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Pokemon go
Pokemon go revealed a huge new system the other day: Mega Evolutions are here, giving us occasional access to super-powered versions of Beedrill, Venasaur, and Charizard, at least as long as we have the mega-energy needed to upgrade them. From one perspective, it’s a fun system that could allow people to experiment with new ways of approaching Team Rocket raids and battles. But, for now, the implementation has left a sour taste in the mouths of many gamers.
The essential problem is that, as in the main games, Mega Evolution is temporary. Here it lasts for four hours before the Pokémon returns to its normal state. A certain amount of Mega Energy is needed each time you want to Mega Evolve a Pokémon, and Mega Energy is currently only available in Raids outside of a single single quest line.
The raids constitute one of Pokémon GO ‘s Primary Microtransactions – You can do one a day for free, but beyond that, you have to fork out about $ 1 per raid, excluding packages and the like. So if you want to keep Mega Evolved Pokémon on your team for an appreciable period of time, you’ll have to pay for a lot of raid passes.
Pokémon GO has been pay-to-win for a long time, although not as much as many other mobile games. Part of this is inevitable and manageable. But pay-to-win systems are more enjoyable when they work with long-lasting, guaranteed rewards – pay for a clearly labeled thing and get that thing. Pokemon go Eggs are loot boxes, so they don’t fit the “guaranteed” bill. The raid passes have been, for the most part, a fairer system, with the randomness relegated to the purely cosmetic glow system.
Mega Evolutions complicate this by offering temporary rewards. The problem with temporary rewards is that they put players on a treadmill, allowing them to convince themselves that they need this item to play at the optimal level, and then feel that they cannot necessarily stop paying the surcharge for that they do not start to fall. behind.
You can squint and see how this is supposed to work – you rack up Mega Energy multiple times and then spend it for special occasions like Community Days, Raid Hours or things like that. But as they are, they still feel like they’re designed to encourage overpaid Raid Passes. And this is now, when these raids are still popular: the system will come under more pressure as more and more people decide to simply not bother with Mega Raids anymore.
Reddit is currently full of solution ideas – the most imaginable turns Mega Evolutions into a lasting reward, allowing you to Mega Evolve a Pokémon for free once you’ve already done it once. Universal Mega Energy, which could be used for any Pokémon, would also alleviate the problem a bit, although it would not eliminate it. Niantic has said it’s listening:
We’ll see what happens. Pokemon go It has gotten more expensive over the years, but I have a feeling that the reputation of not being as expensive as other mobile games is still very important to Niantic. I expect a balance update next week.
