Isn´t the game boring to you?
Honestly...the only thing I do atm is doing legendary raids where you don´t even care about the pokemon you get the possibility to catch. The only thing players care about is rare candy to be able to power up useful legendaries from past days since those offered atm are useless or save them for future legendaries. The Regis will not change that nor will any shiny Articuno or something along those lines. All those shinies are nice to have, but that really is nothing special since everyone gets them more or less. The quests were a nice feature at the beginning but the rewards are mostly useless too. The gym scene remains the same with Blissey and Chansey everywhere, so you just go through with Machamp.
I am not even that of a hardcore player and loose motivation the last couple of weeks because of that. The only thing I am waiting for is a good IV Beldum to get a great pseudo-legendary Metagross which again is not that useful...what do you do to keep yourself engaged? I won´´t set personal goals like "achieving 50 gold gyms" or something since it´s Machamp slicing through gyms for hours. For me the best thing atm is looking forward to the Pokemon Lets Go Eevee Game in November. I am very curious how the connection to Pokemon Go will unfold. Handing me my maxed Dragonite for example would ruin the game.
Answers
If people are barely finding out NOW that they find this game boring then it's all their fault for sticking out with it for so long and that's pathetic because the game hasn't been more fun any time than it is right now with what it has to offer.
Not to throw any dirt on other games, but it took me 15 minutes to realize that Minecraft was the most boring waste of code that I could ever have laid my hands on when it came out. It doesn't take a lot to identify what interests you or not.
This game is my biggest time waster and I enjoy it thoroughly because it does appeal to me and my interests. That's it. Stop blaming games for your own shortcomings.
No one’s to blame for coming to either conclusion. It happens to us all. We pick up on something we like, eventually it may get dropped for something else. It’s totally fine.
I’m enjoying my experience atm, but I’d like to see new features make its way into the game sometime soon. Stop submission, trading, breeding, maybe even PvP, but especially the first. Tasks and quests are new, but could be expanded a bit too (not something I want necessarily)
In my experience, what keeps people going (especially after hitting lvl 40), is setting personal goals for yourself (hitting a certain number of XP, dust, gold gyms, etc). If you're not willing to do that, then that considerably limits your options.
That said, I'm hoping that we see PvP, Gen 4, or something big this summer. My guess is they'll have something big to unveil for Go Fest in July, and hopefully they'll have enough other things to tide us over til then.
If you have to resort to arbitrary personal goals, that's an admission that the game is boring.
I've been level for a few months, and I just don't pay attention to much, makes the game go by more fast, like a blur, when you're not paying as much attention.
The only thing that could make this game exciting again is PvP. Since we've really milked that catching aspect, it's time to start battling against other people.
Must agree.
I've been a hardcore player of this game since the day it came out, but there's very little to do anymore. I loved the old gym system -- it made sense. It had difficulty (you only had six pokemon, and the tower had up to 10), so you had to play well in order to win. And, your efforts would be rewarded, as the game rewarded you for the number of days you held the spot.
Now, the gym system has been gutted to the point where anyone can beat any gym, and you're basically penalized for keeping the gym longer than a day since you can't control when your pokemon comes back.
Raids should have just been a shot in the arm for Niantic to get more money so that they could think of better ideas, but Raids are now the entire metagame. Research quests are a step in the right direction but gravely insufficient.
The only thing keeping me playing at this point is habit, and honestly, I'm slowly scaling back the amount of time I play, because what's the point, really?
I hope Niantic comes up with some better ideas soon, and I really really think it's a shame Niantic was given the green light to make this product when literally any other developer in the universe could have done a better job with it.
We're getting countless events and raids just so that everybody can get all Pokemon, and shiny. Beyond that nobody really knows what to do with them. They can be maxed out and TM'd and that's it. The most productive players will be able to solo a few raids, after which there is no use to the Pokemon just obtained.
The game needs to introduce new gameplay elements, not more Pokemon.
To be clearer, I really agree that the game is boring on its surface. I have my phone (40, with the maxed Kyogre) and an old Galaxy S5 (34, level 30 Mewtwos and Rayquazas) and old iphone 5s (34 ditto). Huge data plan.
A few streets over there is 45 mil XP player who is always walking at the park. I see her all the time now I'm riding my fast bike around instead of driving to further parks. IMO driving and chatting is as lame (if not lamer) than what I do. I wouldn't get exercise if I chat raided bc when I'm away from my 3 yo someone else must watch him.
These subpar legendaries let me do my 1.5 raid a day and build enough for me to notice the growth in the 34s. Although always being in a rush (plus healthing the 34s) barely allows me to get 50 coins each day--that should be a simple task around here
What does that even mean? You must not battle much or your area must suck if you don't see an advantage in dodging, 'cause fun gym areas WILL drain you of revives and potions after a day of fighting for control.
