Ten Days with Pokémon GO

So it’s been almost 2 weeks since I’ve installed and gave Pokémon GO a whirl! I can give a more personal analysis on the game.

A Little Background

Pokémon is a franchise pitched to Nintendo with the help of Shigeru Miyamoto. Initially, development on the video game ended up being costly with no guarentee at the time that it would be a worldwide sensation.

The game came out before the anime series and then the card games. Since 1996, Pokémon has gone from the original 151 Pokémon that can be caught to over 700. The franchise itself (along with Mario, Link, etc) is a staple for Nintendo.

One of the core premises of the game is to seek out and document all the Pokémon in the world. This is done through the game’s Pokédex which is an encyclopedia of Pokémon seen and caught. Other primary objectives of the game involve battling other trainers (particularly at gyms) to become the best trainer in the game. Trading Pokémon, another central component of the game, allowed one to further complete their Pokédex or acquire Pokémon that they are interested in having on their team for battle. Documenting, training, trading, and battling are the objectives I would consider to be consistent and core to the series.

And here we are…

Now players can experience what it’s like to be the trainer in the video games. All that time spent in the game walking around (or biking) just to find that specific Pokémon can be experienced firsthand!

The First Few Days

Upon downloading the app I anticipated that I will probably run into server issues (as typical with a lot of online video games of such popularity). This game was definitely no exception. The worst part was having to re-enter my credentials whenever I got disconnected. This was the primary issue that really put a damper on my Pokémon GO experience. At the time of this writing, it has improved since then, but is still riddled with inconsistent connections.

My Primary Workflow

The time I’m most active catching Pokémon or hitting up Pokéstops is during my runs. In a nutshell, I’m at a point in the year where I’m just logging some base mileage to prep me for the training season in the fall for a December race. Normally, due to the hot and humid summer, I typically run on the treadmill, but of course, there’s Pokémon to catch so I’ve done all my runs outside instead.

While I’m running, I’ll hit up the Pokéstops along the way. As for Pokémon catching, I keep AR off so that the view is consistent regardless of where I’m facing when trying to catch them. I’ll attempt to catch them while running. The catching mechanics I have down fairly well so I don’t need to look at the screen most of the time. If it is a Pokémon I’ve never caught, I’ll stop and focus on catching them.

Naturally, one of my favorite mechanics of the game as a runner is the egg hatching system. As you accumulate Pokémon eggs, they require an incubator (you start with an unbreakable incubator, but can accumulate others that break after x amount of uses) and walking distance to hatch. The eggs vary in the distance requirement (2k, 5k, 10k) and have Pokémon that are associated with each category. During one of my running workouts, I attempted to hatch 2 2k eggs by doing 2k intervals around the active oval in Piedmont Park. Unfortunately, as I assume due to connection issues, the distances don’t translate well into the egg hatching (e.g. I would measure out 2k and the egg would have around 1.6k accumulated — a 1/4 mile lost!). This was my experience during my first week of play so I can only assume this will get better.

That said, I’ll reiterate that one of the most annoying things I’ve come across is just connection inconsistencies and having to re-open the app. If there’s anything that kills my stride, it’s when I’m having network issues and lose a bunch of distance for eggs, a Pokémon I’m trying to catch, or having to re-open the app as a result.

Over the course of the time I’ve had with the game, I’ve approximately accumulated ~74K (~46mi).

While still a few weeks out, I would venture to guess that the Pokémon GO Plus accessory would complement my primary workflow very well. Unfortunately, it’s sold out on Amazon and GameStop (the only two places I know of that are accepting pre-orders). I will also venture to guess that it will be hard to acquire one once it’s released to stores, but I’ll try my best.

A Week Later

With most of the common Pokémon caught and evolved (e.g. Pidgeys, Zubats, Caterpies, etc.), how does this affect my primary workflow? For now, it may be a slightly bit early to tell, but I will say that I pretty much forego Ratatas, Zubats, etc. and will try for Pidgeys, Caterpies, and Weedles 60% of the time. This is because that they have a low candy count for evolution (12) and evolution grants XP points. Basically, I’ll only catch a Pokémon if they’ll help me level up (granted, catching Zubats and the like will still give me XP for simply catching them, but I will favor the Pidgeys and such). For less common Pokémon, I’ll still attempt to catch them for the chance of having a Pokémon at the higher end of the CP curve.

In addition to all of these, I will make an attempt to run around lakes or near rivers (e.g. Piedmont Park or Cochran Shoals) because one is more likely to encounter water Pokémon there (and I’m still lacking in that department). I have done a majority of my runs the past 2 weeks around the Georgia Tech campus.

So basically, my goals currently are to continue leveling up my avatar and to collect Pokémon I don’t have. The latter is a more important goal for me than leveling up.

