As was chronicled Kotakumy journey into Pokémon GO was one of them started two years ago In happiness caused by lockdownAnd after that slowly going down in disappointed after disappointed. However, this weekend, despite what it seems Niantic’s Best EffortI finally experienced Pokémon GO at its best: A fun day out with a great bunch of people, chasing jokes and working together to get the job done.
This past Saturday marked the end of the year 2022 being pulled out Pokémon GO The festival in which the disillusioned story of Professor Willow’s disappearance was finally resolved, and we were finally able to capture the Ultra Beasts, Pheromosa, Buzzwole, Xurkitree and Nihilego, as well as the prize Shaymin Sky-Form’s ultimate. But, for the first time in my experience, it wasn’t just me and my boy playing. And it changed everything.
My main point about Niantic’s recent unwanted changes to POGObeyond it determined to ignore the advice of covid bordered by enthusiasm, is the company’s bewildered belief that if they make events harder to get into, somehow, many people will play together. However, this Saturday there is no such silence. Instead, the Closing Festival event runs from 10am to 6pm, with a bunch of new quests and raids every two hours. So, as is becoming the tradition for such in-game events, Toby — now seven years old — and I set off for the local park, which has a bunch of gyms, and stopped for some exercise. more easily overcome challenges.
The ‘ice bar’ is the best location. Can use three gyms at once, plus it’s the only one we have when had seen anyone else play, even if it was just a fleeting, slightly awkward nod of mutual recognition. Toby had a swim lesson at 11:30, so we thought we’d finish the first part of the mission, and then surely after the break he decided he didn’t want to play anymore, and I will try to complete the challenges at home like the big, sad person that I so often do. Except something else happened. Standing by the aforementioned stand was a circle of people, all holding phones, all holding out and looking down.
As we walked down the hill, instead of closing the security door, they looked up, noticing that our phones stuck out in a peculiar way. POGO players, and invite us over! Three adults, three children, many Pokémon T-shirt. We’ve done it eight. They are the cutest bunch, a couple with their 10-year-old son, and a mother with her 9- and 13-year-old sons. We were immediately invited to capture Pheromosa, and for the first time in two years of playing this stylish game, I experienced a live, lifelike raid.
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This is not for want of trying, but instead as a result of what Niantic cannot accept: That it’s not 2016 any more, and there aren’t gaggles of excited players crowding around every gym. For my entire POGO career, I’ve had to use apps like Poke Genie for it to be possible to do any five-star raiding, meaning I’ve mysteriously captured legendaries from countries all around the world, but never from down the road from my house.
We chatted away, swapped Pokémon experience stories, Toby whipped out his binder filled with his favorite TCG cards, and just the most congenial hour was had by all. But it was time to go to swimming, and so—having swapped friend codes—we said our goodbyes to our fleeting friends.
Determined to try to keep him on a Pokémon GO track for a bit longer after his lesson, because yes, obviously, I’m the one who wants to be playing it now far more than him, I suggested we walk even further from home to get some lunch. At 1.45 p.m., and with a Machop still missing from that second section’s collection challenge, I made him scoff down his remaining ice cream and we set off to catch the blue blighter who refused to appear inside the restaurant. He was right outside, but the third chunk of the day was about to begin, new Pokémon to catch, and most importantly, the electrical fire risk of Xurkitree to capture. I suggested we walk back through the park, just in case.
And they they all were! Our gang! They’d moved about since, but were back at the bandstand too, and once again we were warmly invited to join them. It turns out the two families had met each other in the same location a few months back, despite each living in other cities in opposite directions from our small town. All were avid Pokémon fans, the one couple having been so since the beginnings in the late 90s, the other mum having picked it up when her kids did, along with her partner, and then quickly becoming the most obsessed member of the family. Which is, er, a little familiar. Cough.
As the tasks ticked around, we all completed them as a group, working together to help each other out. When Toby found a hundo Swirlix, everyone rushed to try to grab it, including what turned out to be other players who were quietly nearby. When that tiresome other-(one)-dimensional helmeted chap told us we needed to walk a kilometer and hatch an egg, we set off in two groups to do a lap of the park. There was friendly ribbing, cheerful banter, and even some deep-and-meaningful grown-up chatting.
We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon, through to about 5.30, with these awesome people, and I’m delighted to report we swapped numbers, and are planning to meet up for future Community Days and events. It’s the golden Pokémon GO experience I’ve only previously heard about, most often in the comments below other POGO articles I’ve written, from nostalgic, lamenting long-term players. And I finally encountered it for myself.
I much better get why Niantic is so fixated on this. While of course the billion-dollar company is primarily driven by making vast amounts of money, its rhetoric is almost entirely framed around a desperation to rebottle the escaped genie of 2016. It will infuriate and alienate the entire planet of players, by making bone-shatteringly obviously bad decisions, just because it gets the idea in its head it’ll cause people to find community once again. The company halved the length of Community Days this year, just because it thought it meant people would be more likely to encounter each other if the timeslot was restricted. The obvious reality is that it just means more people are unable to join in, and the chances of encountering someone when there’s no one else around aren’t improved if you make taking part more inconvenient.
Yet, on Saturday, for one of the game’s biggest events of the year, I experienced it. I get why people who lived through the game’s heyday would so desperately want to see that happening again. It makes a massive difference, and one that I imagine most people who (like me) never played the game before covid have never known. I can’t wait to meet up with them all again come the next chance, and play the game as it was intended.
