WHY GOING CASUAL FROM HARDCORE Pokémon GO is the best thing I ever did...
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
- In this video, I will be sitting back and talking about my experiences going from a hardcore Pokémon GO player to a more casual player. There are certainly pros and cons to both forms of gameplay, but I felt playing the game hardcore was not sustainable. My quality of life has certainly improved while going more casual. Let's talk about why!
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#PokemonGO
Pokémon is Copyright Gamefreak, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company 2001-2016
All images and names owned and trademarked by Nintendo, Niantic, The Pokémon Company, and Gamefreak are property of their respective owners.
Pokémon Go is a 2016 augmented reality (AR) mobile game developed and published by Niantic in collaboration with The Pokémon Company for iOS and Android devices. A part of the Pokémon franchise, the game is the result of a collaboration between Niantic, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. It uses the mobile device GPS to locate, capture, battle, and train virtual creatures, called Pokémon, which appear as if they are in the player's real-world location. The game is free to play; it uses a freemium business model and supports in-app purchases for additional in-game items. The game launched with around 150 species of Pokémon, which had increased to around 500 by 2019.
Pokémon Go was released to mixed reviews; critics praised the concept, but criticized technical problems. It was one of the most used and profitable mobile apps in 2016, having been downloaded more than 500 million times worldwide by the end of the year. It is credited with popularizing location-based and AR technology, promoting physical activity, and helping local businesses grow due to increased foot traffic. However, it attracted controversy for contributing to accidents and creating public nuisances. Various governments expressed concerns about security, and some countries regulate its use. By early 2019, the game had over a billion global downloads, grossing over $3 billion in revenue. The game also had over 147 million monthly active users as of May 2018.
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I stopped playing following the nerf of remote raids. It actually happened somewhat gradually at first but then I realized that other trainers I used to interact with were no longer on. The experience was just not the same and then before long, I stopped PVP as well.
I add, I continue to watch and appreciate your channel. I share your perspective of this game in a lot of ways.
Yeah after the remote raid nerf, I stopped putting money into the game. I just put guys in gyms to get the 50 coins/day, and then save up for a pack of remote raid passes, and now I just sit on them until there’s a good remote raid. If I’ve already caught that Pokemon and there isn’t some real reason to raid it again outside of candy, I just won’t. I have teams of every type leveled up to level 40 for in-person or remote raids, so I just don’t *need* more.
For the most part, when I do my daily walks, I’ll still catch everything I can while I walk around, but otherwise, I’m pretty much just cool on the game.
i feel physically sick throwing ball after ball after ball after ball after ball at the same pokemon then it will flee. it is so unenjoyable, i cannot look at the screen to catch those type of pokemon. raid boss also
I throw 3 balls and if it breaks out the 3rd time, I run from it. I'm rural and don't have a ton of stops. So I'm not wasting all of my balls.
I still grind free Pokémon in the wild and focus on team rocket battles but I’m not spending anymore money on weekly tickets. Thanks for always talking about the things that very little in the community talk about.
Dynamax killed it for me. Essentially starting over from scratch for this content was not something I want to do. All of the hard work I put into the game and I cannot use my old Pokémon for dynamax, well I’m just casual now.
That was nail in the coffin. Worked your ass off to max your hundos just to over the same struggle again.
Dmax and Gmax don’t require hundos and really don’t make much of a difference. No need to grind and you can get multiples of each for free, including the legendaries that have been released and the Gmax. I don’t know why there is a reason to complain about it being able to use pokemon that you haven’t used in five years. When was the last time you used Venusaur in a raid intentionally? When was he last time you used Blastoise intentionally? When was the last time you used kingler intentionally? Dmax and Gmax are meant to be difficult, but they removed the barrier of needing high IVs. 10/10/10 and lvl 40 is perfectly fine. Oh, you don’t want to “waste” your charmander candy? lol. Okay. It isn’t that serious. The reward for completing Gmax battles covers the stardust cost needed to level up your pokemon. But do you. A feature of the game that you could ignore is the reason for you going casual…😂
The remote raid nerf was when I stopped spending money. I do buy base price tickets for those huge weekend long events like GoFest, but that's it. Go Tour looks like a total dud this year. So, I won't be spending money there. I don't care about shiny Meloetta or another Victini.
Max Pokemon aren’t necessary to collect or have at all though, they’re just additional like shinies in the game are fun to collect but not a game changer or needed at all
The funny thing? Max raids got me out and about playing the game more. I'm mostly free to play on Max (I'll buy some MP for Gigantimax since I traveled to join a raid group). But if I want to get some MP, I have to get out and move around. Which seems to be the point of PoGo for Niantic.
the entire game should be casual
*walk 200km = lvl 50 battle ready for pvp*
this idea that it takes nine months to get the candies together is just insanity
Being casual and virtually F2P is just the way to go now to me. Especially with all of the price hikes and restrictions that prevent us from playing. Spending money just makes you feel as if you have to go hard every time, which means more time playing.
