Pokemon GO has changed a lot since launch. When the game first came out, a lot of Pokemon fans were excited about it, but did eventually criticize the game for being short on content. With only the original 151 Pokemon in Pokemon GO at the time, there was only so much to do. Fans could fairly quickly gather all the Pokemon they wanted, too, adding to the issue. Only now do players have Team Rocket encounters, PvP battles, a greatly expanded quest system and so on to motivate them to keep playing Pokemon GO. It's great to see how much Niantic has added to the experience.
However, not every activity in Pokemon GO is beloved. One of Niantic's more recent innovations is the collection event, in which players have to find a specific list of Pokemon in time to get a reward. Some Pokemon GO players are increasingly opposed to the idea, saying that they've found it much more difficult than the quest suggests to get every Pokemon they need. If Pokemon GO fans are so unhappy about collection events, then Niantic might need to make some changes. Either it needs to reassess how these events work, or it needs to replace them altogether.
The Impact of Pokemon GO Collection Events
Collection events in Pokemon GO have grown increasingly common. Most recently, Niantic added a collection event for Pokemon GO's 5th anniversary, in which players needed to find all of the starter Pokemon from the first six generations of Pokemon games. The focus on rare starter Pokemon is only the latest of Niantic's twists on collection events. Previous Pokemon GO collection events have included special requests, such as asking players to evolve a certain Pokemon on top of catching others or requiring them to purify a certain Shadow Pokemon.
Pokemon GO fans have voiced their complaints about these events online. Some Pokemon GO fans report spending many hours in search of the Pokemon they need for a collection event and still coming up short. It's not hard to believe these claims. Even if Niantic dramatically raises certain spawn rates to make it easier to complete collection events, at the end of the day, Pokemon GO is still built on random chance. When players are only two or three Pokemon away from completing a vast checklist, it gets increasingly likely that they'll keep finding duplicates of Pokemon they've already caught rather than actually getting the Pokemon they need.
Unfortunately, special themes for Pokemon GO collection events aren't much help. Starter Pokemon remain on the rarer side, even when Niantic increases spawn rates for events, which made the Pokemon anniversary event a little arduous for some fans. Similarly, asking fans to evolve or purify a Pokemon can be frustrating, making them hunt down Team Rocket Grunts or farm for Candy to complete the quest. In other words, Pokemon GO collection events introduce an element of grinding to the game that does it a disservice. Niantic needs to bear this in mind.
Potential Alternate Pokemon GO Events
Perhaps the easiest way to deal with Pokemon GO's collection events is to replace them outright. Other events prove that it can be done. For instance, August 2021's Ultra Unlock events don't focus on collection, but instead use a tiered questline to encourage players to take advantage of the event. This style of event is pretty reliable in Pokemon GO. Diverse quests with constantly changing activities keep players from getting bogged down in one big monotonous objective. Instead, they'll always be changing focus from Raids to Team Rocket to Pokemon collecting. Multi-step Pokemon GO questlines are much more dynamic than large-scale collection quests.
Niantic could also preserve the concept of collection events, but restructure them to be more rewarding. Instead, they could be tiered like Pokemon GO's other quests. Players might be asked to collect sets of three to five Pokemon before getting a reward, after which they get a new short list of Pokemon to look for. An event consisting of three or four of these layers that provides a greater influx of items might make Pokemon GO collection events feel more rewarding. Such milestones would better encourage fans to keep up with the event.
Alternatively, Niantic might look for totally different types of quests to do. For instance, Pokemon GO's battle system could get brought into greater play in future events. Maybe Niantic can introduce a PvP centric event that encourages players to battle each other using specific Pokemon types or CP ranges. In a similar vein, an event that brings Gyms more into play would be great. So far, Pokemon GO events mostly use gyms as venues for limited time raids. An event where Pokemon GO players earn points towards a goal for challenging and defending Gyms with certain themed Pokemon would do nicely to celebrate such an important mechanic.
Pokemon GO Has Enough Collection
It's true that collection events capture the Pokemon spirit in a unique way. After all, the spirit of the Pokemon franchise has always been built in part around the idea of collecting every Pokemon out there. Collection events create little microcosms where players can collect certain Pokemon again, even if those Pokemon are already fully registered in their Pokedex. Unfortunately, the execution of the events leaves something to be desired. Too many players find the collection events to turn Pokemon GO into a chore.
Fans should remain optimistic that Niantic will adapt, however. Pokemon GO has made leaps and bounds of progress in Niantic's hands. It's frequently introduced things that fans were hoping for, like battles and trades. As such, fans can hope that Niantic is listening to Pokemon GO fans on the game's events and that it'll respond in kind when it comes to Pokemon collecting. That aspect of the Pokemon franchise might be well represented by the collection events, but it's also already baked into Pokemon GO to begin with. Pokemon GO will be better off if Niantic listens to fan feedback on this particular type of event. At the very least, it should make some major changes to the event type's structure before trying it again.
Pokemon GO is available now for Android and iOS.