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I'm curious why so many of these issues seem to differ so greatly from any other reason people may be doing something in public. Does it really matter if they

I'm curious why so many of these issues seem to differ so greatly from any other reason people may be doing something in public. Does it really matter if they are using an app on their phone instead of reading Yelp or listening to a podcast while they crash into someone, act like an idiot, etc? If I put out a podcast that is meant to be listened to as a walking tour of somewhere do I have these same liability concerns since I'm suggesting locations to the user? How random would an app maker have to make their AR game to make it clear they just want to make a game that people can play by moving around, without being liable for everything stupid people do in public while they happen to be running the app?

jerf 10y ago
A sufficient difference in quantity becomes a difference in quality. Some of these concerns are merely amusing now, but could conceivably become real problems at scale. I'm hedging, because I think this is likely to be a fluke event and be a non-issue for a long time. Even if AR games become big, this is probably the first and last time we're all playing the exact same one. Plus over time this sort of thin connectivity to the real world may be seen as a fluke; AR may require much stronger computer vision and real-world understanding to take off in a non-fluke way. Pokemon Go reminds me a lot of the GPS unit my father had 20 years ago, where all it knew about was cities. I'm not even sure why he bought it, the most interesting thing you could do is zoom out in the Chicago area and roughly see Lake Michigan. Prior to GPS units being hooked up to road databases and able to give directions, they were not that useful. Similarly, for all the flash and pizzaz Pokemon Go may superficially seem to have, all it really has is your coordinates. This doesn't make it "bad" but it's not clear to me this is going to be a new genre. It may just be one cool fad game, with the "real" stuff still to come in what could even be another 10 years.
- maxerickson 10y ago
  I used a GPS that barely had a map. It was still useful. It was nice for day hiking in unfamiliar areas, just record a track and it's easy (within reason) to get back to where you started. I also used it as a "compass", where I set it to point at the destination and then chose a route that tended to head in that direction (say I didn't feel like driving on the busy freeway).

jerf 10y ago

A sufficient difference in quantity becomes a difference in quality. Some of these concerns are merely amusing now, but could conceivably become real problems at scale. I'm hedging, because I think this is likely to be a fluke event and be a non-issue for a long time. Even if AR games become big, this is probably the first and last time we're all playing the exact same one. Plus over time this sort of thin connectivity to the real world may be seen as a fluke; AR may require much stronger computer vision and real-world understanding to take off in a non-fluke way. Pokemon Go reminds me a lot of the GPS unit my father had 20 years ago, where all it knew about was cities. I'm not even sure why he bought it, the most interesting thing you could do is zoom out in the Chicago area and roughly see Lake Michigan. Prior to GPS units being hooked up to road databases and able to give directions, they were not that useful. Similarly, for all the flash and pizzaz Pokemon Go may superficially seem to have, all it really has is your coordinates. This doesn't make it "bad" but it's not clear to me this is going to be a new genre. It may just be one cool fad game, with the "real" stuff still to come in what could even be another 10 years.

maxerickson 10y ago
I used a GPS that barely had a map. It was still useful. It was nice for day hiking in unfamiliar areas, just record a track and it's easy (within reason) to get back to where you started. I also used it as a "compass", where I set it to point at the destination and then chose a route that tended to head in that direction (say I didn't feel like driving on the busy freeway).