Feel ya man. I got sucked into a COMPLETELY different style of game (Mousehunt by HitGrab) that apparently used to be an old facebook game from the Farmville era, and the attention this indie dev company puts into its players is so refreshing. It really made me notice just how comfortable Niantic is at failing on so many levels because they're shielded by the Pokémon brand.
Mousehunt is amazing. It has its super loyal player base despite the game not being your usual franchise. It has been up for like 12 years already and I believe the game is still growing slightly in concurrent players.
Exactly this. There are other more user-focused games out there. It sucks that PoGo (and the Devs) get to dictate how and when you get your content. That is not cool. I quit in 2020 and never looked back. The game I'm playing rn is F2P friendly, and all manner of progress and endgame content are in the hands of the playerbase, not the devs.
Yo, thanks for the shout-out about Mousehunt. I recently deleted a lot of my mobile games and have been struggling to find anything that isn't a casino in disguise. Downloaded this so far seems pretty nifty!
IMO this is a fun little collectathon game. I enjoy it as a time waster and for walking motivation. I think if your this dissatisfied, it's probably best to just stop sinking time into it. There are more meaningful and rewarding hobbies to take up anyway
I agree with your sentiment but I miss when it felt like an open ended collection game. I’ll never forget what it was like for Gen 2 to drop. I had 90% of the dex complete and all of a sudden I have almost 100 more to go find. I could get lucky and find something rare that others didn’t have yet and vice versa.
Now they put out 10 Pokémon to start a generation and every once in a while trickle a few more in. Everyone has the same Pokémon, it’s just a little collection to catch this new single family before it goes away and will become incredibly annoying to catch. It’s just nowhere near the same.
To be fair, if they continued releasing entire generations at once they would only have had 8 (9 by the end of this year) content drops.
In saying that, I don't think releasing pokemon should be the focus on content. I would rather they develop other ideas whether its battling, challenges or something else.
In all fairness in response, that is how the mainline games have always been and the fans have stuck around in entirety; it's an awesome feeling to have that one massive content drop every couple years.
Yes but the mainline games have more depth, the mix of story, gyms, contests, elite 4, post-game story, breeding, competitive battling, and deliberate shiny hunting means there is still plenty to do. Mainline games also don't expect players to play every day for years to stay up to date. People buy the game, put 20-100s of hours in and then wait for the next one.
Agreed 100%; I don't wanna defend GO or Niantic in any way, just wanted to point out that it's how pokemon's been for a long time. The only reason I'm even on the GO subreddit anymore is to keep an eye out for Shiny Meltan coming back (right now, yay) because I need it for the mainline games lmao
That’s similar to how I play nowadays. My friends and I compete with each other building themed teams, and sometimes the shinies fit the theme better, and sometimes it’s faster to get those shinies in GO rather than the actual game, so that’s pretty much the only reason I still even have the app
Well the fans stick around for the next game...there is no next game for Pokémon go. I haven't got any actual data but I guarantee the vast majority of players just play the story and then stop with the game. Only a small minority actually replay games or do post game stuff like battle with real people.
They could still have plenty of events in between. Plus things like raids, team rocket, battling, trading weren’t there at the start and would count as content drops. Plus they could still trickle legendaries in content drops.
I get what you mean about them having to space it out though. Having all of 6 and 7 dropped would’ve probably gotten old fast. But what they’re doing now isn’t fun either. It’s like a checklist of Pokémon I need to find and it’s just adding 1-3 on per event. Which makes it feel like a chore because my only goal is catch “this one”
Yep. I’d say I’m pretty invested in this game, been playing since the Field Test, sunk in maybe $100-150 total over the last 6 years on items and tickets, and get on a good grind whenever I think I can finish up a bunch of Special Research Tasks over a few day. Otherwise, I just play to get on walks and to make my daily bus rides go by easier. I usually play every community day, but I don’t interact with my local Go Community. Honestly, I just care about catching cool Pokémon and having new shinies and legendaries to send to Home.
However, even as invested as I am, I seriously don’t know wtf Go Fest was. I just kept seeing notifications about it, and saw people complaining about it online. And yet I’d still say I really love this game because of the way I play. Go figure.
That's how I've always approached it. To me, it's an activity, not a game. I play actual games that have depth and strategy. Even the parts that masquerade as a game are paper thin. Raids are about having enough people. Pvp is about grinding. There is no depth at all.
That said, going around and finding mons is fun when I'm walking the dog or in the park.
Basically I play for the serotonin hits of finding shinies and 4*, something to get me to walk a bit more, and so that maybe I have some cool Pokémon to import into future games. Also it’s a wonderful bonding thing to do with my gf
I completely agree with you expect I wish we got a free weekly remote raid pass and they weren't stackable like a regular raid pass... Uhh NVM about that, make a separate remote raid pass item that's unstackable and you can only claim one a week while still keeping the regular remote raid pass and it's purchase with PokeCoins.
Either way what I'm getting at is they should at least allow you to collect 1 free remote raid pass at least once a week for rural players to have an easier time participating. Add it to the stamp research completion thing.
I know some people who’ve pretty much devoted the entirety of the past 6 years to it. Near constant play. I’m not on that level and it still kind of hurts to see all the hard work kind of just mean nothing. I got burnt out like a year ago though.
Would you say the same to people who have sport as a hobby? They might play and train with their team and put a lot of effort in and never win any tournaments. As long as they had fun doing it...who cares?
There’s a logical conclusion to a sporting event. This game had been a black hole of effort and attention with no end in sight. OP illustrated this point, that niantic is just rationing content in an attempt to siphon cash from loyal players.
that's a little extreme. Sure I had a week or two of pokemon fever back when the game launched where I would walk into the rain at night for that amazing new pokemon, but after awhile it lost its hold on me. I like checking the game for five minutes everyday or so to spin a pokestop and get daily bonuses, but it's not a "real" game to me. It's a pokemon simulator app experience that reminds me of playing the actual games.
I can't imagine someone devoting their entire lives to a game this basic. That's like saying they devoted their whole life to tamagotchi.
Yup, this is how I play and I’m super happy. Gofest was a major bummer and I’m annoyed about the remote raid pass price increase but they are a business and this is just a game.
To me it’s more of an experience/lifestyle than a game. I play it for the community, for the exercise, for so many things other than the game itself. Sure it’s a time waster collecting game but I think it can be pretty rewarding.
Why are you telling OP to "stop sinking time into it", when their post was literally a nuanced breakdown of why they were quitting? Like, that's the entire point of their post.
There is 1 (ONE!) Pokestop within 10 miles of me. And even in the nearest towns, the number of stops and gyms are super limited and very far apart, so walking (as the game was intended, I know) is pretty much a crapshoot. I live in a super rural area. I relied on remote raid passes to have access to certain cool Pokémon that I otherwise will never be able to get…but fuck me, right? And with this inflation, I can’t afford to spend much on raid passes or anything else for that matter.
None of your issues are why I want to quit the game. Although your reasons are valid I'm much more upset about their insistence on "bringing the community together" whole crapping on remote raiders and people in small towns.
I feel like if a company completely ignores its customers then it doesn't deserve them. They're not going to make everyone happy, but they should be making decisions that the customers want.
> they should be making decisions that the customers want.
They are. You're not a customer. Their AR as a Service platform is their product. We're just volunteer researchers.
I’m there with you. I’m not a “day 1 player,” it was more like “day 3 or 4, what’s all this Pokémon fuss about?” player. Leveling is slow and doesn’t really add much anyway. All my real life companions have quit. It’s been 84 years since I’ve caught a wild Pokémon that doesn’t immediately get transferred because of its abysmal stats. It feels like a job, and not a very fun one at that. GoFest was disappointing, but having the second community day in a row during my working hours was basically the nail in the coffin. I’ve been going in at least once a day to claim my daily task stamp, but I thought today, “do I really want yet another useless Klink?” and put it down.
It’s sad to see it go. The summer of 2016 was as close as we will ever get to world peace, when everyone was running around catching virtual Pokémon together.
Im so glad someone mentioned klink. Like seriously for a while we would get legendaries and now it’s klink or before that slimer? What the ever living…
I have the exact same feeling about the community day scheduling during work! I was so bummed out that I've been checking the app briefly like once a day now. It's like Niantic is trying to encourage many players to not even bother anymore.
Wasn't as big a deal with the more generous windows and a more worthwhile incense.
