Pokemon Go is the first true mobile game
that actually gets the platform
Ok, mainstream. It’s the first mainstream game that actually utilizes the platform. After years of Angry Birds and microtransaction ridden castle siege games we finally have a popular game that can only work on a mobile phone. As a traditional videogame it’s ok, but as a mobile experience it’s totally freakin’ awesome.
It’s all about GPS
and where you take it
In college I took a mobile app development course that taught me quite a bit. Our instructor was incredibly passionate about making cool shit and wanted to teach us a lot more than just how to build a working application on an iPhone or Android phone. One of the first things he explained to us was that the absolute coolest feature in a mobile phone is the GPS functionality. Given the crazy success of Pokemon Go I’m pretty inclined to agree.
GPS is at the core of what makes Pokemon Go interesting. It’s all about finding Pokemon in real world locations that you go by every day. GPS is what sets a mobile phone apart from any other kind of gaming platform and it’s what sets Pokemon Go apart from most other games on the platform. Angry Birds, Real Racing, Flappy Bird, Crossy Road and many more can all be played on any gaming platform with varying methods of input. Pokemon Go can only be played on a smartphone, that’s it. Games like Ingress have done similar things but PoGo is finally the first really popular smartphone game that truly utilizes the platform it was developed for. Why it took this long I do not know, but I love that it’s here.
It’s bringing people together
like this technology was always supposed to
People are getting outside and making friends because of this game. People are getting closer to the people they’ve always been around because of this game. People are even having a good time with law enforcement because of this game! How many times has Apple or Google pitched another product boasting how much closer it’s going to bring people together? It never really does though, I’ve never really heard anybody say how much closer they’ve gotten with their family or friends because a new iPhone came out. Now though, I’ve been seeing that kind of stuff everywhere! Even if you don’t stop and chat with other people out there playing the game you can’t help but feel something special. I was with a couple friends at a local park and we noticed a bunch of other people around clearly trying to catch Pokemon as well. We didn’t stop to say hi but there was something really cool about all being out together for something that we love.
Gaming is a universal language
and that’s what brings people together
Gaming!
This is why I love gaming. This is why I love Nintendo. I don’t know how they do it but they somehow always manage to surprise me with every major game they release. Even when the game itself isn’t all the great in its current form it still accomplishes things that no other game has. For me, PoGo proves that there is so much more to gaming than what is rendered on the screen.