Niantic planned to host a big Pokemon Go-themed bash for the game’s first birthday, but instead, the event flopped. Fans looked forward to playing the game among others who liked it. Upon attempting to participate in the festivities, fans soon found that they were unable to connect to the servers, for starters. Problems continued with frequent technical difficulties, server unresponsiveness, and shoddy excuses from Niantic themselves.
There are several things I dislike when it comes to mobile gaming. First of all, it’s all those clones of popular games floating around as bootlegs. Second of all, it’s those talking animals that spit back a phrase, but higher pitched and faster. Third of all, it’s mobile games that lock rooted Android users out of their apps. Buckle yourself in, because I have some things to say on the matter. This might be a long, wordy one.
On our very conveniently timed podcast this week, we at least mentioned the upcoming Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem games. Nintendo had teased them a while back, between the releases of Miitomo and Pokemon Go. Miitomo was fun for a while and Pokemon Go was something we discussed in-depth. I’d gone so far as to claim that AR is a more viable interest than VR. And now, I want to elaborate on that. At least, I want to elaborate on Animal Crossing Mobile.
AR, or augmented reality, is VR’s younger cousin. VR is targeted mostly towards developers at this point. AR doesn’t have many popular apps, and security is becoming a large issue now with Pokemon Go being able to read everyone’s GPS data and sell it to our reptilian overlords.
It’s just like in real life! (via The Verge)
Let me start out by outlining the difference between the two. VR (virtual reality) is essentially using a headset to project oneself into a made-up experience. AR uses images from the world you’re in and puts virtual elements over them, like an interactive skin. Got it? Good.
Plenty of AR applications have already been developed, most notably: Pokemon GO!. The technology and the idea has been around for a while, though. Hell, Ikea has one to help you pick out furniture for your home. There are a plethora of apps that work with Google Cardboard– remember that thing?– that use AR as their base, from horror games to Yelp and Google Translate. The possibilities are endless.
AR’s main selling point is that it’s a lot more accessible than VR. Aside from that free GearVR Samsung was giving away with the purchase of any Galaxy S7 for a while, it’s pretty expensive and hard to get into. Not everyone has $800 to drop on an HTC Vive, and not everyone has the funds to get the newest Galaxy either.
Unless you’ve got one of these that you can put your phone in. Then VR might be within your reach. (via Amazon)
As far as real-world applications go, Yelp and Google Translate have it pretty spot-on. They offer something expected. Useful, instant information about the surrounding world. Ikea’s onto something as well: better to see what your furniture would look like rather than buy it, bring it home, build it, and realize that it doesn’t go with your home decor. At least, that’s what I think.
On the gaming side, there are plenty of things that would benefit from an AR facelift. For instance, take Viridi: a free game on Steam about raising a small garden of succulent plants. There are expansions you can buy that allow you to have plants around an apartment, among other things. If you haven’t picked it up on Steam yet, it’s free (with micro transactions). It’s relaxing and each week there’s a random free plant available in the shop. I highly recommend it. Needless to say, it would be pretty sweet to have some low-maintenance electronic plants chilling in my house.
There are other situations I can speak to that would lend themselves to VR nicely, and for fear of being unable to develop them myself, I won’t disclose quite yet. (Sorry folks!)
The long and short of this is, while I think VR is going to be big and it’s going to be something pretty interesting to get into, I don’t think now is the time. It’s much like 4k video: it’s expensive (noticing a trend here?) and a bit unwieldy. No one’s going to wander around with a full headset on, but almost everyone has a smartphone.
Then again… nah. Still looks silly. (via Engadget)
Pokemon Go. I don’t need to tell you what it is, I don’t need to tell you how great it is, I don’t even need to tell why this game is revolutionary. TheJWittz uploaded a quick video about it yesterday, and he mentioned that one of the biggest flaws of Pokemon Go is that it’s significantly more difficult when you live in a rural area, and you know what? That couldn’t be more true. I’m writing this article to shed some light on one of the main issues of this game that I think gets incredibly overlooked because of the other issues that effect everyone regardless of where they’re playing–issues like staying on for more than 10 or 15 minutes at a time, the battery power it eats up, and so on. If you live in either a rural area or a state where it’s overwhelmingly hot during this time of the year–especially if you live somewhere that’s both at once, as I do–this game loses some of its charm because it’s just so much harder to play since you have to go really out of your way to play it.
