Pokemon Go Magmar Community Day – The Climb #638

Saturday 21^st November 2020

Today was Magmar Community Day in Pokemon Go. I’m in at an interesting point with the game currently. I’m not playing it as heavily as I once did, and that’s not just because I’m playing loads of Warcraft instead.

I originally started playing it as a way to get a friend out their house. I’d played it a bit at launch but had given up after a month/ Coming back to it the game had improved and I had a lot of fun going around, meeting up with other players and taking down epic bosses. In many ways, it reminded me of the best bits of raiding in Warcraft.

And when the pandemic hit, Niantic was really good at shifting so people could play from home. We had to play slightly differently but we could continue to progress: egg distances, remote raids… these all aided the game in a time when the world was changing.

But, I’ve partially fallen out of love with the game.

The Pandemic bonuses got partially reverted a few months ago, just as the second wave was hitting, and I personally found that deeply irresponsible. I often wonder, seeing the news, or the covidiots in the local shop without a mask, whether I’m the only one taking this pandemic seriously. Other than seeing the one person in my support bubble and going to the shop, I’ve not seen people since March.

And whilst I’ve mentally been able to enjoy that isolation, there are many activities that I’m missing.

So, as a result, Pokemon Go leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth currently. It reminds me of an old adage I always tell myself – Creators will eventually always take the things you love in a direction you disagree with, so it’s better to be the creator.

OK, so it needs a bit of a work as adages go, but the principle stands.

Things may change when the second wave ends and we get back to something approaching normality so I don’t want to quit completely. At the same time, I’ve prioritised other things over Pokemon Go. At least. For now.

But today was Magmar community day. There was a time we would have gone out to the local hotspot, met up with friends and walked around manually catching for an hour before jumping the car and driving round auto catching. It was fun and it made for a fun day. But, do I really need 20 Magmar shinies? I once told myself that they were for trades… but I’m terrible at organising trades, and we’re more than a year on, and no-one is asking for these shinies.

So instead, I aim to get a decent one (90%+ IV), a decent shiny (3 star or above), and one for great league. I find I can do this in a few hours. I still do the paid research, even if I’m no longer buying loads of remote raid passes.

It means I’m done in a couple of hours, and I’m OK with that.

As I say, come the spring, with better whether and hopefully less pandemic, I might find myself playing a lot more. But for now, I’m just ticking along.