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I disagree. The most critical part is #3. Were this not Pokemon hardly anyone would care. Don't know much about Ingress but didn't it have #1 and #2 already..?

by bllguo 10y ago

BryantD 10y ago
Yes, it did. The classic problem for geographically-based mobile games is critical mass. Ingress barely reaches the necessary threshold. Pokemon IP was critical here.
- TrevorJ 10y ago
  I don't know, ingress seems to be pretty active at least where I live.
  - killerdhmo 10y ago
    is it "most downloaded app in the first week" active? Definitely 3 IMHO
  - BryantD 10y ago
    It's active enough, but if you watch trends even one or two additional players in a big city is enough to make a significant difference in the overall team battles. Similarly, I used to live in San Francisco and my team recently hit 54 winning septicycles in a row -- that's over a year of weekly victories. While we're good players, we're not that good. It's problematic if one team can establish that degree of dominance in one of the most tech-oriented cities in the world. (Brooklyn had a similar streak the other way.) And since Ingress never monetized in the top couple of hundred apps, there's no way it is/was profitable.
    - zentiggr 10y ago
      Been playing for about a year and a half... It seems to me that team balance has always been affected in multiple almost independent ways. Obviously if a new player knows a current player, that will bias their team selection significantly. The part that concerns me is the completely new player, who just found out about the game and decided to give it a try, is asked to choose sides permanently with no indications which side might be better or worse in any way. My choice of Resistance was mostly because I like blue better... glad I chose how I did but I had no idea when I started.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  Indeed. I loved Ingress, and I felt more comfortable with that world. But it was nerdy by design. Pokémon, on the other hand, is something everyone has at least heard about - and it doesn't give off that "nerd" vibe. Hence immediate mainstream adoption.
stcredzero 10y ago
I disagree. The most critical part is #3. Were this not Pokemon hardly anyone would care. However if it were absent all AR/VR immersion aspects, it wouldn't be nearly as big either, just another Pokemon game. Maybe the critical part is the combination of #1 and #3?
- bllguo 10y ago
  Yeah, I was thinking about that. The thing about Pokemon and Nintendo is that demand for a good mobile game was always there. I do think that we will be seeing a lot more AR in the future as a result of this.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  AR is almost non-existant in this game. It's a semantic abuse to call overlaying an animated Pokémon on top of your camera stream "AR". It's also something you quickly learn to turn off, as it makes catching Pokémon much more difficult. For some weird reason though, mainstream media has sticked to hyping up the "AR revolution" in games.
  - stcredzero 10y ago
    AR is almost non-existant in this game. It's a semantic abuse to call overlaying an animated Pokémon on top of your camera stream "AR" It's enough. There's just enough AR to facilitate the game of "let's pretend." You could've also have said that there's barely any 3D in Eve Online fleet combat. Advanced players would zoom out all the way, set graphics to minimum, and play entirely with the "Overview" table. (Hence Excel Spreadsheet In Spaaaace!) Yet no one would say that Eve Online isn't a 3D video game world. It's enough to have something that frames the real world as a fantasy world come to life, and let you walk around in it. That's the key: The effect on the user. Not how primitive or slick the technology is. Heck, you know what the Asteroids screen looks like. That was enough to give people the feeling of piloting a combat spaceship. Yet it's really nothing like actual outer space at all. Granted this stuff will get better, but it's good to note how the most primitive mechanics make people feel. Then take that knowledge of the essence of the experience into the future with slicker AR graphics.

I disagree. The most critical part is #3. Were this not Pokemon hardly anyone would care. Don't know much about Ingress but didn't it have #1 and #2 already..?

by bllguo 10y ago

I disagree. The most critical part is #3. Were this not Pokemon hardly anyone would care. Don't know much about Ingress but didn't it have #1 and #2 already..?

BryantD 10y ago

Yes, it did. The classic problem for geographically-based mobile games is critical mass. Ingress barely reaches the necessary threshold. Pokemon IP was critical here.

TrevorJ 10y ago
I don't know, ingress seems to be pretty active at least where I live.
- killerdhmo 10y ago
  is it "most downloaded app in the first week" active? Definitely 3 IMHO
- BryantD 10y ago
  It's active enough, but if you watch trends even one or two additional players in a big city is enough to make a significant difference in the overall team battles. Similarly, I used to live in San Francisco and my team recently hit 54 winning septicycles in a row -- that's over a year of weekly victories. While we're good players, we're not that good. It's problematic if one team can establish that degree of dominance in one of the most tech-oriented cities in the world. (Brooklyn had a similar streak the other way.) And since Ingress never monetized in the top couple of hundred apps, there's no way it is/was profitable.
  - zentiggr 10y ago
    Been playing for about a year and a half... It seems to me that team balance has always been affected in multiple almost independent ways. Obviously if a new player knows a current player, that will bias their team selection significantly. The part that concerns me is the completely new player, who just found out about the game and decided to give it a try, is asked to choose sides permanently with no indications which side might be better or worse in any way. My choice of Resistance was mostly because I like blue better... glad I chose how I did but I had no idea when I started.
TeMPOraL 10y ago
Indeed. I loved Ingress, and I felt more comfortable with that world. But it was nerdy by design. Pokémon, on the other hand, is something everyone has at least heard about - and it doesn't give off that "nerd" vibe. Hence immediate mainstream adoption.

stcredzero 10y ago

I disagree. The most critical part is #3. Were this not Pokemon hardly anyone would care. However if it were absent all AR/VR immersion aspects, it wouldn't be nearly as big either, just another Pokemon game. Maybe the critical part is the combination of #1 and #3?

bllguo 10y ago
Yeah, I was thinking about that. The thing about Pokemon and Nintendo is that demand for a good mobile game was always there. I do think that we will be seeing a lot more AR in the future as a result of this.
TeMPOraL 10y ago
AR is almost non-existant in this game. It's a semantic abuse to call overlaying an animated Pokémon on top of your camera stream "AR". It's also something you quickly learn to turn off, as it makes catching Pokémon much more difficult. For some weird reason though, mainstream media has sticked to hyping up the "AR revolution" in games.
- stcredzero 10y ago
  AR is almost non-existant in this game. It's a semantic abuse to call overlaying an animated Pokémon on top of your camera stream "AR" It's enough. There's just enough AR to facilitate the game of "let's pretend." You could've also have said that there's barely any 3D in Eve Online fleet combat. Advanced players would zoom out all the way, set graphics to minimum, and play entirely with the "Overview" table. (Hence Excel Spreadsheet In Spaaaace!) Yet no one would say that Eve Online isn't a 3D video game world. It's enough to have something that frames the real world as a fantasy world come to life, and let you walk around in it. That's the key: The effect on the user. Not how primitive or slick the technology is. Heck, you know what the Asteroids screen looks like. That was enough to give people the feeling of piloting a combat spaceship. Yet it's really nothing like actual outer space at all. Granted this stuff will get better, but it's good to note how the most primitive mechanics make people feel. Then take that knowledge of the essence of the experience into the future with slicker AR graphics.