"It's Been 23 Days - The Case for Storage"

#PokemonGO: The NumbersIt has been twenty-two days since Niantic first officially announced a storage expansion to accompany the release of Gen 4, yet haven't delivered. Not only is it disappointing to see them falter from their norm of promptly releasing features after announcement, but it's especially problematic given that it has fundamentally hampered the game for many players. During this period, they have released 35 new Gen 4 Pokemon, 21 new shinies, 3 new Gen 3 pokes (ninjask line), 3 legacy moves, and a new Spinda form. This totals to 62 additions, not counting multiples one would want for shinies and the meta-relevant Gengar and Metagross.This comes 80 days after a July 28th leak that had players anticipating the feature, for a potential total of 103 days. The last storage upgrade batch was released on December 8th, continuing a precedent of 500 slots per generation as established in Generation 2. Assuming this is meant to account for Generation 3 Pokemon up until the last major batch release on February 9th, this still neglects three new storage consuming additions: Trading, community days, and raid days.Not counting additions after the October 16th Gen 4 update, we've had 9 community days and 4 raid days, each with an exclusive move (Articuno's being added afterward). This, in addition to legacy "body slam" Snorlax in research rewards, indicates that Niantic is aware of and wants us to collect Pokemon. This is bolstered by the fact that they deliberately programmed older Pokemon having increased chances to be "lucky," and higher distance trades yielding more rewards. The direct consequence of this is an incentive to hold on to old and foreign Pokemon, in addition to regionals, rares, shinies, and meta relevant trades. All of this requires storage (and I haven't even mentioned Alolan forms!).In total, between February 9th and the storage announcement we've received: 82 new shinies, 18 Alolan forms, 15 new exclusive moves, 4 event Pikachu line variants, 3 Spinda forms, 3 Squirtle line variants (sunglasses), 2 mythicals, and "lucky" variants of every tradeable Pokemon. That's 127 unique collectibles before Gen 4, 189 after. This easily dwarfs an entire generation, and it's not even counting: meta-relevant multiples, distance/age/regional/rarity trades, and ~400 "luckies." As has been said before, there should have already been a storage upgrade to accompany the release of trading/Alolan forms.Why Collect?In a game about "catching them all," catching and collecting has been the most fleshed out and enduring feature of this game. The "three steps" tracker was scrapped, prestiging was scrapped, distance tracking has been severely flawed until just recently, the gym system was stripped of its nuance/competitiveness, raids are very logistically impractical, and there's still no PVP. Since release, Niantic has always done a good job of adding new Pokemon and new Pokemon forms. Collecting is the main draw.Parting WordsI admit that, like many, I have been somewhat irrationally complaining about storage for months. I complained before Go Fest, Larvitar Day, Articuno Day, Eevee Day, Moltres Day, Beldum Day, and Gengar Day. However, each time I was able to bite the bullet and clear enough storage to meet my basic goals. I've refrained from catching most Gen 4 Pokemon until what I thought would be a prompt storage update. I accepted that I wouldn't get as many Metagross as I wanted. I've offloaded valuable mon to friends and cleared my "420/69" CP collection. But after this past Gengar Day I have truly hit my limit. With sextuple stardust Cyndaquil Day right around the corner, I lament potentially missing out. While I admit these concerns would have sounded especially whiny a couple month ago, this should not be happening 23 days after a storage increase announcement. via /r/TheSilphRoad https://ift.tt/2RKzY3c