The historic reign of Pokemon Go is largely over and done with as public places which were once filled to capacity with Pokémon trainers are now remarkably barren. To quote the Paul Newman film Cool Hand Luke "what we have here is failure to communicate," not on the part of the player base but more so on Niantic's side. In more way than one, the game is not just in need of a revive, but a max revive at that.
Having reached an audience of historic proportions over the last few months, the player base has recently been reduced considerably. While the changing weather plays a role in preventing players from getting out as much so too do the most recent updates and more importantly: the lack of major updates, which has arguably played a similarly major role in the growing disinterest towards the game.
Niantic has recently introduced measures which make popular radar sites obsolete, but there's one astronomical reason as to why this is only working to hurt the game: there's no tracking tool built into the game. If you're going to have a game that's centered around hunting and catching various creatures aka Pokemon, here's a thought: HAVE A TRACKING SYSTEM. Instead of being able to even so much as know the direction which the Pokemon is in, players are STILL left with an enormous nearby area to cover in a pressingly short amount of time. Let's say you're lucky enough to be close enough for a creature to pop up on your 'sightings' tool just as it spawns. Hopefully there's no bodies of water, fences, private property or simply put anything obtrusive in your nearby area as these can easily be the difference between walking away with a Dragonite or walking away with a handful of weedles. (Speaking from experience.) While the tool is supposed to order Pokemon sightings relative to their proximity this is often not the case as you'll find yourself stumbling upon the Venonat that is supposedly the fifth Pokemon from you yet the 'closest' Bulbasaur is no where to be found.
To make matters worse, the most recent update was geared towards making the battle-experience more accessible yet has had largely the opposite effect. By making gyms easier to prestige two things are happening 1.) level ten gyms are becoming significantly easier to train up and subsequently harder to capture and replace 2.) gyms are becoming even more stagnant than they already are meanwhile once they're full they're much more inclined to remain that way. This not only depreciates from gym fluctuation but also counters low-level and beginner players from placing their Pokemon in already full gyms. The greatest factor in Gym Defense and thereby being able to collect aren't the enemy teams but having your own team box you out.
On behalf of a sweeping number of Pokemon Go players of all ages, if you (Niantic) want to cash out and move on: by all means go ahead and let a company that can interact with it's community step in... but if you're in it for the long haul (as the global community at large is,) then let's take this decent game and work towards making it into a superb one.
So Niantic,
If the community is ready, are you?
