"Thoughts on the staggering of shiny releases"

#PokemonGO: This is something I've been sitting on since the release of shiny magikarp, which has come to a head with shiny pikachu recently. I originally posted it here as a comment: http://ift.tt/2wniao7 but the post seems to have been taken down, likely due to lack of verification.As someone who's into collecting shinies in the main games (albeit somewhat casually, not into double digits yet), I really don't like the slow release approach Niantic are taking to them, first with magikarp and now shiny pikachu. I don't think the current system for shiny releases benefits players who are casual or who are more directed to finding shinies.The point of shiny pokemon in the older gen games (which are most comparable to PoGo since you couldn't increase the chance artificially, through chaining etc.) is to have that constant chance of finding something special-looking. If you get a shiny during normal gameplay, it's exciting, you get to enjoy something few others have and have bonus prestige for trading, as well as a pokemon (fairly) unique to you. If you want to find one, you can sink a lot of effort into encountering most any specific pokemon and eventually you'll get your own as a payoff for your time investment.Rolling out shinies in bunches kind of defeats this point. If they were released all at once, or at least for common pokemon, there would be some incentive to grind to find shinies. You could even just check the spawns for the ones you like if you want to save time not looking at every single pokemon you come across, although this may make you feel less likely to check some uncommon ones you'd normally catch so you don't skip over a potential shiny. As it is, the spawns for shiny-active pokemon are random (with pikachu being rare for most, and magikarp uncommon at least for me) so there's a random chance of a random chance for a shiny.If you're not actively hunting for one, shiny pokemon should be an afterthought to normal gameplay, which can't be the case if their release is staggered as this targets certain pokemon for the chance of shininess. The way PoGo is structured you can't really hunt for specific shinies just in lieu of the way pokemon are encountered, even if this seems to be what Niantic want you to do. Why build shiny releases up to be this big thing when the majority of players won't be affected by any individual release, or even group of them? As it stands, most players probably don't know enough or do know and don't really care about shinies. This was the role of the red gyarados in the main series, to introduce the concept, but instead introducing random shiny magikarps as a 'nod' to this still leaves a lot of ambiguity surrounding shinies for casual players. In addition, shiny pokemon are completely different to any other feature announced so far. Why stagger shiny releases when it's not designed to enhance your core gameplay and progress you further in the way raids, gyms, and events are? Without trading, shinies essentially mean nothing except aesthetically, and they don't help you progress the game unless you're completing a shiny pokedex (which will, again, likely never happen without trading).I just want to be able to go out and be excited to encounter lots of pokemon again for even the chance that one of them sparkles. Not to wait for coincidence to strike that my fortnightly magikarp is slightly more exciting than every other catch inbetween.tl;dr Shiny staggering defeats the point of shinies; they're not meant to be like events, shinies are little bonuses you get through being lucky during normal gameplay or grinding, neither of which are really facilitated properly in the game in its current state. I'm glad they're in the game as they're definitely a neat feature and will keep me playing for a while but I don't like the way they're being handled. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2xh7ELz