Pokémon Go: Here’s why I want to hate it, but can’t

A few weeks ago, I first heard of a new game titled Pokémon Go by Nintendo. Well, technically Niantic, but that’s another story. Given my evident lack of interest in gaming, I just scrolled past it. But in a couple of days it was the leading trend across the globe. I remember muttering to myself, what’s wrong with this world? Why is everyone around me obsessed with #allthingsdumb? How do you explain setting out on the road and chasing weird looking characters? Aren’t there better things to worry about? Aren’t there more important priorities in life? Like heading to work and spending a productive day. Or building the next big idea that could change humanity. Or build the next best thing after sliced bread. That’s plain boring and stressful you’d say. How about crashing cars, crossing a busy highway or freeway and risking many lives? Now that you’re pondering over it, I must add stepping out is a good thing. But then, we might as well use the time we spend outside to soak in pleasant memories. A colleague of mine got hit by an auto rickshaw during his pursuit of Pokémons. And here we have the latest sensation online – Pokémon Go – which is getting people to step out. Only, unlike humans, they’re out there like a band of crickets. That’s when I read about John Hanke. All of this mayhem could easily be attributed to one man named John Hanke. As soon as I identified the main culprit, I began reading up on him. He’s the guy who gave us Google Maps! If Pokémon Go as a game is dissected into the components it is based on, you’d realise that quite a bit of them were in the making years before the game. Hanke founded Keyhole which specialised in cartography, satellite imagery and maps before it was acquired by Google. Post acquisition, he spent a decade at the search giant. He also played a key role in bringing Google Maps to the first iPhone. He’s the guy who gave us Ingress Now as someone who doesn’t quite follow gaming, it’s apparent. I haven’t played Ingress. But when I look around, I find people who deeply admire and appreciate the game. [caption id=“attachment_227311” align=“aligncenter” width=“638”] Ingress is now on iOS[/caption] In an interview with Time magazine, Hankes shares how augmented reality just enhances the virtual reality experience. If you remember a Google April Fools Day prank In 2014, Google had a prophetic **April Fools Day prank** .Google had released a well-created YouTube video featuring some cool augmented reality software and launched a fake competition wherein players have to search Pokémons hidden in real-world locations. The game may have sounded too good to be true, and probably a great way to allure Pokémon fans.  But it was a prank nonetheless. Until Hankes took over the idea and built a game that has become among the fastest growing products in tech history.

It’s easy to ridicule the way humans are behaving. However, the product has a great deal of technology created through the efforts of a brilliant person. It’s had its fair share of controversies in its rise. But in it, there’s a lot to learn. May be the next big thing in world of technology would be the result of some discovery during the rise of Pokémon. The game is definitely filled with innovation all through. It has the best technologies working together to create brilliant user experience. How else would you explain users putting themselves in harm’s way? It’s all part of the game. Hanke and his team have done their job well, and millions of users have made it an instant hit. As the market says, what works, works. And if something is working well, it means people love it. It has a strong user base. A user base that is very loyal and sticky. That’s how you get 70 percent stickiness, where 7 users out of every 10 who installed the game return to play it the next day. And so, I’ve gone on to admire this phenomenon called Pokémon Go. It’s now every game developer’s envy to be at a position where Pokémon Go is.