Territory

Promises and deals

In another multiplayer game I used to play on a competitive level we had a discussion about keeping promises. Part of that game was breaking a promise whenever you saw an opportunity to win by breaking the deal.

Thus we concluded that keeping promises had a limited value, but also that breaking them for little gain gave you a reputation as untrustworthy.

People don't make deals with someone who can't be trusted at all.

Pokemon go has gym battles as the only competitive component in the game. Those gyms are associated with physical territory.

Making deals with a rival gang to stay out of one gym in exchange for them staying out of another can have some value. Basically it's a little easier to collect one coin and 500 dust extra.



Threats

While that other game taught me that keeping promises had a distinct value, but still a limited one, it also taught me that you never, ever, break your threats.

Obviously it wasn't worth throwing around threats left and right, but if you kept them scarse and gained a reputation that you were comitted to following through on the threats you made no matter the cost, well people backed off more often than not.

In pokemon to this would normally translate to doing bad stuff to one or more rival gyms if an opposing team did something bad to one or more of your gyms.



Why?

Some gyms are simply easier for you to reach. Maybe you're living by one, or maybe you pass one every day. Or, maybe you and your friends just dedicated one specific gym as your home turf.

Keeping a fine balance between deals and threats adds spice to the game, especially if you're a team gaming together.

It's one instrument in your effort to keep a territory, and as of now pokemon go all comes down to keeping territory.