For days, I have been finding myself flooded with a volley of latest and the most amusing news about Pokemon Go. Google, YouTube, Reddit, and national news is not immune to this phenomenon of a game, and guess what, the other night, the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, also joined the bandwagon. In short, it is everywhere.
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I do remember the kids watching this strangely popular show on cartoon network a few years ago, and I did catch a sight of school boys and girls trading Pokemon cards and figurines too. It may also have been a rage right then, but among children only, I guess. This time around, everyone, from every age group seems to be going gaga over it. I find people moving around, hunting down pokemons in the living room, in the balcony, in the bathrooms, on the road; no place seems to be an exception.
Today, after almost two decades of the first ever popularity of this video game, cartoon and card game, Niantic, together with Nintendo has taken the world by storm, and swept all the gamers off their feet. Believe it or not, but it has ended up escalating Nintendo’s market value by $7billion. They say it is even better than even anything like Pokemon Platinum online. People have been playing right from when the beta version was launched. It has become a chart topper in the United States of America, and it is not just the kids but also young adults, adults and even the elderly who have become well-acquainted with phrases like “Pokemon gotta catch em all”. Is it that Nintendo has simply made it business moves like in a game of chess? Or is it actually the grit of the game?
So, did I want to find out what is it that is so special about this game? Hell yeah! So, I downloaded it. And, to tell you the truth, it is pretty addictive. I have been hunting Pokemons like a pro now. So, before I proceed further with the game like a pro, let me tell you lots of things that you may not be acquainted with whether you have or haven’t played this game.
Here we go, let’s find out some basic things that all of us wanted to know about this game.
The Advent of the Game
Though it had been out on DS as well as Game Boy earlier,
This is the first time that Pokemon GO is a total smartphone game.
It is a free app, but like most of the good games, it has an in-game shop. It was launched in the 6th of July this year.
The reception has been very well, though, like any new thing it has its own bugs and glitches, which an avid game player will discover with time.
Here is What It is
This smartphone game uses your phone’s clock as well as GPS to find out where you are at what time, before it can choose a Pokemon that “appears” around you (on your phone screen of course!) so you have to go and catch it.
And, this is not as simple. As you proceed in the game, more pokemons will go on appearing depending on your location and time. This movement is one step ahead of the usual Nintendo games. We knew they have always tried to make their games more lifelike, but this concept of running around in the real world is nothing like anyone has ever done before. This magical mix of the gaming and the real world is what we now call “augmented reality”.
The world in which this game takes place has monsters, strange birds, dinosaurs, trees, swords and all that is imaginable. These elfin creatures are to be tamed by the “trainers” who traverse around the world. They use these Pokemons against each other for a fight. The reason is “team flare”- to maintain peace on earth while still making money, and eliminating anyone who comes in the way. Well, you’d know it if you have played any of those initial games like “Pokemania”.
Here is How We Start
All you have to do for starters is download the game. It is available for Android as well as iOS. It is free, and lets you sign up either with an existing Google account or you can simply sign up and make a Pokemon Trainer Club account for the game. This will also entitle you to a monthly newsletter, which will, at, times give away download codes for Pokemons that are pretty rare.
Once you have done that, you can pick a name and and customize the appearance.
And!!! You will also get a starter pokemon, which is none other than Pikachu, before you start your team flare. But it is granted to you after your trainer chooses among Charmander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle.
To begin with, catching is not very well explained but you do get to know about three Pokemons around you at a particular point of time. And, this will be shown on the lower right corner of the in-game map. When you tap on it, you will get access to a closer look at that particular Pokemon you want to catch. The footprints underneath (one to three) indicate the shorter or the longer distance that you need to traverse to get to your Pokemon. As you get close enough, it appears for a battle, and it starts when you tap on it.
The whole story of playing Pokemon Go is about lobbying the fighter with the Pokeball. When you press and hold it, the ring around the ball will start shrinking in circumference. The smallest is the best; that is when you throw the ball. At this point, you have the best chances of capture. Also, what you must not forget to take into account, is the color that the ring displays before you throw it. Green – good to go; yellow – tough enough; red – a pretty hard catch.
As you proceed in the game, you will get perks that let you reduce these levels of toughness and ease the capture. You must learn to coordinate these two strategies to make your job easier. Later, you will also come to unlock and possess Pokeballs that are more secure than the regular ones.
