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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

#241

Post by masklinn »

david-given wrote: post #207
yoodenvranx wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one thing which is missing (and which made Ingress the amazing game it is) is ingame notification and ingame player activity. Based on the gym activity there are at least 15-20 players in my town but there is just no way of contacting them. If I am lucky I can manage to meet one by random chance but currently Pokemon Go is a rather single player game. The other thing which is missing is a system which shows ingam…

Um. I played Ingress up to level 7, at which point I gave up. The geolocation features were excellent and I enjoyed exploring my city and finding interesting landmarks that I hadn't seen before --- but I found the actual game was extremely lackluster. The problem as I saw it was that the game (as of a few years ago) rewarded taking territory, but not keeping it. So capturing a portal scores you points. But once you'v…

> I don't know what the gameplay's like for Go; hopefully they didn't make the same mistake this time.

The "capture" gameplay is only in gyms, every day you can collect a bonus/rent of 10 coins and 500 dust for each gym where you have a pokemon. Increasing the level of a gym increases its defensive power (so less chance for an other team to capture it) and the number of pokemon which can be stored in it (spreading the wealth amongst the team)

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

#242

Post by dilap »

merb wrote: post #139
kalleboo wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't that depend on if they can make money on this model? This is a 126-year-old business, not a startup that's starving for "eyeballs" to increase their VC valuation. Selling hardware and $60 games could be a better (and more long-term) business than selling in-app "coins". (Or not!) I guess we'll see now.

I will never buy any in App Coin, but I have a lot of consoles + games from nintendo. Even the 'New 3DS'.

why? do you also refuse to put quarters in arcade machines?

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

#243

Post by spaceisballer »

Sephiroth87 wrote: post #134

Just image if the game was actually good... It's kind of a shame :(

Kind of cool idea but I feel like they didn't do enough with it. Really it's walk around and collect Pokemon. But what kills me is to do anything in the game you have to go places. Which means if you live in an unpopulated area (or area where nobody played Ingress) there are no Gyms or other points of interest. So you literally can do nothing except have the game up and hope Pokemon pop up. You have to physically be near a Gym to battle Pokemon. What the hell do you do when you are not near places and want to play? Nothing. It's basically a walking app with a Pokemon overlay.

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

#244

Post by wepple »

bognition wrote: post #219
Dylan16807 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It verifies certs, it just doesn't pin them. So if you can hack your phone, you can hack it, shocker. Not a security flaw.

Curious why you don't think this is a security flaw. Surely a browser failing to pin certificates would be a bad thing, no?

browsers generally don't pin certs. there are methods to do it but everyone is scared to do it as it's a pretty quick way to DoS your entire user-base if you get it wrong.

The intended design of PKI suggests that pinning should not be a thing. unfortunately PKI is broken and pinning is a 'patch' because it's too each to obtain a cert for a property you don't own (hi bluecoat)

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

#245

Post by jonknee »

kalleboo wrote: post #128
onion2k wrote: post #121

Ignoring the comparison with Twitter for a moment, this shows that Nintendo's mobile strategy has been woefully slow. They've been ignoring a huge market segment to try to shift hardware instead, and this toe in the water shows that a lot of people are interested in playing their games but not necessarily buying their consoles. I'd argue this means their business needs to change dramatically - away from their own har…

Doesn't that depend on if they can make money on this model? This is a 126-year-old business, not a startup that's starving for "eyeballs" to increase their VC valuation. Selling hardware and $60 games could be a better (and more long-term) business than selling in-app "coins". (Or not!) I guess we'll see now.

Pokemon Go is currently the top grossing app on the App Store. More than all the hugely advertised games like Clash of Clans and Mobile Strike.

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

#246

Post by iwontreddit »

AndrewOMartin wrote: post #239
panglott wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pokemon Go reminds me of nothing so much as the Macarena in 1995. It's a fad that will run its course. But a game getting that level of cultural penetration will be a real watershed.

I speculate that Tetris (possibly even just the 1989 GameBoy version) was bigger than the Macarena.

