Sorry Our Servers Our Down
Are you as salty as I am about this game? I live in a suburban area. Lots of housing with a sprinkle of parks within walking distance from my home. I downloaded Pokemon Go on July 6th fairly late in the day. So I made the decision to go out the next day on the 7th. Take a walk up to the park that’s down the street and see what encounters I could get. And after waiting a few hours to actually get on the server, I was off.
I walked down the park keeping an eye on where I was going and checking my phone when I could to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I got to the park, and my goal was to find the Ghastly that was listed nearby. I saw small bits of grass animations that I followed. Then they would disappear from in front of me and be behind me. So I did this for a while, doing my best not to look totally insane to the other park goers. But after fruitless attempts I made my way to the PokeStop and turned to head home. On my way going on a different route and pausing more to see if anything would appear, I returned home with nothing for the effort.
That was only my second trek for the day. After looking online at some of the Pokemon GO guides, I went out again. This time going a different direction to a different park that I had never been to before. I arrived at the park looked around. This time I was keeping a close eye not just on the grass, but the Nearby screen to see the steps beneath the Pokemon. But nothing had changed; I was neither closer nor further away from any of the Pokemon I had set out in search of from my home. After waiting for a short while, since my phone was now dying, I went to the Poke’Stop and then made my way back home. Once again going a different route from the one I had originally taken and even taking the longer way around. Two separate trips with no reward. But as soon as I return home and got to my room, I got the vibration on my phone that a Pidgey had appeared.
I caught a Pidgey as I was editing this article
And even though I’ve gotten no Pokemon on my pursuits for them, I have still caught Pokemon. I have caught a total of 9 with 6 different Pokemon as of writing this. Where did I catch them all? Sitting in my room in my home. While that can appeal to my lazier side, I still went on those walks earlier. I figured I wasn’t experiencing the full range of Pokemon Go without giving it a shot. But to come home empty handed twice leaves me disheartened to make another attempt.
Well, maybe this my fault. I should live in a more popular area. A place with a huge park that has 10 different stops instead of an area with 3 small parks each with 1 stop. An area that has encounters every few steps, not maybe every mile. While I am OK with wasting my time to go on a fruitless walk, I will not also waste gas to go to those more popular areas for the sole purpose of catching Pokemon.
This is an issue that will need to be addressed. Not only does this become unfair to people like me. But this could result in more people not continuing to play it. And this isn’t even the only issue. This is only one of the issues of once you get into the game. This means getting past all the server issues, not just getting the apology screen. Sometimes the game will stick on loading screens. Each results in the same need to close the app and restart, maybe wait some time for better results. If you manage to get in, then there is still the chance of the server crashing or the game freezing.
I believe the Pokemon GO release came all too quickly to the world. I would have considered it better to expand the beta before attempting this full release. That way the server issues might have still been around but not as constant as they currently are. Do not get me wrong; what I have gotten from the game I enjoy completely. When there is lack of content to areas like mine, there is a lot less that can be enjoyed. And is harder to enjoy when I need to walk for miles to get the full extent of the app. I suspect that balance might not even be addressed fully till they can get the servers stable. Who knows if I’ll still be playing then?