Pokemon Go

[Satellite]

Really? No thread about this game yet?

Good:
+ Pokemon. Original pokemons. Enough said.
+ The game is getting people out and moving. Pokemon Go succeeded in something that pretty much everyone and everything else has failed in.
+ I generally like the monetization model in this game. There's incentive to buy things but the game doesn't seem to be heavily P2W to the point where many would complain about it.
+ Gameplay is simple enough to appeal to a large audience
+ This game markets itself perfectly, I've never seen a game get this much mainstream media coverage.
+ I like the music

Bad:
- The interface of the game is in some ways poorly designed. Players should not be required to google how the core elements of the game work. Take it from someone who has studied and teached these things... Games or applications should always teach the user how they're used, especially in mobile where a large part of the playerbase is casual players. Also can't believe this game lacks an option to exit the application... This is all design 101. It puzzles me how Niantic developers didn't think of these things more.
- Trade system doesn't exist in the game like advertised in the trailer (although they may add it in the future, the trailer was a bit misleading)
- Bugs. Too many bugs. I understand that the game was tested before release. What on earth were the testers doing?
- Servers. Servers. Servers. Again, I understand they did not expect this much traffic but still... Nintendo and the Pokemon Company were involved and funded the project so they should have more resources for proper testing than some bedroom developer or indie game studio.
- More fair distribution of pokestops/gyms. For those living in rural areas, the game is almost unplayable. I live in a city, right next to mcdonalds, grocery store, 2 gas stations, church, 2 playgrounds, football field, several businesses and yet there's only 2 pokestops close to me and the closest gym is in a different part of the city. Meanwhile some people have 3 pokestops right on their house.
- Personal subjective opinion: I'm not a big fan of the "dumbed down" battle system.

What I would like to see in the game:
- Increased Pokestop radius. Even just a little. Seriously, people are trespassing to get their rewards.
- Warnings that are more clear. There's kids playing this game who don't understand English nor the Gyarados reference. Kids walking under cars is not good PR. Trust me Niantic.
- Trade System (afaik was confirmed to come at a later date)
- Shinies
- Ability to disguise myself as a ten year old so it wouldn't be so awkward playing this game in public.

[Five Second Pose]

On the other hand I live near a small playground that for some reason has two Pokestops. I have no idea who did this distribution.

[Dudewitbow]

the distribution was linked to niantic's previous game Ingress. ingress was heavily designed for densely populated areas. It's locations didn't carry over well to Pokemon GO

[Luxeraph]

I wonder if I'm the only one thinking that adding trading to this game would end up in people doing some shady things, I understand that trading is what made pokemon what it is but I just think about what people would do and it just makes me cringe.

[Dark Link]

My RL friends are obsessed with the game, but I'm not really feeling it. I went on vacation this past week and it was literally the only excuse for me to actually bother with the game. I'm already losing interest in it and I'm only level 11, where as my friends are 20+.

[Auguro]

My friend tried to get me into it, but I rarely play it. I am level 3, been level 3 since it came out in the US. This shows how often I play it lol.

I feel weird when I pull out my phone to check my messages and get looks like "There is a man with a beard playing that kids game*. There is a common misconception here, now I can't check my messages without being judged like I am playing a kids game. Sure this is probably all in my head, but Niantic designed this game for families and people under 20 so I can understand the judgement and weird looks I get.

[Justin]

My friend tried to get me into it, but I rarely play it. I am level 3, been level 3 since it came out in the US. This shows how often I play it lol.

I feel weird when I pull out my phone to check my messages and get looks like "There is a man with a beard playing that kids game*. There is a common misconception here, now I can't check my messages without being judged like I am playing a kids game. Sure this is probably all in my head, but Niantic designed this game for families and people under 20 so I can understand the judgement and weird looks I get.

Why care about what random people think anyway? You don't need to explain yourself to strangers, whether you're actually playing the game or not.

[VerrKol]

@Satellite; The lack of a tutorial for this game is criminal. It took me a week of playing before I learned from some friends that you could swipe to dodge in gym battlers and that holding down causes the secondary attack. A week later I shared this with my uncle who hadn't heard it yet. There's also a ton of misinformation being spread because of it. There's also a criminal lack of PR for Niantic.

They've also gone on the record saying that trading will come eventually and that they're looking into improving the game for rural players. No idea how long this will take, but positive signs. The servers are also steadily improving.

IMO shinies are the next logical game content update. It will keep people out and exploring while making the level grind more fun despite catching duplicates.

In my areas, literally everyone is playing the game so there's no shame at all. I can go to the pier and seed 50+ people of all ages swiping up on their phone and having a blast. I've been really enjoying it, especially when I get to play with friends IRL. I'm not a diehard player, but it adds a new way to have fun on the weekends and a good excuse to get friends together and check out downtown.

[JoeTang]

Walked around for two hours trying this out today. Was surprised how quickly stops reset after collecting, and how I could find absolutely nothing to catch in my neighbourhood.

Learning barrier is pretty annoying. I only have a vague idea of what to do from seeing things like reddit posts and memes.

[Dudewitbow]

Walked around for two hours trying this out today. Was surprised how quickly stops reset after collecting, and how I could find absolutely nothing to catch in my neighbourhood.

Learning barrier is pretty annoying. I only have a vague idea of what to do from seeing things like reddit posts and memes.

learning curve sucks because there is literally no instruction. basically pokestops I believe reset in 5 minutes, popular spots with a lot of stops tend to have lures, which you hang out for more pokemon.

[JoeTang]

I ended up walking through my university yesterday, and was just surprised that in the time it took me to circle a building, the first stop I was at had already reset.
There's so many points there, it's ridiculous. I want to say half the stops are memorial benches...

My neighbourhood is apparently 2.7 km² and has I think 10 stops and a gym.
The dense part of my university campus is 0.7 km² and has too many to count. Can't imagine the massive loss in productivity for students if this was released when class were in session.

I guess it could be worse, as I look on a pokestop map and see other nearby neighbourhoods are really thin too. Would be nice to have the option to submit stops soon. I doubt submitting and being accepted on Ingress would work anymore too, and I don't believe they copied that 1:1 in the first place.