My phone had a severe hiccup the other day that made me unable to turn on the game without bricking it (for some reason, the issue has since subsided). I lost my streaks, said "screw it" and haven't played since. Poké Stops are several kilometres apart here, the 'mons that spawn are mostly junk, and the ground has been glazed with ice for a while now. And it's too cold to walk around without gloves, which makes it a hassle to play. So I figured I'd at least take a break from playing, either until the weather gets better, I get a new phone, I move to a place with more Poké Stops, or all three.
Besides... well, the game isn't that good. There's very little actual Pokémon battling in it, and maybe one in every 200 Pokémon you catch will realistically be able to remain in battle for more than five seconds. Your only opponents are other players in Gyms, and most Gyms are taken by high-level players - which means you will have to be high-level yourself to even participate in battle without losing instantly. You need to constantly catch and release Pokémon, quite the opposite of the other Pokémon games where you catch and train a small team of Pokémon. And you're not playing a Pokémon Trainer as much as a Pokémon Feeder.
The capture mechanic is rather neat, and I like the incentive to visit Poké Stops or walk around to hatch Eggs. But these mechanics don't make a very compelling game by themselves. And too many crucial aspects of the Pokémon - namely, stat potentials and moves - are completely random, irreverseable and impossible to influence. You just have to play the lottery to find out whether your newly captured Pokémon is good or useless, and start over again if it turns out to be the latter. This is one of the worst mechanics in the main series Pokémon games, and it's cranked up to 11 here since you can't change a Pokémon's moves.