In that regard, it's not that the game itself is boring, just that the players in your area and you yourself reek of boredom.
The main reason I keep playing is that I enjoy going out and catch Pokemon. I'm already at level 40 and have a full Pokedex (apart from regionals), so it's not like I need to chase a new Pokemon, but it's still nice to be out playing.
And I also love doing raids, partly because I want to get as good IV Legendary I can get, but also to meet other players.
That said, to keep things more interesting I do keep setting new goals for myself.
Right now my goals are these:
1. Reach 10 million Star dust (short term: reach 9 million)
2. Reach 35k Pokemon caught.
3. Reach 8.000km. Just reached 7k, so still some way to go.
4. Reach 26 million XP, then 27 and so on.
5. Get gold in Pokemon Ranger.
6. Get gold in Fisherman and Youngster.
And I also try to get more gold gyms. Currently at 15, but there are three more I'd like to get gold at in the next couple of weeks, because after that I'll go away for the summer.
I think there's between 50 and 55 gyms that the local players count as being "in our area". A few players have reached gold in all of them and I suppose a long term goal for me will be to do the same.
I really disagree with you. They are goals that require work to reach.
And who are you to tell me how I should feel about this game? If you think it's boring, then fucking stop playing it and do something else. Nobody is forcing you to play.
If I were to think it's boring, then I wouldn't be playing.
But I don't think it's boring (not saying it's perfect or anything) and that is why I can spend hours playing some days. Last weekend I spent over 15 hours playing. A few days ago I was out for seven hours.
Did I do that because I thought the game is boring? Fuck no!
Yes, I haven't caught as many as some others at the same level, but I think it's down to how people play the game and during which circumstances.
When I started playing I had 5km to the nearest gym and I there were two Pokestops there (or one at first, then another one added). Another 5km if I wanted to reach a third stop and a few km more to reach a good number of stops and a couple more gyms.
And there were few Pokemon spawning as well.
Needless to say I spent more time walking/biking than catching.
I have a bigger issue with people spoofing for gym coins and hogging gyms with their baby accounts.
Also, raids are a pain in the ass due to their unpredictability as well as the lack of a tracker.
I've been mildly frustrated by this current event due to not finding a single shiny Omanyte or Kabuto despite catching nearly 200 of each, but that bothers me a lot less than the spoofing and multi-accounting.
Setting personal goals is one thing; the process of working towards said goals must be fun.
What makes PoGo special is exploring the real world and interacting with other players. The game itself is rather limited, but scanners were able to compensate for this.
With the scanners down, the game gives me little motivation to walk. Public bus rides are more effective for farming stardust and items. (In Singapore, less than 10% own cars.)
Many of these post can be boiled down to this: "There is this game that is stupid and pointless and badly developed by a company of evil blockheads. I have played it daily for two years, have done everything the game offered and now I am moaning for more content. Did I mention that the game is so bad that only dunderheads would waste their time with it?"
So, obviously I still think the game is fun and I like playing it. But I have to agree, it is missing any real challenge at the moment. I am, however, pretty sure that Ninatic is aware of this and is working at new stuff. After raids (attacking) and quests (collecting) I expect the next change to be gym defense again. But this is just idle speculation. I would like to see a system that can not be transformed in pointless grinding by obsessive players. I still shudder about the months were every gym was filled with the always same defenders, taking one down was half an hour of mindless clicking, than it would be taken back from you within hours.
This thread contains some fair thoughts, but also some unrealistic grumbling.
Niantic is trying to shape the game to keep the Level 40 player with multiples of every legendary happy. But they're also shaping content to retain the Level 25-35 type player who is trying to get a good fighting team, power up a second Dragonite or finally evolve that first Metagross (or whatever). PLUS they're trying to make the game enticing to new players while all the time incentivizing all of us to spend real world money on the game.
It only makes sense that folks at the absolute front of the curve are going to find the game "boring". They have simply run through all of the content. When you've maxed your third Kyogre (for example) you've essentially "mastered" the game. The high level players on this thread who are still engaged are generally either 1) Setting arbitrary objectives in the game or 2) Leveling up alternate accounts.
If you don't want to do either of the above there is another solution; Step away from the game for a bit, and let Niantic create more content. Read a few books. Hit the gym. Or play a different game. Come back after some time and see what the game looks like. There will be more content to explore and things to do... Maybe to your liking or maybe not, but it will be "new" and shouldn't be boring.
I'm slowly starting to find it all quite underwhelming. And I'm far from being level 40.
My main and only goal is "to catch them all". That was my idea when I started the game back when it first came out, and it still is to this day.
