22nd July 2016, 11:22 AM
As far as the gameplay is concerned, the combat system is very barebones. It is certainly not as fully featured as a standard Pokemon game (yet, with google making up half the team, I'm sure this game will get itterative updates down the line adding new features).
However, the main gameplay features aren't actually coded into the game at all. The real "game", lame as it may sound, is the part that takes place in the real world. I've heard stories of roving bands of trainers exploring forests and graveyards. In one particular case, a police officer showed up worried that a gang was causing trouble (team rocket?), only to find a bunch of kids playing. The officer ended up staying in the graveyard near a landmark which functioned in-game as a gym, meaning that the person who took the gym now had a guard for that gym. That's pretty amazing, and the definition of emergent gameplay.
Now, in terms of making the gameplay as accessible as possible, I think they made the right call, so long as they eventually add in some highly requested features like trainer to trainer combat (and a more complex combat system more akin to the original games). Making it free also lets anyone jump in. That said, I do despise "free to pay" payment schemes. I think it's about time they experimented with a "buy the whole game" option, where if you pony up $25, you own the game outright. The game would be "free", and those that just want a couple extra pokeballs would still have the option to pay those tiny little fees, but those that just want to own the game outright and never have to worry about real cash again would have an option as well.
However, the main gameplay features aren't actually coded into the game at all. The real "game", lame as it may sound, is the part that takes place in the real world. I've heard stories of roving bands of trainers exploring forests and graveyards. In one particular case, a police officer showed up worried that a gang was causing trouble (team rocket?), only to find a bunch of kids playing. The officer ended up staying in the graveyard near a landmark which functioned in-game as a gym, meaning that the person who took the gym now had a guard for that gym. That's pretty amazing, and the definition of emergent gameplay.
Now, in terms of making the gameplay as accessible as possible, I think they made the right call, so long as they eventually add in some highly requested features like trainer to trainer combat (and a more complex combat system more akin to the original games). Making it free also lets anyone jump in. That said, I do despise "free to pay" payment schemes. I think it's about time they experimented with a "buy the whole game" option, where if you pony up $25, you own the game outright. The game would be "free", and those that just want a couple extra pokeballs would still have the option to pay those tiny little fees, but those that just want to own the game outright and never have to worry about real cash again would have an option as well.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)