Pokemon in 2016 (Pokemon Go)

King of Posters
82

I deleted it yesterday. It was just like quitting Mitomo except I left a Growlith behind. Nice work Alphabet may you inspire greatness in Nintendo.

83

Of course it’s a fad. The instant mainstreaming, the skeletal featureset and quality problems, the enticing silliness of the premise that’s egged on by “you’ll never believe this idiot” media stories. At this point I can recognize the signs. It’s the new Tamagotchi/Guitar Hero/Wii, and will fall off a popularity cliff like them, the only question is when.

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84

Well what’s a fad in these fast times? Was Candy Crush a fad? Does it matter if it’s just a fad if it makes a ton of money in that time? That’s the important part for the developers not the players. For the players: does it matter if it’s a fad if you got enjoyment out of it?

Polkamom update: I’m in two gyms right now and in half an hour I’ll go for the third. I cashed in my first 10 Pokedollas. The trick is to cash it in in the shop right after you capture a gym because you’re eligible right away. The downside is that this starts a counter and you can only collect again after it’s run down. IF you’re still in the gym by then. So now I’ll have 3 gyms and will have to wait 19 hours to collect again. The timer doesn’t reset if you stack more gyms. So actually I lost some coins by collecting right away. So it’s not a good trick at all. Be smart, don’t be like me.

I feel kind of like a jerk because 2 of the 3 gyms are out in the countryside, where my girlfriend lives. So there’s not much competition there and not much chance for the locals to be up to my level. Because if you’re a city dweller you have loads of pokestops available, can thus level faster and have more items. I’m burninating the countryside like Trogdor

85

I’m kind of uncomfortable with calling Guitar Hero games a fad. It’s true they’re not around anymore but I mean they had a huge impact. Like, were Tony Hawks games a fad (before this recent one came out and made them not gone anymore)? Everything ends, sure. But what’s a fad, really, is what I’m asking

86

One definition of a fad would be a novelty and momentum-based trend that becomes popular because people hear it’s becoming popular and get curious. When the curiosity runs out, the popularity also vanishes almost completely, leaving only the few fans which see some non-novelty value in it (the more faddish it is, the less of these people exist – obviously it’s a continuum).

I’m not entirely sure to what extent Candy Crush is a fad. It’s not wrong to call Tony Hawk (really skateboarding as a whole) somewhat faddiah although it’s a milder and slower-burning instance with non-fad elements and a continuing fanbase. An example of something which is not a fad at all is Pokemon as a whole.

87

Great thoughts about the meaning of the trend: http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/15/12198734/pokemon-go-designer-roundtable-discussion

88

Bloodpotion to anyone who can discern a single interesting thing said about the game in that piece.

89

From what I’ve seen, it’s mostly remarkably barren and unbelievably buggy — but it doesn’t seem to matter. [
]
Pokémon Go is not a game

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91

I agree, but as tulpa said, the actual mechanics are so crummy / exploitative

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92

Are there any really slick geocaching apps nowadays?

2 Likes
93

I wish it did encourage people to interact with one another! That anyone is socially interacting at all is just a byproduct of ‘hey you’re playing pokemon go too? let’s hang out.’ I actually want to like it but what mechanics are present are completely ill conceived at best or grotesque mmo slot machine garbage at worst.

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94

can someone tell me what happens if you try to look for pokemon whilst on a train?
(please don’t do this if you are driving the train)
does it just check at the position you are when you look or do you see pokemon flying by at high speed, unable to catch them?

also does height above/below the surface affect the pokemon available?
could there be a pokemon hanging out 50ft above the ground?

95

They appear in a static position near you and stay there until you are too far away, I think. So on a train they will sort of fly by and you can still attempt to catch them if you tap on them quick enough. I played it on the bus a few times and was able to catch a bunch on the fly, even though the GPS gets all jumpy.

Pretty sure height doesn’t effect whether they appear on the map, since it is rendered like a flat plane

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96

I mean, I’m indifferent to all the shit movies that come out, until I accidentally end up watching one, genuinely hoping to enjoy myself a bit.

Annoyed unto frustrated unto angry pretty much sums up my response. I’m not proud of the angry part, but
yeah. Look: this game should be a slam dunk that “writes” itself. But
they did it in the worst way possible. It’s just
this frustrating bummer.

It will be a fad, because it’s bad. Like, really, really bad. Like, yeah: barely if at all a game bad. So much squandered potential on so many levels!

And yeah: it’s so bad and people are so into it that it kind of feels exploitative. Call it the McDonalds effect.

I mean, Pokemon pretty much was a fad, but it also turned out to be a series of really lovingly and overall well-designed games. So it had legs, and it lasted. Go
doesn’t have that.

97

i’d like to see how they eventually incorporate trading into this game, which they confirmed they will. i still have some issues, like the fact that it keeps crashing and freezing, especially during some gym battles. but i’ve still had nothing but positive, real world interactions with strangers who came to the same churches and wall murals i have, and then we all laugh about the dearth of Zubats in the neighborhood.

really interested to see how long this thing lasts

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98

also here’s some playground rumor style stuff:

99

if anything pokemon go represents people being excited to finally publicly display that they are in fact, in 2016, Playing A Videogame In Public. that’s something that really shouldn’t be underestimated!

it’s also showing me how much of a bummer that there hasn’t really been any widely adopted software/protocol/method for inter-phone communications outside of texting and calling and things that require communicating with a server of some sort. that seems to be the one issue preventing niantic from implementing some sort of interaction between players that isn’t asychronous. and even if trading is implemented, it’s going to be this weird thing where you have to talk to the person to get their username or pick it from a list of usernames and then enter it in your app or whatever

100

My guess for trading is that there will a QR-like code displayed in each trainer’s screen, and they initiate a no-escrow trade by simultaneous scans as the phones kiss.

Or NFC, if they’re boring.

101

Synchronous multiplayer between phones is totally viable provided they’re both on solid 4G or wifi. With that connectivity, you could simply use the existing netcode developed for PC/console. That’s a pretty big if though, and the bigger problem is that such a feature would be rarely used in any case unless it’s a self-explanatorily compelling experience proposition: asynchronous is infinitely more convenient and synchronous modes are not likely to even be tried to see how fun they are.

The best and most popular implementation of synchronous phone multiplayer I’ve seen so far is the Quiplash webapp.