Pokémon Go was a game changing experience to me

[sfortunato]

About 3 years ago Pokémon GO made its debut on everybody's phone. 3 years later I'm still playing the game (in fact, I had abandoned the game for a few months and came back when they introduced battles and trading).

But I wanted to talk about how game changing Pokémon GO was at the beginning. Pokémon has always been about traveling and searching for Pokémon in a fantasy world. Pokémon GO translated this same concept in the real world and it was magical. The very fact that you had to physically walk to find Pokémon was mind-blowing. It was all about discovery: where Pokémon were used to spawn, how to catch them, and so on. And about resource management: at the beginning there were fewer object around!

In July 2016 I was living in my hometown on the coast, in Italy. There weren't as many Pokéstops around as a big city but a nice amount. In the first month or so I was used to stay out almost all day to play with Pokémon GO cycling to nearby towns to get to new Pokéstop and trying to fight gyms. I remember, and this is a very livid memory, my first gym.

The closest to my place was at the water tower. Approaching the tower with my bike I could see the gym drawing closer and closer. It had the look of a gym after all! I wasn't able to win at the beginning (against a Raticate, lol) but eventually, with more experience and other people from the Mystic team, I could beat it. But the fact that the tower looked so threatening while approaching, knowing that Raticate was so hard to take down, added a unique feeling to the experience.

Add to that the fact that during the first month basically everyone around our age +/- 10 years was playing the game so it was really happening as in the actual games were trainers meet, talk and travel together.

I still enjoy Pokémon GO and raids are a blast to play with friends. But the first impact with the game was something I'll never forget and to me represent probably the most important gaming moment of my entire life alongside my first platform (Game Boy) when I was a kid and playing arcade with friends during Summer.

Exhibit A: the menacing water tower (aka my first gym).

 

[StrangerDanger]

Yea... it pretty much made my hometown and the city (Chicago) i was in at the time a chore to travel around. Going to work was a hassle when you had older folk with their phones out playing the game, so you got slower groups or groups huddled. Pretty much made having a conversation obsolete since they were all invested in it. Evening time and weekends were the worst when you had groups just going around places on their phones looking for Pokemon, made some of the pubs and stuff boring to attend.

Back in hometown neighborhood. You just had kids driving around in cars trying to hit gyms and parks. That is the suburbs for ya, need a car to get from one park to another. I just wasn't in the right time nor the right crowd to witness people gathering and talking. It seemed everyone was just consumed by themselves trying to collect that it created more hassles than fun.

Im so happy the game has lost steam. I honestly don't miss those times.

 

[WolfeTone]

Having recently got back into it, it's a wonderful game. Great encouragement to get out and walk around and doesn't push monetization like other mobile games.

I will say it can be frustrating if you try to play this like a console game where you try to blaze through and complete everything. It's more fun if you take it slow, go day by day and don't stress out about not being able to come across a certain Pokemon. Patience is the key to enjoying the game.

 

[DrHercouet]

Yep, it's a great game and a great walking companion. I live in Paris and my goal is to nail every Pokestop there is, street by street. I love it.

 

[Bowser]

It's a wonderful experience. My favourite moment was my first community day, living in a mid sized city and seeing so many people outside playing the game, specially in a time where most player interaction is done online, was really a heartwarming moment. Reminded me of the old days when we'd gather in the park to exchange Pokémon with the game link cable.

 

[Shift Breaker]

I've never been a fan of the Pokémon Go, I've always found it very much lacking, plus I'm not really a fan of the catching mechanic, but the joy it's brought to other people is undeniable and I love to see stories like this. It's a real right place, right time kind of game when it was at its peak.

 

[trugs26]

I enjoy it. I always play it in transit.

 

[Deleted member 17990]

It's got me walking outside a lot more that's for sure.

 

[The Living Tribunal]

Yea... it pretty much made my hometown and the city (Chicago) i was in at the time a chore to travel around. Going to work was a hassle when you had older folk with their phones out playing the game, so you got slower groups or groups huddled. Pretty much made having a conversation obsolete since they were all invested in it. Evening time and weekends were the worst when you had groups just going around places on their phones looking for Pokemon, made some of the pubs and stuff boring to attend.

