Pinocchio Go

Thoughts & worries of pleasure island.

I realize this game is still being developed, but I am worried Pokemon Go is going to be like a scene in Pinocchio, where everyone is attending a huge exciting party at pleasure island and will be sorely disappointing at the end of it having been turned into a jackass. I’ve already had the urge to drop irresponsible levels of money at this game in my excitement for it, but I know in it’s current state I’m going to have buyers remorse in a week.

Here we have an incredibly beloved childhood IP that spans generations of people. So many incredible stories have happened in just a few days. I’ve never socialized with so many strangers before or discovered so many parts of my town. However I’m deeply worried at its current state as I reach higher levels. I’m only 16 and starting to feel some of the issues people 20+ are espousing.

It seems like the same sinister money milking tactics that free to play mobile games employ are being applied to Pokemon Go. (very interesting that after not playing for awhile, there just happens to be a rare 700 vaporeon outside my apartment) Walking around and finding Pokemon is very much in the spirit of the game, but the progression of the game seems to really diverge from what I played 14 years ago on a gameboy.

I am very willing to shell out money for this game, however it currently appears that the monetization model is just like that of every other exploitative free to play game, hoping to subtly open peoples wallets far more than a typical game would. What I think is that this game should be free for a good 10 levels so people see how awesome it is, but then to pay for servers and continued content. I think it should be subscription based content wall and maybe keep some one time purchases like bag upgrades.

Currently the game seems to heavy diverge from previous pokemon games. Everyone has set of favorite Pokemon they want as pets, that they want to grow more and more digitally endeared towards. However the interaction you do have in this game is that of comparing CP values for the highest and trashing pokemon for candy. Sure you could keep the first pikachu you come across, but players are severely punished for spending dust early in this game to upgrade.

All I can do is look at my pokemon in an inventory that eventually gets pretty tough to navigate. Pokemon games had you using pokemon to weaken and catch more pokemon. This game has some simple augmented reality(AR), maybe after you catch your starter, or once you’ve hit level 3, why not do something as simple as throwing out one of your favorited pokemon randomly, you see it standing very close to your side in AR facing away towards the wild pokemon, they do a single attack, then you throw a your pokeballs. (I don’t think long drawn out battle fits this medium as we want to keep to the spirit of discovery & walking around)

Instead of constantly trashing (and having to scroll down over and over, hah) what if… We just remove candies and dust. Maybe instead when you catch a pokemon, you immediately choose to keep or release (maybe with some UI to tell you what you currently have in that family of pokemon). Releasing gives you (your trainer) experience points for that family of pokemon. You can spend it training or evolving in that family of pokemon. (Give it an ability, Strengthen a Stat, Evolve the Pokemon) Some way so that I’m not throwing out my cute buddies for higher numbered ones.

I also see an issue that high level trainers have an army of high level pokemon, meaning they can put a beastly defender in every gym. Leaving the casual players not really able to participate/compete in that content. I think it would be better that progression left you with a few strong pokemon and having an army of high numbers is orders of magnitude harder to achieve.

Lures are really cool idea, but it kind of seems lame if everyone is just idling downtown grinding in the same spot as clusters of lures are running 24/7. With the increased diversity of items (many that aren’t very useful at the moment) Pokestops aren’t providing quite enough pokeballs to keep up with the grind, so people are probably just purchasing them. At higher levels it takes many to catch a single common pokemon.

Pokestops and the item system seem like they could be reworked as you end up having an excess of items you don’t need and just throw those away, running around trying to get the pokeballs you actually need. Maybe a currency (hopefully not tied to $$$) that you could collect by traveling to different locations (or doing some quick minigame at a location) and then be able spend it at others.

I’m sure there are plenty of great ideas out there on how to mechanic this game, I’m just worried about the direction it currently is headed. I really hope that the updates to this game heavily diverge from the current state which seems to being pointing in the direction of exploitative prostitution of our beloved childhood IP. However I doubt we will be so lucky as they have already made incredible amounts of money. I would love for this to be something that I and many others play for years.

I will probably play more Pokemon Go casually for the social aspect and as I wait to see what happens with it. However at the moment, even though I want to try and be competitive or just try to find my favorite pokemon, I have to say that it seems unwise for me to invest myself (time/hopes/emotions/money) into the game without turning into a jackass.