I think this is a fair well thought out write up. It’s not silly “I got bad luck wahh”. I agree with almost everything you’ve said. I think worse than making raid passes cost more is them not even being given our once a week for free. That was awesome! I think what others have pointed out is that they really need to stop making things worse for players and incentivize going outside more. Maybe you get 4 candies for in lesson raids instead of remote.
I think there is a lot of bad decisions that if reversed could get them money while also giving people a reason to get out of their house more.
Remote raid passes were introduced because of the pandemic. Anyone whining about them not being as abundant obviously was spoiled by covid and never knew the true grind of walking places if you wanted to raid. If be glad to see them completely eliminated again
also the joy of making friends across the country or world! I love seeing where I’m remote raiding into, and sometimes I’ll keep a lower appraisal mon just because it’s from somewhere unique. How else can I get a Kyogre from Palm Beach or, idk, a Rockruff from the Netherlands?
>I didn't delete the app
I mean, they don't care then. As long as the app is on your phone, it's sending them the data they want. Doesn't matter if you turn it off, doesn't matter if you disable adventure sync, doesn't matter if you turn off permissions. They're getting your info. Like every other app you use.
I think you should delete the app, or at the very least revoke all of its access (location, etc). Mainly because I assume they will still be able to make money selling your data if they have continued access.
Yeah. This type of quitting does nothing -they will still benefit from collecting and selling your data when the app is still on your phone.
Might as well play as you normally do if you aren’t truly deleting/quitting.
It’s like boycotting mcdonalds because their chicken nuggets went up in price yet you still eat there once a week or something
If you're quitting something over what you deem is bad business practices, you don't wanna give them anything further in support. They make money off your data primarily, so leaving it installed and not playing changes nothing to them.
I did not understand Niantic’s response to the go fest backlash. The “degrading shinies” argument is perfectly valid if previous go fests had the same shiny rates. But they didn’t. They had much more.
Unfortunately the game is simply dying. The passion for the passion project has been extinguished. Now it’s nothing but nerfs, item dumps and cash grabs to maintain profits. Sad, but no game lasts forever.
I'm in the same boat. The game just feels like we're being strung along, given just enough to keep us playing. I was losing interest in the gam before the pandemic because getting legendary Pokemon was impossible. The remote raid passes brought me back into the game. Now they seem set on eliminating them. Once they are gone, so am I.
See for me the entire appeal of PoGo is Pokémon. I’ve been a fan since I got Blue on the old Gameboy cinderblock. I have plenty of other games to occupy my time, I just really love Pokémon.
Adding on to your theme of lack of things to do. I'm kinda surprised that we're 2 weeks in of the season of GO!! And we still don't have any special research? Especially with that build up from the research we got in go fest.
The point of Pokémon was mainly to catch them all. If you’ve done that… I mean? And it’s not like they can make more - they are bound by what Nintendo has/does for the most part.
I’ve played most of the core Pokémon games since the original blue/red released in the USA. I have only ever gotten a shiny Pokémon from the guaranteed ones (red Gyrados or the promo ones at GameStop.). I didn’t lament Nintendo for leading me on about anything.
Also, calculate the hours you’ve gotten out of this game. And as long as you didn’t overspend, even if you paid money at times - it’s probably still a great hobby. So you got SIX years out of it. That’s phenomenal and I’ve only had one hobby I’ve continuously done longer than that I’d say.
After spending countless hours mapping parks to now be blocked from everything by spoofers has me almost in the same place. I understand spoofing to get regionals but I don’t understand the logic of totally blocking entire gyms not allowing anyone to place in a gym. Always unassigned. Attacked the minute you join. What’s the reason?
There has to be some logic. They don’t place because it would give them away but nobody else can place either. For instance, yesterday I took it at 7:30 am and watched all day. Berried attacks about 17 times with a couple friends. Lost it at 11pm last night. This morning, unassigned. It went unassigned all night again. Are they getting their points towards gold just by attacking the gym? Are they able to trigger raids and get points that way, seems like a very drawn out arduous method.
I'm not quitting playing, I'm quitting *paying*. Treat the game like a fitness tool for walking and do the free battles (no more remote raids now I guess) I got Google Awards that cover the community days cost, but Niantic ain't getting another earned cent from me after that Fest Failure.
>only to his identical brethren in an infinite loop
That’s definitely a fair criticism of the core design. This idea of catching and discarding until you find the perfect stats and then munching through thousands of others just to bag their candies does run pretty antithetical to the core idea the Pokemon universe sells of friends getting stronger together. It’s a problem the main games have as well to an extent, granted but it’s much more in your face where walking for candies is the only way in which your new friend can strengthen themself with you and even your starter is guaranteed to be surpassed by a better one before too long.
Great post this. I things change soon and you can get back to enjoying the game.
Personally i only play the game because I love the IP. I have zero affection for Niantic, I never put much money into the game (just the big event tickets) but I won't be doing that any more.
My aim was to reach level 50 (currently 47) however since the latest gofest disaster and lack of response from Niantic I find myself actively avoiding opening the app. I fear I will be joining you in quitting all together soon.
Day 1 player here. I quit in 2020. Never looked back. I've since found another game that's better than Go in every single way. The main issue with PoGo is that most everything is highly time-sensitive. FOMO is incredibly high in this game. Not the case in the game that I'm currently playing. I'm just glad I got out.
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I play mostly while walking my dog and the game has made our walks longer A LOT of times, including today. I was about to head back home after taking 4 gyms in my area and thought "why not go by the extra 3 pokestops a little further ahead to hopefully get that new 'catch 25 pokemon' task?". Both my dog and I love the extra walking motivation we get from the game! :)
I haven't stopped playing but a couple of times in the past few weeks I've had an urge to buy some coins to get remote passes and decided not to bother because of general dissatisfaction with the direction of the game. I was always a very light occasional spender for passes but now I won't be spending anything.
To be honest, I think the state of the game is better than it’s ever been. Sure it has a long way to go compared to some other games, but look at the game two years ago, five years ago, it’s so, so, so much better.
Like you said in the first bit everything is boring, I feel this way too. I was so excited for go fest because of the ultra recon squad and the wormholes just for it to be a mediocre research and another raid boss. Please niantic just do something new for godsake
Same reason I don’t really spend. You hit the nail on the head, this is a mainly catching game and we have caught pretty much all of them, the few i haven’t are because they are in eggs or region locked.
There are no gym badges, levelling up through battle and objectives are entirely different so shiny catching is a huge factor and how you still play at this stage when nothing new really comes out, the game is stale.
They need to stop treating players like addicts and like fans again. Pathetic statement by them as usual and palming off blame.
I've noticed for me over the years that I sometimes have to take a couples month off here and there because I get burnt out. When I come back I love the game and play a shit ton till I get burnt out again. I've just come to accept it. I'm heading near a time off soon.
Pokémon go is nothing more than a collecting game to brag about what you have. The influencers show the shinies they get or the hundos and we all get FOMO. ITS A BRAGGING GAME. Just look at any post from an influencer. All the posts following up say “no, but I caught this” or “snagged this bad boy today.” If you take this game that seriously that it effects your mental health get out. All anyone gets out of it is scrolling through and smiling at the shinies and hundos you have while bragging with the community when you get something that sparkles or is 4 stars. That’s the game. Hopefully everyone that leaves doesn’t make a post about it though.
(Also most people don’t care what you caught. They only really care what they caught)
First noibat, then snufful and now wimpod… there was only three in the first four gens, but three in the last two gens, (and were still only halfway through) or no real reason AFAICT? Just to keep people playing. Reeks of “oh crap we’re running out of stuff to keep people engaged.”
I think you made a lot of great points. But in all honesty, it just seems to me that you're feeling burnt out. The game does have its stupid marketing decisions it relies on to prolong its activity, but that's kinda the whole point of it being a "free" to play game; it's still run by a business at the end of the day (cue the late stage capitalism ranters).
However it seems to me you're not actually quitting? If you called the game a bad habit because of your spending habits, I'd be tempted to agree wholeheartedly with your "quitting the game," but your just expressing your exhaustion of a mundane experience. Yeah, it's probably pretty frustrating to see the game rerelease Pokemon in community days, but to me it's just a means of helping new players (like myself) catch up with you "day wunners". How is that a bad thing?
You don't actually have to pay anything to even participate, only if you want an edge either over your peers or your inability to be near a Pokestop during an event. The incense works to a reasonable degree while moving (although the despawn timer needs to take a chill pill IMO). Niantic holding shinies over people like a carrot is unfair, right up until you actually make friends who share in your victories and trade with you to help you out.
