This is an album that was introduced to me by a close friend as I began to dive deeper into learning about classic rock. Everyone had an older brother or friends that was a little ahead of the curve and would broaden their horizons with such albums. The scene in “School of Rock” where Jack Black teaches the kids about about rock and roll history is not that far off.
Click above to listen on YouTube.
It’s been over ninety days since friendship launched in Pokémon GO and I have finally gotten my first three best friends in the game. Initially I thought getting three best friends was a dumb idea because you’d get them all on the same day. It turns out it took me about a week between my first and third best friend. This doesn’t seem gold medal worthy since I am still working on my gold Fisherman badge and am likely six months away from completing.
With nearly 100 days played in this new friendship system I’m really enjoying the feature but I think there are a lot of flaws that are still yet to be addressed. Overall it is a tedious, repetitive, and mundane process in a tedious, repetitive, and mundane game. Not that I’m knocking it! I love things that are tedious, repetitive, and mundane!
The problem with friendship is that it’s also a little confusing.
If you open a gift from someone it will have a blue halo around their avatar for the day. If you send them a gift there will be a grey arrow indicating that they have an unopened gift from you. However, if they open that gift the arrow goes away and you have no indication if you’ve send them a gift today. This is probably fine if you have ten friends or fewer. I currently have 88 and it’s an impossible task. There’s also no way to see if they are sitting on a gift that you sent them previously.
In order to make the friendship experience more enjoyable, here is what I’d like to see introduced in the game.
Sort By Gift Needed
You can already sort by gifts you need to open, it would be great if you could sort by friends with open gift slots. This would make dishing out gifts so that you can collect more a much easier task.
Graphic Indicators of Gift Slots
We have a big gift to show they’ve sent us one. We have the arrow to show we’ve sent one today. We need a simple graphic on the friends list that shows whether or not their gift slot is empty. Anything so that we don’t have to tap on each friend individually.
Scroll Bar For Friends List
This was added to the Pokédex and Pokémon Storage. It would be very helpful to see this on the Friends List as well.
Friendship “Level Change Approaching” Notification
I’ve had a few Ultra Friends sneak up on me and, therefore, was unable to put on a lucky egg with enough time. So far I’ve been fortunate that my best friends in game are people I have contact with in real life. Otherwise coordinating the opening of gifts would just be up to dumb luck. I do not think they should have any sort of in game messaging as that would have for more negative implications than positive but if the game could let us know we were due for a level increase it would take a lot of pressure off the daily checking.
Sort By Days Until Next Level Up
Organizing by who is leveling up and how many days would be another great feature to try to maximize XP. It’s great to know who my top friends are but knowing that in 3 days I’ll have 1 best friend, 3 ultra friends, and 9 good friends on deck would be extremely helpful.
Sort By Friends Needing Daily Level Up
It would be great if it could sort and prioritize to the top all those friends that still are in need of a level up today. By putting all those friends at the top you’ll know who you need to exchange gifts with, send gifts to, raid with, or trade with.
Bulk Gifting
Instead of laying out friends in list form, why not lay them out like Pokémon are arranged in a grid? You could also have the option to bulk gift (think of the way that bulk transfers work) where a random gift is assigned to all selected friends. Friends that are grayed out mean they can’t accept a gift, full color indicates gifts can be given, blue background (like Pokémon caught in the past 24 hours) indicate a gifts has already been given and received that day. It would simplify and clarify the whole process.
With gift sending limited to how many you can acquire and gift opening limited to twenty per day we need a better way to maximize efficiency in the process.
I’ve even considered keeping a written list so I can track days until leveling up, ensure I don’t open gifts from the same friend twice, and not waste sending gifts to friends I’ve already sent to that day.
Even for someone who relishes the tedious, repetitive, and mundane having to keep a written list is a bridge too far.
With the Kanto Event officially over I have to say I’m pretty happy with how things ended up. I’m curious as to what this means for the future of Kanto spawns in the game. Are they going to be strictly limited outside of events? At the release of Gen 4 there will be nearly 500 Pokémon available in the game. Divided equally that will seriously dilute the Kanto pool. Will grinding for Starly be the new grinding for Pidgey*?
*I had to look that up as I have no clue about Gen 4 at this point.