Back in hometown neighborhood. You just had kids driving around in cars trying to hit gyms and parks. That is the suburbs for ya, need a car to get from one park to another. I just wasn't in the right time nor the right crowd to witness people gathering and talking. It seemed everyone was just consumed by themselves trying to collect that it created more hassles than fun.

Im so happy the game has lost steam. I honestly don't miss those times.

Click to shrink...

 

[Deleted member 36578]

That first summer the game came out will probably never be topped again. I absolutely loved the fervor everyone was showing and the crazy amounts of crowds the game caused. Being in Los Angeles there were countless areas that were just poppin' with people playing. We'd go to parks and piers at night and they'd be populated with tons of players. It was quite the phenomenon.

 

[Gibson]

Community day in my local park is a riot. At least 500 people descend into the park walking laps in search of shinies, it's great.

 

[Pokémon]

That first summer the game came out will probably never be topped again. I absolutely loved the fervor everyone was showing and the crazy amounts of crowds the game caused. Being in Los Angeles there were countless areas that were just poppin' with people playing. We'd go to parks and piers at night and they'd be populated with tons of players. It was quite the phenomenon.

Click to shrink...

Yeah it was insane and I don't think we will see something like this ever again. Pokémon Go was just the in the right place at the right time. Everyone and their grandmother were playing the game and it was just magical. I remember when a lot of pubs, bars and cafés were doing promotions for Pokémon Go players and powerbanks were sold out for weeks. People were upgrading their phones when they realised theirs wasn't good enough anymore.

Unfortunately I stopped playing like 2 weeks after launch because the server issues were REALLY bad and you could barely play imo. I have read a few days ago that the traffic at launch was 50 times the worst case scenario Niantic had initially calculated and they already exceeded their worldwide traffic after the game launched in Australia and New Zealand lol. (SOURCE)

I have picked up the game last year and I have been hooked ever since. Gonna attend my first Go Fest in Dortmund next month and can't wait to meet trainers from around the world.

 

[Deleted member 41502]

I have picked up the game last year and I have been hooked ever since. Gonna attend my first Go Fest in Dortmund next month and can't wait to meet trainers from around the world.

Click to shrink...

I quit for a year too. Then about a year ago an old high school semi-friend posted "hey, I'm super embarassed, but does anyone play? Can someone be my friend?" on Facebook, and I'm pretty hooked again.

I hate the social aspects of the game though. I just like collecting 'em all.

 

[Toxi]

I still play it sometimes when taking a walk. It's solid as a way to incentivize moving around. I've seen people playing a few times, but nothing like the peak of the game.

 

[Reinhardt Schneider]

Still play it when I take my dog out for a walk. I live near the local university wich has a very high spawn rate, 5 gyms and lots of poke stops.

Niantic keeps updating the game and doing events, so it hardly gets boring

 

[brinstar]

The Pokémon Home announcement got me playing it again, I've been using it as a motivation to take daily walks

 

[Forkball]

I like Pokémon Go and play it on and off, but I am not nostalgic at all about its launch. My home had a ton of Pokestops and mons (insane amount of Dratini and Magikarp) so it became a post-apocalyptic hellscape for about two months. Stores were sold out of drinks, police herded folks, and going even one block was a daunting task.

NEVER AGAIN

 

[KillstealWolf]

I missed out on the big rush, local area only has one stop and that was it, (The village signpost, we didn't even have one at the local village green or hall), no good pokemon selections (It's Ratatta, Pidgey and Drowzee, a weedle if you were lucky) and that was it. Wasn't even feasible to play the game with just the one sign-post as your pokeball spot.

Countryside Pokemon Go sucks.

 

[Godsent]

Im so happy the game has lost steam. I honestly don't miss those times.

Click to shrink...

I wouldn't say the game has lost steam, it's generating record revenue month after month w/ almost 90% growth yoy between 2019 and 2018.

Just yesterday I heard someone yelling 'Shiny Kyogre' across the road, followed by laughs from a huge cheering crowd

The game definitely has its magic. I may no longer play it as religiously as when it launched, but it's still fun to fill the pokedex and join a raid once in a while

 

[Kwigo]

It's fun to see what this game has done for the external battery industry :D

Also we took a trip some towns over with my former girlfriend to catch a pikachu. We never got one. Needless to say, she isn't my GF anymore.

