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Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought the Wii had great fundamentals. I loved playing a lot of the core Wii games.
How many of the core wii games used motion controls? Even the big Nintendo IP games used primarily a classical control scheme if not exclusively.
The good news is I think the market's broken wide open for another AR app, hopefully one with more compelling gameplay that isn't structured to be the next Farmville/Game Of War/whatever in app purchase digital cash cow.
I'd suggest watching the developer of Braid talk about free-to-play games. He compares them to 90's syndicated TV shows, each one being independent and leaving you with a cliffhanger prior to each commercial break. When HBO started producing long running series that would eventually be released on VHS and DVD, you saw much more long arching story.
Even though Pokemon Go has a lot more going for it than many other free-to-play games, it still works on a model that limits how far you can go without buying stuff. That's how those game companies make money.
I met a Pikpok dev once who said 80% of people delete their games once you can't really advance without buying stuff. A couple spend $80 ~ $200 (more than they would on a traditional title) and a few, the "Whales," would dump $2k upwards into these games. They depended on those players to make the games profitable.
Free-to-play are like quarter-based arcade games .. on your phone. They're a pretty big step backwards in gaming.
I am a semi-active Pokemon Go player in the SF Bay Area and I can tell it's definitely died down over the last few weeks. In the beginning, every Friday/Saturday/Sunday night, the whole downtown area would be lured up and people would be out mingling and catching pokemon in the local park. This past weekend, there were only a few lures and a few diehards milling around the park. There's a few dynamics at play based o…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought the Wii had great fundamentals. I loved playing a lot of the core Wii games.
How many of the core wii games used motion controls? Even the big Nintendo IP games used primarily a classical control scheme if not exclusively.
[EDIT: Removed pvp mention because I couldn't find a source]
After they deleted my account for that (fair enough), I uninstalled the app. I wasn't going to run around catching and releasing Rattatas all the time, as the game is one of the most grindy games I've ever seen, but there's pretty much nothing else to do in the game either.
They made the pokemon break free MUCH more often with the update about 10 days ago. You now have to use way more pokeballs to capture things. So much to the point that it's unfun. I don't live near a pokestop so I can't top up quickly.
Another thing they did was make it so the pokemon disappear if a range check puts you far enough away from the point of initial contact. Combine that together and nobody can play the game in the car anymore, even if you're not driving!
So they spent a bunch of time changing existing features to be less fun without adding any new features that are fun. Not a good idea.
I have been playing with my wife and two of my kids. We all stopped playing because it's simply not fun anymore.
The loss and subsequent banning of maps and map users made nearly everyone I know stop playing, especially in the total absence of an official replacement or a compelling reason to continue. Hearing my map ding was enough cause to make me leap out of my chair and run to the nearby park at midnight to catch something I wanted, and there'd usually be the usual lure-users and a few map-users out there at the same time.…
The maps really drove it into overdrive, especially with the presence of "nests", because it allowed people to figure out where they needed to be, and would then congregate there. By taking out the maps, Niantic has turned their scavenger hunt into a scratch-off lotto ticket - don't bother trying to plan or play with any strategy, just wander around aimlessly until your phone buzzes. Who wants to do that?
It's a shame, because at its core there is a compelling scavenger hunt that generated a truly unique social phenomenon, and it's very sad to see Niantic just piss that away. The game just isn't worth putting any effort into - they broke the effort-reward cycle.