Yesterday was Machop Community Day, the first of the month of 2021 Pokémon GO events. Did the choice of this Kanto Fighting Pokémon restore this long-awaited event to its former glory?
- Candy XL: Machop Community Day and Roselia Community Day in February, will serve essentially two purposes. Younger, more casual players may be excited about the chance of a Shiny, but coaches who have been in the game from the beginning have had years of chance for a Shiny Machop who can evolve into a Machamp with a better attack than this exclusive move. The only appeal of that day, besides “I didn’t have Shiny”, was the chance to grow Candy XL for a useful species. Now, many will be able to have at most one Machamp up to level 50 and absolutely no other Pokémon otherwise, with the possible exception of the ubiquitous Pikachu, because it is a prohibitive mechanic. Last year, Niantic dedicated Community Days to PVP movements in the first half of 2020, and towards species that receive Megas mainly in the second half. If they decide to dedicate 2021 to the species for which we want to grind Candy XL, Community Day will never be the trendiest event ever. A grind can be rewarding, yes, but there must also be fun and exciting elements.
- Commercial distance: the expanded commercial distance added at the last minute, probably due to social media congested with nothing but frustration over the state of Community Day, was a really excellent addition that enriched this dull day.
- The bonus: Triple Stardust is always the best. Yes, another grind, but this one has a more practical benefit than Candy XL today.
What didn’t work on that Pokémon GO Event
- Machop: Another day from the Kanto community when we have six perfectly good generations in the game. Another species with its Shiny already released. Another Community Day attack that won’t change anything. It would be a drag if Niantic did 1 of these downgrades to Community Day recently, but doing all three at once … that could be an existential problem for this event.
- The move: offering Machamp some coverage is cool, but he already has Rock Slide for bait shields and OP Charged Attacks. The only thing he can do now that he hasn’t done before is to hurt Psychics, but any Psychic will be able to do a lot of damage with his Quick Attack before Machamp can make a comeback. You can use niche, but nothing like previous Community Day moves, like SmackDown, Meteor Mash, Rock Wrecker, Hydro Cannon, Blast Burn. You know, what used to be expected and normal.
- The stinginess: paid research offered less star dust and fewer items than ever before, at the same asking price. A microcosm of Community Day as a whole, for sure.
In general
Playing Pokémon GO never is not Fun. The problem is that when Niantic has made Community Days so fantastic in the past, a sudden nerf in various aspects of the event will make players feel that thinking and caring are not being put into a game in which the player base is injecting billion . Niantic needs to stop, listen and completely reevaluate their current track.