So Pokemon, its been a great franchise for a long time! Heck, I even grew up with it collecting trading cards and have even more fond memories of getting Pokemon Red and a Gameboy color for my birthday one year. It’s been a long time coming and now the younger generation of trainers can join in on the fun with Pokemon GO! But it presents some problems or should I say there are BIG PROBLEMS IN POKEMON GO…
Don’t get me wrong, I love the game and obsess over it to the point where I kinda dropped off the face of the earth for a week playing it on my wife’s phone and now on a handy-down phone from my friend so I can play. But in my playing of the game, I have noticed a few issues and I want to make them clear.
I understand that Niantic is busy and swamped even but people who live in rural areas are getting the short end of the stick. Such as myself, I love Pokemon and I want to play the game more but for the big five ten-mile radius. We only have one entire Pokestop, for us, this leads to more big problems in Pokemon GO. Not to mention it’s placed where the business manager is a total jerk and will probably ask to get it removed once he realizes it’s there with the hordes of kids parked outside every day.
Despite this issue though the game is very popular out here. However, a lot of kids are now being forced to quit because there are very few Pokemon that can be found in the area we live in, and with the lack of Pokestops it’s even worse. Since the rural area we live in is just that “rural” Pokemon don’t flourish here and despite requests, the Pokestop we have is just the only single Pokestop.
Now the reason why I bring this situation up is that somewhere out there. There are other countries that are in similar circumstances despite the game being out only for a few weeks. A lot of people including myself want to know when smaller countries that are not the United States, Japan, or England going to get a little boost.
For example here is a picture of where we live and what our map looks like on PokeVision compared to what it looks like in Los Angeles. True, if we visited a major town or city there will be more Pokemon for us to capture and more PokeStops but you must also consider there are poor people who want to play it to relax or who cannot simply go to town anytime they choose because they lack a mode of transportation or cannot afford bus fair this just leads further into the big problems in Pokemon GO.
You would think that because you live in a rural area Pokemon would show up even more. Because that’s where wild Pokemon live and flourish, but the way the game is designed. Unless you live close to a major town or city you’re screwed, this is one of the big problems in Pokemon GO. I timed it once, it took me exactly four hours to restock the Pokeballs we used up, that is four hours of sitting next to a Pokestop with no lure for about 80-100 Pokeballs.
What’s worse is that it’s easy to throw a curve ball or overthrow a ball that you run out almost instantly. However, if you invest another $35 dollars into Pokemon GO plus you can save a few balls by having it throw them for you. Which from my perspective is a cheap business tactic to sell and make more money off of trainers who can afford extra gadgets.
So what I am trying to say with this editorial is simply, we get it the game is to make money. You are making money, and you will continue to make money because people love Pokemon. But will you at least throw a Cubone to those who can’t afford to put money into this game, who want to play it but can’t afford to go to town, or afford a car, can you make the rural area’s a priority over big towns and cities where others can freely go?
We’re not asking for a lot, we get that PokeStops wouldn’t be common if you consider it the way things would get placed in the Pokemon World. But a few more would be nice maybe some even close by and a chance to find even more Pokemon would be great since we’re lucky if we get one or two a day on a walk.
I really wish I could support the game or say something nice about it besides the fact it gets me up and moving. But the amount of insane effort needed to play and level up and the amount of money you would expect of me to even get remotely good at this game is staggering.
I feel sorry for all the people living in rural areas who face the same problems as we do. Oh, almost forgot to mention closest gym is seven miles away.
An autistic gamer with opinions on games who also enjoys making dumb videos on the internet!