Pokemon GOhas sustained its popularity thanks to a consistent stream of new content and events. Most recently,Pokemon GOkicked off its Spring Into Spring event, featuring a rare Flower Crown Happiny for players to chase.
Pokemon GOis all about catching them all, making the Pokemon that are available during limited events extremely sought after. Events tend to have special “costume Pokemon” such as a Pikachu wearing a Santa hat for Christmas. There are a few different ways to unlock the Pokemon, but they are typically unlocked via in-game eggs. Eggs are based on a similar feature in the Game Freak RPGs, and allow players to put them into an incubator to hatch the egg by walking a certain distance in the real world, granting the player a randomly selected Pokemon from a certain list.
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It isPokemon GO’s Spring event’s reliance on the egg mechanicthat has players so frustrated. During the annual Spring Into Spring event, players can stop at PokeStops to find special event eggs that have a chance to hatch an event-exclusive Happiny. While getting the eggs is free through gameplay, the eggs must be placed into incubators to hatch, which costs real money to purchase and have a limited number of uses. This, combined with the extremely low drop rate of the rare Pokemon, has left manyPokemon GOplayers frustrated with the game’s egg mechanic.
Many members of the community have begun reporting hatching over 100 eggs without getting a single event Pokemon.Pokemon GOdoes somewhat disclose the drop ratesof Pokemon from eggs, but it is through abstract icons that don’t share the exact percentage rates. The negative attention towards the egg mechanic has caused many members of the community to consider whether or not the eggs are similar to loot boxes, a popular mechanic that has been under heavy scrutiny due to its alleged ties to addictive gambling behavior.
The community’s complaints seem well-founded, especially with how frequentPokemon GO’s events are. Locking timed content behind random drops has been the subject of a lot of discussions lately throughout the industry, andPokemon GO’s implementationof it seems to be landing particularly poorly with players. Hopefully, developer Niantic can find a way to modify the way event Pokemon work that still makes earning them feel rewarding for players without making them so difficult to obtain that players feel like they are being coerced for more money.
Pokemon GOis available now on Android and iOS.
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