Here are some of the highlights and regrets about the event now that it’s over.
The 7km Egg Hatches
7km egg hatches were exciting for maybe a week when they were first released as you had a chance to catch the Alolan forms for the first time. They quicky became stale as there were really only four Pokémon that you could hatch that weren’t spawning int he wild. After you hatched them all the thrill was gone.
Having 7km eggs have the prospect to contain something more interesting (the regionals) they became more exciting. The prospect of getting the never before released regionals was exciting as well and that it was dependent on this new friendship system was very cool.
I ended up with seven Kangaskhan, six Mr. Mime, and ten Farfetch’d. I have no idea on how many Tauros as I transferred all but one.
Now with my Kanto Pokédex finally complete I can move on to simply waiting for the release of the missing Pokémon or eventual release of the other regionals I am missing from the Hoenn region.
Building Up Candy
It seems like they have made Pokémon from outside your normal biome spawn in increase numbers. I have never seen a Doduo or a Sandshrew in my neighborhood but they’ve been out in huge numbers for two weeks. Still that hasn’t been enough to entice me to catch either as they are not really relevant to the meta.
I have, however, been able to add thousands of candy for the the Kanto starters even though I already have tons from Community Days. I have also gotten thousands of Machop, Geodude, and Rhydon candy which are all incredibly relevant for battling so that’s been great to stock up on, not knowing when they’ll be out in such numbers again.
Chansey, Chansey, Chansey!
Like most players I’ve encountered a tiny number of Chansey since the game launched and it was truly my last Pokémon to get in the original Kanto Pokédex excluding regionals and my own stubborn need for a good IV Dratini to evolve.
This event started off with a bang for me. I caught six Chansey on the first day, something I normally don’t catch in six months. Then things slowed considerably. Here’s the total count:
September 14: 6 September 15: 1 September 16: 1 September 17: 1 September 18: 1 September 19: 2 September 20: 0 September 21: 0 September 22: 0 September 23: 0 September 24: 2 September 25: 1 September 26: 0 September 27: 0 September 28: 0 September 29: 0 September 30: 0 Total: 15
That’s 90 Chansey Candy, bringing my total Chansey Candy to 473 as of the end of the event.
Most importantly I finally got my first Chansey with Great IVs: 98%. The only problem is its CP is 153. To max it out will cost 348 candies and 268,400 stardust. Normally I just bring Pokémon up to level 30 (which would cost a mere 251 candies and 118,400 stardust) but with a near perfect Chansey it may be hard to resist maxing it out.
I’m also planning on trading for some lucky Chanseys so who knows? Maybe I’ll get a higher CP Chansey with similar or better IVs!
Overall this has been a great event.
Where is Snorlax?
I didn’t encountered a single wild Snorlax! I’m not complaining about the Chansey but I haven’t seen a Snorlax in the wild since January. It would have been great to catch a few during this event.
Third Tier Evolutions
There really weren’t any third tier (or even second tier) evolutions spawning during this event. I have only encountered a wild Dragonite once in this game. It was nice having Dratini as a raid boss but it would have been cool if they upped the possibility of running into a Dragonite, Charizard, or Poliwrath even a little.
Overall Rare Spawns
The first few days, even week, we saw Tangela, Porygon, Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, and Chansey popping up. These are Pokémon that many players could easily be missing. It makes me wonder why we didn’t see more overall diversity in the spawns. I didn’t see Clefable, Scyther, Kabutops, Onix, or any number of rare spawns that could have made given the event a little more excitement. Imagine running into a wild Muk or Vileplume. They’re useless in the meta and I’m not hurting on candies for either but it would certainly be fun to see them out and about.
Shiny Disappointment
Two new shiny Pokémon were introduced for this event: Grimer and Geodude. I managed to catch a Grimer but came up empty on the Geodude. I missed out on Omanyte a few months back and the likelihood of catching them outside of the spawn rates of an event is pretty tiny. I’ve caught hundreds and hundreds of Geodudes with no luck. Growlithe was released shortly before this event and no luck with a shiny on that front either.
This event was so good at building candy and stardust for meta relevant Kanto Pokémon that I almost forgot we had a Community day in the mix as well!