Tetris wasn't that big before the Gameboy version. It was "big" in the tiny new computer/tech world, but it was gameboy which brought it into the mainstream.

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

#247

Post by ChristianBundy »

masklinn wrote: post #236
Niksko wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It just feels like such an enormous misstep to me, I can't even fathom it. Why not wait until the game was much more polished and had many more traditional Pokemon features before release? Nobody will be playing this in a month unless Niantic are really really fast with the content updates. Like, one per week fast, until it's much more deep than it currently is.

> Why not wait until the game was much more polished and had many more traditional Pokemon features before release? The game has all the G1 pokemon. I've had friends ask if it had "that modern garbage" before considering installing it, so having just G1 sounds like an excellent pick, it doesn't hinder younger people and recaptures the RGBY generation which didn't keep up with the series. There's plenty of things to a…

The problem isn't a lack of Pokemon, it's a severe lack of polish. For example:

- Obviously the servers are slow, but the app freezes and crashes all the time too.

- The help text is unhelpful and leaves the user with a ton of questions as to what the buttons actually do.

- Little to no support for people in rural areas, as the Pokemon follow the XM patterns from Ingress.

- Buggy Pokemon catching (e.g. you have to throw super far to catch Zubat)

- No way to add friends, and very little community interaction (with the exception of gyms and lure modules).

- Can't rename character, change clothing, etc.

- The map on the Pokemon screen loads slower than everything else, so when you go to tap "Transfer" and the map loads it changes the layout and makes you click the app.

It feels more like a buggy beta of Farmville with geocaching than it does a Pokemon game. Pokemon Go is to the classic Pokemon games as Elder Scrolls Online is to the classic Elder Scrolls games -- tons of potential, but severely lacking in execution.

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

#248

Post by eisrep »

Niksko wrote: post #230
NamTaf wrote: post #88

If Google had any sense, they would be throwing a tonne more at this. It may be Ingress with less features and a Pokemon skin but that latter part is exactly the mainstream appeal they need to make AR big. This is their big chance to create a new market. If they sort out the bugginess and roll out decent features in the next couple of months to keep retention, they're onto something big. At near-on midnight on Saturd…

It just feels like such an enormous misstep to me, I can't even fathom it. Why not wait until the game was much more polished and had many more traditional Pokemon features before release? Nobody will be playing this in a month unless Niantic are really really fast with the content updates. Like, one per week fast, until it's much more deep than it currently is.

Right. I feel like the game would have been so much better if it released with trainer battles (without a gym) and trading.

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

#249

Post by Erwin »

jmadsen wrote: post #107

Currently discussing with friends best way to crack it and make it seem like there's a rare pokemon just up ahead - for all those people who slowly clog up the sidewalks and stations staring at their phones. Ideas welcome! (For the official record, since you have to say this these days - I'm only joking)

The first pokecrime has already been committed -- criminals placed a "lure" in the middle of a night in a secluded space, and robbed teens that showed up there at 2am:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2016/07/10/four-suspects-...

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

#250

Post by padobson »

onion2k wrote: post #121

Ignoring the comparison with Twitter for a moment, this shows that Nintendo's mobile strategy has been woefully slow. They've been ignoring a huge market segment to try to shift hardware instead, and this toe in the water shows that a lot of people are interested in playing their games but not necessarily buying their consoles. I'd argue this means their business needs to change dramatically - away from their own har…

I don't think it's their hardware, but their platform that they've been clinging to. Owning the platform gives gives them a lot of control over the gameplay experience.

I don't think they need to give up their platform-owner (or first party in game industry parlance) status in order to take advantage of the mobile space. Just an adjustment in strategy.

Nintendo has always relied on ancillary hardware to make their console platform work - TVs. If you think of Apple and Samsung as the screen makers the same way that Zenith and RCA were the screen makers when the NES launched, then you can see that what Nintendo really needs to do is launch their own platform app.

How much would a gamer pay for the Nintendo NX app? $50? $100? All of the games could come via in-app purchases and loaded or streamed from the cloud at the user's convenience. Meanwhile, Nintendo still gets their platform, but this time as a virtual console instead of a hardware one.

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