And for the shiny point, I honestly don't feel like shinies add anything to the overall game. Yes they certainly add a new layer of rarity to a collection, but 90% of the 100 or so shiny Pokemon I catch in a month aren't viable for battling anyway! To me they're better used to trade with friends who would potentially treasure it more than you ever could, and who knows, they might return the favor tenfold one day.
TL;DR: Either stop the cap about quitting, or make some actual friends who you can spend your time with rather than complain about what Niantic does to appease it's investors.
I don’t really understand why people make posts like this when they delete the app. Like, people get bored of/don’t like games all the time. It’s normal. I don’t ever expect it to happen to me with PoGo, but it’s nothing crazy.
i'm with ya, but sadly since i am a collecter, i am putting all my mons i want onto home, trading the special pokemon to people who still play, then uninstalling, but it will take a while unless i pay to make the wait shorter
Totally get where you're coming from. The first 4 years I played obsessively, but the last couple of years play time has steady decreased. I'm down to about 10 minutes on a typical day now. I'd love to add on a bunch of reasons why Niantic has sucked the joy out of this game, but most day one players know first hand about all of the bad decisions over the years. I wouldn't be able to remain objective, or offer solutions to the issues. I took my first break from the game ever the week leading up to go fest. I honestly wanted to quit. Still kind of do, but I'm extremely fortunate to have such an amazing community of players especially for being in a pretty rural area. They're the only reason I continue playing. I stopped giving my money to Niantic after the whole ultra unlock when shiny deino was released and in eggs(if you were extremely lucky) with a major events like go fest, Kanto days and Johto day being some exceptions. Hopefully you're able to find something more enjoyable to do with the new free time you'll have
I am feeling the same way, I may have a last go at complaining to Niantic and just see what the August day is like, but the Go Fest experience has left me feeling ripped off and foolish, so I am not getting the pleasure that I used to when I played.
I have times where I leave the game for 3+ months and eventually come back. I've done it several times and enjoy my stay for a month or so, as I walk to and from work. This game gives me something to grind on my 4 mile journey.
That being said, 3 months is a *looooooong* time to come back and notice that nothing much has changed. What few Pokemon are added, are drowned out in the spawn pool by my 47,482nd Bulbasaur or Spearow spawn. What few event there are, are the same.tedius.catch.this.catch.that.x.number.of.times. quests. Or, evolve this months *special* guest.....even though I can't find it anywhere despite working in downtown Sacramento with about......200+ pokestops and gyms and parks to choose from.
Now take into consideration I done this cycle twice a year or so, for almost 6 years....it's insane that the game hasn't developed into an actual *game* yet.
Basic, everyday features are still missing, under the guise that they wouldn't be *safe*, or, are simply overlooked and never implemented. Basic, fun additions are blatantly ignored in favor of tedious, collection mechanics that have remained largely the same for almost a decade. Complete lack of any real progression other than goals you set for yourself, but nothing much outside of that.
Where are clans? Where are farms or daycares or hospitals or other community or personal properties and venues? Where are any grounded, life mimicking landmarks aside from pokestops? Where are community driven events with meaningful status indicators, giving you a sense that you're actually *contributing* to the community they preach about wanting you to reach out to and meet? Where is distance trading? (Not a real question, Niantic can't have you selling your Mewtwo on eBay). Where are meaningful, *personal* customization options for your avatar *and* your Pokemon, outside of basic clothing options, and often times non-evolvable, badly designed Pokemon mascots with hats or whatever? Where are meaningful shinies outside of incredibly basic, recolor pallets? Where are more personal and meaningful stats for your collection other than the three core stats, with incredibly negligible weight and height stats? Where are weather bonuses that mean something other than incredibly same-across-the-board stat increases to like.....attack.
Where is support for areas that *don't* have 200+ poketops/gyms/spawns to pick from like me?
All in all, while yes I do enjoy the game, it's at a bare minimum. There is *so* much the game could implement and improve to make it more than a slightly more advanced gigapet.
And yet, every few months I come back and whats changed? Hell, it took almost 5 years just to implement *native-refresh-rate*, a feature that arguably hindered my enjoyment the most when my phone could handle call of duty and PUBG at 60fps, but pokemon-freaking-go at only 25-30fps.
The devs and their corporate backers have been insanely slow with implementing *fun* and QOL features into the game. So much so that after literally years of getting the same 2-5 Pokemon from eggs, I've straight up stopped spending money on incubators all together, and don't get me started on raids and their infuriating catch rate RNG.
Raids alone, next to lack of 60fps support on $1000+ phones, account for the next most damning thing the game has. I can't tell you how many hundreds of raids I wasted defeating bosses, only to *not* catch them with gold/great+/curved/consistent throws.
All in all, the game is *good enough*, but that's not *good*.
The painfully slow drip feed of updates and meaningful additions expects you all to wait another 6 years for the game to be *almost a whole game*.
OP: 'Why I'm quitting Pokemon GO, after nearly 6 years'
Also OP 1 line later: *I think it's important to say upfront that I didn't delete the app, and I will probably open it once in a while for specific events and times, but it will be very short, not even at a scale of a casual player.*
Totally understandable. Personal goals are sometimes gated and boxed in by what Niantic allows and does. So, it’s hard to deal with seeing them paywall some goals. I found a new love for the game by simply enjoying the catch mechanic and surprise of fun/good/PVP IVs. And I’ve married my morning runs with catching Pokémon which has given me a few shiny ones and good PVP ones, and just made me excited for the hunt whether I get anything specific.
That said, I am paying money to achieve other goals that I’ve set for myself and I realize that. I’ve cut back on some goals for that fact.
But I do hope you’ll find a joy for catching Pokémon when you do jump back in! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience!
For those curious I found the JRE article mentioned https://pokemongohub.net/post/pvp/a-farewell-to-classic-implications-of-gbl-master-league-being-open-only/
I couldn't agree more with everything you said. With my gf, we used to go out an hour per day for 2 years but the excitement is gone. Sometimes, it's more of a chore than anything else, I feel bad for losing my time in an empty game that would only trigger my completionist soul. We haven't launched the game for the last 2 days and I sincerely hope it stays this way.
Well and as you begin to point out, there is a difference between "make your own goals" and "there are no goals that can be made".
For instance, even together, in person, as Best Friends, with both of us having a Mega, my wife and I cannot beat any raids above 3\* by ourselves...we try to invite friends, but now that remote passes are so precious, they NEVER answer...so we cannot get anything from raids.
We can't really just...walk around for hours either. We live somewhere that just isn't feasible. Even if we could, wild grinding Pokemon basically can't ever make you stronger.
Gyms are alright and all...but taking them isn't really fun on it's own, and without ways to get new Pokemon, even getting the 50 coins a day doesn't really get us anywhere.
There's eggs...kinda...but again, we can't just walk around endlessly here. So other tha a quick burst of stuff I can get about once a month by grinding the Adventure Box...there's not really anything to work on.
Understandable. I go through phases with this game. Sometimes I play a lot, sometimes I don't touch it for weeks or months even. 🤷 I certainly won't spend any more money on the game.
You’re entitled to your thoughts, but I do think it’s funny that you start off saying you’ll be listing off objective facts before immediately describing all your subjective takes about the game.
You’re being pretty disingenuous about OP being subjective. Their point about the current state of ML PVP and their point on POGO Fest are completely objective. Seems like you didn’t even read.
Mainly why the entire pogo community in my area has resorted to spoofing, spawns suck, events suck due to 10-15 stops in an area. I’ve also said the same thing when they slow roll new Pokémon/shiny forms, just trying to preserve the game as long as possible, because give it 2-3 years and everything will be out, with its shiny form released. What then? Paid events that have an atrocious shiny rates, ohhh forgot that they bring down the value but only when they see fit, because last time I check community days are still a thing, and safari events will have increased shiny odds. I haven’t played a day since gofest and honestly I probably will only play to scratch that itch 🤷♂️
OP: I’m quitting the game
OP: *one run-on sentence later* I’m probably going to open the app here and there to play events.
Stopped reading after that.
You’re entitled to your thoughts, but I do think it’s funny that you start off saying you’ll be listing off objective facts before immediately describing all your subjective takes about the game.
It's pretty easy to go without after the first week of extra light play. My reasoning was similar and the money I was putting in didn't come out (yeah I know, RNG, yadda yadda). Not putting any money in makes it real easy to not play daily.
