When it comes to live service games, it often feels like you’re either in or you’re out. Games like Destiny 2, Fallout 76, or Final Fantasy 14 have years of history and content that can make them seem impenetrable to new players. At the same time, live service games have a tendency to keep active players stuck on a treadmill, since taking a break can often make you feel left behind. New seasons and expansions do help new and returning players find a jumping on point, but I’ve never played a live service game that didn’t make me feel completely overwhelmed when I started, at least at first.
Pokemon GO is the only live service game that has never made me feel left behind. I’ve put it down and picked it back up a dozen times over the last five years, and it has always allowed me to start right where I left off without ever rubbing my face in everything I missed. It’s not always easy to finish old Special Research Assignments, but Niantic has been very good about offering opportunities to make up for missed time. Gaming should never feel like a chore, and Pokemon GO is the perfect model for a live service game that respects your time and never asks you for more. It’s what’s kept me coming back for more for all these years.
I hate missing stuff, and a lot of live service games prey on gamer FOMO to keep people logging in every day. Destiny players will remember how hard Shadowkeep leaned into “you had to be there” events and seasonal activities. Those events pushed people away more than they kept them engaged. Bungie learned its lesson and has eased up on the FOMO since then, but this seems to be something that Niantic has known all along.
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Pokemon GO has plenty of limited time events, Special Research Assignments, and timed Pokemon spawns, but unlike a lot of live service games, missing something doesn’t mean it's gone forever. You might not be able to get cosmetic items from the last Pokemon GO Fest or some exclusive stickers, but the really important things — the Pokemon — always come back around eventually. You can miss out on timed missions with small rewards, like the current Ultra Unlock 2021 assignment, but you’ll never lose your progress on the big research assignments, even if you step away for years.
This isn’t the case for other mobile live service games either, in case you don’t fancy the comparison to big triple-A games. Try to start or jump back into Genshin Impact or Fire Emblem Heroes right now and you’ll likely have a hard time swallowing just how much you’ve missed. Specials and quest lines for important, powerful characters are beyond your grasp now and there’s really no way to ever catch up.
But with GO, you’re rarely if ever left behind. I didn’t quite finish the Season of Legend research back in March, which requires you to take snapshots of Landorus, Tornadus, and Thundurus. Those legendaries stopped appearing in raids when the event ended, but they popped back up during last weekend's GO Fest, allowing me to finally finish the research assignment.
Sometimes the wait can be pretty long if you miss an assignment. I’ve been stuck on Let’s GO, Meltan 6/9 for weeks just waiting for Exeggcutes to start spawning again. The Mew quest, A Mythical Discovery, took me three years to complete. It doesn’t bother me at all when I get stuck on these assignments because I know, eventually, I’ll be able to finish them. It’s a mercy that a lot of live service games don’t offer, and it makes all the difference in the world when I’m considering whether or not to pick Pokemon GO back up after a break.
GO could be more forgiving in some ways. It could allow you to collect Special Research Assignments in your backlog, even if you haven’t logged in, instead of skipping them entirely, and it could offer more tools that make certain types of Pokemon spawn if you really need them. But overall, Pokemon GO makes it clear that it's OK to put the game down when you want to and pick it back up later without the fear that you’re going to miss important things. Games should never make you feel bad when you’re not playing them. It’s one of my favorite things about Pokemon GO, and I hope other live service games can follow in Niantic’s footsteps.
Next: Pokemon Go Needs To Stop Relying On Raids
