My Gaming Graveyard: Pokemon Go: A Post-Mortem

Almost an entire year ago, Pokémon Go launched and it was the world's new yoyo. Adults, children, and everyone appeared to be obsessed with the phenomenon that it created. I was one of those people, head down, into the phone; with that catch phrase mentality, “Gotta Catch ‘em all.”

For the first few weeks I was obsessed with catching everything possible, not really understanding the more in depth game mechanics that I would come to learn, things like “don’t hatch eggs in bulk until you are level 20”, and “these Pokémon all have individual values, like the full-fledged games, that can impact their effectiveness in combat”.

At that point, I didn’t care. I was having fun. Lots of people were. We had a few special events in my city, where we had Poke-walks, and the local stadium, Adelaide oval, even had an all-day Pokémon themed event with cocktails, cos-players, and free charging stations.

Shortly after this event the gym-game meta started to define my gameplay loop. I wanted to dominate my neighbourhood with the most powerful Pokémon I could find. I did this for a while, going on morning walks each and every day to kick out the pesky members of the opposing team who had invaded. (Or, to the well-known complaints of several sub-reddits about the game, ‘spoofers’ who used bots to do this while they slept)

At night, I was doing mass evolutions of all the tripe that I’d caught throughout my transit to and from work, using all the lucky eggs that I could. Every moment of spare time that I had was devoted to Pokémon Go for a good six months. But with time, like a lot of things, the lustre faded. I went from most engaged in the game (The Halloween event that was held in October); to someone that was starting to grow out of Pokémon… then the Pokémon Go Plus launched.

I pre-ordered. I got mine on release day. I was hooked again. I went on longer walks. (In one day, I did over 20 kilometres just so I could play Pokémon Go. I got several battery packs and portable chargers to deal with the excessive battery drain. I ordered bulk button-cell batteries to replace that of the Pokémon-Go plus when it failed. The only thing I really didn’t do was wear out any pairs of shoes… (quality footwear helps with that)

Then Generation 2 came out. That’s about when I started to lose interest. It became a chore. I’d get up, go on my morning walk, sync the Pokémon Go plus, and that night-time evolution spam to go up in levels ceased. I had other things to do, I needed to move house, I needed to pack, and for a bit, I needed to spend time apart from Pokémon Go.

I did, don’t miss it. I’m back in a position where I have the time to play the game if I want to, but I find that time being dedicated now instead to self-improvement, learning and fitness. The game did teach me some good habits. It also made me spend a pretty significant sum of money from my entertainment budget, because it was good at what it was doing at the time, keeping me entertained and engaged, but, I lost interest, like many people.

The game is still installed on my phone, the stats, the Pokémon are all still there, but what did I really achieve? The in-game stats tell me that since starting to play the game, 307 days ago, I:

* Walked 1166 kilometres (an average of 3.79 kilometres a day)
* Caught 12670 Pokémon (41 Pokémon a day!)
* Hatched 596 Eggs (Nearly 2 a day)
* Visited 15563 Pokéstops (50 a day)

Looking at these numbers in this context sets me some personal benchmarks for the future, but they’re not Pokémon Go benchmarks. If I can take 91 moments each and every day to catch a Pokémon or spin a Pokéstop, for 10 months, and walk 3.8 kilometers while doing so; what have I missed while I’ve been looking down at my phone?

During the last few months, I’ve barely touched the game, which makes the above, calculated averages even more disturbing. As of this sentence, I’ve uninstalled.

With Pokémon Go no longer installed on my phone, I can instead use ninety-one moments in a twenty-four-hour period to daydream, smile and say hello at a passer-by and probably, most importantly, reduce the risk of being hit by a car while crossing the road significantly.

Does anyone on Steemit still play? Are you more or less engaged with the game now?