Pokémon GO - One Week Later
/I think it is safe to say Nintendo's first foray into the augmented reality scene is a success. Pokémon GO game out one week ago in the United States and it has been an instant hit flooding all social media with what has been caught, where what has been found, and more. So why is this game so addicting? The answer is the same it has always been, Gotta Catch Them All!
::Insert Wilhelm Scream Here::
OK, so how has society adjusted to this game in the past week. Yes, it has been popular enough to cause societal issues. First of all, people really need to be more attentive to where they are going when hunting pokémon. Several people have been robbed due to opportunistic thugs looking for an easy score and finding them in people absorbed in the mobile devices. These hooligans (that's right, I used that word) have been lurking near the Pokéstops to mug unsuspecting trainers. Another woman found a dead body while hunting the monsters. Yikes! And we can't forget the biggest worry about all of Pokémon GO, the server issues (DUN DUN DUN)!
The good news is that people are actually getting exercise (unless you cheat). I mean people are actually walking around! Nintendo has been trying to get people out of their house with Pokémon for 20 years! Remember the Pokéwalker? All you had to do to level your pokémon was walk around. But people still didn't do it that much. But now, finally, people are walking. I bet there are some people that have walked more outside in the past week then in the past year! And then there is the rise in American interest in Kilometers. In Pokémon GO you can get eggs that will only hatch after you walk a specific distance. A distance that is only stated in kilometers. Here is a chart of Google search in America for "Kilometers" over the past year.
That spike in the chart, July 6. Americans are finally interested in the metric system! It only took something that was in our own personal interest to make us look it up.
Nintendo (whose stock has jumped 25%) and Niantic, the actual programmers of the game must be jumping for joy at this success.
And that is all I have on Pokémon GO right now. I am sure that Jim will have have more when he does his "The Professional Gamer" article. But in the mean time. get out there, and catch them all! Just don't get fired doing it.