 

[Deleted member 36578]

Yeah it was insane and I don't think we will see something like this ever again. Pokémon Go was just the in the right place at the right time. Everyone and their grandmother were playing the game and it was just magical. I remember when a lot of pubs, bars and cafés were doing promotions for Pokémon Go players and powerbanks were sold out for weeks. People were upgrading their phones when they realised theirs wasn't good enough anymore.

Unfortunately I stopped playing like 2 weeks after launch because the server issues were REALLY bad and you could barely play imo. I have read a few days ago that the traffic at launch was 50 times the worst case scenario Niantic had initially calculated and they already exceeded their worldwide traffic after the game launched in Australia and New Zealand lol. (SOURCE)

I have picked up the game last year and I have been hooked ever since. Gonna attend my first Go Fest in Dortmund next month and can't wait to meet trainers from around the world.

Click to shrink...

That's awesome! Enjoy!
I still load it up myself once in awhile but I'm not as hardcore about it anymore. Still, if I had the opportunity to hit up a Go Fest I totally would.

 

[sfortunato]

I agree that empty areas and crowds might make the game less enjoyable. In my hometown, luckily, there weren't really crowds.

 

[Falchion]

Yep, it's a great game and a great walking companion. I live in Paris and my goal is to nail every Pokestop there is, street by street. I love it.

Click to shrink...

That would be such a cool challenge in a major urban area.

 

[jstevenson]

It's a Top 10 video game of all time in my mind

 

[NightMystic]

I played when the game initially came out but dropped it after a few months as there wasn't much to do. On behest of my coworker last year I got back into it and discovered my local discord community for the game. It was literally game changing. The PoGo group in my town is massive and filled with some of the kindest people. It's truly an amazing time meeting up with everyone for community day or raids.

There always seems like there is something new to do/hunt (if you're into hunting shinies). The event calendar is impressive. I do wish they introduce some more mechanics soon as the thrill of a new generation of pokemon will only go so far.

 

[Dreavus]

Love the game. As a hook to get outside it's really good, and I'll often do a stretch of my park with the game off to balance things out. I don't have a stop directly within reach at my house or my work so it gets me out there to spin at least one most days.

Raids really open up if you can find a discord or Facebook group for whatever area you frequent. It makes the tough ones (tier 5) less of a crapshoot since people will post if they're going to be around. And community days at any big park are a lot of fun, so many people come out it surprises me every time.

 

[LOLDSFAN]

Yeah it was definitely one of the biggest social movements I had ever seen myself.

I was living in a new, big city with a population over a million. Didn't really know anyone or had any friends. I remember just randomly hooking up with different groups of people. We were all doing the same thing, enjoying the game.

Will probably never see something like that again.

Also like many other, dropped it for a while and am now playing in full force. :)

 

[ChaosXVI]

It's crazy to think about just how absolutely huge it was for those first couple of months. Literally everyone I knew in my daily life was playing it. Our parks were just loaded with people playing it, of all ages. It seemed to take over my entire town, and I had the impression that was pretty much the case everywhere in the US. Pokémon Go: The Game itself wasn't very impressive, but Pokémon Go: The social phenomenon is another thing entirely.

 

[Aleh]

I'm so sad my phone at the time couldn't play the game, I missed out on the craze. I still play it now though, and the updates are really good.

 

[Maple]

If you go to a place like Disney World it's like it's 2016. People playing everywhere.

And the game is still making $60+ million per month and is about to get another game changing update. So it's not going anywhere.

 

[Qwark]

I agree, that launch period was just something else. Like you say, it was just magical. Obviously there were server issues, but just the joy of discovery and going out with friends and making new friends, it's just something I've never experienced in a game. Now that things have been figured out and people have seen behind the curtain, it's lost some of that magic, but I still play it religiously and quite enjoy my time still.

 

[Linde]

nice story!
playing this game in university is awesome.
super friendly and welcoming community

 

[Simon21]

Haven't touched it since that first summer, but that was a very fun summer.

 

[Deleted member 29599]

It has given me one of the few singular and unique gaming experiences I've had in my life that will never be replicated again, on the same level as vanilla WoW or Super Metroid being my first Metroidvania game. I have so many anecdotes and fun stories. I don't play anymore because in all honesty the game is too shallow but god it burnt bright when it did have it hooks in me.