I don’t put too much focus on battling at gyms. There are a few Pokémon I keep tabs on leveling, but I don’t make it a primary focus to battle at the gyms.

One final thing I’ll note is that I spent some time (about 3 days) in a suburban area. There was a dearth of Pokéstops within walking distance. I actually ended up having to purchase some Pokéballs. This is something that is not an issue at all living in an urban area as a Pokéstop can be found at almost every block.

The Future

And that brings us to this point. What will the experience be once I’ve collected almost all of them? Will my focus veer towards more of leveling up my Pokémon and battling at gyms? Assuming I get my hands on a Pokémon GO Plus accessory, will my experience simply be comprised primarily of going on runs with the accessory to tap and then open the app later to manage what I’ve caught (Transfer, empty out items, evolve etc.)? I mentioned at the beginning of this that there are technically over 700 Pokémon and the game so far is loaded with the ones from the original 151. Adding more Pokémon would be a very simple way to keep things a little bit fresh. For me, collecting all the Pokémon is something I’m primarily interested in so I would be fine if they did just that.

But yes, if the app were to hypothetically remain unchanged, I anticipate my usage of the app to drop significantly over the next few weeks. I may take it out if I’m in a new area to find some of the hard to catch Pokémon or if I’m by a body of water (until I finally get that Magikarp evolved). Of course, I assume they have a lot more content planned for down the pipeline.

Delightful Notes

One of the ways to engage the user with a product at a deeper or emotional level can be achieved through features or UI. Here are some examples where I found the app to be rather delightful:

• AR (augmented reality) feature and camera item. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s a content generator. People are creating photos of wild Pokémon found in various places (the first one that comes to mind is Magikarp in a frying pan). In a similar vein, they’re also posing with the Pokémon, too. The acceptance and engagement with AR has gone very well. It’s simple, easy to figure out, and of course, delightful
• For those that have played the games, the soundtrack and sound effects should ring a bell and strike a nostalgic note. Even when browsing through your Pokémon, you can tap on the 3D model for a simple animation of that Pokémon as well as their digitized sound akin to what you’d hear if you were playing the game on the original Game Boy (with the exception of Pikachu, as they have the normal sound bit as heard in the cartoon series).
• Even though they have existed for decades, the design of Pokémon themselves is something that is delightful as well. They range from the completely strange to the impossibly cute and can elicit an emotion from those playing the game (regardless if they’ve ever played Pokémon before). Nostalgia strikes again with some of the nuances found among the Pokémon such as the helplessness, yet potential fierceness (via amount of candy required to evolve) of Magikarp and to the throwback to the anime series through the ability to control Eevee evolutions through renaming (more in tips below). There are probably even more that I don’t realize yet. Nonetheless, the Pokémon themselves are great little digital avatars.

Final Thoughts

The app has immense potential. I hope the team who plans out future features to be implemented do well in thinking up of ways to improve the longevity of the game (aside from adding in more Pokémon). This also has potential for partnerships with other businesses as well due to a core mechanic of the game of requiring one to venture out into the world to find Pokémon. The shop that allows items to be purchased is balanced well. That is, one can’t simply “pay to win”. In this case, you can’t buy a super Pokémon or ones that you currently don’t have in an effort to complete your collection. You can, however, purchase items that will help aid you in the hunt for Pokémon or accelerate your leveling as a trainer (incense, lures, lucky eggs). A bulk of the work must be done by being outside.

I’ve really enjoyed my time with the app so far (sans connectivity issues). With the upcoming release of Pokémon Sun/Moon for the Nintendo 3DS this fall, I hope Niantic/Nintendo will do well to keep the Pokéhype alive.

Other Tips

Some more random tips to primarily make your Pokémon experience more efficient.

• If your purpose is to simply collect them all, don’t bother with using stardust. When you max out a Pokémon on a CP curve, every time you level up, you will have to dump more stardust to have the Pokémon, in a sense, keep up with you, and it gets expensive.
• In a similar vein, as you level up, you will find the same Pokémon at higher CP. This is another reason to save your stardust. If you are going to use it, consider using it on a caught/hatched Pokémon that is 3/4 or more aong the CP curve.
• When collecting at a Pokéstop, you don’t actually have to hit all the bubbles. You can close out the popup and it will register all those items to you.
• So far, it’s been consistently reported that renaming your Eevee as Rainer, Sparky, or Pyro will evolve that Eevee to Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon respectively.
• It seems the Pokémon distance counter will only count if you’re on the main map (I haven’t been able to make the distance counter tick while looking at the incubated egg screen). I’m hoping that the Pokémon GO Plus accessory will enable the accumulation of distance while the app is closed.
• Have fun and enjoy the game! No need to rush to catch them all.