Pokemon Go

Pokémon is a game/world created by a Japanese business. It deals with made up creatures that players, called trainers, catch, train and fight. It can be played in various mediums and even has a cartoon TV. show. Recently, the company created a new way of looking into the Pokémon realm that allows users to interact not only with the Pokémon world but also with our own. It created quite a stir and became viral. The game became so big, so fast because it effectively drew players in through identification and use of growing “world browsing” technology and accomplished its goal of getting kids to be more active.

The game uses a technology that has been slowly gaining popularity, that of a “world browser”.  A smart phone can use the camera to display on the screen and on top of that use location programing that can superimpose any text, info, or picture on the screen creating a feeling that the experience is somehow real, like looking through a magical glass to a new world that has always been there. To John Tinnell this technology allows “any place—not just government sanctioned ones—[to] become digitally saturated with media content to the extent that it may function as a proportionate replica, historical reenactment, or monument…” or in the case of Pokémon Go, a new world full of made up creatures. It permits people to interact with the environment and creates a unique mixture of the literal and virtual that makes it a novel game to play.

People use the app to find Pokémon creatures to train by walking around their neighborhoods. As players walk so do the avatars on the screen further allowing users to feel like they are a part of the game world. As a reverse affect, we bring those avatars characters into the real world. And this is in part of how the game becomes so big, so fast. As people progress further through the Pokémon realm, they took that identity as a Pokémon trainer and desired to share success with ‘real world’ friends, who caught on and began to play as well.

When starting, players create an avatar of themselves, being able to pick what their character looks like which allows players to identify with their avatar drawing players in. For example, though the purple hair is a different touch, when creating my avatar, I chose similar traits such as white, female, and blue eyes, just like me. The characters are comic like, relatively simple and can look like yourself, or a cooler version. As Scott McCloud explains in Understanding Comics the simplicity of characters in comics allows us to identify with the characters and thus draws one into the comic. Pokémon Go uses the simple features to draw players into the game; you literally become a Pokémon trainer.

New technology allows new possibilities to our world and Pokémon Go is an exceedingly fun game that will persuade any couch potato to go Catch ‘Em All.
To read more about augmented reality app/games check out my classmates' blogs Ammon Hooper and Amy Cox