Online Role Players & Pokémon Go: One Year Later

A little over one year ago, we interviewed 12 online role players about their experience with Pokémon Go.  The answers were… well, diverse!  A lot has happened with Pokémon Go since that February 2017 article: Gen 2 & 3 releases, legendary raids, EX passes, and more!  So why not revisit our interviewees and see where they are today?  We were able to catch up with six of them.

The mobile augmented reality game Pokémon Go was released jointly by Nintendo and Niantic in July 2016.  It reached an astounding 500 million downloads by the end of 2016, and increased to 750 million by its one year anniversary.  While not as popular as it was shortly after its launch, Pokémon Go maintains a loyal following of players.  It has received mixed reviews from critics.

Timeline of Major Events

• July 6, 2016: Pokémon Go launched in the App Store and Google Play
• October 25, 2016: The Halloween Festival, the game’s first event, begins
• December 23, 2016: The Holiday Event begins
• February 8, 2017: The Valentine’s Event begins
• February 16, 2017: Gen 2 is released
• February 21, 2017: Anniversary Pikachu is announced
• March 22, 2017: The Water Festival begins, introducing the first Shiny Pokémon
• July 20, 2017: Gyms are overhauled and raid battles are introduced with rotating legendary Pokémon
• August 14, 2017: The first EX raids for Mewtwo occur
• October 20, 2017: The Halloween Event introduces Gen 3 ghost Pokémon
• November 26, 2017: A regional Pokémon is available world-wide for the first time
• December 8, 2017: The first wave of Gen 3 Pokémon (besides at the Halloween Event) are released

Follow-Up Interviews

3. Sam Jones of Sixth Fleet

1. What level are you on now?  21, though I only play now to help my kid, who is on level 22, with raids.
2. How many Pokémon are in your Pokédex?  108 caught. 189 seen.
3. What is your highest CP Pokémon?  What is its CP?  1500 CP Muk.
4. How many gold gym badges do you have?  Zero.  One Silver
5. What is your favorite legendary Pokémon?  Don’t really have one.
6. What is your favorite update since our last interview?  Adding more pokémon from other regions.
7. What still needs to be changed?  Server connectivity needs to improve.
8. How many Mewtwos do you have?  Hahaha.  Zero.

5. Mike Bremer of Starbase 400 (Bravo Fleet)

1. What level are you on now?  Zero, I don’t play.
2. I did tell you about the Pokémon Go last year, right?  You mentioned it.
3. Wait, so you never started playing?  Nope.
4. You know you can still download it from the App Store or Google play, right?  Nah, no thanks.
5. What else do you do for fun?  In General: Family, sports, Star Trek, Simming.  Gaming: CoD, Battlefield, Madden, STO. Apps: Clash of Clans.
6. What could Niantic do to get you to try Pokémon Go?  Who?
7. Do you still have a favorite Pokemon?  Only name I know is Pikachu
8. Do you even know what a Mewtwo is?  A what?

6. Kiri of ‘Souls RPG

1. What level are you on now?  38.
2. How many Pokémon are in your Pokédex?  326 caught. 354 seen.
3. What is your highest CP Pokémon?  What is its CP?  3257 CP Gyarados.
4. How many gold gym badges do you have?  Three… and 37 silvers.  🙂
5. What is your favorite legendary Pokémon?  Overall?  Mew.  In-game currently?  Zapdos.
6. What is your favorite update since our last interview?  The new gym system, though 100 max coins would still be cool.
7. What still needs to be changed?  Honestly, I’m really happy with most of the changes in the game since last spring, and feel that Niantic is getting noticeably better at handling events and feature rollouts.  More avatar customisation would be great, but gameplay-wise, I’m pretty happy with how things currently are.  I want a medal for unique pokestops hit though…
8. How many Mewtwos do you have?  One, from the second wave of EX Raid field testing. Haven’t gotten a single pass since.

8. Silent Hunter

1. What level are you on now?  Level Zero. I’ve never played before.
2. I did tell you about the Pokémon Go last year, right?  Yes, you and thousands of media reports.
3. Wait, so you never started playing?  No, I didn’t.
4. You know you can still download it from the App Store or Google play, right?  I didn’t. I do now, and I don’t care.
5. What else do you do for fun?  Be a rail enthusiast, play computer games, write fiction.
6. What could Niantic do to get you to try Pokémon Go?  Write a good article about it.  [Editor’s comment: ouch]
7. Do you still have a favorite Pokemon?  Yes, Raichu.
8. Do you even know what a Mewtwo is?  Yes, I played the original Gameboy games, and I used to watch the anime back in the 1990s.