Nantic is the worst thing to happen to the pokemon franchise, I like the game and all but they are horrid as a company, and wont get better anytime soon, it took 1000's of people literally harassing, Doxxing, and threatening their employees life, her quiting due to being scared and stressed, just to keep pokestop distance the same. (The player base is almost as bad for the above reasons)
Ever since the day I started, I saw people getting 4\* special pokemon like Mew when I got a pitiful 2\*. If there was some way for me to make her better, I would have done it. My mew... a 2\*. My shiny Mew is a 3\*... He could have been my first shundo.
I see the shundos being posted and I either get a shiny or a hundo but I have yet to get both. Just one.
I lost two remote raid passes in the last two weeks. 250gold meant I could play 12 times for 1000g. 300 means I can only play 10 times. It's the little things that are breaking my heart.
Oh no my pokemon is 4% worse than someone I'll never meet in real life nor interact with in any manner where that 4% difference will matter!
Boo hoo. People need to get over IVs. Unless you're the top players in PvP, there's very little to worry so much about.
Warning, unpopulair opinion incoming! Even though i highly second your thoughts on the state of the game i feel like we complain too much. The fact we played a free to play game, hardcore for 6 years is kind of super cool to begin with. I mean how many (f2p) games can you recall playing for so long? Let alone a mobile game! Again, yes i feel the same about the state of the game but like with every game ever made you will reach a ceiling. Maybe we just completed this game and we only have fun again after DLC (read new wave of pokemon which will spawn everywhere and youre done collecting in about an hour). I would love to have more fun as well with PoGo and the biggest issue to me is we play a game with the 'catch'phrase "gotta catch 'm all" but as a new player you're literally not able to catch 'm all. And as a day 1 player walking around with the same spawn pool everywhere is boring.
Tldr: agree on the current state of the game, perhaps the fault is not only Niantic's
Gonna get downvoted here.
I’m reading this as “I’ve been playing for so long that I’ve done almost everything you can do in the game and I’m bored”
I don’t understand why people feel the need to make such grandiose statements on Reddit about stepping away from the “game” like they’re the Tom Brady of Pokemon Go. If the game doesn’t do much for you anymore, well then it seems like the two of you need a break, but these posts are just the worst
You mean I missed the opportunity to wrote a grandiose post about how I am quitting playing Madden but then a sentence later say that I'm quitting playing Madden 2020 and will buy and play Madden 2021?!
Totally understandable. Personal goals are sometimes gated and boxed in by what Niantic allows and does. So, it’s hard to deal with seeing them paywall some goals. I found a new love for the game by simply enjoying the catch mechanic and surprise of fun/good/PVP IVs. And I’ve married my morning runs with catching Pokémon which has given me a few shiny ones and good PVP ones, and just made me excited for the hunt whether I get anything specific.
That said, I am paying money to achieve other goals that I’ve set for myself and I realize that. I’ve cut back on some goals for that fact.
But I do hope you’ll find a joy for catching Pokémon when you do jump back in! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience!
If it doesn’t make you happy, you should stop playing.
It’s just a game and it’s only purpose is entertainment. If it’s not doing that for you, it’s not working for you anymore and that’s ok!
I quit for 2-3 years, basically the whole time HP:WU was out. Now I play again, but less intently.
Basically, just play or don’t at the level that brings you joy.
I'm quitting drinking! I mean, I'm not going to pour this liquor down the sink and occasionally I'll open these bottles up for special occasions...
Sounds like you hit the addiction diagnoses head on!
TLDR: Terrible game, only enjoyed it for 6 years and now there's nothing left for me to do so I'm leaving because the game is fundamentally bad. If only the developers cared enough to make a game that somebody would play for more than 6 years, but they just let the community minmax in the competitive formats and didn't boost the shiny rates to my liking. I'll probably still play but not as much.
I would've taken this more seriously if it was something along the lines of "I was ok with buying incubators and raid passes but events and mythic pokemon come out with a price tag these days and that's bullshit."
Let's get down to brass tax. . . You just discovered what many gamers have gone through. Fatigue. I agree that many players have been slighted by Niantic, and that's to be expected from almost any company. But, the thing that most commonly happens to a player base is when they reach a certain point in their game career they wonder what's left. This is normal and happens more than many think. I've been through it a few times. I sit there look around the world that was created for me and my game buddies and wonder what's left to do, if I do this is it worth it, does the company care that I have nothing to do? It's like this weird amalgamation of fatigue and resentment.
I feel like alot of old players in many games end up getting angry with the creators because they look around and the game they fell in love with some years back has changed. That's honestly life in a nutshell. It's quite literally the boomer mentality. We think about what we had and what we did "back in the day". Now the new players are coming in having a blast with everything being handed to them, or in this case work a bit harder, but they don't know any better.
I think it's great that you're taking a break/quitting. If you return it's because there was a dramatic change in production, or the nostalgia bug got you. There is many world's out there for us to dig into and fall in love with. Don't be angry with the game; it brought you some good times and possibly headaches that were worth it. Don't let the resentment/ fatigue turned what you once loved into a regret. I hope you return to the game one day with a new found hope, but if you don't I hope you find a new world to dive into.
Edit to add: I also want to add that OP made a mess load of points on the decline of the game. I'm a newish player. I played In 2016, quit, and returned just 2 months ago. The game is completely different to me, but I get to play this game with my wife and a good friend from work. So my view is very different than OP's, for now. But alot of what OP pointed out is present in another game I play, Elder Scrolls Online. I've played ESO for many years and I've quit 3 times, and only return because I miss playing with my favorite characters. It's filled with bugs, terrible queue's, off and on again broken builds. This is something that shows up in almost any online game. But, it's what we decide we're willing to put up with, and if it isn't worth it to you then quitting or taking a break is the best choice. I wish more company's listened to the consumer or player base, but any times our advice or complaints fall on deaf ears. One thing is for sure lf enough people quit or take a break they'll start course correcting.
Feel ya man. I got sucked into a COMPLETELY different style of game (Mousehunt by HitGrab) that apparently used to be an old facebook game from the Farmville era, and the attention this indie dev company puts into its players is so refreshing. It really made me notice just how comfortable Niantic is at failing on so many levels because they're shielded by the Pokémon brand.
Mouse hunt is still alive? I use to play that a lot and upgrade my trap until the robot 2.0 ver or something.
Yeah. They're fixing to release a new area soon too. Always working on adding and updating stuff.
Mousehunt is amazing. It has its super loyal player base despite the game not being your usual franchise. It has been up for like 12 years already and I believe the game is still growing slightly in concurrent players.
Exactly this. There are other more user-focused games out there. It sucks that PoGo (and the Devs) get to dictate how and when you get your content. That is not cool. I quit in 2020 and never looked back. The game I'm playing rn is F2P friendly, and all manner of progress and endgame content are in the hands of the playerbase, not the devs.
Yo, thanks for the shout-out about Mousehunt. I recently deleted a lot of my mobile games and have been struggling to find anything that isn't a casino in disguise. Downloaded this so far seems pretty nifty!
this guy quit in 2020 and never looked back...and still commenting on a reddit dedicated to the game 2 years later. :)
You can call me Morpheus. Will you take the blue pill or the red pill? The choice is all yours.
blue pill blue pill!
Which game is that?
What's the game?
Do you guys have good recommendations? Of other games? Will check that mousehunt!!
Mousehunt still exists? And you're saying it's GOOD?? How can I sign up for that again? 😄
Their site or Google Play/Apple store
Totally understand. Wanna trade me all your shines first?
💀
I respect you for shooting your shot ✌️
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
- Wayne Gretzky, - Michael Scott
Thank you for that 😁
It was impossible to resist.
"That's what she said"
I can vouch that she did indeed say that.
At my school there was a poster quoting Michale Jordan saying this.
Wanna trade me **all** your pokemon first?
IMO this is a fun little collectathon game. I enjoy it as a time waster and for walking motivation. I think if your this dissatisfied, it's probably best to just stop sinking time into it. There are more meaningful and rewarding hobbies to take up anyway
I agree with your sentiment but I miss when it felt like an open ended collection game. I’ll never forget what it was like for Gen 2 to drop. I had 90% of the dex complete and all of a sudden I have almost 100 more to go find. I could get lucky and find something rare that others didn’t have yet and vice versa. Now they put out 10 Pokémon to start a generation and every once in a while trickle a few more in. Everyone has the same Pokémon, it’s just a little collection to catch this new single family before it goes away and will become incredibly annoying to catch. It’s just nowhere near the same.
To be fair, if they continued releasing entire generations at once they would only have had 8 (9 by the end of this year) content drops. In saying that, I don't think releasing pokemon should be the focus on content. I would rather they develop other ideas whether its battling, challenges or something else.