I played hard during the first 4 years since the launch of Pokemon Go. Key reason was my friends and peer pressure. After a while, most friends quitted and I disconnected myself from local community. The less info, the less I played. And now I just play for new pokemons collection which is my initial goal for this game. No PvP, no routes, and soon no max raids. I'm fed up with old pokemons with costumes and minor changes.
This not playing hardcore and playing more casual really shows itself to me with community days and the big paid events go tour and go fest.
In regards to community days i use to play non stop as fast and as hard as possible, not talking to anyone apart from a quick hi. Now i actually stand still and talk to people. i'll come out of the blazing heat, cold, rain and wind and sit down somewhere and rest for awhile before continuing on.
In regards to go tour and go fest i use to play the entire 8 hour day non stop. No rest, no drinks, no food. Just go go go! Now i take lunch breaks in the hours where i know the spawns i care about the least are. Now with my wife we go get lunch and enjoy ourselves before we go back out to grind. I remember once my wife wanted ice cream and we went into a icecream cafe we had never been to in the city. We sat down both with icecream and relaxed. We dropped lures and chatted and my wife go herself a wild shiny combee female. It's something i'll never forget.
It's been so much more rewarding and enjoyable playing not so hard and being sociable while playing. I only have a couple of memories hardcore grinding and many of they aren't great. But i have so many memories of playing casually and playing while relaxing and being sociable. And they always bring as smile to my face. I use to think walking past people chatting and thinking how many shiny's they are missing wasting there time chatting away. But now days i realise that really i was the one missing out and i can't get that time or chances to socialize back. All i can do now is reflect on them and make sure that i take the time to enjoy life and the opportunities pokemon go gives me.
I love this healthier perspective. I am running a campfire community with majority of free to play players (we spend but not much). On our meet up for Gigantamax Kingler group, there was a group from another neighbourhood (12 players) joined unannounced and they bought tickets to the event when we know in our community that we don’t get Gigantamax battle day ticket. At the end of the event, I got accused as a bad organiser and we are an unhelpful community. That was heart wrenching because we have a lovely friendly community that find a good balance to play and build friendship.
That's probably just misdirected anger meant for Niantics poor design. I myself feel cheated when I spend money on a ticket & can't fully utilize it because it depends on also finding a group of others who also bought it and are willing to play to get our monies worth. The gigantamax system desperately needs remote raids because showing up to a meet up that lasts 3 hours and only having enough people to do an hour or less is just bad design
I went from casual to hardly playing, the game is in decline
If they hadn't nerfed the remote raids, I'd still probably be playing hardcore. But essentially the nerf of remote raids killed my online group that I would play with daily.
I didn't care too much about the 100% but I would raid every legendary until I got the shiny at least. And only being able to do 5 per day, plus the extra cost brought me to the point where I felt like, if I get it, cool, if not, oh well.
I see some people saying that the game is in decline, well I just wanted to add my voice to the noise to say that I'm a brand new player and I'm absolutely hooked
Can't believe it took me this long to get started with it!
You’ll too feel like this after spending enough time.
@Alexa2877 i don't think you can predict that with absolute certainty, but thanks for your reply, all engagement is a plus :)
Glad you're enjoying it and I'm glad new people are still joining, but there's absolutely no doubt it's in decline! As someone that's played since the very start, until a few years ago you always saw people everywhere playing and could always find people for legendary raids, even if small towns. Those days just seem to be gone mostly unless you live in a city. I can't even seem to orchestrate getting enough people out on raid days in my town if I want a legendary now. I used to just walk down the street and be able to randomly join a team of 10+ people in comparison. It really is sad as the game just isn't what it used to be. I wish you could have been around to see what it used to be like.
@@AS--999 i can imagine that it would be difficult living in a smaller town trying to find players
Thanks for your input
Glad you figured out how you want to play. The grind is real, and if it doesn't meet a goal, why do it? I hit level 50 and have all the pokemon I want to raid and beat down Team Rocket. I play every day anf enjoy the game. It has been the reason I have gotten outside on days I didn't want to got out.
In most situations, a 91% lucky is almost indistinguishable from a 100%. For *most* people, the PVP pokemon with the 200th best stats will work the same as the one with the best IVs. Getting the "bleeding edge" takes 2-3 times the time involved and a considerably larger amount of money. You should always ask yourself if the time and money you're spending is worth it.