10. Falk of Ascension Sims

1. What level are you on now?  Level 500,000…  I still don’t play.
2. I did tell you about the Pokémon Go last year, right?  You did, and I read all about it when it came out, and still occasionally read a few things on it from Ars Technica.
3. Wait, so you never started playing?  Nope, never.
4. You know you can still download it from the App Store or Google play, right?  Indeed, but why? 😀
5. What else do you do for fun?  Oooh boy, do you want the list? Stargate simming, current time military simming, Warhammer 40K (table top, I have 3 armies), PC gaming (I have too many games in my Steam list), reading books, occasionally watch TV, summer time do a lot of road bike riding (pedal bike, not motorcycle).
6. What could Niantic do to get you to try Pokémon Go?  Probably nothing, to be honest. Just not my cup of tea, I was never into Pokemon even when it came out on the Gameboy.
7. Do you still have a favorite Pokemon?  Not.  Really.
8. Do you even know what a Mewtwo is?  Yes, from Super Smash Bros Melee on the Gamecube 🙂

11. David Ball of Ongoing Worlds

1. What level are you on now?  ::runs away::
2. Wait, I just have a few questions!  ::runs faster::
3. I promise they won’t take long!  ::now sprinting out of sight::

New Interviews

We were lucky enough this time to find four more simmers who pay Pokémon Go!

13. Mike Foster of UCIP

1. What level are you on?  30.
2. How many Pokémon are in your Pokédex?  268 caught, 331 seen.
3. What is your highest CP Pokémon?  What is its CP?  2641 Vaporeon.
4. How many gold gym badges do you have?  Two.
5. What is your favorite legendary Pokémon?  Rayquaza.
6. What is your favorite update since the Gen 2 release?  Raid pokemon and the occasional events giving enhanced spawns and stardust.
7. What still needs to be changed?  More EX pass eligible gyms.
8. How many Mewtwos do you have?  Zero.

14. Cintia Sha’mer of USS Vindicator & Cold Station Theta (UCIP)

1. What level are you on?  33.
2. How many Pokémon are in your Pokédex?  288.
3. What is your highest CP Pokémon?  What is its CP?  Snorlax, 3053.
4. How many gold gym badges do you have?  None, lots of silver though.
5. What is your favorite legendary Pokémon?  No preference.
6. What is your favorite update since the Gen 2 release?  More dynamic gyms & more dynamic raids..
7. What still needs to be changed?  Trading Pokémon among players.
8. How many Mewtwos do you have?  None thus far, alas.

15. StarDuster of Theta Fleet

1. What level are you on?  I am presently at level 28.
2. How many Pokémon are in your Pokédex?  In my pokédex, I have caught 262, but I have 345 in my inventory.
3. What is your highest CP Pokémon?  What is its CP?  My Highest CP Polemon is a Snorlax with 2,659 CP.
4. How many gold gym badges do you have?  Sorry, I do not know. I cannot really read Japanese yet and since I have a Japanese phone and live in the country, my Pokémon GO is partially in Japanese.  However, based on the looks of things… looks like seven.
5. What is your favorite legendary Pokémon?  Though I was of the pokémon generation growing up, I had no interest in it. That said, I still do not really have an interest in it itself. I might be able to name a legendary pokémon or two, but I cannot pick a favorite legendary.
6. What is your favorite update since the Gen 2 release?  I do not really keep on top of what changes are made or not.  This game is primarily background entertainment for me when I am walking or hiking for fitness.  Since, my friends are on the other side of the world as me and my fiancé’s days off no longer match with mine, Pokémon GO gives me something to do while I am walking or hiking.  I do, of course, enjoy the nature around me when I am in a nice place. However, a lot of my morning and afternoon walks on my off days tend to be more urban, and I am not much of people person, especially children. So, this is the perfect app for the scrooge.  Not that I would say I avoid people, but in Japan it tends to be a very keep to yourself and quiet culture with some exceptions.  One of them being screaming children running all over the place unsupervised.
7. What still needs to be changed?  Okay, let’s talk about this… trading system, head to head battles?  I really do not know where to start, but those are two big things.  Also, I can respect regionally exclusive things, but for the longest time Farfetch’d was nearly impossible to find even in Japan.  However, in recent months, I groan when I see one because they are everywhere!
8. How many Mewtwos do you have?  ZERO.

16. David of Vanguard

1. What level are you on?  25.
2. How many Pokémon are in your Pokédex?  195.
3. What is your highest CP Pokémon?  What is its CP?  Gyarados 2267.
4. How many gold gym badges do you have?  Zero.
5. What is your favorite legendary Pokémon?  Legendary Dogs.
6. What is your favorite update since the Gen 2 release?  Gyms and Pokemon tracking.
7. What still needs to be changed?  Trading ability.
8. How many Mewtwos do you have?  Zero.

In case you were wondering, I’m on level 37, have 319 pokémon in my pokédex, and my most powerful is a 3283 CP Tyranitar.  I have 16 gold gym badges, my favorite legendary is Articuno, and I have five Mewtwos.  And I really liked the night music from the last Halloween event!  Biggest gripes: network errors and game lag.

Thank you to everyone who participated for being a good sport yet again.  A year later, I’m still not aware of any online Pokémon role plays… but maybe they’re out there somewhere.  Regardless, let’s go role play and catch ’em all!