What is so special about Pokemon Go?

I'm pretty much sure that you’ve already heard about Pokemon GO, the hugely popular mobile game you just couldn’t avoid hearing about this week. 

This article isn’t going to be about a review of the game itself, but about the effects of it. I will try to look a little behind the curtain from a product & marketing perspective. So if you’re not into playing Pokemon, this article can still be value able to you.

Hi there, I cant think of anything to introduce myself but to start with the HOT TOPIC which we might already be aware of. I would do and INTRODUCTION ABOUT MYSELF, just that the POKE-HYPE is too strong, XD here goes...

POKEMON GO

In my case, Pokemon GO got me hooked immediately. There might be many reasons for it, but for me it was the feel of nostalgia. I loved playing Pokemon as a teenager for hours on my Gameboy Color. Remember those days where you will need a "Link Cabble" just to trade the Pokemon with your friends and evolve them?
HOW NOSTALGIC!!

Right now, Pokemon GO went on to turn into the ideal paid app within the iOS shop inside just a number of days. But besides people downloading it, they also spend tons of cash on it via in app purchases.According to Sensor Tower, Pokemon GO is presently producing more earnings than every other iPhone app within the U.s.. As of these days, Pokemon GO received round 10 million downloads inside it’s first week after launch.

According to Forbes, Pokemon GO is on it’s way to have more daily active users than the platform Twitter. Of course it’s early to look at these numbers, but we have to admit this is massive within just a few days and considering it hasn’t even launched outside the US officially.

     Now the question is, how did Pokemon GO became so popular?

Generally, there are many reasons and there is never a perfect recipe for it. But there are a couple things worth mentioning. 

1. The Background

The app developer Niantic launched a similar app called Ingress in 2012 on Android as well as iOS in 2014. You might have heard of it, but chances are you haven’t, even though roughly 12 million people ended up playing it. Ingress is another augmented reality game, just like PGO, but with a different storyline.PGO basically borrows the technical aspects of Ingress but replaces it with a widely known storyline & recognized brand called Pokemon.Which means, the game developer Niantic had plenty of experience before launching Pokemon GO making this hardly an overnight success.Besides that, Niantic seems to be a Google company, which might explain their expertise with geo location services.

2. Access

I think this is a big one. Pokemon GO launched on both, iOS and Android at the same time. I don’t remember the last time a game developer or other product company launched their app on both platforms at the same time.On top if it, there is no complicated sign up process. You log in with your Google account and you’re done. It could be even simpler with a Facebook login, but knowing Niantic is a (Ex) Google company, there might be reasons to that.

3. Gameplay

Pokemon GO checks pretty much every mark when it comes to the game play. It needs almost no explanation. It’s very easy to get started and earn your first rewards. There is little to no on-boarding because it’s simply not needed.We have everything that makes an RPG (Role Playing Game) successful. From leveling your personalized character, catching your first Pokemon to collecting items by walking around the streets. 

The feedback of everything in the game is instant. It’s like checking your Facebook or Instagram notifications. A new Pokemon could be right around the corner, and catching it is at least as satisfying as clicking on that little red notification bubble on Instagram or “pulling to refresh” which I’m pretty sure you do too many times a day.

It smoothly navigates you from one trigger to the next rewarding you along the way. From a product design perspective, it’s brilliant. Even though the game was buggy and crashed on me every other minute, I just kept rebooting it because I just wanted to play. I was hooked.

Besides that, Pokemon GO relied heavily on word of mouth marketing.

There is no friending or internal sharing system within the game, which forces you to take screen shots and share your progress with pretty much any other social network of your choice. 

Even if none of your friends play the game, you will find friends pretty quickly. And that’s the magic and backbone of why the fire of Pokemon GO is spreading so fast. A lot of other games or apps usually suffer from the chicken or egg problem. They might have great game play, but they force you to add friends first. And because you don’t have any yet, you end up not playing the game. It’s just too much of an investment to make just to see if the game is right for you. 

                                  What are the affects of Pokemon Go?

People going after a rare Pokemon at a park. Its crazy how many of them gathered in a park!!

 Pretty much on every corner I could see people playing the game. You just know when someone stands on a weird spot holding up their iPhone to a wall and you’re pretty sure they’re not taking a picture of it. 

Take a look at their faces. They are smiling :)

Knowing people have their busy schedule and commitments. But..

 Usually I would never talk to strangers who’re on their phone, even if I would find out they’re playing the same game as I do. But because Pokemon more or less exist in the real world, and I have to enable my camera to see them, the barrier of the digital world disappears.

In pretty much all cases when I spotted someone playing Pokemon GO on the weekend, or they saw me, we talked to each other and had a social interaction. 

To summarise things up..

It is evident that there have already been an issue of people hating this game and unappropriate user playing this game while crossing the roads. For those who just knew what a Pokemon is from "Pokemon Go". For those haters who hates pokemon because of the game...

Well, what your thought might not necessary be true by judging pokemon from the newly realeased game.

What I can say is that, it is not just about downloading the game where you get all fantasise about which never exist in real-world. What Pokemon has become is about a story that describe FRIENDSHIP from the anime itself.(My point of view)

It describes about things that matters. Friendship, love, teamwork and being available for someone when they are at their lowest end. To appreciate the little things that other had done for us.

Pokemon is something that is harmless, it is that of a certain user who don't have SELF-CONTROL playing the game cause this mis-interpretation about what Pokemon is all about.

When it comes to me, I will probably stop playing in a couple days, not because I don’t like the game, but because I’m just not a big mobile player anyway. But the lessons I learned from Pokemon GO are valuable to me as a product designer & maker. Even if you don’t like Pokemons or mobile gaming at all, we can watch and learn. What have been your experience with Pokemon GO? 

Share your experience with me:)

Have a Fantastic week:)
-zephys