The massively popular iPhone app that has taken the world by storm is flawed in more ways than you know. Pokemon Go — especially in more recent weeks — has irritated people who've been fans of the series from when they were children. This general dissatisfaction from fans has led to the app dropping in popularity the longer it has been out. It is currently about half as popular as it was upon the game's release.
1. Lacking in Content
A large complaint about the game is that it has very little to offer by way of gameplay. The open ended nature of the environment means your playtime can be as long, or short, as you, the player, decide. However, the only content that it has to offer is discovering Pokemon, getting items at Pokestops, and conquering gyms. Each of these is limited in what they have to offer.
Discovering Pokemon is fun...until it isn't. You'll quickly learn while playing the game that in your specific area only certain kinds of Pokemon will ever appear. Typically, you find all the types in your area and level them up in no less than a few weeks, rendering the rest of this aspect of the game useless.
Pokestops have much of the same dull pattern. You go to the ones you know that you go to all the time to farm items and nothing else. It's boring. You do not leave and go to where you aren't comfortable.
"BUT MIRANDA," I hear you ask, "the whole point of the game is to explore new areas and see what you can of the world!"
Well, the fact of the matter is that the people who have the ability to uproot themselves to catch all the pokemon in an app are few and far between. Regular individuals have jobs and commitments to the point that they can't just look for monsters on a regular basis.
"MIRANDA! These people that have jobs and are caught in their routine travel! They can use the app when they travel and go to new places!"
People are going on trips for leisure less and less in this day and age, but even if that weren't the case, most people would not budget time in their vacation agenda to hunt for Pokemon. The last time I was at the Grand Canyon my mind didn't immediately tell me to look for a Pokestop. People on vacation have more priorities than that.
2. Team Culture
When you reach level five of the game, Professor Willow asks you to choose a team. There is very little explanation of what the teams are and how they impact the game. The player must choose which team based solely on their ideals towards Pokemon themselves.
While some might argue this vague explanation is an important aspect of identifying the character of each individual player, it has evolved into so much more than that. People no longer pick teams based on what they believe; they pick the team their friends are on or the team they know is winning. Team Mystic is dominating more than half of the gyms in Pokemon Go and garners over half of the games players. People aren't motivated to pick how they actually want to anymore. It's that simple.
(Also, I'm Team Instinct, and people keepbullying me for it.)
3. Communication with Niantic
The biggest outrage for a lot of players has to do with the dilemma regarding the tracking feature. Allow me to explain:
When the app first launched, there was an interesting feature on the "Nearby" tab when hunting for Pokemon. Three feet would appear if the Pokemon was far, two if it was closer, and one if it was right next to you. This made the game fun because there was now a game of marco-polo with the Pokemon, where you could actually discover where they are.
Later, the feature was bugged, so every Pokemon was shown as three footprints away. While people were upset, most of them understood that the game was new and still needed to be fixed. Then, in the next update, Niantic, Inc. removed the feature altogether. People were livid. There was no word about this happening -- if the feature was going to return, not anything. This important feature that completely changes the way the game is played. The company in charge of the app is giving its primary consumers no communication, and it's often times infuriating, encouraging people to delete it.
4. Legitimate danger
Now, there is no blaming the app for people who are stupid and run into barbed wire or try to find pokemon while trespassing. User error cannot put blame upon the app itself. The app has done everything in its power by putting a warning to stay alert at the beginning of the loading screen.
My friend got rear-ended a few weeks back because of someone who was playing Pokemon Go behind-the-wheel. It is not the app's fault that this occurred, but there are dangers associated with these types of problems.
Another issue is synonymous to the case in which teenagers used lures on a pokestop in the game to rob people. Going out at night is dangerous. While that is not the fault of the app, it is enabling this dangerous behavior that has led to many police reports since it came out.
5. Draining your battery
I was recently surprised to see that my Fitbit app had told me I had officially walked the 26.2 miles required for a marathon. Happy, I checked Pokemon Go to see what my beautiful 10K eggs had in store for me only to discover the app only works when it is running in the background. This, along with its location oriented gameplay, make Pokemon Go a killer for your phone battery. Players must be careful to charge their phones before they go hunting. Otherwise, before they could know it, they could be trapped somewhere, lost, with no ability to contact anyone. That just sounds terrifying.
Not to mention for the lack of content it has, it takes up a crazy amount of space on your phone, also making it a storage killer.
Regardless of all these factors, Niantic's Pokemon Go is the most popular free app on the app store and still has more downloads than any other app today. It is widely known because it combines a nostalgic video game with exercise and exploration. Even with all these detriments, there is no arguing that the game is helping improve lives. For a lot of people, Pokemon Go is just the motivation they need to get off the couch and get more active, and for that, Niantic, Inc., we thank you.
