Why Pokemon Go Represents the Future of Gaming
You wake up late on a Sunday morning, and groggily look at your phone. No new text messages. No missed calls. No new emails. But you do have an alert from your newest application...and there’s a Weedle nearby! You frantically tap into Pokemon GO and begin searching for your latest find. Seconds later you spot the horned worm resting on top of your dirty pile of clothes. Ripe with Pokemon-infused energy, you chuck Pokeball after Pokeball at your new Bug-type friend until he is bludgeoned into resting peacefully on your iPhone.
Like it or not, my fellow Steemers, Pokemon Go isn’t just a craze…it represents the future of video games.
1. Augmented Reality > Virtual Reality
Augmented Reality offers a profound level of interactivity never before experienced in video games. While most of the gaming and tech world has been focused on the excitement surrounding virtual reality systems, Pokemon Go has illustrated just how exciting Augmented Reality can be.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of Pokemon Go is how seamlessly it integrates into the real world. What was once a messy room is now a Poke-breeding ground. What was previously your quiet suburban neighborhood is now an expansive habitat full of creatures ready to be collected. What was before a city full of strangers is now a community of fellow Pokemon trainers eager to join the fray.
While Virtual Reality is inherently isolating and anti-social, enclosing you in a bulky headset and disconnecting you from the real world, in contrast, Augmented Reality presents a new opportunity to reengage with your world and reconnect with the people and places that surround you. Occulus, Samsung, Microsoft, and others have already established a strong foothold into the world of VR hardware and development, but the future of Augment Reality platforms remains unwritten. Exciting startups like Magic Leap have shown promise with flashy demonstrations, but until Pokemon GO few have been able to demonstrate that the technology is ready to go mainstream.
While Virtual Reality offers an enticing experience for single player gaming, Augment Reality has the potential to take single and multiplayer gaming to a new social and experiential level.
2. Mobile and Free
Try to remember the last time you left your house without your phone. Now tell me the last time you took your Xbox One to work with you. Exactly. With smartphone technology ubiquitous and now in the hands of every Poke-loving man, woman, and child, there can no longer be a doubt that mobile gaming is the driving force in the industry. A not-so-long-time-ago in a galaxy oh-so-familiar, a mass adopted Pokemon game would have been distributed on a proprietary game system ($250-$300) and have to purchased for $30 a pop. Instead, Pokemon GO is available nearly-universally across major phone platforms and can be downloaded by people of all ages at no cost.
Just as Steemit leverages networking effects to rapidly scale the user base and encourage engagement, the free-to-play, power-ups-for-pay model has supplanted the dedicated system-software paradigm and become the driving force in the gaming marketplace. Apps like Candy Crush and Clash of Clans have collected millions in daily revenue by amassing an enormous user base with “free” play while enticing users to spend pennies and dollars on in-app purchases. The mobile free-to-play model is not new but now has been taken to even greater heights by the tremendous success of Pokemon GO. Combing the ease of access with the simplicity of play is an easy home run for game developers desperate to create the next viral gaming phenomenon. The formula is clearer than ever: save time by developing a simple game, and make money by expanding your user base exponentially.
3. Simple and Social
You just finished a hundred hour work week and lay down on the couch. You can’t muster the strength to make yourself a sandwich, much less turn on your Xbox. Instead, you whip out your phone and with just a few easy strokes return to your Pokemon friends. The crisp game mechanics focused around simple flick-and-tap gestures make it easy to play absent-mindedly, perfect for killing time or chatting with fellow Pokemon trainers a new way to meet and engage with new people.
How many other games have inspired young and old users alike to stalk the streets at 3AM (and encounter the police!), meet up for Pub Crawls, and even
unearth the occasional corpse?. In a society where most people are overworked and underpaid, everyone is constantly looking for an escape from their everyday life. The days of complex gameplay, and hard-thought strategies in popular gaming are long-since over -- the era of mindless gaming therapy are just beginning.