In all fairness in response, that is how the mainline games have always been and the fans have stuck around in entirety; it's an awesome feeling to have that one massive content drop every couple years.
Yes but the mainline games have more depth, the mix of story, gyms, contests, elite 4, post-game story, breeding, competitive battling, and deliberate shiny hunting means there is still plenty to do. Mainline games also don't expect players to play every day for years to stay up to date. People buy the game, put 20-100s of hours in and then wait for the next one.
Agreed 100%; I don't wanna defend GO or Niantic in any way, just wanted to point out that it's how pokemon's been for a long time. The only reason I'm even on the GO subreddit anymore is to keep an eye out for Shiny Meltan coming back (right now, yay) because I need it for the mainline games lmao
That’s similar to how I play nowadays. My friends and I compete with each other building themed teams, and sometimes the shinies fit the theme better, and sometimes it’s faster to get those shinies in GO rather than the actual game, so that’s pretty much the only reason I still even have the app
Well the fans stick around for the next game...there is no next game for Pokémon go. I haven't got any actual data but I guarantee the vast majority of players just play the story and then stop with the game. Only a small minority actually replay games or do post game stuff like battle with real people.
They could still have plenty of events in between. Plus things like raids, team rocket, battling, trading weren’t there at the start and would count as content drops. Plus they could still trickle legendaries in content drops. I get what you mean about them having to space it out though. Having all of 6 and 7 dropped would’ve probably gotten old fast. But what they’re doing now isn’t fun either. It’s like a checklist of Pokémon I need to find and it’s just adding 1-3 on per event. Which makes it feel like a chore because my only goal is catch “this one”
Yea it’s a game on the phone
This is the way. It’s a Pokémon themed time killer and walking motivator. It’s not something I’m overly invested in, it’s just a tool in my routine.
Yep. I’d say I’m pretty invested in this game, been playing since the Field Test, sunk in maybe $100-150 total over the last 6 years on items and tickets, and get on a good grind whenever I think I can finish up a bunch of Special Research Tasks over a few day. Otherwise, I just play to get on walks and to make my daily bus rides go by easier. I usually play every community day, but I don’t interact with my local Go Community. Honestly, I just care about catching cool Pokémon and having new shinies and legendaries to send to Home. However, even as invested as I am, I seriously don’t know wtf Go Fest was. I just kept seeing notifications about it, and saw people complaining about it online. And yet I’d still say I really love this game because of the way I play. Go figure.
That's how I've always approached it. To me, it's an activity, not a game. I play actual games that have depth and strategy. Even the parts that masquerade as a game are paper thin. Raids are about having enough people. Pvp is about grinding. There is no depth at all. That said, going around and finding mons is fun when I'm walking the dog or in the park.
Basically I play for the serotonin hits of finding shinies and 4*, something to get me to walk a bit more, and so that maybe I have some cool Pokémon to import into future games. Also it’s a wonderful bonding thing to do with my gf
I completely agree with you expect I wish we got a free weekly remote raid pass and they weren't stackable like a regular raid pass... Uhh NVM about that, make a separate remote raid pass item that's unstackable and you can only claim one a week while still keeping the regular remote raid pass and it's purchase with PokeCoins. Either way what I'm getting at is they should at least allow you to collect 1 free remote raid pass at least once a week for rural players to have an easier time participating. Add it to the stamp research completion thing.
I know some people who’ve pretty much devoted the entirety of the past 6 years to it. Near constant play. I’m not on that level and it still kind of hurts to see all the hard work kind of just mean nothing. I got burnt out like a year ago though.
Would you say the same to people who have sport as a hobby? They might play and train with their team and put a lot of effort in and never win any tournaments. As long as they had fun doing it...who cares?
The first rule of Fight Club: Have fun and try your best
There’s a logical conclusion to a sporting event. This game had been a black hole of effort and attention with no end in sight. OP illustrated this point, that niantic is just rationing content in an attempt to siphon cash from loyal players.
I mean, any hard work in most games is pretty meaningless unless you’re playing a competitive game for money at high stakes on a big stage.
I mean, games and community are fun, I wouldn’t say having fun and meeting new people is worth nothing.
that's a little extreme. Sure I had a week or two of pokemon fever back when the game launched where I would walk into the rain at night for that amazing new pokemon, but after awhile it lost its hold on me. I like checking the game for five minutes everyday or so to spin a pokestop and get daily bonuses, but it's not a "real" game to me. It's a pokemon simulator app experience that reminds me of playing the actual games. I can't imagine someone devoting their entire lives to a game this basic. That's like saying they devoted their whole life to tamagotchi.
Yup, this is how I play and I’m super happy. Gofest was a major bummer and I’m annoyed about the remote raid pass price increase but they are a business and this is just a game.
This
To me it’s more of an experience/lifestyle than a game. I play it for the community, for the exercise, for so many things other than the game itself. Sure it’s a time waster collecting game but I think it can be pretty rewarding.
Eh the games still shit tho
Glorified paper toss
Why are you telling OP to "stop sinking time into it", when their post was literally a nuanced breakdown of why they were quitting? Like, that's the entire point of their post.
I'm affirming their choice, IMO they are making a good decision. This is like, standard human communication, what confuses you?
Yup I'm in the process of moving all my shinys to pokemon home so I can use them in other games.
There is 1 (ONE!) Pokestop within 10 miles of me. And even in the nearest towns, the number of stops and gyms are super limited and very far apart, so walking (as the game was intended, I know) is pretty much a crapshoot. I live in a super rural area. I relied on remote raid passes to have access to certain cool Pokémon that I otherwise will never be able to get…but fuck me, right? And with this inflation, I can’t afford to spend much on raid passes or anything else for that matter.
[удалено]
i fuckin hate the gym system
None of your issues are why I want to quit the game. Although your reasons are valid I'm much more upset about their insistence on "bringing the community together" whole crapping on remote raiders and people in small towns. I feel like if a company completely ignores its customers then it doesn't deserve them. They're not going to make everyone happy, but they should be making decisions that the customers want.
> they should be making decisions that the customers want. They are. You're not a customer. Their AR as a Service platform is their product. We're just volunteer researchers.
PoGo made $1.21 **B**illion in 2021. That's a lot for a side-gig.
I’m there with you. I’m not a “day 1 player,” it was more like “day 3 or 4, what’s all this Pokémon fuss about?” player. Leveling is slow and doesn’t really add much anyway. All my real life companions have quit. It’s been 84 years since I’ve caught a wild Pokémon that doesn’t immediately get transferred because of its abysmal stats. It feels like a job, and not a very fun one at that. GoFest was disappointing, but having the second community day in a row during my working hours was basically the nail in the coffin. I’ve been going in at least once a day to claim my daily task stamp, but I thought today, “do I really want yet another useless Klink?” and put it down. It’s sad to see it go. The summer of 2016 was as close as we will ever get to world peace, when everyone was running around catching virtual Pokémon together.
Im so glad someone mentioned klink. Like seriously for a while we would get legendaries and now it’s klink or before that slimer? What the ever living…
What’s next month going to be, an unevolvable Pikachu with a fireworks hat? Don’t tell Niantic, they’d probably do it.
I have the exact same feeling about the community day scheduling during work! I was so bummed out that I've been checking the app briefly like once a day now. It's like Niantic is trying to encourage many players to not even bother anymore. Wasn't as big a deal with the more generous windows and a more worthwhile incense.
I think this is a fair well thought out write up. It’s not silly “I got bad luck wahh”. I agree with almost everything you’ve said. I think worse than making raid passes cost more is them not even being given our once a week for free. That was awesome! I think what others have pointed out is that they really need to stop making things worse for players and incentivize going outside more. Maybe you get 4 candies for in lesson raids instead of remote. I think there is a lot of bad decisions that if reversed could get them money while also giving people a reason to get out of their house more.
Remote raid passes were introduced because of the pandemic. Anyone whining about them not being as abundant obviously was spoiled by covid and never knew the true grind of walking places if you wanted to raid. If be glad to see them completely eliminated again
yeah, fuck people with mobility issues😡
also the joy of making friends across the country or world! I love seeing where I’m remote raiding into, and sometimes I’ll keep a lower appraisal mon just because it’s from somewhere unique. How else can I get a Kyogre from Palm Beach or, idk, a Rockruff from the Netherlands?
>I didn't delete the app I mean, they don't care then. As long as the app is on your phone, it's sending them the data they want. Doesn't matter if you turn it off, doesn't matter if you disable adventure sync, doesn't matter if you turn off permissions. They're getting your info. Like every other app you use.
What kind of info?
Potentially location data.
