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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

#181

Post by viraptor »

yoodenvranx wrote: post #150
viraptor wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This game is targeting young kids, so I'm not sure there will ever be any person-identifying interaction. A lot of online multiplayer games for kids don't have interactions beyond friending/favouriting someone. P-GO would be a prime candidate for 4chan type people and you can imagine how that would work together with location spoofing and global playground. I expect that Nintendo & Niantic know this (Ingress never so…

Yes, of course you are right about the safety of the kids. I just wish there was an opt-in system where you can choose to share your ingame actions. If you don't share it you are invisible and you can't see other players, but if you are into Ingress-like gameplay you can just enable it. About bots and cheating in Ingress: the biggest problem is that Niantic is a small company and they just don't have the manpower to…

I'm not sure I'm buying the small company angle. Sure, there are always going to be very creative people who work around complex rules, but that's not everyone. They could apply very basic checks and get rid of 99% of spam I've seen. Specifically, applying "you just moved more than 20km in one go and posted the same message including {bay/sell} => permaban".

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

#182

Post by mentalpiracy »

donkeyd wrote: post #155
merb wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I used to live by the same principles, viewing in-app-purchases as something that's always bad. I have now, though, decided that I will decide what value a game has to me and will probably spend that amount on in-app-purchases. If the game has purchases that I think are worth it though. In Pokemon Go i haven't found them worth it yet, but that may come later. Also, I think a game shouldn't impose too many boundaries…

I have come to see the same. I want to reward game creators for giving me enjoyable entertainment, and taking the risk by going free-to-play rather than forcing me into an up-front purchase.

I admit have become a bit jaded when it comes to gaming generally, but I still think it's worthwhile to speak with my wallet when I see someone doing something I think is good.

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

#183

Post by toxican »

Sephiroth87 wrote: post #143
jhanschoo wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm optimistic that the game will continue getting fleshed out; there's no way Niantic isn't going to capitalize on this.

I don't doubt it'll get better, but I also don't expect any major rewriting of the core loops / mechanics, which might invalidate user progress

The way I see it, they've got like two weeks tops to flesh it out more. Because after that, running around catching them and struggling against the weird gym system until you win is going to stop being enjoyable at all (and I do find it enjoyable for now!). Even just a bare bones friends system and a combat system that utilizes the 2 attack method gym battles have could go a long way to give the game a little more staying power.

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

#185

Post by madeofpalk »

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'.

Pokemon Go has a really interesting mechanic for this - one of the in app purchases you can buy is for a 'Lure' that you can place in your physical area (in game) that attracts Pokemon for all people in the area.

So not only are you helping yourself, you're helping others around you. In our office, we take turns on placing them to help everyone out.

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

#186

Post by was_boring »

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.

There's little reason why they are dependent on only in-app coins. They could easily sell "advertising" by placing regionally rare items in real business space.

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

#187

Post by patmurraydev »

Eun wrote: post #163

Just a side note I leave here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12069450

Not sure what you're polling, but it says it's not available in Australia despite Australia being the first release country. Might just want to check that out.

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

#188

Post by celticninja »

Eun wrote: post #177
celticninja wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should look at auto detecting the users location instead of a drop down menu.

Thanks for the suggestion. => Done :)

Could I be cheeky and ask to see the bit of code that achieves the affect?

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

#189

Post by rickyc091 »

wccrawford wrote: post #162
MBCook wrote: post #12

The amazing thing to me is that, at least on iOS, the game is pretty objectively bad. Of course that hasn't stopped me from sinking a lot of time into it this weekend. I've spent $10 on it, which is easily a record for free to play game for me. The server issues are one thing, but the game doesn't even get lots of basic things right. If the server goes away, or sometimes if I'm just out of the app too long, I have to…

If you eliminate all the server issues, the game isn't "objectively bad". In fact, I quite enjoy it. It's a little simple for the first few levels, but that's how Pokemon games have always been! Once you level up your character, you'll start getting harder Pokemon to catch and you can start trying to take and hold gyms. And you'll get enough candies to start upgrading and evolving your Pokemon as well. To put it plai…

Agreed, I like the simplicity of the game. I've tried ingress a few times and I didn't have patience going through the wall of text to understand the game. Pokemon has a lower barrier.

For those who don't want to invest too much time, they can occasionally boot up the app when they walk around and catch a few pokemon. Those who are more hardcore will probably stick around at gyms and battle away.

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

#190

Post by vidarh »

donkeyd wrote: post #155
merb wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I used to live by the same principles, viewing in-app-purchases as something that's always bad. I have now, though, decided that I will decide what value a game has to me and will probably spend that amount on in-app-purchases. If the game has purchases that I think are worth it though. In Pokemon Go i haven't found them worth it yet, but that may come later. Also, I think a game shouldn't impose too many boundaries…

> Also, I think a game shouldn't impose too many boundaries when not buying anything in-game

This is the big problem the way I see it. Done badly, in game purchases become cheats, and I don't want to spend money on cheats.

Not for any moral reasons, but because it's no fun.

In game purchases that don't serve as cheats is another matter. E.g. as you mention speeding up something where the only difference would be that you'd have to wait longer to achieve the same.

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