Improving Pokemon Go

I've been pretty open with my discontent while playing Pokemon Go but I feel that without an appropriate elaboration or ideas to improve, criticism is pointless.  Instead of whining about something I don't like, I'm going to offer suggestions on how to improve it and we'll just let Niantic thank me later ;)

Battling Sucks

For the casual player still sitting around level 10 and maybe one Pokemon above 500 CP, battling in a gym is a dubious proposition as I have yet to see one where the Pokemon were not 1100+ CP.  Why would I go battle just to get rekt by some dude who managed to get a 2000 CP Dragonite (when I haven't even seen Dratini's silhouette out here)?  Nevertheless, I attempted one battle and just as I was getting bored enough with whatever they tried to pass off as combat to consider quitting, it froze on me.  Neat.

Battling has been central to the success of the Pokemon franchise so in order to improve it, here are my suggestions:

1) Change the system. There's no need to reinvent the wheel here; people have loved Pokemon's turn-based battle system since its inception and it's not even the first game to be successful doing so.  I'm all in favor of innovation when appropriate and a real-time battle system could be dope but replacing a popular battle system with one that sucks was not what I would consider "appropriate."

2) Increase opportunities to battle.  Even if it's just grinding through wild Pokemon or practicing on the infinite Geodudes (or Rattata for people who don't live in the desert, I guess) roaming LA, make it accessible for players of all levels; casual and competitive, beginner and expert.

The Art of the Capture

I never liked the Safari Zone. Haphazardly throwing balls/ rocks/ bait without any indication of whether they'd stay is mostly chance.  Anyone reading this probably knows me and knows I'm not a fan of RNG because if I wanted to roll dice, I would roll dice, not play a strategic battle/ adventure game with a significant skill component.  Pokemon Go's method of capturing is almost exactly that and it got old quickly for me, especially enjoying the hunt of the main series games.

So my suggestion once again is to not ruin a good thing.  Being able to carefully whittle down a Pokemon to weaken it for capture is fun and catching Pokemon just isn't fun in a game where the most significant feature is exactly that.  We already have a game where you recklessly swipe your finger and it's called Fruit Ninja. Again, I came here for the Pokemon, not Fruit Ninja.

I do feel they were on the right track (pun intended) with the footprints and doing away with that was a move in the wrong direction.  Instead, they should not only bring it back but take it up a notch; offer headings in the cardinal directions so that you have an idea but you still have to roam and explore in a general N/S/E/W direction to catch that elusive Pokemon.



I have other grievances I could air on the game relating to Pokemon variety, the pointlessness of teams (though I do like the concept), general buggy-ness and more, but I feel these issues are minor in comparison to the two components that define Pokemon being desecrated by this game. Was desecrated an overly-dramatic word to use there? Probably, but I like that word a lot and don't get to use it enough so until Niantic stops desecrating the elements of the game that make Pokemon special, I'm going to keep using it... aaand keep playing when it's convenient in the hopes that one day, Pokemon Go won't suck ;)