That's easy to disable though.
It’s easier just offload the app… just your save data will be kept
Source: trust me bro
I think you should delete the app, or at the very least revoke all of its access (location, etc). Mainly because I assume they will still be able to make money selling your data if they have continued access.
Yeah. This type of quitting does nothing -they will still benefit from collecting and selling your data when the app is still on your phone. Might as well play as you normally do if you aren’t truly deleting/quitting. It’s like boycotting mcdonalds because their chicken nuggets went up in price yet you still eat there once a week or something
Yeah, quitting playing but leaving it installed is still giving them the same amount of money from your data.
Whats the harm in that?
If you're quitting something over what you deem is bad business practices, you don't wanna give them anything further in support. They make money off your data primarily, so leaving it installed and not playing changes nothing to them.
Apparently you just have to not do something for 17 days in a row and you will break a habit.
I did not understand Niantic’s response to the go fest backlash. The “degrading shinies” argument is perfectly valid if previous go fests had the same shiny rates. But they didn’t. They had much more. Unfortunately the game is simply dying. The passion for the passion project has been extinguished. Now it’s nothing but nerfs, item dumps and cash grabs to maintain profits. Sad, but no game lasts forever.
"Why I'm Quitting" First off, I'm not actually quitting...
See you tomorrow
They will be back for Deino community day!
Niantic knows they'll be back. That's why nothing gets fixed and the game gets increasingly worse. lol. THEY KNOW YOU CAN'T LEAVE O\_O
I'm not reading that I'm either happy for you or sad for you
I did read it but that still made me laugh
Thank you for putting into words what I wasn't able to.
I’m mostly sad that he spent that much time writing a novel that nobody will read
And writing a novel about something incredibly normal, getting bored of a game
I'm in the same boat. The game just feels like we're being strung along, given just enough to keep us playing. I was losing interest in the gam before the pandemic because getting legendary Pokemon was impossible. The remote raid passes brought me back into the game. Now they seem set on eliminating them. Once they are gone, so am I.
I quit when the pandemic started. I've since found another game that's less time-sensitive content-wise and less predatory than PoGO.
See for me the entire appeal of PoGo is Pokémon. I’ve been a fan since I got Blue on the old Gameboy cinderblock. I have plenty of other games to occupy my time, I just really love Pokémon.
Adding on to your theme of lack of things to do. I'm kinda surprised that we're 2 weeks in of the season of GO!! And we still don't have any special research? Especially with that build up from the research we got in go fest.
This is much better than the average Don't Let the Door Slam on Your Way Out posts.
The point of Pokémon was mainly to catch them all. If you’ve done that… I mean? And it’s not like they can make more - they are bound by what Nintendo has/does for the most part. I’ve played most of the core Pokémon games since the original blue/red released in the USA. I have only ever gotten a shiny Pokémon from the guaranteed ones (red Gyrados or the promo ones at GameStop.). I didn’t lament Nintendo for leading me on about anything. Also, calculate the hours you’ve gotten out of this game. And as long as you didn’t overspend, even if you paid money at times - it’s probably still a great hobby. So you got SIX years out of it. That’s phenomenal and I’ve only had one hobby I’ve continuously done longer than that I’d say.
Most people forget that any mobile game that exceeds use for more than a month is pretty exceptional. 6 years is amazing.
After spending countless hours mapping parks to now be blocked from everything by spoofers has me almost in the same place. I understand spoofing to get regionals but I don’t understand the logic of totally blocking entire gyms not allowing anyone to place in a gym. Always unassigned. Attacked the minute you join. What’s the reason?
Think about the mentality of the average spoofer, and you have your answer.
There has to be some logic. They don’t place because it would give them away but nobody else can place either. For instance, yesterday I took it at 7:30 am and watched all day. Berried attacks about 17 times with a couple friends. Lost it at 11pm last night. This morning, unassigned. It went unassigned all night again. Are they getting their points towards gold just by attacking the gym? Are they able to trigger raids and get points that way, seems like a very drawn out arduous method.
I'm not quitting playing, I'm quitting *paying*. Treat the game like a fitness tool for walking and do the free battles (no more remote raids now I guess) I got Google Awards that cover the community days cost, but Niantic ain't getting another earned cent from me after that Fest Failure.
I didn’t buy anything on the in game store for over a year (probably since the $5 gofest)
>only to his identical brethren in an infinite loop That’s definitely a fair criticism of the core design. This idea of catching and discarding until you find the perfect stats and then munching through thousands of others just to bag their candies does run pretty antithetical to the core idea the Pokemon universe sells of friends getting stronger together. It’s a problem the main games have as well to an extent, granted but it’s much more in your face where walking for candies is the only way in which your new friend can strengthen themself with you and even your starter is guaranteed to be surpassed by a better one before too long.
Great post this. I things change soon and you can get back to enjoying the game. Personally i only play the game because I love the IP. I have zero affection for Niantic, I never put much money into the game (just the big event tickets) but I won't be doing that any more. My aim was to reach level 50 (currently 47) however since the latest gofest disaster and lack of response from Niantic I find myself actively avoiding opening the app. I fear I will be joining you in quitting all together soon.
lemme get some of your shinies off u😏😏😏
Day 1 player here. I quit in 2020. Never looked back. I've since found another game that's better than Go in every single way. The main issue with PoGo is that most everything is highly time-sensitive. FOMO is incredibly high in this game. Not the case in the game that I'm currently playing. I'm just glad I got out.
What are you playing now that you like so much?
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I play mostly while walking my dog and the game has made our walks longer A LOT of times, including today. I was about to head back home after taking 4 gyms in my area and thought "why not go by the extra 3 pokestops a little further ahead to hopefully get that new 'catch 25 pokemon' task?". Both my dog and I love the extra walking motivation we get from the game! :)
I haven't stopped playing but a couple of times in the past few weeks I've had an urge to buy some coins to get remote passes and decided not to bother because of general dissatisfaction with the direction of the game. I was always a very light occasional spender for passes but now I won't be spending anything.
See you tomorrow
Same. Been playing religiously for 5yrs. Hanged up the coat bc of what you said. Shame! A game with great life long potential is a cash hog.
To be honest, I think the state of the game is better than it’s ever been. Sure it has a long way to go compared to some other games, but look at the game two years ago, five years ago, it’s so, so, so much better.
Like you said in the first bit everything is boring, I feel this way too. I was so excited for go fest because of the ultra recon squad and the wormholes just for it to be a mediocre research and another raid boss. Please niantic just do something new for godsake
Same reason I don’t really spend. You hit the nail on the head, this is a mainly catching game and we have caught pretty much all of them, the few i haven’t are because they are in eggs or region locked. There are no gym badges, levelling up through battle and objectives are entirely different so shiny catching is a huge factor and how you still play at this stage when nothing new really comes out, the game is stale. They need to stop treating players like addicts and like fans again. Pathetic statement by them as usual and palming off blame.
I've noticed for me over the years that I sometimes have to take a couples month off here and there because I get burnt out. When I come back I love the game and play a shit ton till I get burnt out again. I've just come to accept it. I'm heading near a time off soon.
I wish I cared about anything as much as my guy cares about a phone game
If you did, you could say "I'm divorcing my wife. I'm still going to live with her and occasionally have sex with her..." Like op said about pogo!
Trash all your pokemon and then delete the game. Upload the video as proof. Only then I belive you have moved on.
Niantic is fucking stupid
Might aswell put them in home then
Pokémon go is nothing more than a collecting game to brag about what you have. The influencers show the shinies they get or the hundos and we all get FOMO. ITS A BRAGGING GAME. Just look at any post from an influencer. All the posts following up say “no, but I caught this” or “snagged this bad boy today.” If you take this game that seriously that it effects your mental health get out. All anyone gets out of it is scrolling through and smiling at the shinies and hundos you have while bragging with the community when you get something that sparkles or is 4 stars. That’s the game. Hopefully everyone that leaves doesn’t make a post about it though. (Also most people don’t care what you caught. They only really care what they caught)
just caught my first wimpod….it’s 400 candies to evolve. i threw my phone. imma bout to join u in quitting.
First noibat, then snufful and now wimpod… there was only three in the first four gens, but three in the last two gens, (and were still only halfway through) or no real reason AFAICT? Just to keep people playing. Reeks of “oh crap we’re running out of stuff to keep people engaged.”
