Pokémon GO: The Data Behind America’s Latest Obsession • Hacker News Board

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

#321

Post by serge2k » Mon, Jul 11, 2016, 9:55 PM UTC

padobson wrote: post #250

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 co…

Except now it's not available on iOS.

oh and playing Zelda, Mario, hell even a real pokemon game, on a touchscreen sounds awful.

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

#322

Post by serge2k » Mon, Jul 11, 2016, 9:58 PM UTC

FungalRaincloud wrote: post #216

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…

If the game is targeting young kids, it's missing out on its primary audience. For one thing, young kids often do not have cellphones of their own. But for another, I was recently at a mall in a fairly major city, and I did not see one person under 18 playing, but near every Pokestop, and every lower spawn rate Pokemon, I found dozens of people. Pokemon games have had somewhat adult humor and themes for years, though…

It's what Nintendo does. They very much view their products as kids toys.

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

#323

Post by dr_zoidberg » Mon, Jul 11, 2016, 10:44 PM UTC

danthejam wrote: post #311

bitwize wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of that is because mobile gaming largely sucks, and Nintendo doesn't want to be associated with something that sucks. So their entry into mobile is much more cautious and calculated, intended to present the kind of experience Nintendo is known for rather than the usual sort of IAP money farm that is commonplace in mobile gaming. The approach of Sega, Capcom, and Konami was to pivot from traditional games into mo…

Nintendo could sell a $60 mobile game, no IAP. Problem solved.

The main problem with IAPs is when it becomes pay-to-win, whereas a free game with aesthetic IAPs is better appreciated. For example, DotA2 has worked for Valve (though it has an extremely toxic community and way too many scammers, but that seems easier to manage on mobile).

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

#324

Post by bitwize » Mon, Jul 11, 2016, 10:59 PM UTC

danthejam wrote: post #311

bitwize wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of that is because mobile gaming largely sucks, and Nintendo doesn't want to be associated with something that sucks. So their entry into mobile is much more cautious and calculated, intended to present the kind of experience Nintendo is known for rather than the usual sort of IAP money farm that is commonplace in mobile gaming. The approach of Sega, Capcom, and Konami was to pivot from traditional games into mo…

Nintendo could sell a $60 mobile game, no IAP. Problem solved.

Unless it comes with a Bluetooth controller and somehow works without appreciable input lag, no sale. A touchscreen alone is just not an adequate gaming input device for any but very simple games. That's why Nintendo still makes consoles.

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

#325

Post by distantsounds » Mon, Jul 11, 2016, 11:15 PM UTC

jolux wrote: post #315

distantsounds wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to see where you get your numbers from considering Niantic doesn't publish active player stats for Ingress.

if Ingress were anywhere near as popular their servers would have been down constantly and we would have heard about it being so popular...

I take it you've never played Ingress before? Because they've had outages before, particularly during some of the larger events.

Just because something doesn't get widespread news doesn't mean it's unpopular. Sure, Go is massively popular in its own right and to scale beats out Ingress but it's not like Ingress was some 2-bit game that nobody played. Half the mechanics of Go came from there, if Ingress sucked and was a failure they a) wouldn't have put the same features in Go, and b) probably wouldn't have even made Go.

tl;dr Please stop shitting on something you have zero experience with.

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

#326

Post by snuxoll » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 3:08 AM UTC

TheBeardKing wrote: post #313

snuxoll wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bah, you know what, you're right. Still, 100 coins a day from defending 10 gyms (not hard to do if you are in an urban area) is enough to pick up any item in the store (minus the storage upgrades), at least. Lures are really nice considering they benefit everyone in the area, so if you are nearby a group of players lure trading can be a pretty good deal.

Urban gyms are easier to defend? It seems to me the more people in an area the harder a gym is to defend, especially if you're early in your 21-hour cycle. I was in the last 20 minutes of my cycle today, and the gym at my suburban post office got taken from me about 5 times. The frustrating part is beating the gym and not getting one of mine in to defend it before someone else does.

Didn't mean they were easier to defend, but they are more prevalent. I live in the suburbs and there's only one gym within walking distance, so I'm limited in gyms I can even defend without traveling into the city center.

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

#327

Post by tammer » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 3:23 AM UTC

viraptor wrote: post #146

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…

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…

AR done right inherently involves person-identifying interactions. All week almost everyone I know has made brand new real life friends while on their poké-travels. That's the draw here.

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

#328

Post by sangnoir » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 9:22 AM UTC

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…

> The problem as I saw it was that the game (as of a few years ago) rewarded taking territory, but not keeping it

I suspect that was intentional design. Niantic was born out of the Google Maps division, and IIRC, the whole point of Ingress (at least initially) was to crowd-source generation and verification of geo data for GMaps. You could think of it as Waze for pedestrians/bikes. So gameplay that encourages constant conflict == constant data stream.

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

#329

Post by sangnoir » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 9:29 AM UTC

darklajid wrote: post #274

sangnoir wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that alone lets Pokémon Go have much more of a feeling of personal progress. In addition to the levelling-up aspect (L1-L16) Ingress has about a dozen "Medals", each with 5-tiers. IMO, they go along way in terms of giving a feeling of personal progress. > In Ingress, everything is about taking over portals for your team. There are also infrequent Niantic-organized global 'Anomaly' events, which require a surprising…

Aren't the medals the same thing in Pokemon Go (i.e. no differentiation between them)? So, the game claims that I walked a bit more than 40km so far and I'm going for the next (100km..) level of that medal. As soon as I reach 200 caught normal type Pokemon (at ~150 now?) I get the next 'Schoolkid' level. Was/is Ingress different? As I stated elsewhere, for me it's Ingress vs. Pokemon Go is currently Multiplayer vs. S…

> So, the game claims that I walked a bit more than 40km so far and I'm going for the next (100km..) level of that medal. As soon as I reach 200 caught normal type Pokemon (at ~150 now?) I get the next 'Schoolkid' level. Was/is Ingress different?

Ingress is similar - those are the tiers I was referring to. The only difference is Ingress medals are purely decorative: they don't affect gameplay. I haven't played Pokemon, but it sounds like a refinement of ideas present in Ingress.

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

#330

Post by kalleboo » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 10:39 AM UTC

funkaster wrote: post #234

EtienneK wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strange, 'cause most of the tips online say to turn off the AR stuff since it makes it more difficult to catch Pokemon. I don't use it at all anymore.

AR != Just the camera. It's the geolocation of stuff. The camera part is just a gimmick and pretty annoying.

The camera part may seem gimmicky and getting in the way of gameplay, but you can't deny it's a large part of the virality of the game - people posting photos of Pokemon sitting on toilets, park rangers posing with Pokemon with a joke about wildlife - it's marketing genius.