The Inaugural Pokemon Community Day: A Review

I love the events that Pokemon GO always has, so I was very excited to get out to my local park for the very first Pokemon GO Community Day (especially since the weather had turned a touch warmer here in Ohio). I think I set my expectations a little high for this event, although I’m very happy with my pile of Surf Pikachus, and definitely didn’t expect to get any shinies so that was a nice bonus to the day (I picked up 2 shiny Pikachu and evolved one right away for a shiny Raichu to add to my collection).

It was both fun and disappointing in turn – I had lined up a babysitter for my son, hoping to use the opportunity to get multiple raids in since I haven’t had the time recently and while at the start of Community Day there was a Tyranitar Raid, there was then nothing across the six local Gyms until immediately after the event ended (where I did get a Kyogre as my 300th Pokemon type).

That said, the event did bring players out of the woodwork – with enough people at the post-Community Day Raid to break into three groups (with more coming down the path) so the event did serve that purpose – I was just really hoping they would drop the egg timers and have more raids popping to gather players together. Plus, I was certainly holding out hope for an Absol and perhaps an Unown or two would show up? I guess i was expecting more than just the Pikachu to be in attendance.

It was good to see people still active and playing, though it was harder to sit and socialize – with the weather being melting snow and slush, many people didn’t get out of their cars. I still had a great time and while it was fun to get back out there and play, It bothered me a bit that despite the park is being lured up for 3 hours, nothing at all unique showed up.

For the future Community Days I really feel like they need to adjust the percentages for harder to find Pokemon. There was even talk before the event that people were hoping the regional exclusives would switch for the event, but that too was wishful thinking. Next time around I’d also love to see more action, and not just commons and regular spawns.

Please Niantic, when making people get together for a community event, set off more raids, have more items drop, (maybe single-use incubators as since we’re walking, give us help hatching), double candy maybe? If you want the monthly Community Day events to grow, make it more exciting – a fully lured park should have me running from lure to lure for the chance to grab something unique.

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Heather "gentlestar" Barber

Staff Writer at MMO Central

A proud mother of her little xenomorph, located in Ohio, Heather likes playing MMO's for the sheer fun of it and disdains anything that feels like a second job. You can often find her stopping to admire the scenery, before jumping down the throat of whatever mob she's enjoying decimating next!

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