I hit level 50 at the start of this year and was like "now what do I do?" Kind of left me feeling a bit empty after months of grinding lol. My wife plays too so I'm focusing on getting her stronger so we can duo everything together
I agree with you, I played the Kingler Dynamax event yesterday and while playing I was realized that I just wasn't having fun. A break is needed.
I started off kinda casual when it came out in 2016, took a break from mid-2017 to 2023, and now I’m a daily player
Been playing every day since Togetic Community Day in 2023
Between the GigMax and remote nerf, I have gone casual. I used to spend at least 4 hours a day playing, now completely casual. I am taking all of March off to reset.
I like the game most when I’m playing hardcore, but not really interacting much with stuff you have to pay for. So only using my free incubator, free raid passes and catch like 1 to 2K pokemon a day, do a bunch of routes, make sure I’m at 20 gyms at all times.
I just like you I was a hard-core player and now I'm a casual player. I raid only pokemon that I don't have hundo of and I play less everyday I still play and pay but not at much anymore. I only do my daily like my daily raid pass, send and open gift, and catch and spin for 30 min or less
I moved to casual since the remote raid nerfing. I don't think I've spent anything in the game since then. Once I lost the FOMO on not getting every new pokemon I learnt I enjoy it a lot more. Now I sometimes don't even play for a few weeks. I just watch channels like this and then dip back in when I see something I like the look of.
Same and it feels great. I no longer go out my way to play this game.
Meanwhile set 2 of Pocket is out! would love to see a video on that
I’m definitely a casual player but I’ve played hard core at various points. It’s only succeeded in burning me out on the game. Now I just make sure I play daily but so don’t hold my self to playing hours a day.
Makes sense. Have been playing since day 1. Now have two accounts. Purely started the second account few years ago purely becoz i got bored and frustrated with going hard core with primary account and no getting enough back. Nowadays i only play meta relevant pokemon comm days and raid days. Rest of days jst maintaining the streaks. :)
What i find interesting is how different people describe what casual and hardcore gameplay is for them. For myself when i played hardcore it was 5-9 hours each day walking while playing and being on my game all day unless i was doing something that required my full attention or there wasn't spawns to catch.
Now days as a what i call casual player is i don't grind all events and when i do grind it's 3-5 hours each day of that event. But i will still be on the game most of the day. I'll still have it open while i'm doing shopping and wherever i walk. i'll have it on and playing right up until i clock on for work and turning on the game is the first thing i do when i clock off from work within seconds. I'll still have it open on my desk while playing other games and when i get a spare second i'll catch the pokemon on screen.
It's so interesting to me that what i call casual will be someone else's hardcore or that what i deem to be hardcore is someone else's casual play.
I play for hundos mainly. Never spoofed all legit.594 currently. I created a bucket list hundo to keep me motivated to hunt. Heracross,carvanah,raikou,xurtree,mespirit,noibat,frigibax,cranidos,dreepy & drampa.
Last year, around Halloween month, my bank account was hacked into for a second time. All my money was stolen again, which caused a lot of disruption for a few months. This disruption affected everything, especially my online payments on my computer and my phone, etc. It also made my Pokemon Go unplayable, causing me to miss out on stuff and making the game unplayable for months.
Other than the G-MAX Kingler battle day with the community meet-up group, I tend to play Pokemon GO in a much more casual way, sure Enamorus is now becoming available in regular raids, but I will not hunt for hundo, just use my free raid pass(es) to grind for candies.
For me, what I do is only do 1 legendary or Mega pokemon once a month so that I don't have to go crazy and waste money getting all the legendarys that Niantic has been giving us for the Month of February. Then I walk around getting 3 star pokemon so that I can use those for trade to gain extra candies. Then I do the Gym Exchange system with two different accounts so that within a week I can get remote raid ticket to do my legendary or Mega pokemon raid. Then I just farm stardust to level up my buddy then stop at XL candies. This is how I play the game. Im a rural player.
The first big decline was the remote raid nerf, then like 2 months ago they doubled the price of pokécoins in my country. Since that day, i almost completely stopped raiding, i'm not gonna spend all my money on this damn game.
Hitting lvl 50 was my call for pause. Once you have all the Meta for raids (even with low Ivs) and you see that the GBL is basically useless there is nothing really left for you to do. So I’m slowly building a 2nd account but way less hardcore than the first one plus I don’t care much for 💯 ivs anymore.
I’ve been in casual mode for years now. I got burned out in the first year and took time off. I only play mostly from home. I’ve always said that as long as I have one, I’m satisfied. I don’t need hundos for everyone. One of my favorite’s is not a hundo and it still battles very well. I don’t need to grind all the time.
