Pokemon Go Research Needs To Let Us Choose Our Spawns

thegamer.com:

Pokemon Go is slowly but surely learning. Special Research is my favourite of all the game’s new additions since its phenomenal but barren launch, and recent updates have improved things further. While raids injected the game with a sense of purpose, and battles and trades are great for communities, there's just something compelling about the research tasks. Though the Research Box has long ceased to contain anything interesting, I find research is the main reason I still play, even writing about how it made me realise the game lacks a competent daily routine. The most recent Alola research though is yet another step in the right direction.

I've written about research a few times recently, noting that A Mega Moment could be a fairly decent sized moment for the game, making you choose between a questline for Mega Venusaur, Mega Charizard, or Mega Blastoise. Having this level of choice in Pokemon Go is completely new - usually you just jump through some fairly basic (if repetitive and drawn out) hoops and we all reach the same destination. The latest Special Research repeats the same trick, but in a fresh way. For the Alola research, we need to choose which of the four islands we want to research. The rewards are fairly meagre - an Oricorio hat in one of four styles, and a choice between one of four Alolan Pokemon anybody who has been playing the game even casually will have several of each by now.

Related: Revisiting Kanto: The Complete Journey

Here's where it could be a jumping off point, though. Choosing a region seems to go against what Pokemon Go is about. If you're in the same physical space, you're in the same virtual space - except now someone else could make a different choice and be exploring an entirely