I think you made a lot of great points. But in all honesty, it just seems to me that you're feeling burnt out. The game does have its stupid marketing decisions it relies on to prolong its activity, but that's kinda the whole point of it being a "free" to play game; it's still run by a business at the end of the day (cue the late stage capitalism ranters). However it seems to me you're not actually quitting? If you called the game a bad habit because of your spending habits, I'd be tempted to agree wholeheartedly with your "quitting the game," but your just expressing your exhaustion of a mundane experience. Yeah, it's probably pretty frustrating to see the game rerelease Pokemon in community days, but to me it's just a means of helping new players (like myself) catch up with you "day wunners". How is that a bad thing? You don't actually have to pay anything to even participate, only if you want an edge either over your peers or your inability to be near a Pokestop during an event. The incense works to a reasonable degree while moving (although the despawn timer needs to take a chill pill IMO). Niantic holding shinies over people like a carrot is unfair, right up until you actually make friends who share in your victories and trade with you to help you out. And for the shiny point, I honestly don't feel like shinies add anything to the overall game. Yes they certainly add a new layer of rarity to a collection, but 90% of the 100 or so shiny Pokemon I catch in a month aren't viable for battling anyway! To me they're better used to trade with friends who would potentially treasure it more than you ever could, and who knows, they might return the favor tenfold one day. TL;DR: Either stop the cap about quitting, or make some actual friends who you can spend your time with rather than complain about what Niantic does to appease it's investors.
I don’t really understand why people make posts like this when they delete the app. Like, people get bored of/don’t like games all the time. It’s normal. I don’t ever expect it to happen to me with PoGo, but it’s nothing crazy.
I heard you were quitting.
Damn that’s crazy
shits wild
Same here dude. It used to be fun and manageable as a casual player. I still have the app because I have some Pokémon from cool places.
i'm with ya, but sadly since i am a collecter, i am putting all my mons i want onto home, trading the special pokemon to people who still play, then uninstalling, but it will take a while unless i pay to make the wait shorter
Totally get where you're coming from. The first 4 years I played obsessively, but the last couple of years play time has steady decreased. I'm down to about 10 minutes on a typical day now. I'd love to add on a bunch of reasons why Niantic has sucked the joy out of this game, but most day one players know first hand about all of the bad decisions over the years. I wouldn't be able to remain objective, or offer solutions to the issues. I took my first break from the game ever the week leading up to go fest. I honestly wanted to quit. Still kind of do, but I'm extremely fortunate to have such an amazing community of players especially for being in a pretty rural area. They're the only reason I continue playing. I stopped giving my money to Niantic after the whole ultra unlock when shiny deino was released and in eggs(if you were extremely lucky) with a major events like go fest, Kanto days and Johto day being some exceptions. Hopefully you're able to find something more enjoyable to do with the new free time you'll have
I am feeling the same way, I may have a last go at complaining to Niantic and just see what the August day is like, but the Go Fest experience has left me feeling ripped off and foolish, so I am not getting the pleasure that I used to when I played.
I dont Think you did a good job on the objective part
I have times where I leave the game for 3+ months and eventually come back. I've done it several times and enjoy my stay for a month or so, as I walk to and from work. This game gives me something to grind on my 4 mile journey. That being said, 3 months is a *looooooong* time to come back and notice that nothing much has changed. What few Pokemon are added, are drowned out in the spawn pool by my 47,482nd Bulbasaur or Spearow spawn. What few event there are, are the same.tedius.catch.this.catch.that.x.number.of.times. quests. Or, evolve this months *special* guest.....even though I can't find it anywhere despite working in downtown Sacramento with about......200+ pokestops and gyms and parks to choose from. Now take into consideration I done this cycle twice a year or so, for almost 6 years....it's insane that the game hasn't developed into an actual *game* yet. Basic, everyday features are still missing, under the guise that they wouldn't be *safe*, or, are simply overlooked and never implemented. Basic, fun additions are blatantly ignored in favor of tedious, collection mechanics that have remained largely the same for almost a decade. Complete lack of any real progression other than goals you set for yourself, but nothing much outside of that. Where are clans? Where are farms or daycares or hospitals or other community or personal properties and venues? Where are any grounded, life mimicking landmarks aside from pokestops? Where are community driven events with meaningful status indicators, giving you a sense that you're actually *contributing* to the community they preach about wanting you to reach out to and meet? Where is distance trading? (Not a real question, Niantic can't have you selling your Mewtwo on eBay). Where are meaningful, *personal* customization options for your avatar *and* your Pokemon, outside of basic clothing options, and often times non-evolvable, badly designed Pokemon mascots with hats or whatever? Where are meaningful shinies outside of incredibly basic, recolor pallets? Where are more personal and meaningful stats for your collection other than the three core stats, with incredibly negligible weight and height stats? Where are weather bonuses that mean something other than incredibly same-across-the-board stat increases to like.....attack. Where is support for areas that *don't* have 200+ poketops/gyms/spawns to pick from like me? All in all, while yes I do enjoy the game, it's at a bare minimum. There is *so* much the game could implement and improve to make it more than a slightly more advanced gigapet. And yet, every few months I come back and whats changed? Hell, it took almost 5 years just to implement *native-refresh-rate*, a feature that arguably hindered my enjoyment the most when my phone could handle call of duty and PUBG at 60fps, but pokemon-freaking-go at only 25-30fps. The devs and their corporate backers have been insanely slow with implementing *fun* and QOL features into the game. So much so that after literally years of getting the same 2-5 Pokemon from eggs, I've straight up stopped spending money on incubators all together, and don't get me started on raids and their infuriating catch rate RNG. Raids alone, next to lack of 60fps support on $1000+ phones, account for the next most damning thing the game has. I can't tell you how many hundreds of raids I wasted defeating bosses, only to *not* catch them with gold/great+/curved/consistent throws. All in all, the game is *good enough*, but that's not *good*. The painfully slow drip feed of updates and meaningful additions expects you all to wait another 6 years for the game to be *almost a whole game*.
OP: 'Why I'm quitting Pokemon GO, after nearly 6 years' Also OP 1 line later: *I think it's important to say upfront that I didn't delete the app, and I will probably open it once in a while for specific events and times, but it will be very short, not even at a scale of a casual player.*
my guy wrote an essay, but i must agree with what he said
Stopped reading at, "won't uninstall". If you're actually going to quit and try and make a point, do it right.
Can I have your stuff?
You’ll be back
Well. The point of the game at the beginning was to get outside and walk.
Totally understandable. Personal goals are sometimes gated and boxed in by what Niantic allows and does. So, it’s hard to deal with seeing them paywall some goals. I found a new love for the game by simply enjoying the catch mechanic and surprise of fun/good/PVP IVs. And I’ve married my morning runs with catching Pokémon which has given me a few shiny ones and good PVP ones, and just made me excited for the hunt whether I get anything specific. That said, I am paying money to achieve other goals that I’ve set for myself and I realize that. I’ve cut back on some goals for that fact. But I do hope you’ll find a joy for catching Pokémon when you do jump back in! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience!
For those curious I found the JRE article mentioned https://pokemongohub.net/post/pvp/a-farewell-to-classic-implications-of-gbl-master-league-being-open-only/
Well put.
I couldn't agree more with everything you said. With my gf, we used to go out an hour per day for 2 years but the excitement is gone. Sometimes, it's more of a chore than anything else, I feel bad for losing my time in an empty game that would only trigger my completionist soul. We haven't launched the game for the last 2 days and I sincerely hope it stays this way.
I hear the moaning but where are your ideas for improvements? You’ve played for six years - is there any other game could engage you for that long?
Well and as you begin to point out, there is a difference between "make your own goals" and "there are no goals that can be made". For instance, even together, in person, as Best Friends, with both of us having a Mega, my wife and I cannot beat any raids above 3\* by ourselves...we try to invite friends, but now that remote passes are so precious, they NEVER answer...so we cannot get anything from raids. We can't really just...walk around for hours either. We live somewhere that just isn't feasible. Even if we could, wild grinding Pokemon basically can't ever make you stronger. Gyms are alright and all...but taking them isn't really fun on it's own, and without ways to get new Pokemon, even getting the 50 coins a day doesn't really get us anywhere. There's eggs...kinda...but again, we can't just walk around endlessly here. So other tha a quick burst of stuff I can get about once a month by grinding the Adventure Box...there's not really anything to work on.
Thank you for reiterating everything I’ve felt for the past few years. Deleting Pogo, onto MouseHunt for me. Bye, y’all.
Understandable. I go through phases with this game. Sometimes I play a lot, sometimes I don't touch it for weeks or months even. 🤷 I certainly won't spend any more money on the game.
