Damning article on why Pokemon Go scales horribly

[Rupe]

Android authority released an article today (http://www.androidauthority.com/pokemon-go-no-one-will-ever-catch-em-704369/) which references a level 30 player 'Riggnaros'. Riggnaros claims that late game things slow down too fast, takes too long to level, the scaling is crazy (projections suggest you need a year of game time to reach level 40). You also essentially need to buy pokeballs to be able to have fun past 25 because collecting them from pokestops stops being viable due to the high levels needed later on. This high level of scaling is common among f2p mobile games (the game gets you hooked while things seem reasonable once you have progressed somewhat into the game sudddenly you start to feel under powered tempting you to pay money) and is part of the reason I find the majority of mobile games horrible. Despite this I am currently playing Pokemon Go and am level 19, I have spent some money but not much and none at this point on pokeballs. The article is worth a read if you plan on putting serious time into pokemon go. 

 

[MVPernula]

This killed my spirit. They best patch this.

[skywake]

At the same time if they made it easier for these top-tier players it'd break the game for everyone else. You'd see people putting stupidly high level Pokemon on Gyms and so on. The reduced capture rate as the game progresses and the fact that you run out of Pokeballs sucks. But beyond that I don't think it's an issue. It's really just people complaining that you can't pay to win if you ask me.....

[Rupe]

20 minutes ago, skywake said:

At the same time if they made it easier for these top-tier players it'd break the game for everyone else. You'd see people putting stupidly high level Pokemon on Gyms and so on. The reduced capture rate as the game progresses and the fact that you run out of Pokeballs sucks. But beyond that I don't think it's an issue. It's really just people complaining that you can't pay to win if you ask me.....

The fact that the game essentially forces you to pay to be able to continue playing is horrible and i think your understating it.No one is complaining that its not pay to win they are complaining that it becomes pay to play.  I think your point about the need to keep players levels low to keep things fairly competitive is a fair one. Perhaps they should have a max level that they can increase with dlc, but making it so difficult to level up with aggressive scaling. I mean level 30-31 is the same as 1-25. Just becomes somewhat ridiculous.

[kalious78]

I'm not seeing the issue, it keeps everybody at a similar level and makes it much easier to catch up with the higher players but still allows the higher ups to progress very slowly, seems like instead of just having a level cap of 25 or 30 its left as a slow, slow, slow grind that you don't have to do.

 

its the same old whine omg I rushed to xx and theres nothing to do, omg I flew threw the lower levels and missed x y and z or omg the new expansions sucks I did it in 3 days playing 70hours straight and now I have to wait xxxx for the raid to open.

 

instead of just trying to get the highest level you can so you can farm low level players at gyms just play the game like its intended.

[Rupe]

2 hours ago, kalious78 said:

I'm not seeing the issue, it keeps everybody at a similar level and makes it much easier to catch up with the higher players but still allows the higher ups to progress very slowly, seems like instead of just having a level cap of 25 or 30 its left as a slow, slow, slow grind that you don't have to do.

 

its the same old whine omg I rushed to xx and theres nothing to do, omg I flew threw the lower levels and missed x y and z or omg the new expansions sucks I did it in 3 days playing 70hours straight and now I have to wait xxxx for the raid to open.

 

instead of just trying to get the highest level you can so you can farm low level players at gyms just play the game like its intended.

Nice rant, but you failed to address my real concern with the game, I already stated that the level thing was probably not much of an issue which is what you spent your post trying to refute. The main problem is that the game is basically unplayable unless your willing to purchase pokieballs later on. The game punishes you hard for getting to the higher levels.

[TheBestUserName]

3 hours ago, Rupe said:

Nice rant, but you failed to address my real concern with the game, I already stated that the level thing was probably not much of an issue which is what you spent your post trying to refute. The main problem is that the game is basically unplayable unless your willing to purchase pokieballs later on. The game punishes you hard for getting to the higher levels.

