3 changes I would like to see in Pokemon Go

Like most of the rest of the world, I have been playing Pokemon Go. With work and home life, I haven't had much time to properly grind out the 'mons and I am nowhere near a Pokemon Master. I still have a lot content left to do… that being said, I find myself wishing there was more "game" in the game. So here are 3 changes I would like to see Niantic make to Pokemon Go:

Implement the Game Freak combat system

The major strength of the Pokemon franchise is, in my opinion, the combat system developed by Game Freak for the GameBoy games. It is superficially simple, but has a ton of strategic depth and would certainly keep me interested in the game far past the point where the click mashing / ball flicking mechanics become tiresome.

Encourage social gaming

Pokemon Go has become a massive social phenomenon. You can see people wandering around all over the place, or camped out around pokestops, chatting and having fun. Niantic should capitalise on this by adding in some social features to the game. The ability to trade pokemon seems like a no-brainer and being able to challenge other trainers (even if it's just at stops or gyms) would be a lot of fun if they implement the Game Freak combat system first.

Make me care about my pokemon

One issue I have with Pokemon Go is that all the pokemon you catch (even your starter) are completely disposable. You are almost guaranteed to catch a higher level pokemon as soon as you level up, so spending any resources (or emotional investment) in any specific one feels terrible when it becomes obsolete. Adding some Tamagotchi type mini-game would provide more emotional attachment and could provide a "training" mode to improve or replace a Pokemon's move, increase hit-points or attack power.

Pokemon Go has got off to an incredible start. I don't think anyone involved in it's development anticipated the overwhelming attention it's release got, but it's important that they don't rest of their laurels. If they just sit back and leave the game as it is, I don't think it will be long before players get bored of the bare-bones game play and move onto one of the new Augmented Reality games that are sure to pop-up in the wake of Pokemon Go. 

-Odd
"Oh, I know what I'll do! I'll use my trusty frying pan as a drying pan!" - Brock