Ten years ago, Pokemon Go became a phenomenon. Millions of players around the world took to the streets and local parks to hunt Pokémon with augmented reality. It's the closest we've come to world peace. Although that time has now passed, the game is currently celebrating its tenth anniversary with a series of events.
Yesterday, the game's latest event took place, with New York's Times Square shut down as influencers descended to battle (and capture) a Mega Mewtwo Y with guaranteed max IVs.
While it's clearly a showcase for the game, it's been labeled “the opposite of what made Pokémon Go a phenomenon,” as regular players were turned away in favor of those with an audience behind them.
Pokemon Go's Times Square event was “messed up,” says Game's loyal audience
Pokemon Go's Times Square event aimed to replicate the feel of Pokemon Go's early days, and the trailers Niantic put out before the game's launch. Hundreds of influencers were invited to the event and together they took down the debuting Mega Mewtwo Y. They were each given a Master Ball to capture it, and Mewtwo was guaranteed to have perfect IVs. Some were even shiny.
On the surface, it's a good advertisement for Pokemon Go. Dozens of the world's top influencers gather in a unique place to celebrate the game. In reality, its most loyal players didn't see it that way.
A thread on Reddit, titled “The NYC event is the antithesis of what made Pokemon GO a phenomenon back in 2016”, has appeared.
It's less than five hours old as of this writing and already has over 1,600 upvotes and 200 comments, many of which are from fans who are completely ineligible for the event.
“Shutting down Times Square to host an event exclusively for content creators and influencers was one of the most out-of-touch decisions in the history of this game. Pokémon GO became a global phenomenon because of small moments experienced by millions of average players,” Christophisis began in his post. “The 'plebeians' who were not deemed worthy of participating in this event, even if they were around, are what made Pokémon GO what it was and has been, not a relative handful of people in light of the larger player base. To make matters worse, everyone who participated in the event received a guaranteed Hundo Mewtiantic, which has always been able to switch to so-called 'impossible' awards on command.”
Going outside of Times Square to host an event exclusively for content creators and influencers was one of the most out-of-touch decisions in the history of this game.
Christophisi's thoughts were shared by many others. “It was a very strange feeling to see a party I wasn't invited to where the guests got something AWESOME,” said jessiehuff, while 0rganicMach1ne added, “Serving content creators or thinking about them and how they play when designing games is a cancer for games.”
Clearly, the Pokemon Go team dropped the ball on this one.
This seems connected to the stunt that happened yesterday, when the famous Mewtwo statue at the entrance of the Shibuya Pokémon Center in Tokyo mysteriously disappeared.
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July 6, 2016
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