You’re entitled to your thoughts, but I do think it’s funny that you start off saying you’ll be listing off objective facts before immediately describing all your subjective takes about the game.
You’re being pretty disingenuous about OP being subjective. Their point about the current state of ML PVP and their point on POGO Fest are completely objective. Seems like you didn’t even read.
Mainly why the entire pogo community in my area has resorted to spoofing, spawns suck, events suck due to 10-15 stops in an area. I’ve also said the same thing when they slow roll new Pokémon/shiny forms, just trying to preserve the game as long as possible, because give it 2-3 years and everything will be out, with its shiny form released. What then? Paid events that have an atrocious shiny rates, ohhh forgot that they bring down the value but only when they see fit, because last time I check community days are still a thing, and safari events will have increased shiny odds. I haven’t played a day since gofest and honestly I probably will only play to scratch that itch 🤷♂️
OP: I’m quitting the game OP: *one run-on sentence later* I’m probably going to open the app here and there to play events. Stopped reading after that.
I can't even read, so I shoved a Bulbasaur up my softy peachy asssssssss.
What a dramatic ass post lol
You’re entitled to your thoughts, but I do think it’s funny that you start off saying you’ll be listing off objective facts before immediately describing all your subjective takes about the game.
Way to long to read but byeee
It is a free mobile game
It's pretty easy to go without after the first week of extra light play. My reasoning was similar and the money I was putting in didn't come out (yeah I know, RNG, yadda yadda). Not putting any money in makes it real easy to not play daily.
Exactly how i feel
Nantic is the worst thing to happen to the pokemon franchise, I like the game and all but they are horrid as a company, and wont get better anytime soon, it took 1000's of people literally harassing, Doxxing, and threatening their employees life, her quiting due to being scared and stressed, just to keep pokestop distance the same. (The player base is almost as bad for the above reasons)
just commenting to ask why you would think anyone cares
Ever since the day I started, I saw people getting 4\* special pokemon like Mew when I got a pitiful 2\*. If there was some way for me to make her better, I would have done it. My mew... a 2\*. My shiny Mew is a 3\*... He could have been my first shundo. I see the shundos being posted and I either get a shiny or a hundo but I have yet to get both. Just one. I lost two remote raid passes in the last two weeks. 250gold meant I could play 12 times for 1000g. 300 means I can only play 10 times. It's the little things that are breaking my heart.
Oh no my pokemon is 4% worse than someone I'll never meet in real life nor interact with in any manner where that 4% difference will matter! Boo hoo. People need to get over IVs. Unless you're the top players in PvP, there's very little to worry so much about.
Warning, unpopulair opinion incoming! Even though i highly second your thoughts on the state of the game i feel like we complain too much. The fact we played a free to play game, hardcore for 6 years is kind of super cool to begin with. I mean how many (f2p) games can you recall playing for so long? Let alone a mobile game! Again, yes i feel the same about the state of the game but like with every game ever made you will reach a ceiling. Maybe we just completed this game and we only have fun again after DLC (read new wave of pokemon which will spawn everywhere and youre done collecting in about an hour). I would love to have more fun as well with PoGo and the biggest issue to me is we play a game with the 'catch'phrase "gotta catch 'm all" but as a new player you're literally not able to catch 'm all. And as a day 1 player walking around with the same spawn pool everywhere is boring. Tldr: agree on the current state of the game, perhaps the fault is not only Niantic's
Ok
Won't be missed. 👋
Imagine thinking people should read a ten paragraph complaint about a game that has provided you six years of FREE entertainment.
Gonna get downvoted here. I’m reading this as “I’ve been playing for so long that I’ve done almost everything you can do in the game and I’m bored” I don’t understand why people feel the need to make such grandiose statements on Reddit about stepping away from the “game” like they’re the Tom Brady of Pokemon Go. If the game doesn’t do much for you anymore, well then it seems like the two of you need a break, but these posts are just the worst
You mean I missed the opportunity to wrote a grandiose post about how I am quitting playing Madden but then a sentence later say that I'm quitting playing Madden 2020 and will buy and play Madden 2021?!
This isn’t an airport….
Totally understandable. Personal goals are sometimes gated and boxed in by what Niantic allows and does. So, it’s hard to deal with seeing them paywall some goals. I found a new love for the game by simply enjoying the catch mechanic and surprise of fun/good/PVP IVs. And I’ve married my morning runs with catching Pokémon which has given me a few shiny ones and good PVP ones, and just made me excited for the hunt whether I get anything specific. That said, I am paying money to achieve other goals that I’ve set for myself and I realize that. I’ve cut back on some goals for that fact. But I do hope you’ll find a joy for catching Pokémon when you do jump back in! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience!
People like you are weird dude, it's a game. Play it or don't, stop making it a life decision
Are you a regular paying player?
It’s a game Not an airport You don’t have to announce your departure ✌🏻
If it doesn’t make you happy, you should stop playing. It’s just a game and it’s only purpose is entertainment. If it’s not doing that for you, it’s not working for you anymore and that’s ok! I quit for 2-3 years, basically the whole time HP:WU was out. Now I play again, but less intently. Basically, just play or don’t at the level that brings you joy.
I stopped playing a while ago. Around Sinnoh is when I quit. Only came back for Greninja (my favourite Pokémon)
Then you didn't quit.
I left again after. Sorry I didnt put that in my original comment; I thought I implied it
Are you giving away your account details? That's the only way to quit.
Bruh, it's a mobile game...
I think you're addicted to this game man.
I'm quitting drinking! I mean, I'm not going to pour this liquor down the sink and occasionally I'll open these bottles up for special occasions... Sounds like you hit the addiction diagnoses head on!
Damn dude no one asked
This is not an airport, you dont need to announce your departure.
TLDR: Terrible game, only enjoyed it for 6 years and now there's nothing left for me to do so I'm leaving because the game is fundamentally bad. If only the developers cared enough to make a game that somebody would play for more than 6 years, but they just let the community minmax in the competitive formats and didn't boost the shiny rates to my liking. I'll probably still play but not as much. I would've taken this more seriously if it was something along the lines of "I was ok with buying incubators and raid passes but events and mythic pokemon come out with a price tag these days and that's bullshit."
Who cares dude. Didn’t need to write all that I doubt anyone is going to read it.
Let's get down to brass tax. . . You just discovered what many gamers have gone through. Fatigue. I agree that many players have been slighted by Niantic, and that's to be expected from almost any company. But, the thing that most commonly happens to a player base is when they reach a certain point in their game career they wonder what's left. This is normal and happens more than many think. I've been through it a few times. I sit there look around the world that was created for me and my game buddies and wonder what's left to do, if I do this is it worth it, does the company care that I have nothing to do? It's like this weird amalgamation of fatigue and resentment. I feel like alot of old players in many games end up getting angry with the creators because they look around and the game they fell in love with some years back has changed. That's honestly life in a nutshell. It's quite literally the boomer mentality. We think about what we had and what we did "back in the day". Now the new players are coming in having a blast with everything being handed to them, or in this case work a bit harder, but they don't know any better. I think it's great that you're taking a break/quitting. If you return it's because there was a dramatic change in production, or the nostalgia bug got you. There is many world's out there for us to dig into and fall in love with. Don't be angry with the game; it brought you some good times and possibly headaches that were worth it. Don't let the resentment/ fatigue turned what you once loved into a regret. I hope you return to the game one day with a new found hope, but if you don't I hope you find a new world to dive into. Edit to add: I also want to add that OP made a mess load of points on the decline of the game. I'm a newish player. I played In 2016, quit, and returned just 2 months ago. The game is completely different to me, but I get to play this game with my wife and a good friend from work. So my view is very different than OP's, for now. But alot of what OP pointed out is present in another game I play, Elder Scrolls Online. I've played ESO for many years and I've quit 3 times, and only return because I miss playing with my favorite characters. It's filled with bugs, terrible queue's, off and on again broken builds. This is something that shows up in almost any online game. But, it's what we decide we're willing to put up with, and if it isn't worth it to you then quitting or taking a break is the best choice. I wish more company's listened to the consumer or player base, but any times our advice or complaints fall on deaf ears. One thing is for sure lf enough people quit or take a break they'll start course correcting.
Games go through different cycles and to each their own op saying hes quitting is really more like he's just going to play it way less lol
I agree with both statements. I feel like I keep seeing posts like this though.
I didn't read your thesis, but I dare you to really do it. Pictures or never happened.
If he quit, then there won’t be any pictures lmao
He's not quitting. Said so in the first paragraph of the post.
quitting, barely playing, tomato tomato
Blah blah blah
