The words “alternate reality game” were the last thing some hardcore Pokémon fans wanted to hear last night. I understand why. It’s a spin-off. It’s on mobile. You can’t play from the comfort of your own home. And yet! Pokémon Go could be the shot in the arm that the monster-collecting series needs.
The key lies with Niantic, the developers who are working on Pokémon Go. Normally, this sort of partnership might be cause for side-eye: people find it easier to trust that Game Freak, Nintendo, or The Pokémon Company wouldn’t mess up their own beloved franchise. But based on what Niantic has worked on before, I’m feeling pretty excited about the future of Pokémon Go.
Perhaps you’ve heard of Ingress, Niantic’s previous game. We’ve written about it before, and over seven million people played it over the years. Big picture, it’s a game where people use phones and real-world locations to set up “portals” at interesting landmarks. Players are split into factions that often war with one another for control over these points.
OK, look. It’s nerdy as hell, there’s no getting around that. Let me put it to you another way. It’s the sort of game that people fly to remote towns in Alaska for. It’s the sort of game that people have climbed mountains to play. It’s the sort of game that has gotten people accidentally detained by the police. It’s the sort of game where people try to electrify fences to stop other players from progressing. It’s the sort of game where a lot of unexpected stuff happens, basically.
And this is that Ingress doesn’t have the sort of cutesy branding that inspired a world-wide mania over make-believe creatures like Pikachu. While all we have right now is a snazzy trailer that may not be indicative of what the actual experience is like, I think that Ingress gives us a good sense of just how crazy Pokémon Go could be.
[Me discussing this via video, uploaded to my personal YouTube channel.]
Concretely, we know that Pokémon Go is a game where people will have to travel to real-world locations to capture, trade or battle monsters. This detail, along with the fact that the game requires interacting with other people in real life, opens up a lot of possibilities.
Imagine, for example, having to travel to an actual volcano to capture a Charizard — Pokémon are region-specific, after all. Imagine making eye contact with another stranger, and feeling the need to challenge them right there, just like you would in the games. Imagine banding together with other players to form a real-world Team Rocket, whose sole aim is to cause havoc and steal Pokémon — Ingress certainly had its share of trolls. Or what if people take it upon themselves to free Pokémon from their masters? Imagine real-world PokémonLeagues forming, complete with actual gym leaders or Elite Fours. I can’t even fathom all the cool things that could happen. Nevermind the bonkers things that probably will happen.
A lot of the things I just mentioned, well, they’re not exactly the sort of things you’d want a little kid to be involved in on their own. I’ve seen a lot of people joking about the possibility of kids getting lost or in danger for trying to play a game like Pokémon Go. Unsurprisingly, the trailer for the game shows mostly full-grown adults playing the game. It might be the first Pokémongame that’s aimed primarily at adults, which in of itself is cool and worth supporting. Just the same, I fully expect to hear ridiculous stories like “Florida man gets shot while fighting over Mewtwo,” “Woman dies in Antarctica while searching for Articuno,” if not “Pokémon players arrested for breaking into [insert place here.]” At the very least, I wouldn’t be surprised if some phones, accounts, or actual money got stolen.
Pokémon is already the sort of game where people are willing to cheat if it means being able to catch them all, and this is that doing so has never been easier. If people get upset and worked up over special Pokémon being limited to certain stores and locations, I have no idea how they’re going to react to an entire game with that very premise, especially if there’s any semblance of scarcity. I have a feeling we’re going to see some wild stuff.
There are still a lot of unknowns at play here. We don’t know how the nitty gritty of how the game will work. We have no idea what the microtransactions will be like. And we don’t really know if people are really going to brave wearing this fugly thing:
We just have a nice trailer for a game that nobody really wanted. Nobody might have asked for Pokémon Go, but it might legitimately be the most exciting thing that’s happened to the franchise in years.
Comments
22 responses to “Pokémon Go Could Be Amazing (And Maybe A Bit Dangerous)”
Well I probably have the monopoly on boring pokemon out where I live with dirt, flat and bush as far as the eye can see. My saving grace will probably be trapinch.
Living next to the beach I hope for a Gyrados. Maybe a Sharpedo. Something cool like that.
Will end up with a Luvdisc.
Magikarp and Luvdiscs forever.
After I install this, I’m never going in a cave with my phone. Fucking Zubats every 5 seconds.
There’s no cellphone reception in a cave. Said the person with no sense of humour at all.
Articuno would be on top of Mt Everest. Regice would be Antarctica 🙂
Australia would be full of snake, spider and shark pokemon!
I’m not really into mobile gaming but this might tide me over until the next main Pokemon game!
I just think back to when pokemon was the rage with red and blue, and wonder how many cases of broken phones will happen as school when someone loses to an over trained ratata with super fang. Lmao
If this was actually good it’d encourage me to go on holidays around Australia in the very least. But it’d have to be teamed with VR. Just seeing pokemon on my phone doesn’t sound all that great. I’d probably play it if that was the case but not bother going far afield to find more pokemon.
I’ve gone camping on islands overnight and on road trips for Ingress. It’s super fun and probably worth trying out to get a rough idea of how the location thing works if you’ve never tried it.
I’d never thought about people making their own gyms but I can totally see that happening. It’s amazing the coordination that’s happened with Ingress.
Huge operations set up over multiple countries with months of planning are pretty common in Ingress and great fun to be part of.
There are actual local Pokemon leagues for the handheld games. I’ve seen conventions advertise that the elite 4 for a particular league will be present and that you can challenge them. I would find it unusual if a league doesn’t form rather quickly from Pokemon Go. In fact, I bet that at any major convention the year this comes out you will find tons of people battling in Go, possibly even in impromptu tournaments. I’m really interested to see where this goes.
I think it is pretty darn cool, and can’t wait to see how it is implemented.
I can see this not being to everyone’s appeal, but it will be a good addition to more social driven games which if it gets people out and about interacting even just a little bit with other people then i am for it.
start buying battery packs now, if its anything like Ingress this will decimate your battery
Or get that moto x play from overseas (unless ur on vodaphone).
that battery size would be nice, Note 4 3000mah is not up to the task!
Maybe just carry around one of those charger packs.
The screen size, processor and resolution of course has a big effect on battery.
It’s weird no phone company has thought of making a phone with a big battery with a lower screen res etc.
then they wouldn’t sell as many new phones 😉
i already have a few battery packs but generally not needed if i charge to 100% before going out for an ingress walk/drive
But if i want to do some ingress after been at work all day its RIP battery 🙁
This is why I have a charger at my desk.
2: 2APFJH9
If this game actually takes off and has decent local multiplayer I can see this being a hit at conventions. This will be the new streetpass.
I will wear that thing.
You’re fugly.
Disappointed to learn that there will not be a Windows 10 Universal App for this one 🙁
Ugh, in app purchases.. FFS I’d rather pay for the app outright. Maybe buying the watch bypasses that bullshit?