Jorge Matthews It’s gotten to the point where when I leave the home, Pokémon Go is already open on my phone and unlocked. I quickly scan the surrounding region and spin the map screen before leaving. When I don’t have a definite destination in mind for my lunchtime or after-work walk, I let the game choose my path. A nearby creature, a gym, or a raid to battle are all on the radar. Job completed, increase in daily step count, and dopamine gain.
Pokémon Go celebrated its sixth anniversary this month, and sure, many people are still playing it today. That may not come as a surprise given the massive launch it had; any game would likely continue to be played on the billion or so devices on which it has already been downloaded. However, that is obviously not the reason that millions of individuals continue to play on a regular basis; the motivations for doing so are as varied as the player population.
Built on a tremendously successful live service model that constantly rolls out new events, rotates available species to download, tempts you with exclusives, and allows you accomplish it all while bragging to others, Pokémon Go is still essentially a collection game. How much of a Pokédex do you have? The number of Shiny Pokémon? How impressive are their stats? If this were a State of the Game for Niantic or the genre of game that Pokémon Go helped popularize, I’d have a lot to say about how no one (including Niantic) has ever come close to topping it. Pokémon Go is the ideal franchise for Niantic’s real-world exploration paradigm.
Pokémon Go continues to be popular and keep gamers for a variety of additional reasons in addition to gathering. I put a lot of emphasis on exercise, especially in the early days of the pandemic when there wasn’t much else to do. Another thing I like to do when I have a little more free time is explore new places that are farther away from home. When visiting a new place, Pokémon Go serves as a rough street map, residents’ guide, and souvenir trove all rolled into one. I sometimes refer to it as “walking but more fun.”
Finally, there is social contact, which includes the friends I have made through the years of playing the game as well as older friends I keep in touch with to discuss our most recent catches or our opinions on current events. Pokémon Go has become a part of the everyday lives of a very wide range of players, just like football is, in my opinion, a common topic of conversation. I see folks playing the game in my neighborhood every day. I can’t wait to witness the wedding of two friends I met through the game later this year.
Has it been this long already?
Naturally, the community for Pokémon Go also exists online, and it is here that more general complaints about the game are frequently voiced and debated. The early Covid era alterations to Pokémon Go, which developer Niantic has acknowledged went too far to allow people to play from their couches, are still being undone. As a carrot to entice players playing together in-person, in-person-only raids for Community Day events have been implemented during the past month, while other benefits have been removed. However, Niantic famously faced strong opposition from influential community members and content producers and had to abandon its intentions to restore the game’s increased geographical interaction distance.
What activities are available in Pokémon Go in 2022? Pokémon Go offers a never-ending live service of events and new releases in addition to raiding, trading, and battling to keep up with. In order to advertise it and other forthcoming ticketed gatherings throughout the summer, there was a small event and a collection of items to acquire in-game that were available everywhere last weekend. I traveled to Berlin for the game’s first in-person Go Fest event in three years. Currently, the game is celebrating its sixth anniversary. Among other things, you can see Charizard wearing a party hat and Pikachu dressed as a gourmet cake.
Game of Pokemon Go
The addition of in-game seasons gave the game more structure and gave a foundation for more engaging storytelling. For instance, Professor Willow, the handsome mentor figure from Pokémon Go, has vanished this season. In his place, a mysterious new character by the name of Rhi is now prominently featured, introducing the most recent appearance of the Ultra Beasts from the Pokémon franchise. Two additional new characters have also been revealed in recent artwork teasing the game’s upcoming year, one of whom might be connected to the eagerly anticipated Route Marker feature Niantic has been secretly working on in the background for years.
Finally, a word about the Pokémon themselves. These fictional creatures are what keep players interested in Pokémon Go and ensure that there is always something fresh to level up or work toward. Pokémon Go currently features a wide range of creatures from almost every region explored in the franchise’s main series games and related anime, although it still adds new species on a semi-regular basis. With this year’s Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, the Pokémon Go menagerie has gotten so big that you’d probably need to play for an entire year to access everything that has been released so far. With so much to play for and six years under its belt, it seems Pokémon Go will continue to draw millions of gamers for many more years to come as they attempt to catch them all.
