Console games tend to be a one-and-done affair. While they’ll often need a few patches, you have the full experience in your hands when you pick it up and start playing. Mobile games aren’t quite so simple. These are often works in progress, growing and evolving in the weeks and months after they’re released. Pokemon Go is one such game, and you’d think it has a long life ahead of it due to it being a Pokemon product and already enjoying such success. Unfortunately, it seems like one of those rare titles that may be a victim of its own developer.
Niantic is familiar with being on the receiving end of Pokemon Go hate. When the game launched, the rollout was slow and gradual. Which you’d think would have meant it was working well in the areas that did get it. Except it wasn’t. It was a broken mess that kept encountering server error after server error. People with Pokemon Trainer Club accounts couldn’t get in or make them. People with Google accounts could sometimes get in, but two-step security would force them to log back in again every time. It was a terrible launch, with issues that persist to this day. That was the first major knock against it.
Now, Pokemon Go isn’t even functioning properly. The woes of logging in are mostly abolished, but Niantic has completely destroyed the radar. You’re supposed to be able to check which Pokemon are in your area by bringing up an abstract radar in the bottom right corner of the screen. It will show up to nine Pokemon around you, with one to three steps beneath indicating how close or far it is. Except the last few weeks, an issue made it seem as though every Pokemon was three steps away. When update 1.1 was released at the end of July, people thought a radar fix would come with it. No such luck. Rather, the update made it worse.
There are no steps whatsoever on the Pokemon Go radar. A Pokemon’s position within the “near” box doesn’t even help you work out positioning. It’s a travesty. The game is supposed to be about walking in the real world, hunting for Pokemon. Without anything giving any indication of what’s around, it feels as though we’re playing a worse version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Here’s a blindfold! Walk out into traffic. A Lickitung is on the radar, so it might be somewhere in your state!
If this wasn’t enough to generate a wave of ill will toward Pokemon Go and Niantic, other actions have exacerbated the issue. About the same time the three step problem walked into our lives, fansites began appearing. Their goal? To tap into Pokemon Go’ s API and show you exactly where these Pokemon were and how long they would be there. They were glorious and wonderful things. But, immediately at the app’s 1.1 release that removed steps entirely, Niantic went after such sites. They’re all gone, taking with them any hope of our finding anything. Yes, sites like PokeVision did tap into Niantic’s work, and maybe they did put extra strain on servers, but they were performing a service that the developer itself is neglecting. They made the game playable.
Shutting down such fan sites while not doing anything to improve their own situation is, pardon my language, a dick move. Pokemon Go players are left with no recourse. There’s nothing we can turn to when it comes to our hunts. We’re left blind and flailing, and Niantic took away the things that repaired their own mistakes. While the fans who put together such sites may have been misstepping, they also we good for Pokemon Go’ s business. And, now that there’s been such a colossal screw up, people are asking for refunds in droves. Rightfully so, because the game doesn’t work.
It also removed the Battery Saver from Pokemon Go’ s settings on iOS devices. This app is a battery hog. It will guzzle all of your power, taking you from 100% to 50% within a few short hours. Taking away the only means of lowering that damage, however inadequate it may have been, is inexcusable. Niantic should absolutely be ashamed.
Pokemon Go is a game that should have done well. It would be easy to make this game, run with the idea, and succeed. We already saw glimpses of it, what with it shooting to the top of the charts, millions being made within days and the world shifting to accommodate and exploit its popularity. Now, within the span of a few days, it seems Niantic has killed its own creation. With no way to track Pokemon, there’s no point in playing. It’s a flaw fixing servers can’t even overcome. It’s a shame, and perhaps a sign that this won’t be the enduring and revolutionary phenomenon it seemed.