I only hunted for Chikorita for a little over an hour but came away with seven shinies. The spotlight was stolen by a new Pokémon which we learned, days later, is named Meltan. They dominated the end of the event but, sadly, all transformed immediately into Dittos after being captured.
It appears that this is a tie in to the upcoming Nintendo Switch games “Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu!” And “Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee!”
I’m a father of three in his forties so, naturally, this got me super pumped for this release!
Gotta catch ’em all*!
*Before your midlife crisis is over!
I am constantly living in a state of storage anxiety with Pokémon GO. Mostly this is an anxiety brought on entirely by myself. With the latest event I am constantly finding my storage full for the first time in a long time, transferring a few at a time just to make space to catch one or two more.
A year and a half ago when they changed the way training works in gyms there was suddenly a need to hoard all of these Pokémon in the 1,000 CP range as they were perfect for battling your own teams’ gyms and opening up slots to put your Pokémon in.
When Niantic got rid of that system with the gym overhaul in June of 2017 I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally I was able to transfer all of those mid-level Pokémon and free up storage space for catching. They’ve subsequently increased storage and all was well.
Then they introduced trading.
Trading brings with it so many reasons to hoard Pokémon and for a natural hoarder such as myself, this puts me in a tough position. With trading every Pokémon has value. Before trading I would catch a Pokémon, check IVs, then transfer for one candy. If it was something really rare I’d hold onto it until a double candy event to transfer for two candies.
Now there are so many factors that play into the difficulty of keeping storage slots available. Here are my main struggles.
With this current system any Pokémon with a high IV is of value. Trading it with the potential of making it lucky for another player is key. I am constantly on the lookout for a high CP Chansey I could trade for one of my 2016 Pokémon with the potential of making it lucky. Newer player would also love to roll the dice on getting a good high level Pokémon
Anything old now has value since lucky Pokémon were introduced. The older the Pokémon being traded, the higher the likelihood of the traded Pokémon becoming lucky. Now that they’ve added guaranteed lucky status for any Pokémon from July or August of 2016 I am holding onto quite a few valuable trade offers in hopes of getting some important lucky Pokémon I will be able to power up at a discount.
This is a recreation of The Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach. Once again this Bach collection is being rendered using the sounds of the NES. While I’m not exactly a scholar of Bach I’ve always enjoyed his music and enjoyed bringing a new take to music hundreds of years old with sounds that are decades old.
Click above to listen on YouTube.
This is a recreation of The Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach. Once again this Bach collection is being rendered using the sounds of the NES. While I’m not exactly a scholar of Bach I’ve always enjoyed his music and enjoyed bringing a new take to music hundreds of years old with sounds that are decades old.
Click above to listen on YouTube.
Sometimes I think Niantic just doesn’t like making money. This seems odd to say about a company that’s made nearly $2 billion on Pokémon GO. Often I’ve heard fans complaining about Niantic doing things as a money grab. I actually think quite the obvious. I think they’re leaving a ton of money on the table with simple features that they could get Pokémon GO’s most active players to very willingly plunk down money on.
I’m extremely lucky. I live in the perfect area for Pokémon GO. I’m not in the city so I can easily hold a gym (or multiple gyms) for the necessary time to get my 50 coins a day in the game. I’m not in a rural area so I don’t have to worry about my Pokémon unintentionally holding a gym for a month. I’m living the suburban dream. I casually stick a few low tier Pokémon in gyms every day then collect the in game currency. I don’t even have to worry about reviving or using potions because they’re usually recently caught Pokémon that I plan on transferring anyway.
At 50 coins a day that amounts to 350 coins a week or 18,250 coins a year. That’s a cash equivalent of $182.50 if you don’t take into account the coin discount you get with larger dollar amounts in the shop.
With all those coins coming in on a daily basis I don’t spend much on the game. That being said I’ve probably logged more hours playing this one game in the past two years than I have on nearly every other video game I’ve ever played all grouped together. I could think of a lot of ways Niantic could force me to part with my Pokécoins quicker and run the risk of having to spend more real life money in game.