Quite amusing is the fact that it is not the opponents that battle each other (except for i the gym fights); the competition is between the opponent and your Poke Ball. the ball part is tricky, and so is the catching bigger Pokemons.
One tip from me – playing it with the AR turned off helps you aim better. It is sure pretty much fun to see the those animate little things bouncing around in the real world, however, turning off the camera actually stabilizes them for you to aim better.
One thing that is marvelous about Pokemon GO is that you cannot cheat it into hatching eggs by fake egg-walking. The game does let you walk around eggs at a Pokestop, and hatch them, based only on your GPS. So, speed has nothing to do with it. Walking in a treadmill will never lead you to hatching an egg.
The game is a pretty intelligent one. The whole intention behind it is to make you move, go around, and explore place to find Pokemons. Things are planned nicely. Moving at night will bring you across nocturnals like Clefairy; going near water will bring you water Pokemons. It all makes so much sense.
The Battle Ground
Gym battles are little more complex than I expected, but one thing that I discovered was that meter that keep filling in as your pokemon attacks. This power can be used for a solid attack that is capable of doing some massive harm to the opponent. These are really powerful, so much so, as can single-handedly suffice to make you win the battle.
The Glitch in the Battle
Well, it is new “augmented reality” game and one of its kind. This only means that there is a lot of scope for improvement. So, you may come across glitches, some of which may even be too big to be ignored, like the “immortal boss”. This happens when you are about to begin a gym fight, and the dead enemy just doesn’t faint. Not your mistake; it is a server error, and Niantic may just come up with a fix at a more stable stage.
This is Where You Need to Spend Money
The game is going to lure you with stuff which in turn, lets you capture and upgrade better Pokemons. Incense, Lucky Eggs, Egg Incubator, and Lure Module are the four things that money can buy. Yes, you real life money can buy these aids and move ahead better in the game. You buy Poke Coins with money, and these coins will then buy you these aids.
The Gyms Will Come in Too
Yes, the battles will be gym battles, and you will get to fight another trainer once you are beyond level 5. These are one-on-one gym battles against the other trainers’ teams.
You cannot trade, and you cannot fight with your friend’s Pokemons. The only battles are the gym battles and so “Pokemon gotta catch em all” only in those.
How Do I Fortify My Pokemons?
There are more than one not-so-simple ways to do that. All the pokemons that you go on collecting, come with candy and stardust. When these keep adding up, you can use them for powering up your Pokemons for combat. Evolution happens through these very candies. Alternatively, you can power them up in gym combats against other trainers’ pokemons.
Did We Like the Game?
Since its launch in Australia, U.S.A., and New Zealand, this game has become even more popular than Tinder and Twitter as far as it download is concerned. Within just 2 days of its launch, it was downloaded by more than 5% of all the Android devices in the U.S. Before this, it was only the popular dating app, Tinder with a bit more than 2%, and one of the most popular social network platforms,Twitter with 2.23% which led the race. But just 2 days, and all the records have been busted. Since it was also released for iOS, the popularity only doubles.
The popularity, indeed has been immense, and has far exceeded the usage of popular apps like WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram, etc.
However, even despite these encouraging figures, the reactions are still mixed. While it could be an intelligent way of biohacking your health for gamers stuck to their phones, some may feel that the experience is not enough for what the Pokemon fans actually deserve.
What Needs to Be Changed to Make it Unrivaled?
Battery Drainage is one big, and the most bugging con here.
The reason is that it uses a lot many sensors and resources, all at once, resulting in massive battery usage. If you can’t stop playing it, better have a power bank in your kitty.
Safety
This could be concern here. Since the concept of augmented reality has you moving around in real places, the hazard is quite evident. News of minor accidents have already been making rounds. For people are playing the game walking around, with their eyes riveted to the mobile screens, the attention is never where it must b while walking.
Addiction
Addiction is going to be there wholesale. It is addictive, and new Pokemon statistics show that. American users are playing it at an average of 43 minutes per day, and are sure to return to it everyday. So if you wish to enter the amazing universe of PokeMMO, you surely are in for some massive addiction.
The game, no doubt, is breaking all bounds of popularity, and for reasons that are more than justified. The best thing about “augmented reality”being its amalgam of the real and the virtual that seems so life-like. Impressive it is! I am only reminded of how Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Salman Rushdie use magic realism in their fiction.
But well, you have to play it to know it.