The 5 Biggest Problems With 'Pokémon GO'

Pokémon Go is a really neat “AR”—or “augmented reality”—game from the creators of Ingress, another location-based mobile title, and Nintendo. It’s easily the biggest splash Nintendo has made so far in the mobile world, and has quickly risen to #1 in the App Store. And why shouldn’t it? The game is entirely charming. Of course, Pokémon GO isn’t without its problems. We’ll take a look at the top five.

1. The Life & Death Of Your Phone’s Battery

All the biggest battery-eating culprits are in action when it comes to Pokémon GO. Your screen is the biggest battery hog, and you’ll be using it plenty. On top of that, you’re going to use your camera so that you can see the Pokémon in the real world. And to top it all off, the ever hungry GPS is a must to even find the Pokémon in the first place. All of this together is a recipe for dead phones. There are some workarounds and temporary fixes to this problem, but ultimately you’ll just want to plan ahead. When you go out looking for Pokémon, bring a fully-charged phone with you.

2. Bugs Galore

Many users are reporting all sorts of bugs and issues with the game. These range from US gamers discovering that Pokémon GO “isn’t available in your country” to maps utterly devoid of any and all Pokémon. Other users have reported opening the game to discover that all their progress has been wiped. There are ongoing issues with Pokémon GO servers going down as well.

Hopefully these are patched up quickly, but in its current state Pokémon GO may or may not run without issues.

3. Micro-Transactions

I have mixed feelings about In-App Purchases in games. On the one hand, this is how companies can monetize “free” content; on the other hand, micro-transactions can fundamentally change the way we experience games. So far, Pokémon GO doesn’t appear to be all that egregious when it comes to IAP’s, but who knows what the future holds? Indeed, if Nintendo and Niantic’s monetization strategy isn’t aggressive enough now, we may see even worse changes down the road just in order for the game to make money.

4. Safety First

I’m quite literally waiting for the first news report of a car crash caused by Pokémon GO. Reading tweets, Facebook posts, and forum posts isn’t reassuring. People are playing while walking (obviously) but appear to also be playing while riding their bikes, or driving their cars. People are also walking into strangers’ yards, which could easily lead to confrontations (and hey, we Americans do own a fair number of firearms). There are Gyms in police stations, and even one on the White House. Suffice to say, this type of game/real world hybrid could lead to some safety issues.

While it’s often a bit humorous to hear some of these stories, it’s also a bit disconcerting. I wonder if Nintendo’s legal team is at all nervous. I would be if I were them.

5. Watered-down Pokémon

For die hard Pokémon fans, the actual gameplay itself may leave something to be desired. Ultimately, this is not a “true” Pokémon game. Battles, stats, the entire experience, really, is a stripped down affair. On the one hand, it has to be to appeal to a wider net of mobile users. On the other hand, Pokémon easily lends itself to touchscreen gaming, and it’s kind of a shame that the more in-depth battle system from the handheld games didn’t make it over to Pokémon GO.

Those are my biggest issues and concerns with Pokémon GO so far. Feel free to share yours in the comments, or tell me how I’m wrong and how I must be a paid shill for Sony and Microsoft, hired to strangle the game in its cradle.

Ultimately, I think Pokémon GO is a really cool game in a lot of ways. I don’t think I’ll play it that much after the initial fun dies off, but I can see this being a really big deal for Nintendo. Certainly it appears to be a success already, and should help convince the game maker that mobile is a viable addition to its broader business model. That’s a win for everyone.

Just remember, don’t play the game while driving, and don’t be a creeper.

Source: Forbes