Thursday, October 13, 2022

Pokémon Café Remix Burnout?

As much as I enjoy the addiction of playing Pokémon Café Remix, lately though, I have to be critical as well - which is why I'm bringing it up just after my previous discussion. Specifically, I'm feeling a certain feeling that I've only experienced for Pokémon Go (on two previous occasions) but not for any other game until now. That feeling is one of "burnout", becoming bored or tired of playing. It also doesn't help that things had become rather burdensome, which will soon become evident. And that seems to have cut through my enjoyment of playing the game.

The burdensome part is that there have been some events that demand a lot of resources, both physical and mental. Around the past week or so, there was a One-Minute Cooking event, and now there is another one... which is technically a repeat of the one before the last. Since these are based on action, it's easy to see how these can be(come) demanding. Then, last week, there was yet another one of those "appreciation" events that demanded the spending of Golden Acorns - and a lot of them this time; I basically would have needed to drain my stash to complete the event, and that's even if I could, as the opportunities for me to spend them have become scarce unless I spend more time. All of these happened or are happening simultaneously or sequentially, creating a burden that makes me feel "burnt out".

It might seem that others have realized or felt the same burden, even way before current events. It's no wonder that I've seen people on my team who are approaching their 30-day inactivity period on my team and at this point have likely been booted out after surpassing that. Even team events can be a burden, particularly if only a few members actively participate - the presence of a full team (30 people) is not a guarantee of the situation that most if not all will participate in a team event. In fact, in the last team event, not everyone on my team participated and not every reward was earned as a result, likely because others are "burned out" as well. If this keeps up, I may very well need to change teams soon before that further contributes to the burnout.

Others might notice that I've never had this feeling with its predecessor Pokémon Shuffle, even today in what might be regarded as its "sunset" period. A lot of that may be due to the fundamental difference in their "life" structures (30-minute Hearts vs. 15-minute Stamina), the latter being twice as useful but also twice as demanding. And it seems to have been the case; for all kinds of events, including the ones mentioned as above, the rewards are numerous and extensive, but so is the effort needed to be put into them - and quickly - to gain most if not all the rewards. Whereas, I can spend just a bit of time each time I play Shuffle, and even though I spend just bits of time, everything adds up eventually with relatively less time and effort pressure. It's something to consider.

While I'm still feeling addicted to Café Remix in general and will continue to play it (as with Pokémon Go above), I can't help but also feel burned out to an extent at the very moment with recent happenings. It is also apparent that the situation might be the same for a number of others, who most likely have ceased playing earlier due to feeling what I feel now, and thus I sympathize with them. On the whole, Café Remix has been designed well, but the current execution does leave something to be desired. This has to be improved in order to avoid potential "burnouts" for me and others.

Five years ago: Respect for Ikue Ootani

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