How Pokémon Go Convinced Its Userbase to Onboard Each Other
Have you heard about how you can tap a missed pokéball to return it to your inventory? Or what about the one where your Eevee’s special move determine its evolution? Did you know you could find ghost pokémon in graveyards, water pokémon in rain, and fire pokémon at gas stations?
If you’ve been playing Pokémon Go, you’ve probably heard of a few of these. Sadly, none of these myths are true. These are just a few of the theories spreading about Pokémon Go, and despite the fact that they’re not true, this hasn’t stopped thousands of players from regurgitating the information. Why not? Pokémon Go didn’t explicitly say that you couldn’t find more water pokémon in the rain, which meant it was possible, right?
In fact, Pokémon Go didn’t explicitly explain much. Pokémon Go’s onboarding looks like this: You’re welcomed by a familiar scientist, you pick out your avatar, you catch your first pokémon, and then you’re on your own. Though you could argue that the tutorial of catching your first pokémon was onboarding enough, it still does little to explain the plethora of other in-game mechanics. The Pokémon Go community is teeming with theories and hoaxes about how certain mechanisms in the game works.
Some may argue that Pokémon Go didn’t do enough to teach its users how to play the game, but walk down a city street with a phone in hand and you’ll quickly meet a group of Pokémon Go players ready to chat and share with you their tips and tricks. They’ll excitedly explain that if you want a Jolteon, you should name your Eevee Sparky, after one of Gary’s brothers.
How did this happen though? How did Pokémon Go get the players to onboard one another? How did Pokémon Go convince players to share their small discoveries, such as curveballs or Excellent! throws tips to Twitter and Reddit?
Well, Pokémon Go understood the context. This is a game based on geo-location, which at its very core encourages cooperation. Likely you joined the same team as your coworkers, friends, or classmates so that it was easier to take down gyms with one another. You didn’t know why it would be easier at first, but it just made sense. And I suspect Pokémon Go took into account the gaming community’s enthusiasm for sharing information.
What’s more, by reducing the amount of effort put towards creating a tutorial, Pokémon Go had the ability to hide delightful tidbits within the game.
Simple is good. Short onboarding is best. Pokémon Go kept itself delightful by providing small, but clear tidbits of information to encourage users to investigate certain mechanism. Better-aimed throws will result in Nice!s Great!s or Excellent!s, while pokémon actively re-order themselves on the Nearby grid. Within just a few days, users created infographics about the best strategies to find pokémon, level up, and take down gyms. This wasn’t because users were frustrated with the UI, but rather because they were excited and invested. Pokémon Go’s UI is simple enough to send a clear message about functionality to users, while still requiring some logic.
By leveraging mechanics including teams to encourage teamwork, as well as lures, which attract multiple players to the same location, Pokémon Go knew that users would share information with one another. Pokémon Go knew its audience was large, passionate, and intelligent. For some apps and games, stripping back onboarding processes to Pokémon Go’s extent may not always be the right choice, but it just goes to show that in the right context, simple is best.