In week 1 me and a friend who was addicted as i was were running around Brighton Pavilion Gardens like two crazy people because a Dragonite appeared on the radar (back when that actually was a good function instead of it being tied to Pokestops). I remember finding him and literally shouting for my friend at the top of my voice and we both caught him. 5 minutes later a massive group of what i think was 10 people were all running around. We both we like "Hey, you looking for Dragonite? He's that way!" and the lot of them legged it. Around about that time i was just walking down the street with that same friend and glanced at my phone to find Aerodactyl and set off running. My friend was just laughing at me cause he had one already. Never found him (turns out he's kind of rubbish anyway).

Then there was the time that a car pulled up next to us and asked if we had seen a Snorlax. These two guys were driving around playing Pokemon Go. We thought we were about to get mugged. Unfortunately for them he had just despawned after we grabbed him. Good times. I happened to have a gym about 2 minute walk away from my flat and i made it my mission to constantly attack it and claim it back the moment it ever got taken away from me.

I can't imagine how much more popular the game would have been if it was actually, you know, a good game. It amazes me that they got away with that shallow as fuck tap spamming battle system and the car crash that was the first few weeks.

 

[cupcakeunicorn]

I've played Pokemon Go almost every day since its release. It really was an amazing phenomenon during the early days, and the current player base still seems pretty active. It's more rare now that I see other people playing in public, outside of community days anyway, but it does happen occasionally. A few months ago ago I was catching Pokemon in a nearby park when an SUV randomly pulled up next to me; it was a couple with three young kids that all play together. They had recognised that I was swiping Pokeballs and wanted to be friends so they had more people to exchange daily gifts with. 😅

I never would have been as enthusiastic if I still lived in American suburbia; being able to step outside and have several gyms and dozens of Pokestops in the immediate viscinity is extremely helpful. I don't even really take part in the more community-oriented aspects of the games like high-level raids, I just like building my collection of Pokemon and supporting/attacking gyms.

And it's a great motivator for going outside! Pokemon Go was my excuse for taking a daily walk when I was writing up my PhD thesis, so I could take a break and avoid being stuck indoors all day.

 

[Syril]

I don't really enjoy the regular Pokemon games much but I still love Pokemon so It's really nice in that regard. I hope they add the Black and White monsters soon.

 

[sfortunato]

I never would have been as enthusiastic if I still lived in American suburbia; being able to step outside and have several gyms and dozens of Pokestops in the immediate viscinity is extremely helpful. I don't even really take part in the more community-oriented aspects of the games like high-level raids, I just like building my collection of Pokemon and supporting/attacking gyms.

Click to shrink...

At that time I was living in a small town on the coast and while emptier than big cities it still had 5-6 gyms and about 30 Pokéstops so it was all good also because you could walk or cycle everywhere in a few minutes. When I came back to my working city, a big one, I was amazed about how many Pokéstops were around and I understood how my friends living there could be so experienced haha

 

[cnorwood]

After RE7 VR Pokemon Go 8s my 2nd favorite gaming experience. Nothing beats being at a park at 2 am and seeing someone walk up, notice they are on their phone and know what they are doing. Possibly the most social I have ever been on a video game. AR/MR/XR Pokemon Go will be next level.

 

[Chromie]

Nothing was better than getting out of my summer college classes, going to Central Park and just hanging out with hundreds of people. Talking about pokemon, each other and seeing places swarm with people when a Charizard popped up or people chanting for their team. Good times.

 

[rarewolf]

I empathize whole heartedly with that early nostalgia. I almost feel as if the server issues added to the initial fun. It really made it feel like it was some kind of out of control phenomenon of a game (which..it was). The social aspect of POGO is unmatched.

I've had lulls here and there but still play to this day. Even though at this point it's just hoping for the occasional rare hatch or walking hundreds of km to get a rare evolution. Community days are always fun. It's nice because I can play very casually on a daily basis and still go hard when a new update drops.

I actually run two accounts, one on my personal and one on my work phone (don't tell niantic plz). Doing so effectively doubles opportunities for a lot of stuff like weekly research breakthroughs and incubator hatches.

If I had to rank, it I think at this point it would be in my top 10 games of all time.

 

[Green Tentacle]

I redownloaded it recently and it's been a great motivator to get out and walk/bike more. I've starting biking to work again just to get a few km on those eggs, y'know? It's a good game to play casually without worrying too much about rushing through things. I guess my goal is to finish the Kanto dex at some point, but I'll need to find some other people nearby who play to help with raids...