Here’s what I would gladly pay money for in Pokémon GO:
One frustration I often have with the game (and mentioned in my Pokémon GO Quality of Life Improvements article) if that if we’re around any number of Pokéstops we only see activity there. We have no idea if there’s a Blissey just hanging out 150 feet away. When playing at home I am often able to see Pokémon that are just a few feet away that my wife or kids cannot see due to subtle differences in their GPS drift. Wouldn’t it be great if, as a paid feature, we could expand the radius? Not infinitely, just enough to be able to casually catch Pokémon that were just a little farther away than what we currently have.
Proposed Cost: 200 Pokécoins per 50 meters up to 500 extra meters
Total Cost: 2,000 Pokécoins
This is something that any hardcore player and even a lot of casual player would gladly cash in coins for. I know plenty of players that don’t buy incubators because of the temporary nature of them but would be more than willing to pay a lot more for an incubator that will last forever. I’m sitting on tons of incubators and I still don’t use them unless there’s some sort of special egg event where my changes of actually hatching something decent are greatly increased. If I could buy two more infinite incubators I’d certainly be using them all the time. I don’t think you should be able to have nine, mind you, but an extra two would really help out people’s egg game.
Proposed Cost: 2,000 each, up to 2 additional incubators
Total cost: 4,000 Pokécoins
It would also be a great feature to add an additional 3 or even 6 egg slots. I’ve already proposed separating out 7km gift eggs into their own storage area but it would be great if you were also able to just hold more eggs in general. 7km eggs have definitely made egg storage a little crowded and the lack of variety in 7km eggs makes them fairly useless for anything other than gaining a little trade distance.
Proposed Cost: 2,000 each, up to to 3 additional slots
Total cost: 6,000 Pokécoins
Extra Buddy slots would also be a great feature. In the main game you’re walking around with up to six Pokémon at a time. Six Pokémon to train, develop, and get to work together. I don’t know if we need a full six slots, two may suffice, but it would be great to have some additional slots available. Perhaps even expanding the Buddy system to include actual training to raise battle readiness and stats.
Proposed Cost: 10,000 Pokécoins each, up to 2 additional slots
Total Cost: 20,000 coins
Every so often I’m in a spot where there’s just no Pokéstops. Having the ability to plop down a Pokéstop for say 12-24 hours and have that introduce wild spawns and be a source of items would be incredible. This could be particularly useful for people on vacation or in rural areas. I’m not sure if these Pokéstops would be visible by other players (like lures) or just for the trainer who uses them (like incense) but either way this would be a great feature. This isn’t something I would use every day but I can certainly think of occasions where this would be a great feature.
Proposed Cost: 10,000 Pokécoins for 24 hours
Total Cost: Limitless
This is something I’d really wanted to see developed when it first rolled out and the raid bosses were fairly challenging. With the whole Regice, Registeel, Regirock crew it doesn’t seem like selecting a Battle Party even matters. However, if raids and the gym battle system were to be altered to make them a more challenging part of the game this would be something that would be really helpful to have going into battle
Proposed Cost: 200 Pokécoins each, up to 15 additional parties
Total Cost: 3,000 Pokécoins
With the release of Gen 4 imminent this is something I’m sure we’re going to see. However, I’d be more than happy to increase storage to 3,000 slots and beyond. With the introduction of trading and lucky Pokémon I’m far less willing to part with anything these days in the case I may want it for a friend in need. Honestly I’d probably keep forking over 200 Pokécoins at a shot until the maximum storage is achieved no matter how high that number was.
Proposed Cost: 200 Pokécoins per 50 slots, up to 3,000 slots
Total Cost: 6,000 Pokécoins
I only have 66 friends in Pokémon GO and managing it is already challenging. Having the ability to bank more gifts would really keep me able to exchange gifts more frequently on a day-to-day basis and level up my friendships. I don’t think you should be able to increase gift storage infinitely but an additional ten slots would make a huge difference. I’d love to hear from someone that has 200 friends and see what their ideal gift storage would be.
Proposed Cost: 500 Pokécoins to go from 10 gifts to 20 gifts
Total Cost: 500 Pokécoins
In the main series games there are Pokémon Centers where you can store items and Pokémon as well as healing them up and trading with friends. If Pokémon Centers were introduced in Pokémon GO it would be a great way to have a storage unit where you could do the same. Perhaps we’re getting greedy where 2,000 slots is not enough. Sometimes I just don’t want to trash valuable items (rare candy, golden rasberries, TMs, etc.) but I also don’t want to be carrying them around all the time. The ability to store them somewhere in the physical world where I could pick them up later when needed would be really cool. It would also be cool to have some sort of exchange where you could trade items or sell to other players in game.
