Pokémon GOes Crazy

By this point I guess it's safe to assume pretty much everyone is familiar with Pokémon GO. Niantic's location-based augmented reality game was The Craze of this year with more downloads in the first week after its 6th of August release than any other game so far, with an added bonus of (my estimation) thousands of people using APK download links (leaked download files) to get the game in regions it was not available yet, like Finland. Mind you, Finland only got it 10 days after the official release in America, New Zealand and Australia, so some people were desperate to not wait that small eternity. And no, I certainly wasn't one of those impatient people thank you very much (I might have been but shush)

If, however, there still is someone who doesn't know what this whole Pokémon GO business is all about I applaud you - congratulations, you've managed to miss a world wide mass hysteria over a game. The basic idea is to go out (optional if you live in a well located fairly big house with good GPS signal, just saying), dig out your cellphone, open the app and start catching Pokémon in your own neighbourhood! And if you find that only tracking and catching the Pokémon is not enough, you can also snap pictures of the pocket monsters in real life, whoaaah!

Back when the game was just a rumor, people were crazy about the idea. Augmented reality Pokémon hunting! Pikachus and Bulbasaurs in your own garden!! And when the game finally became reality people were even MORE crazy. And I'm not blaming anyone since I myself was digging through the wonders of internet to find a reliable APK file the moment Pokémon GO hit the US markets (shushhhh). And the moment I got my hands on the game I was - of course - screenshotting every Pokémon that appeared conveniently on my cat because that was The Best Fun, I tell you.

Poor cat has to endure a lot.

What Niantic might not have anticipated was the enormous popularity of the game. I mean, it's Pokémon so one would assume it might be popular... But since Niantic's previous title Ingress (2013) was never as popular with a mere couple of thousand downloads a day I guess they thought Pokémon GO would not exceed that by much and thus built the servers according to that. Well, needless to say PoGO came and swept those numbers by a mile and left the company struggling with servers that were swarming with people trying to catch the hype. During the first couple of weeks the servers were constantly down due to way, way too many users and what was the most interesting was the reaction of players. Niantic made sure to keep the users updated on the situation and kindly asked for patience. Users responded with rage. Furious messages flooded Twitter, claiming that having the servers down all the time was "unacceptable" and that they wouldn't come back to the game if that was to continue. Not many realized to stop and consider that after all, those behind the game were just people, and more importantly people willing to work around the clock to get servers back up as soon as possible.

What is interesting now, a couple of months after the initial release, is the change on how people feel about PoGO. What I'm going to ponder here has no sole scientific truth behind it but merely what I personally have observed so this might not be the case everywhere! The initial craze has toned down and actually taken a u-turn in many cases as people tried to level up as fast as possible to be the very best like no one ever was - and when they reached the point where leveling up takes a very, very long time they finally found themselves bored. I mean, the game physics are simple and they gameplay doesn't really require all that much, so if you're looking for super complicated plot and deep characters - sorry hun, not for you. New updates with more activities and possibilities are demanded daily (I notice this mostly in Twitter) but once again, Niantic is a relatively small group of people so they work on it with time. In the lack of immediate additions people deem the game as boring and bad.

For me, this progress has been weird to witness. I always felt somewhat alone as a player who started much earlier than many others in Finland (sorry guys) but who didn't even reach level 20 until very recently. At times I even got reactions like I was a...bad player? Just because I didn't advance as fast as many others? I think here lies the reason why I still find the game very enjoyable: I don't overindulge. Back when I started I was just as crazy over it, but due to real-life reasons holding me back for majority of days (read: all-day summer job for six days a week) I quickly toned it down to playing a couple of hours a day max, often skipping days in between. And so it continued. Still now, I enjoy pulling my phone out every now and then to see what's the situation, to conquer a couple of gyms if possible and then continue my normal chores. But even when I do that there have been people sneering at me like "Oh, you still play that game?". Yeah, I do. So what? I enjoy it and I think that is the main point of the whole game.

This whole rollercoaster ride that Pokémon GO has caused is one of the reasons why biiiig mainstream media fanbases are sometimes very, very tiring to be part of. Not because of the hype to be honest, but because of the fallout of the hype. Suddenly being part of the fandom makes you lame and embarrassing. Well thank you very much but I think mocking other people for what they like is way more embarrassing than liking something, so doing that is completely unnecessary and also very childish. And yes this is turning into a rant whoops sorry about that. Take a cute snake as an apology.

Totally not Ekans. Belongs to xxMeleexx on deviantART.

To bring this mess to a conclusion, Pokémon GO came, saw, and turned the whole world upside down for a moment to a point where people found bodies and were robbed while they were playing. Not many games can claim those achievements I'd say. But besides the morbid outcomes people have also gone out a lot, found a way to ease up their anxieties and met with new people to hunt for rare Pokémon together. So I'm personally very excited for the updates in the near or far future and hoping with my fingers crossed that there won't be people to ruin the fun for those who enjoy the game.

#pokemongo #niantic #videogames #mediadiary #rant