A Layman’s Explanation of why Pokemon Go is blowing up

The reason why everyone is losing their shit over Pokemon Go is because it is the perfect storm:

• It’s a phone game. Everyone has a smartphone at this point, it works on iPhones and Android phones.
• It’s free to download. There is zero barrier to entry, anyone can download and try it.
• It’s a Pokemon game. Everyone at least KNOWS what Pokemon is, tons of people LOVE Pokemon.
• It’s very simple. It’s quite easy to explain to someone that you point your phone at the Pokemon and flick a little ball at them on the screen to capture them. It introduces its layers of complexity very gradually. It is NOT a traditional Pokemon game, it is an entirely different beast.
• It involves getting out of the house. I’ve talked to so many other lifelong dorks who are choosing to spend their evening walking for miles to play. My legs have been sore for days, but it’s great.
• It incentivizes you to explore areas you wouldn’t otherwise. The creators of this game previously made a game called Ingress, which worked on a similar concept of the actual world being the playing field. Those players have previously gone through and marked points of interest in the world as in-game locations — art murals, fountains, churches, historical landmarks, and so on. These locations have been replicated in their entirety within Pokemon Go. I’ve personally discovered interesting hiking trails and things I didn’t know existed in my own neighborhood.
• It involves being social in the real world. I’ve met tons of people playing this — cool people, weird people, interesting people — very, very, very few actual terrible people. Everyone is having fun, and even if you’re not actively talking to people, it’s awesome to see so many other people doing the same thing around you.
• It has game mechanics in it to incentivize social interactions. You will see points in the world you will want to walk to in order to collect items within the game. Players can drop these things called ‘lures’ on top of these points that make it so for the next 30 minutes, everyone in the area can hang out there, and the Pokemon will come to them. You can walk into any downtown area (the spot near my house is Old Town Pasadena) and just see lures everywhere — people are out there and having fun. You see clusters of friends and random people hanging out.
• It creates that same sort of team pride you get with sports teams. Upon hitting a certain rank in the game, it asks you to pick a team. There are three teams — Team Valor, Team Mystic and Team Instinct — Red, Blue and Yellow. When you join a team, you will notice that some of these locations in the world are ‘gyms’, which you can then use your Pokemon to fight and try to take over for your team. Being in posession of these gyms then translates into tangible rewards to upgrade your Pokemon. That is the current main point of the game — get Pokemon, gather items, attack gyms, repeat.
• It can sit alongside the things you do day-to-day anyways. Going to the store? Maybe there are some rare Pokemon there, or a pokestop. Have to be the passenger in a car for a long car ride? Maybe take some scenic routes if there are some interesting Pokemon locations on the way — those pokestops are usually beacons for points of interest. Want to go for a bike ride? Leave Pokemon Go running in your pocket — the distance you travel will help hatch eggs that can have rare Pokemon, but require you to travel a certain distance (while NOT in a car).
• It’s fun! The combination of all of the things above really makes it something interesting and special. I have never played a Pokemon game for more than 10 minutes prior to this game, and I’m totally enraptured by this one. I was at a park at 1am last Saturday night, and 30 people were there catching Pokemon. I was standing by a gym doing some stuff for my team (Team Valor), and some random guy driving asked me my team, and then when I answered he yelled “Go team red!” and drove off. I walked all around my neighborhood and discovered some amazing art murals that I had no idea even existed. I setup some lures on the patio at a bar and met dozens of interesting people all night long. It scratches that part of my brain that gets triggered when I play good video games, but it’s sitting alongside healthy behavior.