What I've Learned From Pokémon Go!

It was just a few days ago that Pokémon Go! saw the light of day, brought by the people that gave us Ingress, just a few years ago. Back then Niantic was still a part of Google – their paths have since parted.

When I first started playing the game I was immediately hooked. The first day alone I was level 7 with more than 15 Pokémon's caught – and this was accomplished while Niantic servers were on fire. During the weekend that followed I kept playing. Saturday alone I walked close to 17 Kms (10 miles) in my home city. But as my levelling was slowing down – which I assumed was normal – an idea started crawling in my mind.

In the time I've played the game I've meet a few people playing just like I did. I captured some Gyms, learned a few quirks of the game – never leave your best Pokémon on a Gym – I enjoyed my time. But today I quit.

Yes, I quit the game that in its week old infancy. The quitting part wasn't because of a particular thing Niantic did. I quit the game because of everything Niantic did! Pokémon Go! is addictive!

Coincidence or not, the weekend I was binging on Pokémon Go! was also the weekend I bought a brand new Apple Watch. Although the game doesn't support Apple Watch – Niantic and The Pokémon Company are selling a bracelet after all – I used it in conjunction with the game to track how I did fitness wise. And how I did surprise me.

For those who don't know, the Apple Watch has a fitness app that will display 3 circles – they indicate how you're doing on your daily activity. After a few days if you keep up with the good work you start getting achievements and medals. It's a fitness game, to a degree, just like Pokémon Go! is a fitness game – you have to do stuff in real life to get a pixel reward!

But why am I quitting Pokémon Go! you insist? Well here's what I learned from the last few days. I really like having battery on my phone! Niantic's game sucks the life of every device it's running on, be it an iPhone 6S with its 1715mAh capacity, or my boyfriend's Nexus 6 with its 3220mAh battery. In fact, the Nexus was losing battery at twice the rate the iPhone was!

Also, standing in the same place doing nothing but waiting is not really that great for your workout – I'm being generous here calling walking a workout, but it's the closest I've been to actually workout in the last 3 years. While playing Pokémon Go! the player is invited to use items to lure Pokémon (and people). These items last for 30 mins, and from my experience a Pokémon spawns every 5 minutes or so, which means you'll be sitting for 30 minutes in the same place to catch some 6 or so Pokémon. Meanwhile you keep losing battery!

Last thing that had learned in the last week and had me decide quitting the game is that, this game is really, really addictive! I mean, I've played World of Warcraft in a semi-successful guild, and in Star Wars: The Old Republic I was raid leader for a server's top PVE guild, so I know an addictive game when I play one. That being said, I never dreamed of a game and woke up to check if I had enough potions for tomorrow. I even played the game a little bit at work – which is rather useless since my company's office is in the middle of nowhere.

Pokémon Go! is too good for me. It was killing my productivity, I wasn't doing that much workout as I intended, and by devices were screaming in dear agony for more juice. And with that, I quit! I mean, I didn't quit QUIT, I will be playing the game, from time to time, just not every possible walking hour. I will try and catch all Pokémon – I am a digital hoarded. But I will not keep my iPhone upside down with the screen turned off in hopes of saving batter, and I will not have my headphone in my head all the time trying to find out when have I reached that Poke Stop.

What I will do however is keep exercising. I'll walk at least some 15 Km's every day. I'll keep being active, and I'll keep being a digital hoarder. What I will not do however, is hurt my productivity because of a game – no matter how good it is, nor how good it can potentially be to you!