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Pokémon GO: The Data Behind America’s Latest Obsession

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Re: Pokémon GO: The Data Behind America’s Latest Obsession

#71

Post by sharkweek »

shostack wrote: post #67

The crazy thing for me is the sheer explosive growth this has seen. I was walking around downtown Redwood City last night near the theater. Easily 50% of the people on the sidewalk walking or standing around were playing as verified by glancing at their screens as I passed them. And these weren't just kids. Adults, men, women, all ethnicities, etc. were all playing. I've never seen anything like it. They've really st…

It honestly has reminded me of when Facebook launched at my college back in 05. I remember being in the library and had Facebook pulled up, another student who I didn't know walked by and was like "Facebook! Add me!"

Immediate flashbacks when last night I was walking to my car from the grocery store with Go up on my phone. Guy yells "Pokemon go, right?"

Re: Pokémon GO: The Data Behind America’s Latest Obsession

#72

Post by woah »

prawn wrote: post #68

Can someone explain how it works? I understand that it's AR- and location-based. How/where/why do you acquire the virtual creatures? Do you have to look for them aimlessly or are there clues?

Just played a little bit on someone else's account. You walk around looking at a map on your phone (very little detail on the map, it's just a 3d street map) and sometimes you see a pokemon running around on your block. You tap on the pokemon and a screen opens up where you have to throw a ball at it. When you hit it, you capture it. There are also these floating disks with images of local landmarks, and when you swipe on them, you get more balls or other prizes. That's about it.

Re: Pokémon GO: The Data Behind America’s Latest Obsession

#74

Post by shostack »

I'm just waited for the first theft tied to this. Shouldn't take a thief long to get the app and find a seedy area to drop a Lure in. Wait for unsuspecting hapless victim(s) to stand around staring at their phones oblivious to the world for an extended period of time and it would be like shooting fish in a barrel for a ride-by phone snatcher on a bike.

Re: Pokémon GO: The Data Behind America’s Latest Obsession

#75

Post by elif »

voltagex_ wrote: post #22
ro_sharp wrote: post #2

I'm in Australia, and I've never seen an irl viral phenomenon on the streets like this. In the inner city of Brisbane, every second person I see is staring at their phone, swiping up to catch Pokemon. Mobs of 100+ people chasing 'lures' are being moved on from parks in the middle of the night. And there was a pub crawl: https://www.facebook.com/events/267390546965461/

I think the real tell will be how many people are still playing in a month. The game can get very expensive, especially if you're in a rural area.

I was wondering about that. There is a 10 minute boosted board ride from home that nets me about 10 pokestops, but most of them seemed like things that wouldn't be anywhere but an urban core: public parks, government buildings, murals, etc. I would imagine even in the suburbs it is far less dense. Did they not adjust for this somehow? I still think it is a revolutionary success even if it goes tamagotchi real fast. I've met so many cool neighbors.

Re: Pokémon GO: The Data Behind America’s Latest Obsession

#76

Post by krapp »

MBCook wrote: post #52
ikeboy wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's bad because it can be. Mobile apps are easily updated, so they don't feel the need to do as much testing. There's no way an actual Pokemon release would be that buggy, because they couldn't fix bugs later.

I know that's an excuse that lots of developer seem to use these days. It's fucking bullshit. I'm so tired of people releasing utter crap and claiming it's OK to fix it later. You know what happens when you do that? You turn off a huge number of people and poison the brand. It's not like if they waited an extra months to actually fix the issues (which were apparently well known in Beta) the Pokémon brand would've bee…

>I'm so tired of people releasing utter crap and claiming it's OK to fix it later. You know what happens when you do that?

Apparently what happens is your app becomes one of the most downloaded in history.

The truth is, those "lazy developers" are right. They can release utter crap and fix it later. People will put up with it simply because of their emotional investment in the brand, and it will make money regardless of its issues.

Re: Pokémon GO: The Data Behind America’s Latest Obsession

#77

Post by legohead »

shostack wrote: post #74

I'm just waited for the first theft tied to this. Shouldn't take a thief long to get the app and find a seedy area to drop a Lure in. Wait for unsuspecting hapless victim(s) to stand around staring at their phones oblivious to the world for an extended period of time and it would be like shooting fish in a barrel for a ride-by phone snatcher on a bike.

Wait no longer: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/thieves-pokemon-find-p...

Re: Pokémon GO: The Data Behind America’s Latest Obsession

#78

Post by cloudjacker »

detaro wrote: post #5
niftich wrote: post #4

The previous iteration of this concept was Ingress, by the same developer. It's an active subculture, but not to the level of Pokemon GO. The marketing is ingenious. It manages to capitalize on the nostalgia of two generations that grew up playing Pokemon games, and the fact that the stated (virtual) premise of Pokemon was always to roam the world and catch these creatures. Regardless of the longevity of the game, th…

And clever reuse of user-collected data from Ingress, to find good public landmarks all over the world.

I had a hunch thats what was going on

Re: Pokémon GO: The Data Behind America’s Latest Obsession

#79

Post by neuronexmachina »

bpicolo wrote: post #31
MBCook wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel that if they don't get the server issues under control soon (I saw they delayed the European lunch) then it doesn't matter what WOULD have happened the game is going to lose players in the social/network effects won't be there.

I think more of an issue will be people hitting "completion" relatively soon. Certainly, the most interesting part right now is just catching new Pokemon, but there aren't so many that you can't burn through most of that enjoyment fairly quickly. The gym battles are terribly boring.

So far the game only includes the 151 original Pokémon, and I imagine it should be pretty straightforward to add in the later generations (700-something total). That's without adding things like shinies, gender, etc.

Re: Pokémon GO: The Data Behind America’s Latest Obsession

#80

Post by voltagex_ »

elif wrote: post #75
voltagex_ wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the real tell will be how many people are still playing in a month. The game can get very expensive, especially if you're in a rural area.

I was wondering about that. There is a 10 minute boosted board ride from home that nets me about 10 pokestops, but most of them seemed like things that wouldn't be anywhere but an urban core: public parks, government buildings, murals, etc. I would imagine even in the suburbs it is far less dense. Did they not adjust for this somehow? I still think it is a revolutionary success even if it goes tamagotchi real fast. I…

Nope, they haven't adjusted for it at all. I don't think they're using all the Ingress portals so the problem is quite bad in rural areas. Check /r/pokemongo for a few of the posts from users who can't really play because of their location.

I really think that this comes from Google-style thinking - there aren't any workplaces that'd have problems if we turned on cameras / sound automatically [1], there's no other timezones than California, everywhere is high density.

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10577601

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