Pokemon Go Updated: the Epidemic of Shallow Videogames

Honesty, I had forgotten that game ever existed. When I heard about the update I was reminded of late walks around town with friends trying desperately to catch every single Pokémon out there.

Pixabay, Public Domain

The game was incredibly fun for a few weeks and was even downloaded before the official release by most of the people I knew who played it. Despite this initial excitement at the game’s release a problem emerged that has also dampened a number of recent games such as No Man’s Sky and Grand Theft Auto Online when they first launched. It had no real depth.

While it was fun catching Pokémon, that was all there really was to do. Balancing issues meant the gym fights were pointless, and so once you’d caught all your favourite Pokémon there wasn’t anything left to do. Living in a small town meant actually finding Pokémon was an uphill struggle which left many bored and frustrated after running into their thousandth Zubat.

Given the new update is best played with friends, I doubt I’ll be re-downloading it anytime soon

No Man’s Sky and GTA Online both promised huge gameplay opportunities, the former offering a near infinite galaxy to explore and play with and the latter offering heists and the chance to be a fully-fledged criminal in your very own crew. Both left gamers severely disappointed. No Man’s Sky was just plain boring and GTA Online’s promised heists weren’t added until nearly two years after the game’s initial release. Almost. Two. YEARS. That being said, both offered updates that greatly enhanced the gameplay, while Pokémon Go hadn’t followed suit. Until now.

Flickr, BagoGames

With mobile games being so cheap the danger is that people won’t feel invested enough to return to Pokémon Go. There is very little downside to never playing the game again, apart from the loss of the hours already spent on it. At least with No Man’s Sky and GTA Online people had invested a significant amount of money and were likely to play just to get the most out of their cash.

The current update for Pokémon Go although appealing, will see gyms being shut own until the revamped and more balanced system is implemented which could see current players, who have persevered all this time, also moving on and forgetting about the game.

No Man’s Sky was just plain boring and GTA Online’s promised heists weren’t added until nearly two years after the game’s initial release

For me personally, the ship has sailed. None of my friends play No Man’s Sky anymore as they felt lied to by Sony. They’ve all sold GTA V as it got very boring, very quickly. Likewise, they have all deleted Pokémon Go to free up space on their phones. Given the new update is best played with friends, I doubt I’ll be re-downloading it anytime soon. Pokémon Go is but another example in this epidemic of shallow games and this update is simply too little too late.