The main reason to play hardcore these days is to get a surplus of stardust. Once you have a good team of raiders like 6 good mammoswine, 6 good machamp/conkulder, 6 good dragons and some good IV mega starters you should be able to contribute to any raid you are in. You may need to spend dust on pvp pokemon but once you have a decent variety of those to you can do a quick route, hit a few stops, knock out a couple gbl battles for the day and then raid if you can or want to. This current event, not anything super crucial. I dont spend a lot of time with it other than pick up a little extra candy and do my pvp for the day. I will say i spent some money on the game to get a surplus of incubators but im not using them till unova tour to get as many regionals as I can. Honestly i keep a surplus of regionals in case newer players need them for the dex even though they have acceess to them in these tour events too. So i guess my rant today is grind in the beginning till you have decent pvp pokemon and a few teams of good budget counters for raid bosses. The raid counters will tend to overlap a lot, so once you have them you wont have to spend as much. Play 20min daily when you can but go hard on the big 3 events, go tour go fest and wild area.
I can’t go back to playing casually. I’m only playing gofest at this point.
I feel like if you go hard core and put more money into the game, the less lucky you get.
I've stopped playing but still enjoy your content. I found the game mentally draining and the constantly having to pay for events felt like robbery. The game has been broke for years and they don't bother to fix things, just release new, broken content. Dynamax and Gigantamax were the final nail in the coffin for me. I noticed that you're catching the same Pokemon and just using more bag space and having to spend more. The game is addictive and driven by FOMO and is used as a data collection tool. It's only when you put your phone down, step away and find enjoyment in real life that your eyes are opened.
Thanks for the video, Jinsula 🙂💫🙌
I've gone casual it's so freeing
As a new (and f2p) player it might be cool to have a less hardcore perspective on playing. Someone that isn't just putting up shundos to flex. Someone who's play is a bit more normal.
So even pogo RUclipsrs aren’t even excited to play pogo anymore lmao
I went to Phoenix yesterday to see how the other half live (actually, it was to watch Super Cross)
Even with a stadium filled with thousands of people, there still was not enough players to do Gigantamax Kingler.
Gigantamax is for not only large cities but a football teams worth of freinds coordinating.
Back in my home town, it's impossible.
I went to Six Flags the day the Gigantamax Starters came out and there was literally no one doing them, despite the park being so busy that every ride had a 1+ hour wait.
I bought my tickets to meet you.
Sorry about that ☹️
Game is now made for flyers
So many people (including me) seem to have gone the same was as you Count. It's a shame as the game really isn't what it used to be. I don't think they can ever reverse things as Niantic has just abused the player base too much but I really wish they could go back to how they were a few years back and gain a bigger player base. Seems like fewer and fewer people are out playing whenever I decide to play PoGo.
If we look at some of the early geolocation games the designers relieved the collection pressure by making *the player character* or the *owning the digital world* the main focus.
This way you can still drip out content, but the content isn't just about making your collection better, it's about making your PC better so that the various challenges are easier.
Somewhere along the way, that design principle vanished on pogo.
The actual collection & wild spawn candy grind is wildly confusing to a new player, you have to explain S2 cells, biomes, mega/buddy pokemon bonuses, route and party bonuses, etc, it's just spaghetti design that was created by silo'd teams.
In most every other collection game you can just crack a shiny 5* and everyone knows the value of that.
But in pgo, everything is obfuscated. You can't just do what games like AFK arena do and sell armored Mewtwo for $99.99 - because the ACTUAL perceived value is around the IVs ,and those are randomized.
Which brings me to my point:
If the actual content (core story, missions, player progression, and how the collection part feeds into that ) were actually compelling and we understood what the actual game goal was, we wouldn't complain about the Pokemon part, because we'd all understand that Pokemon are just a means to an end.
The real problem is that Niantic never finished building out any of their progression loops or gave us the stairs to get everyone to late game pvp content (which something like 95% of the player base doesn't even do) - Instead it hinges on the belief that as long as we find some friends, keep going outside and playing together, then everything will be fine.
No, sorry, we need to understand what the actual end game loop is, and we need to feel like it's achievable.
TLDR: Whats pgo's Victory Road? What's pgo's Elite 4?
I respect it count , I’m gonna be spend to win until I’m done playing
My life in Pokémon is better even without this game. I even lost weight about 59 maybe 62 pounds. I’m going for a personal best yeah sure it’s a game but to be hardcore is awesome and probably the most insane people can get. I did countless remote raids when they were not nerfed nowadays I reached a point where well I just collect and grind for shiny’s and hundo’s (possibly shiny’s and a 💯 percent iv) I only have 3 so far. I want to go all out it doesn’t always workout. There will always be someone better and worse. There will be no like the individual person or the person living in the earth. Life is how u make it. Thanks for this vid Count.
