Showing posts with label smart phone app. hype. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smart phone app. hype. Show all posts

Pokémon Go, hype of the summer 2016

Pikachu is one of the many Pokémon figures.
Pikachu
The Pokémon Go app is now a worldwide hype, after the game  has been launched in the US, Australian, Europe, Asia and the rest of the World..

Some Pokémon history
The Pokémon figures are more than 20 years old and were founded by Satoshi Tajiri in 1995. With Ash, Pikachu and 721 other Pokémon figures the first strips where released followed by the many episodes on television. But now there's a new hype called: Pokémon Go, an on line app for your smart phone. A new hype? Yes, everyone wants to play this game. It's already released in the US and soon Europe and the rest of the world will follow. Everyone will be hooked on Pokémon again.

Niantic build the Pokémon Go app for the Japanese gaming company Nintendo and was surprised by it's mega success. But before you can play the game you need to know some details of the game. And that's why you need to read this text. We will tell you how to play the game and what it's all about, to prepare you as good as possible to play the Pokémon Go game.

Augmented reality
The games make use of augmented reality with live images of the reality. The game uses the GPS coordinates to detect where you are and your camera to add the real world into the game. So the game uses the real world to play in. It's the first time that a game, that is based on augmented reality, has such a viral impact on the the gaming world. In fact for most people it will be their first acquaintance with augmented reality applied in a gaming app.

How the game works
The Pokémon Go game is mainly about the quest in company of friends. On the side of your smart phone you can see witch other Pokémons are in the neighborhood and if there is one that you don't have in your collection than it's your turn to catch the Pokémon by fighting for it.

Once you reached the 5th level you can choose your team. In a Pokémon Gym, where you can train your Pokémon, you can fight other teams and by wining you take over the Gym with your team. Teams are growing on Facebook so it can be handy to join such a group.

In places with water, like rivers, there can be found more water-Pokémons like Staryu, Horsea and Magikarp. In places with more green you can catch more grass and insect-Pokémons like Bulbasaur, Bellsprout, Caterpie and Weedle. The full Pokédex for now counts 151 Pokémon figures, the original figures from the first generation in 1998. The other figures will be added to the game in a later stage. Every Pokémon figure has his own characteristics and its the intention to collect all the figures of the whole Pokédex.

At famous locations you can find Pokéstops where you can collect items like eggs (that needs to be hatched by walking some miles), medicines and Pokéballs for free. You can also buy things at the Pokéstops like 'incense' that's a perfume that attracts Pokémon. Or you can do a 'Bag Upgrade' to hold more Pokéballs. In the Pokémon app you can buy things with Pokécoins, these Pokécoins can be payed with real money. A 100 Pokécoins cost 99 cent. With 100 Pokécoins you can buy 20 Pokéballs and for a Lure Module you need 100 Pokécoins.

After fighting each other, it could be that your Pokémon needs some medicine to regain strength. These medicine, called 'Potion' can be found at the Pokéstops. There is the normal Potion that gives you 20 points and there is Super and Hyper Potion that grows your strength with 50 or 200. By Max Potion your Pokémon can regain all it strength?

By playing you can meet some new people outside on the street and that's a new phenomenon in gaming land. The game has a social side. The first thing a player will asked to another in what team the other person plays.

If a Pokémon appears than you can take a picture just before you trow a Pokéball to its head. If you take the picture than the Pokémon stops for a minute with bouncing around. That way you can share your photo's with other Pokémon players.

Every player has an XP score, this stands for Experience and how good you are as a Pokémon player, you can raise your score with many things like hatching eggs.

Catching rare Pokémon earn you many respect in the Pokémon community but they are very hard to find.

Lure
Lure stand for laying a bait on a particular place so that Pokémons from nearby can be attract. To do this you need to purchase bait in the Pokémon app. Before you realize, you are gaming with 10 Pokémon gamers at one spot.

Incidents
The Pokémon Go hype knows already some remarkable incidents. A couple days after the game was launched a gamer found a dead body in a river in Wyoming while she was chasing a water-Pokémon. Some Dutch Pokémon-players where overtaken. An American holocaust museum asked to stop chasing Pokémons on the memorial and an Australian police office did a call to stop scoring Pokéballs in their office. Police warning players to be careful where and how they play the game. Don't play it while you are driving your car and beware of dark places because some players have already been ambushed.

Battery life
A small disadvantage is that the Pokémon App consumes much energy when you chasing Pokémon figures. This is due to the many functions that are needed by the app like your GPS and the mobile data that needs to be turned on. Also the camera is used by the app at all time. So it's a must to have a power-bank with you to provide your smart phone of some extra power.

Server issues
The servers has facing difficulties by running out and been unreachable. Australian users accusing European players by making false Australian accounts to play the game because the game hasn't been released yet in Europe. That's way the Australian server are overloaded.

Pronunciations
Ketchum, stands for 'Gotta cath'em all!'.
Valor, the red team.
Instinct, the yellow team.
Mystic, the blue team.
Pokédex, the whole index of all the Pokémon figures.
XP score, stands for Experience and how good you are as a Pokémon player.
Potion, medicine to regain strength
Copyright: byWM