Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/08/23/peak-pokemon-go-has-already-pa.html
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3 Likes
Not surprising. When the game took off, I knew there were a lot of people playing for the novelty of saying they were playing the hottest game of the moment. With the volume that Pokemon games have sold worldwide, as long as they can keep developing the game toward the goal that Pokemon fans have dreamed about for decades, they should be able to keep a large number of players.
Now, if they sit still and try to milk what the game already is, they are going to start losing those diehard Pokemon fans, as well.
5 Likes
6 Likes
It turns out that walking is hard.
17 Likes
I still enjoy playing the game but i have not been playing as often. Mainly because its the middle of the damn summer and it’s gotten hotter since the game first came out, it’s also been raining heavily this week. Also the mishandling of the game by Niantic has taken a bite out of my willingness to play more often. The Nearby feature is still not working and they’ve made most online trackers go dark so i’m just not wandering around in this heat hoping to get pokemon that aren’t there.
They’ve also made checking your pokemon’s stats very difficult for no reason. The game hides those stats from you, and there were sites and apps that would facilitate this but most of them don’t work and have gotten people banned. They did release an update that gives you a vague “hey this pokemon does/doesn’t suck” but this is the most useless way of checking stats because you’re not actually seeing what they are.
Niantic can still turn things around but thus far my confidence in the game has diminished over time. At the moment i’m still playing but mostly because it’s just a time filler while i go to and from work.
6 Likes
If I had a some free time I’d look into what their relationship is to Pokemon and/or VR and what they gain from claiming Pokemon Go is in decline and simultaneously saying virtual reality demand is still good.
There was bound to be a point at which a lot of users lost interest, the idea that this also means that people are not interested in AR is silly and only seems to be designed as a self reinforcing feedback loop to influence the market.
7 Likes
Easy pokemon come, easy pokemon go.
10 Likes
Unless you travel or live in a major urban area, you tend to see the same Pokémon in a given neighborhood. Having just spent a week in and around Denver, I saw many different and new Pokémon - lots of [Ponytas] (http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Ponyta_(Pokémon)) (because Broncos NFL franchise) as one might expect.
An involuntary overnight (cots, yeah! - Spirit Airlines - never again) at Chicago O’Hare also revealed many previously unseen Pokémon. My son chose to stay up all night and pursue them and apparently had a blast.
I choose to play the game because it gives me a common fun subject to discuss with my son, plus it is kinda fun. I basically just gather the little characters and have him manage their evolution every now and then, always under the spell of a “Lucky Egg”
I have an inexplicable affinity for this one, but then again I tried to join Team Rocket
instead of the permitted Team Valor, Team Mystic, or Team Instinct
9 Likes
Meowth is great 
I don’t see him very often but i’m always happy to catch one.
4 Likes
The lack of variety has been a major problem where I live, too. You can only catch so many Pidgeys, Rattatas, and Weedles before it gets boring. They really need to expand the diversity beyond major metropolitan areas and give those of us in the suburbs and the sticks a better shot at some of the more interesting creatures to catch.
11 Likes
This trend assumes the game is already static and no changes or upgrades are coming, which is an unusual business model.
3 Likes
Changes have been made but thus far they’ve added little to the game so i can see why maybe less people are playing. However they are still slated to add more gens in the future.
1 Like
@Grey_Devil
Everybody gets an ultra-rare Pikachu! American players get Pikachu with a gun!
4 Likes
Me, too… something about that Jessie…
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You mean Musashi? Oh wait, you’ve been watching the dubbed version? (sneer)
3 Likes
But you rural folks get all the variety when it comes to IRL critters, so it kinda evens out, right?
5 Likes
When I started, the screen would freeze up because too many people were on the servers. Now the gameplay is better with the reduction of popularity.
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I dunno, lately the game has been running more choppy for me. Certain pokemon animations will cause the game to stutter. It’s annoying.
hmm… maybe it is this kind of snobbery that is turning people away… 
Sorry, I only ever watch when my kids are watching, so blame them.
2 Likes
Niantic’s major improvements: provisioned additional servers, cut off API access to third party finder apps (they were swamping the servers with requests), and improved the apps to be more tolerant of communication lapses, specifically the changeover between mobile data and wifi and loss of GPS, along numerous additional tweaks.
1 Like