That mission now feels rather senseless to me. While I like the idea of regional exclusives or the need to power up your Pokemon in order to beat and catch stronger Pokemon (i.e. raids), the mission of "catching them all" doesn't depend on exploration or expertise, but mainly on when Niantic decides to organise yet another special event where once rare Pokemon start popping up in masses. I have the same feeling of being guided by the hand with the rotating system of legendaries. Encountering and fighting a legendary (which are restricted to Gyms) should have the same sense of randomness that I expect to find in wild Pokemon encounters. I feel more like a consumer rather than an adventurer. The research goes in the right direction here, but can be taken further.
The same underwhelming feeling goes for building teams of Pokemon, where instead of diversifying (the variety of Pokemon is its greatest pull for me) you need to invest in a handful of Pokemon and ignore the rest. It's similar to the feeling of being in a candy store that has thousands of candies, but only ten of them are worth eating.
I don't know how to fix this kind of problem though, but this game definitely lacks the touch of magic I was hoping to find originally.
Just add "Level-Indifferent Dex Fillers" as another entry to the various player categories in my post and everything still applies. You are just another type of player that Niantic needs to accommodate. Your complaints (lack of spawn randomness, inability to fill the dex without attending a special event) barely overlap with the other complaints (static content, lack of PvP or other play features) lodged in this thread.
But your post also perfectly illustrates my point; The safari/park events that you complain about are immensely, absurdly popular. The tickets are selling out and people are taking family vacations to Chicago, etc. to attend Pokemon events. Should Niantic forgo these popular (and likely highly lucrative) events to satisfy the dex-filler contingent's desire to be able to catch all available Pokemon in what feels like a perfectly random way?
I guess my answer to your last question would be: Yes :p
But honestly, I didn't hate all events. I really enjoyed the Kanto event, for instance, where Pokemon of all stripes (from Gen 1 at least) appeared in a seemingly more random order than just loads of Rattata and Pidgeys. It did so without making Snorlax or Lapras any less relatively rare and thus kept up the challenge. I think the game in general could easily be more like the Kanto event, but expanded to all generations, instead of littering the landscape with whichever three-pokemon selection Niantic dreamt up.
The Safari events where the regional exclusivity is suddenly invalid or the Community day events with 3-hour windows for exclusive moves just feel wrong to me though. It rewards in-the-box-thinking and takes away from the achievement of people who obtained them in another way. I feel like a sheep being herded towards a moment or a place, while Pokemon Go should be about an individual player's freedom to explore. The feeling of excitement of finding a wild Tangela somewhere as opposed to encountering 20 in a day during some Grass event barely needs explaining I think.
When you say the events/CDs reward 'in-the-box' thinking, how does making spawns more random reward creative players? I understand the sentiment you're expressing, I think, but it's exactly the opposite of what I (would) enjoy about the game, lol. My issue with the events/CDs is more that they're the game design equivalent of dangling keys in front of a baby when there's a lot more they could be doing to make meaningful changes to the gameplay to make it less stagnant. I'd prefer the game to be *less* like a lottery than it is, because lotteries are only fun if you win and you have little to no control over whether you will or not.
I agree with TyFox. Wandering aimlessly and hoping to strike the lottery is not fun to me. There should be ways to hunt down specific species (for instance, if it is your favourite, missing from your dex or needed to complete a raid team). In the main games, certain species are rare but you know specifically where to hunt them down. Nest farming and scanners (when up) are the equivalents in this game.
P.S. Regional exclusives are among the worst features that Niantic have ever come up with. Unless you count some bugs (not referring to Caterpie and Spinarak here) as features.
I do wish a more of a variety of Pokemon were useful.in raids. The niche pokemon need to have a stronger niche. For instance I maxed a double-ice Jynx, and double-bug X-Scizzor & Pinsir but i don't really use them. I did put the Jynx in my second Latios/Latias team. Golem did fit this bill (so I maxed 3). But there need to be more avenues where a hard-core player can gain a slight advantage while keeping the casual players in the ballpark.
One way I've stayed engaged is by taking 3 mile walks most evenings with a full and hatching egg basket. If you are exercising and playing it keeps the game from getting tedious.
It's pretty boring on its own, and like others I'm mostly playing out of habit and because I've made a few friends in the local community (which is great and what the game should be about). My frustrations are mostly with the randomness of literally everything that high-level players might care about - nests, raids, IVs, shiny, EX invites - and the staleness of the battle system, in lieu of more strategy-based gameplay elements that made the original series successful. I'm not saying that everything in the game needs to be completely deterministic, but the current state of things makes it so that if RNGesus isn't in your favor, your experience is going to suck. Being the only person in your playgroup without a shiny Lugia even though you did way more raids feels bad, for instance.
In any event, the game gives me something to do when I'm walking to and from work/appointments/etc. so I'll keep doing it. It would be nice for it to actually become more of a game but I don't see that happening for a long time given Niantic's historical sluggishness.
