Plea for Help to Reduce Phone Graphics
Back in my day, games had different graphics-quality options because game-makers wanted as many people as possible to play. Is this no longer the case?
Around the time PoGo came out, I had just gotten my first smartphone, with 1GB of ram, and everything ran just fine. I haven't been adding anything to my phone since then (and have been clearing caches regularly) but as time goes by with each update, performance gets worse and worse.
I have heard others complain on this board and elsewhere about crashes and laggy gameplay. I had gradually gotten used to restarting the app (and occasionally my phone) more and more but for the past few weeks I haven't been able to rename more than 4 pokemon without it needing a restart.
Today I tried prestiging a level 9 gym, assuming I'd need to restart the app every time I needed to reenter the gym (as usual) but the game couldn't even load the second defender without crashing. Sometimes it wouldn't even let me finish an attack on the first defender. For me, much of this game was about maximizing coins and dust by prestiging and holding spots in high-level gyms. After today's experience, that avenue of enjoyment seems to be out the window.
Games on my 30-year-old NES (with 2k of ram) run far better than PoGo runs on my 6-month-old phone with 500,000 times as much ram. I would love to sacrifice some superfluous graphics for actual gameplay. If I ever wanted to, I'm sure I could gaze lovingly at high-resolution pokemon outside the app.
I really do hope that there is some way I can force graphics changes in the app and keep playing as I have - and I'll be grateful to anyone who can help me find a way to make it work.
Otherwise, I suppose I'll just open the app once per day as I walk the dog to spin 1 pokestop and catch 1 pokemon until I upgrade my phone in 4 years or so... because at least I'd have about 1.4 million extra stardust to play with in 2021.
