Pokemon Go: Exciting or Exasperating?

 

I remember the first few weeks when Pokemon Go first appeared on the IOS App Store and the Android Play Store. During the night when it cooled down, dozens of people all over Fullerton would emerge from their households with their smartphones and would go wandering around the city’s monuments, parks, and historical places. Armed with portable battery chargers, these people would chase after the numerous Pokemon that were meandering around the city, covering many kilometers, hatching Pokemon eggs, and leveling up their avatars. Countless stories on the Internet praised the game for having people get out of their homes and explore their community in a fun way. Everyone agreed that it was a great game concept, combining our addiction to anything with a screen with the exploration of the outside.

 

And yet, is the game really that good? As the weeks passed and the hype died down a little bit, a few key people began claiming that in reality, the game was half baked and not the best. Some Redditors, Youtubers, and columnists began saying that the game actually wasn’t that fun, and that it’s number one reason for being such a hype was it promoted outdoor activities during the summer, when many people were bored and had nothing to do.

The game’s many problems go on and on. First and foremost was the overloading of its servers, leading to slow login times, game crashes and frustration. Then a choice few hackers began DDOSing the Go servers, making already complicated server problems even harder to combat. Another issue emerged when the in-game Pokemon “Footprint Tracking System” suddenly failed, making it impossible to effectively track nearby Pokemon. What’s more, Gym battles were criticized for being too simplistic and half baked. The games were simple tap-fests: if you could out-tap the computer controlled enemy, you would win the battle.

All in all, the game, when analyzed, was really an unfinished product where players could walk around, catch certain Pokemon, and fight other simple CPU enemies.

After the initial hype had died down, people began to abstain from going outdoors to catch Pokemon. Many quit. Others forgot about it. A select few still play the game, but for most it has become a game to open while in the car.

Lyndon Bui, a current Troy freshman, commented “Yeah, these days I only play it in the car. I really don’t have time to go outside and look around for Pokemon anymore.”

Fellow freshman Sam Kim, agrees, saying that the game “no longer has the fun it used to have.”

However, Sunny Hills freshman Sean Kim disagrees, saying that the game still has all of the charm and fun it used to have. “The problem that most people are experiencing,” he comments, “is that they’ve already found most of the Pokemon in their general area, so the excitement of finding new Pokemon has died down a little bit. I can bet you that if a Dragonite suddenly pops out near them, all of these so called ‘quitters’ will whip out their phones”