Social gaming

[Winter]

Right now, Pokemon Go is not what I would call a social game. Sure, people leave their hermit shells and walk about and yes, there is a cooperative aspect involved with the legendary bird race between the teams. However, not everyone on the streets will strike up conversations all the time and expand their social circles (because there as many casual players that don't even know half of the names as there are serious fans like us) and gyms can be solo-ed these days. Community events such as walkathons and retailers jumping on the bandwagon hoping to profit might be a positive step in forging social connections but realistically, it doesn't seem fiscal in the long run.

I feel that Niantic could and should definitely work on adding more features to make the game something that can really connect people as the main titles have. An obvious option is to enable trading and PvP but with the potential for large groups, perhaps a party quest system would be interesting and worth a shot. Maybe have mini-quests that a group of 5 or so, regardless of team, can work together to complete and earn exclusive items. And another thing that disappoints me is the lack of friend system – because I wanna know what my friends have been catching and how good at being gym leaders they are! What do you guys think? Is the social aspect of Pokemon Go fine as it is? Should there be more features that allow for more player connectivity? What would you suggest?

 

[Sirindu]

Well, trading is confirmed to be coming. PvP is speculated to come at some point as well.

A friend's list would be a huge help, as you said. Also, Niantic has good track record of creating worldwide events and encouraging more local, grassroots initiatives for gameplay as well.

This has been such an absurdly massive success and I don't think they were truly ready for it. When the dust settles and they feel they truly have control of the servers and a grasp on the direction and timeline of development, I think we'll begin to see more encouraging social elements brought in, both directly and through community development.

 

[VisualJae]

Depends on where you're located.

Here in NYC, the vast majority of people are incredibly social. I can no longer count how many times I've partied up with total strangers, sometimes two, three, five, ten people at a time as if I were in a MMORPG.

Everyone is collaborative, shouting out sightings of rare Pokémon, communicating where to find what, etc.

Obviously some more features are totally welcome. The game is clearly incomplete and Niantic stated that themselves (somewhere in the ballpark of less than 10% done).

 

[Squirrel]

I personally go out of my way to avoid everyone I come across and everyone else in the village seems to do similar - we're what you're talking about in terms of no one wanting to socialise with each other and honestly I do find that kind of crappy but there isn't a lot to do about it when neither part is really that interested and there's not a lot to gain from talking to people in an area like this. In a city news spreads fast of a Pokémon sighting so everyone has a reason to talk but here you'd just have to hope you randomly ran into someone going in the same direction as you and they somehow knew there was a rare Pokémon around. I think local trading and battling would be great ways to solve this issue and I'm all for them being implemented but I would be a tiny bit nervous of people using it to bait people into 'traps' haha.

 

[Phoenixstarz]

I think it's something that will be more social over time, I usually go and hit the pokestops and gyms at the same time so often see the same people who are also out at that time so starting to talk more to those people. I generally don't end up talking to many people I see playing it but as less people play over time I think the players that remain will be more happy to see another player

 

[Squirrel]

I think it's something that will be more social over time, I usually go and hit the pokestops and gyms at the same time so often see the same people who are also out at that time so starting to talk more to those people. I generally don't end up talking to many people I see playing it but as less people play over time I think the players that remain will be more happy to see another player

Do you find it awkward talking to the people taking over your gyms or is everyone cool about it? I find it hard to picture this conversation being anything other than "oh hey I just took this gym!", "that's great I'm taking it now!", "oh", "yeah", "...". This is almost certainly just me being very bad at social situations but what kind of stuff do you talk about? :o

 

[Winter]

Depends on where you're located.

Here in NYC, the vast majority of people are incredibly social. I can no longer count how many times I've partied up with total strangers, sometimes two, three, five, ten people at a time as if I were in a MMORPG.

Everyone is collaborative, shouting out sightings of rare Pokémon, communicating where to find what, etc.

I've met more than 50 people in this short period I've been playing GO. I've made 10 or so friends and we always meet up and play. It's literally the most social game ever. At least in here.

Okay but what do y'all exactly do? Standing around or walking in a group glued to the screens is not the definition of socialising. It's what the naysayers call the zombie horde. I'm not particularly convinced because you know, it can easily be a bunch of strangers coming together for their self-interests of finding pokemon they lack and then quickly scooting off once they have done so. How long do these group sessions per se last and what social activity exactly is being done? Sounds no different than people sitting at the dining table but using their phones which is not socializing to me (if that's what socializing to you is).

