Ever since Pokemon Go was released, it has been all over social media and even the news. Everyone seems to be playing it from ages 12 to 45 give or take. I mean, even my dad asks if he can catch some Pokemon on my phone.
It is a fun game and gets people out and about. We are able to learn about and explore our communities on a deeper level while fulfilling a childhood dream of becoming a Pokemon trainer.
For some people it's about exercise, for some it's about competition, and for some it's about joining in on pop culture. But whatever it is for you, will it start to get boring? Will you stop playing as much and move on to the next thing? Will you catch 'em all and lose the passion for it? It's very likely.
I am now level 23. I have to somehow acquire 125,000 experience to get to level 24. When you catch a Pokemon, you can get somewhere between 100 and 200 experience, 600 for new catches. Each Poke Stop is worth 50 experience each visit. Evolving Pokemon gets you 500 experience each, 1,000 experience if you use a lucky egg.
Using this as a basis for doing some math, I would need to catch 1,250 previously caught Pokemon to level up. If I relied only on Poke Stops, I would need to visit 2,500. If I used lucky eggs to evolve my Pokemon, I would need to evolve 125 Pokemon. And you only get 30 minutes of double experience, so I would have to evolve 125 Pokemon in 30 minutes, which isn't likely.
With all of that taken into consideration, leveling up has become a challenge. It's not as fun or as lighthearted. It's not, "Yay! I'm 500 experience from leveling up!" It's more like, "Finally!"
Also, we should talk about the removal of the Pokemon Tracker. This allowed us to find Pokemon in our surroundings by tracking them using footprints representing how far or close they are. That added some excitement. I was excited to go out and track that Bulbasaur and Scyther. It made me feel like I was putting work in to find these creatures all around me.
Now it's a guessing game. We don't know where the Pokemon are. We don't know how close or far away they are. There's no more anticipation to see if you were tracking them in the right direction. No more walking through fields because that's where that Dragonite was leading you.
Now all you can do is hope that some Pokemon is near.
Things like that are really discouraging, especially when you are close to completing your Pokedex. It makes players feel like they will never level up or will never catch 'em all like Red and Ash.
I do understand that Niantic is working to get other countries access to the game, as they should. But taking away key aspects of the game that make it enjoyable and more realistic is an issue for many players.
If it takes weeks to level up, people will lose the passion they once had and the game will start to fizzle out, lost in time as another trend that has come and gone.
#RIPFlappyBird.
