honestly, while I may have been projecting my own science-fictiony ideas upon you, I still had fun walking around my neighborhood, hunting down those crazy little Pocket Monsters. If I am being truly honest, walking around the grounds of my local public high school(it had closed for the summer), watching the steps go from three to two to one as I crept up on a Caterpie, only to call it off when I was headed right into wasp territory... That was the most fun I ever had playing . But, the tracker broke, and things changed.

Many things have changed about you, Pokemon Go. You got a new tracker focusing on Pokestops, you released the second generation of Pokemon( featuring the precious Hoothoot), and held many events to switch up what Pokemon I could find. And yet, the most important things about you have stayed the same, and that is why I'm writing this open letter.Ever since day one, once you catch the Pokemon,...that's about it. Sure, you could put it into your team's Gym, but even your strongest Pokemon are outclassed by the max-leveled top-tier creatures, the Vaporeons, the Dragonites, even the dreaded Blisseys.

Smiling pink blob of hit points and defense. How the heck are we supposed to fight this, I don't have any good fighting types!

And that's only if you can get into the gyms: for some time, all the gyms were maxed out, and taking it down required more time and resources than I have. Unless you knock one of those towers down all the way, it's just going to make it stronger so the blasted Mystics have even more of a lead. Screw you, global preference for the color blue! Even if you can interact successfully with the gyms(good luck not drifting out of range), it leaves something to be desired: you just tap and swipe and tap and swipe and sometimes hold down on the screen. Type advantage means nothing most of the time, just siccing your highest CP Pokes versus the ones in the gym(except if you're training the gym, you want those half as strong. Good luck figuring that out yourself.). It's boring and tedious, and not worth it; sure, you could get 10 or 20 premium coins, but expect that 'Mon back in less than a minute.

So I gave up on the gyms. I don't need to be good at this, it's for players of higher levels than me. While the XP cost required to level up is exponential and gyms unlock at level 5 which is quite early on, clearly you cannot succeed at the gym competitive level until level 30 (I was in the mid 20's when I decided this). So, I was going to do what the theme song tells me: catch 'em all. The Pokedex had not yet expanded to include all 802 different critters, so I thought I had a chance. Of course, that too was impossible. Firstly, certain Pokemon are region-exclusive, only catchable in certain areas of the real world: the US gets Tauros, Europe gets Mr. Mime, South America gets Heracross...college students cannot cross oceans on a whim, so those are right out. Even without those, Pokemon variety in any one location is abysmal: typically only a couple dozen types are available in any given area. The Nearby tracker doesn't help there: all of my complaints from this article are still valid. (You should go read that, I'm exceptionally proud of that one.) With the rare(and often quite good) Pokemon out of reach save through random chance, playing the game devolves into walking vast distances catching the same muckle-darned Pokemon again and again. Sure, the whole point of the game is to get out there and explore different areas, but I am a college student, and take that pretty seriously: I do not leave campus very often, nor have the motivation to do so. Things are even worse back home, there I was lucky to snag some Pokestops on the car rides to appointments before the speed lock took effect.

I gave you a chance, Pokemon Go. I was patient. I enjoyed you somewhat at college. Now, you have worn out your novelty. This is barely a game, I am not having fun, and running you all the time destroys my phone battery. I heard Niantic has things in mind for you this summer, like completely reworking the gym system. This is your last chance. Impress me. Become fun, or at least playable in rural locations. If you don't, I am finally deleting your bulky unoptimized code from my phone, and fully dedicating myself to your younger cousin, Magikarp Jump. Sure, it might be a Skinner box, but it's a silly and fair one, and is more of a game than you currently are.

You go, Magikarp. Go do you.