I remember the first time I went out to play Pokemon Go, on the day it came out. Me and my friend bumped into loads of other players and we all discussed the game and where we’d like to see it go. Almost everyone we met agreed the game felt like it was very much still in Beta and although we all loved it we felt it had a long way to go before it felt finished.
Well now it’s nearly two years later and although I still love the game I’m very disappointed to say it still feels like it’s in Beta. PoGo still doesn’t feel like a real Pokemon game. There’s still no depth and there’s been very little real development. It annoys me that we seem to be approaching Gen 4 but the base game is still very much the same.
By now I was hoping there would be some interactivity between players. Trading items and Pokemon, PvP battles, a way to add friends and see their progress and activity, maybe just local Gym Leaderboards, but no. The only way you can ever even know other people play the game is seeing them in a Gym.
I also expected a lot of change to Gyms, and although there had been some -most of them very good- they still seem very basic. I like the new format of gyms, my only gripe is that Pokemon seem to lose CP very quickly meaning you have to feed berries every hour if you intend for anyone to have any sort of challenge to knock you out. I don’t however, like the new reward system, a 50 coin limit? I live in a rural area with only one Gym nearby and everyone local seems to be Valor. I can stay in that gym for days at a time without a single other player joining me or fighting me. Yet no matter how long I stay in I only get 50 coins. And with it being my only local Gym I’m unable to earn more coins until someone knocks me out or I travel somewhere else.
One of the very first things my friends and I imagined would happen with Gym’s was some sort of global Team league and local leagues. We imagined the world would eventually be divided into nations and local area with each team competing for dominance and maybe even rewards for the leading team in each area. But no, there is still absolutely nothing like this. I’d like to see the world divided up into Territories of various scales. For example, each Gym could be connected to 2 or 3 local pokestops in a ‘sector’.
I love that Gym’s have their own discs now and you can receive bonuses if your team controls that Gym. In my idea this bonus would expand to the local pokestops of each Gym sector. There could even be a bonus for catching wild Pokemon in the sector such as higher CP’s or easier catches for the dominant team. Towns and regions could then be divided up into smaller areas consisting of several Gym sectors together with whichever team holds the most Gyms sectors receiving further bonuses.
I’d also like to see each Gym have some sort of Leaderboard, Who has held the gym the longest in total, who’s held it the single longest time, who’s won the most battles etc. It just creates a little more competetion and achievement.
The games Teams still seem to serve no real purpose other than to decide which Gyms you can battle. There is huge potential for development here but absolutely nothing has changed since the launch. I’d like to see each team have a specialty which awards certain bonuses. For example, Team Valor -Red- being Fire type specialists. Fire type Pokemon spawn more frequently, have higher stats, are easier to catch and are stronger in Gym battles for Valor trainers. It would make choosing a team help shape the way you play the game and give you more to think about other than your favorite colour when picking a side.
I don’t know about other players but I’ve also found Egg hatching and GPS tracking in general to still be very unreliable. I frequently use run and cycle trackers which always accurately track my speed and position, even in areas of poor signal. However, if I take my dog out for a 5k walk with Pokemon Go active the entire time I frequently don’t even manage to hatch a single 2k egg. I also find myself stood next to the local Pokestops for several minutes before the game decides I’m close enough to spin it. Even with full 4G signal I frequently find Pokemon Go isn’t placing me anywhere near my position, yet if I switch to Google Maps it’ll pin me within 5m straight away.
Overall, I still love the game but I’m very disappointed with the slow development and expansion of the game. When new features come out - Raids, Quests, etc - they’re very good, but the basic game has not improved at all. There’s no way for players to connect or interact other than Raids, there’s no trading or ranking systems. There’s still problems with tracking and eggs. I’d like to see some development in these areas before the 4th Gen is released else I can see myself leaving the game soon!