Why does it concern you?  Nintendo has historically *sold* games. Why is it so appalling that this one would require payment(s) at some point, too?  Because it's a game on phones? Because it's a Pokemon game?  Because Nintendo made a promise?  I don't think any of those are real reasons.  Maybe I'm missing some.  Maybe you should adjust your expectations or just stop playing the game. 

[Rupe]

13 minutes ago, TheBestUserName said:

Why does it concern you?  Nintendo has historically *sold* games. Why is it so appalling that this one would require payment(s) at some point, too?  Because it's a game on phones? Because it's a Pokemon game?  Because Nintendo made a promise?  I don't think any of those are real reasons.  Maybe I'm missing some.  Maybe you should adjust your expectations or just stop playing the game. 

Its misleading to sell a game as free to play and then make it a requirement only once someone has already put a lot of time into the game to have to pay or the whole nature of the game changes as your constantly hitting the bottom of the barrel on pokieballs. Again its the idea of punishing someone for putting a lot of time into your game. Its designed like this to lure people in and then get them to spend money. How almost all f2p games work on the mobile. A good free to play should not require you to have to pay. This can be done and the game can still be successful, because many will still spend money on the game. 

My expectations were not high, I know what to expect from the mobile game market. I'm just simply pointing out this game could have had some less greedy design decisions in the name of making a better game but the game is still really fun but it is plagued with the same issues as other f2p games (although some other games are worse than pokemon go for this). 

If they had sold this game and not had micro transactions I think they would of not have been tempted into some of the negative design choices they have made. This is why i would rather spend £40 on a game (overwatch as an example) and not have micro transactions (cosmetic ones not included).

[0xReki]

One year sounds quite reasonable for reaching Lv. 40. Why does everyone have the idea you need max level to make a difference? If it were so there'd be no point for causal player to play at all.

 

I hear everyone complaining about PokéBalls, but what is the actually chance of a high level PokéBall to drop at a PokéStop? All what I've seen now they've make the game too easy altogether compared Ingress. (You could only get items 4 times at portal before having a 4 hour cooldown on that portal. And the chance of a max level player getting a max level weapon was about 5%). It might just be me be lucky to live in a German university city where there are like PokéStops/Portals every 100m. (German law requires universities to spend a set percentage of the budget in art --> more Portals)

[Rupe]

5 minutes ago, 0xReki said:

One year sounds quite reasonable for reaching Lv. 40. Why does everyone have the idea you need max level to make a difference? If it were so there'd be no point for causal player to play at all.

 

I hear everyone complaining about PokéBalls, but what is the actually chance of a high level PokéBall to drop at a PokéStop? All what I've seen now they've make the game too easy altogether compared Ingress. (You could only get items 4 times at portal before having a 4 hour cooldown on that portal. And the chance of a max level player getting a max level weapon was about 5%). It might just be me be lucky to live in a German university city where there are like PokéStops/Portals every 100m. (German law requires universities to spend a set percentage of the budget in art --> more Portals)

I have already said that the leveling thing does not bother me too much, the level cap was just a suggestion its fine how it is. Although I still think a year of game time is crazy for level 40 but it probably does not matter to much.

 

The point is at higher levels 25+ its not sustainable, people who are high levels are saying this. Its all well and good you being able to get enough pokeballs but im assuming your not level 25+ which is apparently when the issues start to arise, so given how many pokeballs you need later on for catching higher cp pokemon according to the guy in the article i linked in the original post it is not sustainable

[kalious78]

i find it strange that your focus is on the cost of pokeballs, the main article is about the exponential xp reqs for levels and the xp for catching pokemon not scaling with your/there level.

 

the article states level 29-30 takes as much as 1-25, the only mention of pokeballs was the guy complaining he used 1000 getting that level (in a day or 2) and paid for them, don't know about you but if u expect to get 1-25 or 29-30 in a day and cry you had to buy balls to do it i think the issue is in your mirror.