December Field Research Breakthrough Announced
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/a1ky8t/december_field_research/
Personally I took the bug. I understand why extra legendaries may be enticing to some players but I already have too many sitting in my box that I can't get rid of fast enough. With it being random chance I don't need another.
At least I got a Sinnoh Stone for my hundo Electabuzz, so that's nice.
Answers
Eehhhh... wow. This is actually a bit of a conundrum. I don't want another Suicune or Zapdos (got lots of good Zapdos), but I would like a good Articuno, another good Moltres, Raikou or Entei. And just my RNG (for the Niantic definition of Random), I'll get 2 Suicune, 1 Zapdos and 2 crappy Articuno's.
Blargh.
I reeeally don't want to sound like a Mr. Ex here, but yeah, this is pretty disappointing. A bit of extra candy for them is good, but I already have more of these 6 than I need, and I was really hoping they'd get round to Lugia and Ho-oh after taking a break with Shedinja.
Between this, Sinnoh stones no longer being guaranteed, and the continuing glacial drip-feed of Gen IV, I think I might take a break from the game for a while, after this weekend, until something interesting comes along.
I may be in the minority (on these forums at least) but I enjoy the game for what it is, not for whatever new feature or collectible they try to introduce to keep their player base's short attention spans in check.
I enjoy the grinding and walking outdoors under the guise of roleplaying a very basic PKMN fantasy fulfillment app.
I enjoy randomly meeting old acquaintances when a tier 5 egg is about to pop and the challenge of short-manning difficult bosses when the amount of raiders that show up is less than optimal.
I also enjoy meeting new friends and carrying teams of inexperienced players while also sharing with them whatever little knowledge of the basics I know by heart now.
I enjoy when a rare spawn is announced in my local groups and I can make it there in time to catch another potentially great addition to my team.
I enjoy looking for better versions of the mons I already own and prepping for big releases by means of hoarding resources and being amongst the first in my local community to own the greatest new thing, even if only I know it.
I also take great pride in the way I have optimized my team to near perfection and being able to power up multiples of the strongest Pokemon available in the game so I can have a decent response to every battle situation or at least just plow through when my collection lacks the very best options.
I like trading for lucky chances and I really enjoy collecting legacy specimens in exchange for all my extra legendaries that give me leverage in a game market that favors hardcore playing (if you know what to look for in this kind of games).
I take special delight in overpowering abusing GRAZZers and rendering Smurfs out of a 100 golden berries in a single takedown session.
I don't need any new "meta-shifting" species or move to be introduced every week to keep me interested in playing, although, truthfully, those are the features that I enjoy the most.
My interest comes from the game itself for me, is what I'm saying. My local gym scene is very competitive and the raid scene is phenomenal, which I admit is not something that a lot of people can boast about, but all in all, I think that disappointment can only be inflicted on oneself. Unrealistic or exalted expectations can only lead to dread and despair, especially when you don't understand what this game was designed for.
When I want a polished, albeit constricted, but strictly more complex and brainy Pokemon experience I just play the main series.
Much of what you describe can be achieved by any MMO (like carrying inexperienced players) but GO has the quite unqiue feature of carrying it to the real world. I think this has reached a point when too many dedicated players chew through all the new content too quickly (and Niantic has never been known for being quick or polished but somehow people still expect too much of this rather simplified pokemon MMO).
That explains why they limit the number of sinnoh stones and constrict new mons and shinies to keep interest in the short term while really the core appeal is and always has been catching pokemon in the real world, and what will keep the game afloat long term probably.
I'm currently playing Let's Go and having a blast doing it, but the console games and GO are two completely different experiences. Go was intended for casual play and hook players and the plan now it's clear playing Let's Go, that is a middle ground between main series and GO. People are just expecting too much of GO and complain when their wild dreams aren't met, i'm actually surprised they will even bother to add pvp, i thought raiding and trading were good enough taking into account the original scope.of the game in 2016
I took the bug too since i have had enough of the birds and got all the shinies, and i think in the not too far future we will have the dogs again with their shiny release in raid days. At least Shedinja seems to be unobtainable outside research so it might have some value for new players.
Sadly i didn't get the sinnoh stone :(
I have to say I dislike Niantic's desire to make everything about RNG. Randomness makes games more fun up to a point. Chess isn't fun to most people because it's pure math and memorization, games with some chance in them tend to be more entertaining. But POGO is really straddling the line of being too much about dice rolls. Maybe Niantic missed the memo that there's such a thing as too much randomness.
Not that I'm particularly displeased about this new breakthrough in particular, I'm pretty indifferent about it. I just want to comment on the general trend of randomness getting more prevalent.
