Things Pokémon GO Got Right: Nature of Spawns

It's so easy for people to find the faults of others. We generally see people's mistakes more frequently than their successes. That's one of the reason why the internet culture is hate-filled. Even this very blog capitalizes on the mistakes of one game (actually, I haven't made a post that criticizes one aspect of the game). I think it's unfair for anyone to just highlight these mistakes, but still that is human nature so I can't really blame someone when all they see are negative stuff. Alas, I want to be different. I want to praise Niantic for all the right things they've done with this game. You might consider some of these a mistake, but I'll gladly defend why I think they are the right choice for the game. Let's start this with the easiest thing that Niantic got right: the nature of spawns.

This feature of Pokémon GO made the game very realistic, and very similar to the real world. Most water-types spawn on rivers and beaches. Most Electric-types spawn on either airports and beaches as well(because of lighthouses). Desert areas are populated heavily by Rock, Ground, and Fire types, while cooler areas get stuff like Grass and Bug types.

Nest Pokémon mirror migrating animals. Region-exclusive Pokémon mirror animals that can only be found on certain parts of the globe. Imagine Kangaskhan, a Pokémon based on kangaroos, can only be seen in Australia, one of the only places in the world where kangaroos can be seen in the wild. I've done a post before about how migrating region-exlcusive Pokémon is a very bad idea, you can check it here.

Niantic even imporved the nature of spawns by time-based spawns. Some Pokémon spawn more during daytime, and some spwan more during nighttime. It was initially thought to be type-dependent, but it's more leaning to specific mons. Quagsire and Ariados spawn more during nighttime, unlike their other Water & Ground and Bug & Poison type brethrens respectively.

Some may argue that some of these feature made playing Pokémon GO more dangerous, because it encourages people to play on more dangerous places or more dangerous times, but this reason is flawed. When you travel to other places for vacation, you risk your safety going to unfamiliar lands, but you don't blame your vacation for it. It's the same for Pokémon GO. It's the players that chose to chase down Pokémon. "Catching them all" is not necessary for you to have fun in the game, but you do it because you find it fun. If you want to catch them all at the comfort of your home like spoofers do, it's better to just play the main series games. This is a game for those who is willing to go outside and explore, like real Pokémon Trainers do.

PS: I was initially making it a list of things GO got right but every one thing I thought off had so many content I could write on, so I now made it a new segment on its own. I'll be tackling other stuff soon. Stay tuned.