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Pokémon Go loses its luster, sheds more than 10M users

arstechnica.com

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Re: Pokémon Go loses its luster, sheds more than 10M users

#41

Post by ihuman »

wcarss wrote: post #16

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.…

I thought the maps were banned because of the stress they were putting on the server?

Re: Pokémon Go loses its luster, sheds more than 10M users

#42

Post by mjevans »

NDizzle wrote: post #28

They drastically changed some algorithms to (seemingly) make more money. 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…

The update also (at least on my Nexus 6P) made GPS related issues dramatically worse; it's like they don't comprehend that in a place with a lot of tall buildings or trees you're not going to get a 'solid' GPS lock a majority of the time.

Combine that with a UI popup (mid capture interaction no less) that steels input focus (it stops your ball toss), telling the user something they LITERALLY have no control over fixing, and quite possibly ruining your chance at capturing a more rare Pokemon and it is insanely frustrating.

Re: Pokémon Go loses its luster, sheds more than 10M users

#43

Post by jedberg »

With winter, and the colder weather, approaching, they really better figure out some game mechanics that you can do inside at home, or that user number is going to drop like crazy.

I've been saying this for a while -- it was fun to play for a few days, but I live in a suburb. I have to walk at least .5 miles to get to a Pokestop and they never spawn near my house.

I'll still play when I go to new places, but that's about it.

Now, if there were some way for my wife and I to battle each other at home, that would be whole different ball game.

Re: Pokémon Go loses its luster, sheds more than 10M users

#44

Post by mjevans »

wcarss wrote: post #16

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.…

What they need to do is make the 'hunting' system more 4th dimensional.

If you 'hear' a Pokemon near by (maybe you don't know what it is, just that you haven't seen it before), you also know a vague direction it's in; maybe not distance but direction.

That should stay on your map.

You move to a different location so you can triangulate it.

You hear it again and another slice lays on your map.

You investigate, but it's taken too long to get there. All you find are some footprints. (location saved to client device)

Later that day, or another day, the same noise is heard near that area, the client shows the pie slice again, but also loads the local markers within it.

You go to investigate the marker and see (maybe even capture) the Pokemon you'd been hunting.

Re: Pokémon Go loses its luster, sheds more than 10M users

#45

Post by [deleted] »

wcarss wrote: post #16

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.…

[deleted]

Re: Pokémon Go loses its luster, sheds more than 10M users

#46

Post by k__ »

ihuman wrote: post #41
wcarss wrote: post #16

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.…

I thought the maps were banned because of the stress they were putting on the server?

Noone cares 'why' they were banned. They did remove their killer feature.

Re: Pokémon Go loses its luster, sheds more than 10M users

#47

Post by stephaniepier »

calbear81 wrote: post #3

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…

Completely agree on #1. It's turned into just blindly walking around and hoping you run into something. My SO and I played this past weekend and saw a porygon on the "sightings" list. We covered as much ground as fast as we could but never actually saw it. Where's the fun in that? I'm still playing for now, but catching new things was one of my favorite things about the game and now it seems to be almost entirely based on chance as "sightings" are pretty useless.

Another thing that bugs me is uneven catch rate. Having something break free 7 times in a row then running away (even when using razz berries, ultra balls etc.) seems to be in place purely to annoy you. Then other times I catch a stronger pokemon the first try with a regular pokeball. Why???

Re: Pokémon Go loses its luster, sheds more than 10M users

#48

Post by cableshaft »

mjevans wrote: post #44
wcarss wrote: post #16

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.…

What they need to do is make the 'hunting' system more 4th dimensional. If you 'hear' a Pokemon near by (maybe you don't know what it is, just that you haven't seen it before), you also know a vague direction it's in; maybe not distance but direction. That should stay on your map. You move to a different location so you can triangulate it. You hear it again and another slice lays on your map. You investigate, but it'…

You need to be hired by Niantic, stat. That's brilliant.

Re: Pokémon Go loses its luster, sheds more than 10M users

#49

Post by duaneb »

wcarss wrote: post #16

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.…

For those of us who didn't use maps--most everyone I know--it was this advantage others had that made it terribly non-fun to play. Why bother playing when everyone is cheating?

Re: Pokémon Go loses its luster, sheds more than 10M users

#50

Post by rtkwe »

wcarss wrote: post #16

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.…

I can understand why the maps were banned though. The way most of them worked was by sending hundreds of location requests to the servers in a wide grid meaning every map user had the same load as 100+ real users. Add in how popular they were (admittedly partially because of actions on Niantic's end of disabling tracking making them almost necessary) and they probably had a huge impact on the already stressed servers.
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