 

[VisualJae]

Okay but what do y'all exactly do? Standing around or walking in a group glued to the screens is not the definition of socialising. It's what the naysayers call the zombie horde. I'm not particularly convinced because you know, it can easily be a bunch of strangers coming together for their self-interests of finding pokemon they lack and then quickly scooting off once they have done so. How long do these group sessions per se last and what social activity exactly is being done? Sounds no different than people sitting at the dining table but using their phones which is not socializing to me (if that's what socializing to you is).

Sure, the game is centerpiece, obviously. But I've been in groups where we do the standard icebreakers. Learn all names, where we came from, what we do for a living, etc. I've hung out in groups with people from different cultures. This guy who was part Filipino, Chinese and Puerto Rican was probably the most memorable since I wouldn't have guessed it by looking at him. I rode in people's cars before as we drove around city traffic hatching our eggs. Group effort sitting around Charmander nests because we all wanted to evolve our Charmeleon and we ended up touring part of the Natural History Museum.

You name it. People can stare at their phones in silence if that's what they prefer. I'm a social person and have always spent the majority of my time outside. Most of the random people I've talked to while playing Pokémon GO behave similarly. Even the ones I don't talk to are with their friends. As a matter of fact, I rarely ever see anyone in NYC playing on their own. Those that do are highly outnumbered by organized groups. There are literally hundreds to thousands of people gathered within a five block radius every night when I'm leaving work.

 

[Squirrel]

I find it really cool that you guys are making so many new connections with this game - how many do you think you'll end up staying in touch with? And more importantly, how useful do you find this in terms of playing the game more easily? I know from a lot of what Jae has said in the past that it's invaluable to have this kind of thing set up around you as you'll always hear about what's around as soon as it spawns, but do you find it useful in any other ways? Does it keep you motivated to keep playing? Do you keep playing in order to meet more people?

 

[Phoenixstarz]

Do you find it awkward talking to the people taking over your gyms or is everyone cool about it? I find it hard to picture this conversation being anything other than "oh hey I just took this gym!", "that's great I'm taking it now!", "oh", "yeah", "...". This is almost certainly just me being very bad at social situations but what kind of stuff do you talk about? :o

It gets easier once people realise that once they've cashed out there isn't any point in owning a gym until the next day, we go as a group of 4-5 Valor and 2 Mystics and let the Mystics take the gyms then cash out then we walk around the gyms again and the Valor guys take the gyms so they can cash out then everyone gets the coins.
Most the people I've spoken to I've met them doing gym battles, often when they've been taking a gym from me lol

 

[VisualJae]

It gets easier once people realise that once they've cashed out there isn't any point in owning a gym until the next day, we go as a group of 4-5 Valor and 2 Mystics and let the Mystics take the gyms then cash out then we walk around the gyms again and the Valor guys take the gyms so they can cash out then everyone gets the coins.
Most the people I've spoken to I've met them doing gym battles, often when they've been taking a gym from me lol

What you described also reminds me of a short period of time when all three teams were working together to feed each other free experience.

Basically one team would put in all easily beatable Pokémon of decent CP. Then the other two teams would beat up all the Pokémon for experience. Then the next team will put in a bunch of easily beatable Pokémon. The other two will beat them all up. Repeat.

Obviously it's not as efficient as bulk evolving with Lucky Eggs, but that was a great collaboration.

There was another city event that was a 24-hour marathon to see which team could hold the Empire State Building for the longest period of time. I didn't participate since I had work (and I actually don't remember which team won). But everyone supposedly had a blast.

 

[Winter]

Wow the exp rotation is something I've never heard of before and is a pretty ingenious idea for a social event! You know what they could also add to gyms? Double/triple battles, like one level being occupied by more than one player but they have to both fight the gym at the same time (maybe through a party system or something). And tbh I feel like the team mechanic needs more working on since I don't really feel like there's any competition of sorts given that the legendary birds do not exist yet. Something simple like a points system for every gym controlled or something might be cool. Though as it is it'll probably be Mystic in the first placing lol.

 

[Kmo86]

Some sort of in game chat would be good. Like click on a users name in a gym or when they put a lure on pokestops and be able to send them a message. Simple harmless thing that could get people meeting more local players.