A Restarted Fever?

Last year (and a day ago), I wrote about how Pokémon Go fever could be restarted among players. The reasoning was derived from a couple of small experiences that I had with and around playing the game. Now, one year later, I would like to address this - and perhaps I really should have done it yesterday: I may be able to say that the fever has restarted to some degree with all that has happened with the game over the course of the year. In some ways, both of the experiences were validated, though it hasn't led to a fully restarted fever.

I had theorized that some players were still playing the game, and I was right: I met one of them a month later, and the rest as my local raid group. This is the "one big collective" I spoke about, and its members are from all the teams, working for the common goal of raids. There are no sub-groups for each team, but that would be beside the point of this collective; the players don't seem to mind anyhow. Still, team spirit does decide some things that the players in my raid group do, but it's mostly for fun and positiveness. What is important is that this big collective provides opportunities for communication, which really does matter for raids, being limited in time and scope. My raid group becomes the useful tool for that.

As for the technical challenges, it seems most players who have phones with the necessary OS version and a good amount of memory and free space are able to join in the fun, albeit to different degrees. This seems to be the case for most players in my raid group, including those who have rejoined after a long absence and then subsequently joined my raid group. Even so, some players appear to be pushing it with the phones available, much like what I did when I played Go for the first time on my old phone. At the least this shows a semblance of willingness of participation from them, and that the technical limitations don't seem to pose a problem (except maybe for my friend with the phone with the smashed screen, who has not shown any commitment of returning the last time I checked).

With that, it appears that there doesn't seem to be much that holds back players from (re)joining the fun of Pokémon Go, and so it can be said that the fever has restarted. It's not complete, but at least the partiality indicates that things are bubbling, as many are becoming willing and able to participate in everything that Pokémon Go currently has to offer. This restarted fever pitch might just increase even further within the short time to come.

One year ago: What I (Really) Like About You - Pokémon