For me it was paying all this money with no reward....I spent hundreds of dollars doing necrosma..and Giratina raids with one 98% of each to show for it...I was up to 400 raids for necrosma and 398 for Giratina....after that I don't play as much as I did and I don't spend any money anymore...I just use my free raid passes and over the last few months I have gotten 100% dialiga and 100% decxeys
They lost me as hard-core player since raids were messed up. All that grinding to see meta shift for no reason. I know it's "fixed" but they lost me
I started in 2024. 7.14 km, 4.43 miles walked every day. Actually, walking without a go pluse since I did not spoof. Hard core for a year back in 2024. Now with all the jank pokemon coming out. I.E. comunity days, and Legendary I already have 100% to 91% iv for. I have the best raid boss counters. Since 2025, I am a casual player now. Went from level 1 to 43. 😅 Nothing really intresting out. 😉
Are you just robbed out of your ticket for the LA event? I thought Niantic had a strict no refund policy
For me as long as you play with a plan that's what matters. For me i play occasionally with friends but generally I'm here for the legendary / mythical shinies you cant get anywhere else. The daily grind of the game is tedious and incompatible with daily life so I just can't play often. This is the first video game I've ever seen designed in a way that isn't convenient for its player....its honestly more annoying than relaxing
You're right it's not sustainable because i have a family, children, partner, a full time job, house, friends, volunteering, civic duties and other obligations. Playing pogo more than casually for me is an irresponsible use of time. Also, gambling money on something you're not sure you're going to get (like a legendary raid when you might not catch the mon) is an irresponsible use of money. I mainly use coins earned from gyms and Google rewards. Of course it's a very addictive game and definitely fun. I always chat with the people I play with and make friends.
The small community gmax is killing it for me, not skill based for raid catching, things fleeing after heaps of throws . Yawn.
Pokemon go’s key decision makers sitting at the top should watch this video and read the comments.
I host raids all the time and ppl don't mind joining the raids remotely... its a buck more a pass so it won't change your life! It's either you play the game or don't really... honestly I play this game more than I care for any useless job that lands you no where in the long run....
@5:15 Not even a shadow Diggersby for Great League?
Been playing since June 2019...and the game has slowly gotten worse...events have gotten more and more boring...the devs have gotten ridiculous with the having to hatch eggs to get new pokemon all the time, and making you need to purchase a ticket for this also...and the whole flop of the routes has killed it...remote raids suck..Dynamax sucks..Gigantamax is horribly unfair to us in the boonies...seeing the same pokemon over and over and over as well, like seeing a hundred Mankeys in a day is ridiculous. I still have never gotten a shiny hundo in this whole time, only have 25 hundos in total...only have really ever gotten 2 lucky friends trades...I definitely spend a lot of days where I do the one spin, one catch and finish one daily research task...and thats really it...
I just don't care for the for the dynamax or giantimax aspect haven't done a single giantimax raid it's just stupid. They are useless outside of using them only for dynamax or giantimax battles other than that they are useless. Im tired of the same old boring raids on repeat. Niantic has been paywalling ever since the remote raids nerf ticketing everything. Have to pay for time researches and special researches. Being forced to hatch unwanted eggs for not wanting to be apart of that stupid scam. Being controlled on how much you can raid killed it for me everything fun in this game they take away not everybody likes to be around crowds of people not everybody likes to be around people they have never met before or have no idea who they are. I'm a 33 year old man I'm not meeting up with a group of a bunch of kids again randoms I don't know I've always played Pokemon go to myself without a crowd or anybody around me yes I miss out on elite raids and these stupid giantimax pokemon but I truly could care less about them. Even during go fest I play to myself by my lonesome call me what you want it just how I like to play and besides no one cares for pokemon go and the nearest groups are 45 minutes to an hour away I'm not wasting gas on that when only 5 people show up. Just not worth it to me so I will continue to play by my lonesome and it is what it is.
People whining about gigantamax and dynamax… clearly don’t know how small the actual dex is for that. And all the candy you have ALREADY for said dynamax dex. It takes minimal effort to log in daily and do a d-g max raid… takes 20 mins max and you can power them up for the same as you would for other normal raid pokemon! Get over it.
It's simply not fun to keep up with things any more. It's either the same 50 legendaries on rotation, or 20 new ones back to back. There is no defined rythm in newly released content.