Proposed Cost: 200 Pokécoins for 50 slots up to 2,000 slots
Total Cost: 8,000 Pokécoins
We have super incubators, golden raspberries, and now silver pinap berries. Why note an advanced lure that lasts longer? This would be great paired with a temporary Pokéstop when in a remote area or on vacation.
Proposed Cost: 150 Pokécoins each, or bundled for savings
This would be the same as above. I’m usually on the go when I’m playing but if I was stuck in an area where I wasn’t able to access Pokéstops or decent spawns this would be a great way to be able to sit back and catch Pokémon in conjunction with lures
Proposed Cost: 150 Pokécoins each, or bundled for savings
When research first came out the number of slots seemed fine. With so much research now relying on special events, catching limited time shinies, and Spinda forms I find myself having to spin stops, check research, and trash tasks constantly. It would be great to build a little more of a buffer up to make that process a little less tedious and I’d be willing to pay for that.
Proposed Cost: 500 Pokécoins each, up to 3 additional slots
Total Cost: 1,500 Pokécoins
The total cost of buying the max of all these additions (and one of each of the temporary items) comes to 61,300 Pokécoins. That’s $613 ($423 with the 100 Pokécoin discount). That’s a huge sum of money. Not everyone would buy everything but there’s a number of items there that I, for one, would be extremely likely to purchase. There are some items on this list that, quite honestly, I wouldn’t have any interest in. I’m just going on what I know other players would like to see.
Pokémon GO has about 65 million active monthly users and 5 million daily active users. Even if a small fraction of these users bought a small fraction of these items Niantic would be swimming in even more cash. The great thing about this game is that in its current form your ability to spend money on the game does not impact anyone else’s game experience. There are maximum limits on competitive advantage. Spending money really only improves your ease of playing.
We will see what Gen 4 brings and if any of these things will ever become a reality.
I play Pokémon GO every day without exception. I’ve never missed a day since I installed the app on July 9, 2016. I’ve probably spent more time in aggregate playing this game than any other game I’ve ever played.
And I’ve played a lot of games over the years.
Obviously I love the game or I wouldn’t subject myself to this. That being said there are so many areas where I see there could be huge quality of life improvements that would make the daily play of the game so much more fun and less frustrating.
As I said I love the game but it is tedious. Very, very tedious.
Here are what I am identifying as the top improvements that could be made to relieve some of the tedium and leave more time for the fun parts of the game.
Some Shiny Pokémon are easy to identify. When you tap on a shiny Mareep or Dratini, it’s instantly obvious, even before you see the sparkles fill the screen.
With others, the difference is barely noticeable. During Community Day, where the entire object is to capture a new shiny, you are generally playing outside int he bright sun. It can be difficult to distinguish between a normal and shiny Pokémon in regular light, in the sun it is barely possible. During the three starter Community Day events I caught shiny Pokémon without even realizing it.
It would be great if there was something more to identify a shiny. One option would be to have an icon hover above the Pokémon like with weather boost. My preferred option would just to make the sparkles continuous throughout the encounter, radiating outward during taunts. This would eliminate any ambiguity and lessen the possibility of having a shiny run on you.
Finally a version of …And Justice for All where you can hear the bass! A truly remarkable heavy metal album is dumbed down here using the sounds of the NES. This was an important album in my musical development and it was a joy to realize it alongside the sounds of the video games that were contemporary to its release.
Click above to listen on YouTube.
The Johto Festival may be the best event ever in Pokémon GO. I’m not sure it’s the most fun but it seems to best thought out so far. Pokémon GO is a game I never gave up on. I’ve played every day since July 9, 2016 but there were long stretches where I was playing for less than ten minutes a day. Niantic has put a tremendous amount of energy into making this game fun again and with the new features I find myself playing for the equivalent of hours a day.