I live in Northern Oklahoma City, and contrary to its name, there’s nothing “city” about Oklahoma City. Below is a picture of the area surrounding my house. As you can see, there’s one Pokestop, and it’s a pretty fair distance away. A fair distance I can’t make without a car because the only walkable area of Oklahoma city is Bricktown–which is a 30-40 minute drive away from me. It’s a good thing gas is pretty cheap over here, because you’ll have to drive a pretty fair distance to find a Pokestop or a gym. I don’t even know where the closest gym is to me because I just haven’t been able to find one within 20 minutes of my house.
Wow, look at all these Pokestops
But I know what you’re thinking: Going out and exploring is one of the best parts of Pokemon Go. I’m not denying that, but you know what’s not one of the best parts? Needing to go on a 30 or 40 minute road trip just to catch anything but Rattata and Weedle. Even if you are feeling gutsy enough to go walking around, Oklahoma is incredibly hot. And it’s even worse for me because being the pale ginger that I am, I have a long, illustrious history of sunburns, and even if I were to by some miracle apply enough sunscreen to prevent a sunburn, I live in a very green area full of snakes and bugs. If you don’t believe me, here’s a peek just past my backyard. Pretty, yes, but not very useful for Pokemon hunting.
Welcome to Oklahoma “City”
In summary, it’s really hard for me to really get into some of the best aspects of this game because I just don’t live in a big city. There are a few Pokestops within a reasonable distance of me, but they’re very few and far between, and I can’t even find a gym near me. In fact, despite everything I just said about Oklahoma City, it’s still the most populated area of Oklahoma, alongside Tulsa and Norman. But I know people who live in cities vastly less populated like Clinton and Henryetta who just couldn’t be having a worse time right now for the same reasons, but to a more extreme. I live in a rural state where it’s incredibly hot and sunny, and in a very green area that’s full of bugs and snakes–it’s very unwise to go outside for long over here, especially when you sunburn as easily as me. I hate that I have to go Downtown if I want anything other than Rattata or Weedle. And again, I know that going out and looking for hot spots is part of the fun of this game, but I can’t just make these long, 40 minute trips whenever I want to play Pokemon Go–I wish I could, but I just can’t. As inconvenient as all this sounds though, that doesn’t mean I don’t love this game.
Here’s a screenshot I took in Downtown Oklahoma City today–as you can see, there’s a few gyms and several Pokestops–because it’s walkable, I was also able to wander around and catch several different Pokemon–Pokemon I couldn’t dream of finding by my house, solely because I can walk and wander around here without worrying about getting bit by bugs, and it’s more shady. When visiting an area like this, I feel like I can finally enjoy the game to its fullest potential. This is without a doubt the best mobile game I’ve played–more than that, this game is downright revolutionary. Pokemon fans have been dreaming of a game like this for years–and the fact that a game like this now exists for free is mind blowing. We’re living in this insane cyberpunk future where local news stations make articles about the best Pokemon spots in your city and I’m absolutely blown away. It’s incredible to see so many people enjoy such a wonderful game so actively.
This game is incredible. It’s made me exercise more in the last week than I have in probably my whole life, it’s making all of my childhood dreams come true, and I absolutely love it. I just wish it were more fair for those of us not living in a big city–especially for those of us living in areas where, for whatever reason, going outside for long just isn’t a good idea. I really don’t like being on the road for 40 minutes if I just want to challenge a gym or go to more than one Pokestop. I know going out and exploring is part of the fun of this game, but you gotta’ realize that we don’t all live in walkable areas and gas costs money.