For the very first time, Pokémon GO allowed players to vote for which Pokémon they’d like to see featured during Community Day, giving the choice between Dratini, Rhyhorn, Vulpix, and Machop. The results are in, and Rhyhorn is officially the winner, meaning that the first generation rock Pokémon will be featured during February’s Community Day, which lands on the 22nd.
The method in which Pokémon GO allowed players to vote was an interesting one. You would get a research task from spinning a Pokéstop, asking you to catch 20 Pokémon in order to submit one vote for one of the four options. Each task only gave one option though, and spawned randomly. This meant that if you wanted to cast a vote for a specific Pokémon, you had to keep spinning stops until you were given that specific task.
At the end of the weekend, Rhyhorn was selected as the winner, meaning that a shiny bronze-colored Rhyhorn will be released for the very first time, with an increased likelihood of encountering one during the Community Day event. Not only that, but Rhyhorns evolved into Rhyperior on Community Day will learn the special move Rock Wrecker.
Rhyhorn was most likely chosen thanks to the power of its final evolved form, Rhyperior. Dratini had been a Community Day Pokémon already in the past, and Vulpix wasn’t a popular choice thanks to the little impact that its evolved form, Ninetales, has on the competitive aspect of the game. Machop does evolve into a pretty strong competitive choice in Machamp, but it just didn’t see the same number of votes as Rhyhorn.
Niantic’s decision to involve Pokémon GO players in the choice for February’s Community Day went over well for the most part, and it would be great to see them do something similar again in the future. That being said, a more straightforward voting process would be welcomed. Having to spin stops, and delete research tasks until you’re given one that will count towards the Pokémon of your choice was a bit inconvenient for some players.
Overall, the community poll was yet another example of why people are still playing Pokémon GO nearly three-and-a-half years following the game’s launch. Frequent events, updates, new generations of Pokémon, and added features give players exactly what they need to keep playing, and the formula has been working great so far.
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