The event sort of snuck in alongside the Celebi Special Research that was announced on August 20th. I was excited about Celebi being release because, even though I already caught Celebi at GO Gest, it’s always fun having special research to do in the game. As a reward I will receive 20 Celebi candy which is nice but would be more exciting if my Celebi was higher than 73% or if Celebi was at all useful in the game.
Tagged on to the global release of Celebi was the surprise release of the Johto Festival. This event is similar to the Kanto festival in that it is spawning huge numbers of Johto region Pokémon, with an emphasis on Pokémon that will evolve in Gen 4.
Screen shot from The Silph Road.
In the announcement it was said that “Pokémon originally discovered in the Johto region, such as Natu and Sunkern, appear more frequently in the wild.” At first this seemed like an odd designation of Pokémon to choose to represent the Johto Region. I should have picked up on what this actually meant which was that these Pokémon’s shiny variants had just been released.
The thing that makes this event so good is that they have really done a great job of integrating so many things: friends, research, 7 day bonuses, evolution items, buddies, evolutions, gifts. The only thing they really didn’t incorporate in some small way is the weather system or battling.
The normal event we’ve seen lately is simple: introduce some new shiny variants, have them spawn in increased numbers, and include something like increased candy, XP, or stardust.
With this event they have included two Pokémon spawning more frequently, Natu and Sunkern, both with the possibility of being shiny. In addition you can get a Pineco through research task. The interesting part is that you need to evolve Sunkern and Natu to get Pineco. Additionally you also need Sunstones to evolve Sunkern.
If you’re like me you’re kicking yourself for trashing dozens of Sunstones after not really having any use for them for months. Niantic has shown a little mercy by including additional research tasks which will award you Sunstones. The layers to all of this make this event and the shiny hunt much more interesting than in the past.
So far I’m 0-6 for on Shiny Pineco. I’ve largely ignored Sunkern and Natu for the past year, something I’m really kicking myself for now. This event makes me question if I can ignore any Pokémon moving forward for fear of being short on candy. This has lead to an extra layer of strategy where I’m forced to trade Natu and Sunkern in order to get the candies I need for more evolutions.
During the last event Snubbull and Houndour were released into the wild and shinies with no increased spawns. The catch was that Snubbull and Houndour spawn in my area no more than once a week if I’m lucky. With the Johto Festival we’re seeing a huge increase in both of these Pokémon which have now given me a fighting chance.
The Special Research starts simply enough with needing to power up a Pokémon 5 times, battle a gym 2 times, and battle in a raid. This was all simple though as a stardust hoarder I was a little resentful of having to be forced to use some of my stardust.
I suppose using a few thousand stardust on my 98% Machamp wasn’t the end of the world.
After that you need to make three new friends, evolve an evolved grass type Pokémon, And Catch a Pokémon 3 days in a row.
The last of these tasks was a little annoying. While I don’t feel the need to have to complete the research in 3 hours like people did with Mew it just isn’t very exciting to have to catch one Pokémon a day for three days. This is simply a speed bump, not an actual challenge. It would be a lot more interesting if they’d made something challenging that very well could have taken three days but would keep you engaged rather than this overly simple task.
At Pokémon GO Fest you had to catch 10 Pokémon of several different types to get past one task. With a three day time span it would have been nice to see something like that.
In Part 3/8 you need to reach level 25, use a Sun Stone to evolve a Pokémon, and hatch 9 eggs. The Sunstone thing would have been welcome at any time in the past but this had me even more upset about having dumped so many Sunstones in the trash over the past months.
With part 4 I am once again resting my Chansey to walk an Eevee 10km, Evolve an Eevee during the day into Espeon, then sending 20 gifts to friends.
Being at the half way point two days into the event seems a little quick but I do know through reading spoilers that there is another speed bump approaching soon.
All in all there are a lot of moving parts to this event that make it more interesting than any in the past. I love the addition of a Special Research and I’m really hoping they include this in upcoming events. That additional piece makes everything that much more engaging.
For a game that struggled so much during its first year the continued improvements just keep coming. With everything they keep throwing out there it doesn’t even seem like a big deal if we don’t see Gen 4 until early 2019.
Just kidding, that would be a huge deal and players would revolt. However, since players are always complaining about everything anyway, what’s the worst that could happen?
