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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

#101

Post by int_19h »

I'm surprised there's so little talk about privacy and nuisance implications of this.

We've had a large number of "suspicious behavior" reported in our neighborhood in the past week - and, honestly, it really is suspicious, as in people crawling through the bushes on private property at dusk snapping pictures with cellphones; you know, the kind of stuff that would normally make you go "hmm, I wonder if this house gets robbed soon", and give your local PD a quick call.

But I'm pretty sure it's mostly GO, just looking at how many are around. What's worse is that the game places some of those pokemons in private yards or even inside buildings, with no way to access them short of trespassing...

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

#102

Post by yoodenvranx »

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…

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 ingame player activity. At any given point I can open my scanner in Ingress and see exactly what's going on around me. I can see if there is a new player in town, I can see if my favorite enemy is active again, ... but in Pokemon Go I feel like I am blind.

I know that there are other Pokemon Go players out there in my town but I just can't see them or interact with them.

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

#103

Post by jpgvm »

Nullabillity wrote: post #98
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…

Google doesn't own Niantic anymore.

Google invested alongside Nintendo. It's highly likely they still own a significant portion of Niantic even if it's not an internal startup anymore.

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

#104

Post by syngrog66 »

2bitencryption wrote: post #95
syngrog66 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

your comment is gold to it I'd add that this is also the difference between the $20/hour programmer and the $200/hour programmer -- speaking in broad strokes, knowingly, and if you'll indulge me charitably. Because the difference between the commodity "let's ship something!" programmer/engineer and the one who truly knows his/her stuff, and who truly thinks about and knows about and cares about the edge cases, the bi…

> to it I'd add that this is also the difference between the $20/hour programmer and the $200/hour programmer You could have a hundred "$200/hour programmers" on the team for this app, but if management says they need to ship three weeks early to catch the buzz, or something like that, it doesn't matter. We can't say the developers were bad. I mean it's possible, given how poorly the game handles network disconnectio…

so many HN replies say 'you're wrong and you implied therefore should feel bad'. yet this did not. well said, agreed. you added signal.

in many situations, an owner/manager/lead is making decisions where, frankly, the company has no revenue so they know their ostensible default spending path is equivalent to a ticking time bomb.

or... they don't truly know whether or how well the engineer can deliver, yet they do know for sure definitively what their dollar spend will be. thus, the results we see.

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

#105

Post by MichaelGG »

kdamken wrote: post #6

I think people will look back on this game as important, as something special. I've been playing video games for over twenty years, and I can't remember the last time something felt quite as exciting as this. Each time I've gone out, I've seen other people walking around playing, and everyone gets the same goofy smile when you ask them if they're playing Pokemon too. It shows the potential for AR games, and I think i…

And all I could think was "just another way for companies to get real-time imagery of whatever they want, whenever they want it".

Is pervasive tracking just unnoticeable now?

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

#106

Post by buzzybee »

2bitencryption wrote: post #95
syngrog66 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

your comment is gold to it I'd add that this is also the difference between the $20/hour programmer and the $200/hour programmer -- speaking in broad strokes, knowingly, and if you'll indulge me charitably. Because the difference between the commodity "let's ship something!" programmer/engineer and the one who truly knows his/her stuff, and who truly thinks about and knows about and cares about the edge cases, the bi…

> to it I'd add that this is also the difference between the $20/hour programmer and the $200/hour programmer You could have a hundred "$200/hour programmers" on the team for this app, but if management says they need to ship three weeks early to catch the buzz, or something like that, it doesn't matter. We can't say the developers were bad. I mean it's possible, given how poorly the game handles network disconnectio…

We totally do get to say that in this case. This game inherits issues that have been present in Ingress for years. Years! Ingress gets away with it most of the time because it's not operating in a worst-case scenario where the backend has to suddenly scale from limited beta to millions of active users, so fewer of these bugs present. The actual architecture work underneath is poor; client code should not crash, softlock, or lose frames because of a temporary connectivity issue.

But TBH, that is probably not about how much the engineering team is paid, it's about what culture they have. Nintendo's console development teams would never ship something with this many catastophic bugs. Niantic has probably decided that the way they're doing things is "industry standard" (within the context of mobile and their particular silo) and does not need substantial improvement.

Edit: How poor is this code, you ask? It does not let me rename my Pokemon. A race condition occurs where it tries to pop up the Android keyboard and close it at the same time.

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

#107

Post by jmadsen »

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)

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

#109

Post by chris_wot »

yoodenvranx wrote: post #102
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…

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…

I watched five of my colleagues walk to Town Hall in Sydney's CBD and play the game the whole way... Remarkable!
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