FIRST IMPRESSIONS -- Pokemon Go (Mobile) - Week One Launch

Pokémon Go (stylized as Pokémon GO) is a free-to-play, GPS based augmented reality mobile game developed by Niantic for iOS and Android devices. It was initially released in July 2016. The game allows players to capture, battle, and train virtual Pokémon who appear throughout the real world. Although the game is free-to-play, it supports in-app purchases.

Gameplay:

After logging into the app for the first time, the player creates their avatar. The player can choose the avatar's style, hair, skin, and eye color, and can choose from a limited number of outfits. After creating their avatar, it will be displayed at the player's current location along with a map of the player's immediate surroundings. Features on the map may include a number of PokéStops and Pokémon gyms. These are typically located at popular meeting places, such as memorials, places of worship, parks, and tourist attractions.

Players have to walk around in the real world to move their avatar in the game. Different Pokémon live in different areas of the world; for example, water-type Pokémon are found near water. When a player encounters a Pokémon, they may view it in either augmented reality mode or with a pre-rendered background. AR mode uses the camera and gyroscope on the player's mobile device to display an image of a Pokémon as though it were in the real world. Players can also take pictures, using an in-game camera, of the Pokémon that they encounter both with and without the AR mode activated.

Unlike other installments in the Pokémon series, players in Pokémon Go do not battle wild Pokémon to capture them. Rather, the game relies on a unique capture system where the player must throw a Poké Ball with the right force and at the right time to make a successful catch. After capturing a wild Pokémon, the player is awarded two types of in-game currencies: candies and stardust. The candies awarded by a successful catch depends on what evolutionary chain a Pokémon belongs to. A player can use stardust and candies to raise a Pokémon's "combat power" (CP). However, only candies are needed to evolve a Pokémon. Each Pokémon evolution tree has its own type of candy which can only be used to evolve or level up. The player can also transfer the Pokémon back to the Pokémon professor to earn one more candy and create room for more Pokémon.

Players earn experience points for a number of in-game actions. As the player earns experience points, they will rise in level. At level five, the player is able to battle at a Pokémon gym and join one of three teams (red, blue or yellow) which act as larger factions within the Pokémon Go world. If a player enters a Pokémon gym that is controlled by a player that is not part of their team, they can challenge the leader to lower the gym's "prestige". Once the prestige of a gym is lowered to zero then the player will take control of the gym and is able to deposit one Pokémon to defend it. Similarly, a team can upgrade the prestige of a gym under their control by battling the gym leader.

Safety concerns and controversy

Pokémon Go generated safety concerns mostly due to distraction during play and the ability for individuals to be lured to a certain real-life area by in-game rewards. On launch day, the Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services reminded players to "look up, away from your phone and both ways before crossing the street". The same day, while using the game, a player from the American state of Wyoming stumbled across a dead body that was floating in a river. Furthermore, the app has led players to congregate near strangers' homes, as in the case when a Pokémon Gym was placed near a church converted to a house. Other incidents include minor fall injuries and armed robberies. Players outside of populated, urban areas criticized the lack of PokéStops and gyms in their local area.

Data security

Some iOS installs of Pokémon Go require users to provide the app with full access to their Google accounts, thereby allowing the app to "access players' Gmail-based email, Google Drive based files, photos and videos stored in Google Photos, and any other content within their Google accounts." The Pokémon Company and Niantic responded to the concerns, saying the iOS app "...erroneously requests full access permission for the user's Google account..." and stated "Google will soon reduce Pokémon Go's permission to only the basic profile data that Pokémon Go needs, and users do not need to take any actions themselves."

The Verdict:

This is the game that’s flooding everyone’s timelines on Facebook and Twitter for the past week, so I decided to comment on something Pokemon-related for the first time (I believe) in this blog’s history. To be honest, I wanted to cover the launch of Pokken Tournament but I don’t own a Wii U nor have enough friends invested nor interested in that game to give it the time of day (laughs)…

Pokemon Go is the first mobile game that I’m covering for this blog, as well as the first free-to-play game to boot so this is going to be a bit tricky to review properly. I’m going to cite my personal experiences on the game for the duration of this initial launch week, but if the game updates or changes with future updates then this review will be irrelevant for the most part as my issues will possibly be fixed shortly or the game my change completely down the road (I’m looking right at you Spider-Man Unlimited).

Right off the bat, you load up the game onto your iPhone or Android device and you’re immediately greeted by the professor who introduces you to the world of Pokemon. For older fans like myself who were there for the Pokemon craze when it originally started back in the late 90s to early 2000s, this is a trip of nostalgia as you’re asked to pick from three starter Pokemon from the original generation of Pokemon – Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur. Players online have found a way to even start with Pikachu, so to be quite honest, your starting Pokemon doesn’t matter nor does it have significance on your gameplay going forward. I was able to capture all three starter Pokemon in the wild shortly after this so your choice doesn’t really mean much here. Pick your favorite and go nuts.

Pokemon Go is an augmented reality game that uses your phone’s built-in camera and GPS to track your location as you travel in real-time. Yes, you have to get out of the house (especially in this summer time heat) and move around to catch Pokemon. The game tracks your positioning and randomly generates Pokemon as you wonder from place to place.

The bulk of the game’s core gameplay is merely you wondering around in the real world environment, waiting for Pokemon to appear (cued by your device vibrating in response) and capturing them. You throw Pokeballs by flicking the icon on the screen and net bonus experience for captures with precision timing and for registering new Pokemon to your Pokedex. You can level up your captured Pokemon with “candy” that is acquired every time that you capture that type of Pokemon. Different Pokemon have different “CP” levels so it benefits from checking out every Pokemon you encounter as it may be more powerful than the one you already have of the same type. The game has a built-in level cap on how strong you can make your Pokemon dependent on your Trainer level, so I guess that’s the equivalent of having all of the gym leader badges to control high level Pokemon in the games.  

Niantic and Nintendo REALLY need to do something about the obscure locales for gyms
and Pokestops...

When players hit Trainer level 5, you are asked to join a team affiliation (another throwback to the original Pokemon generation) – Valor, Instinct, or Mystic which are represented by the three legendary birds: Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno respectively. From here, players can join a gym to their corresponding team affiliation as a gym leader with their strongest Pokemon or battle other nearby gyms to gain supremacy for their team’s gained territory.  Gym Battles entail of merely mashing on your touch screen for your Pokemon to perform attacks or dodge incoming attacks while building up meter for special attacks. I’m telling you guys that here as the game does a very poor job of telling you what to do in those battles. I had no idea I was supposed to hit anything until all of my Pokemon died “fainted” in a gym battle.

For me, just about every gym nearby was Valor so that was a no-brainer to join since it’s recommended that you join the team that’s closest to your home for you can check in and train your Pokemon regularly to level them up. I think I lasted being a gym leader of an empty gym for less than 2 hours before some kid with some over-leveled, fully evolved Pokemon beat the fuck out of my poor 287 CP Tauros. I found another few gyms to win earlier this week but by the time I got home from work, my poor weak Pokemon had no chance maintaining a spot opposed to over-leveled trainers and their Pokemon. 

There is a blessing and curse with this game as the open world environment/real world interactivity is simultaneously where the most fun of this game is to be had as well as where most of the problems plaguing this game begin to pop up.

Pokemon Go hasn’t been released worldwide (yet) but that hasn’t stopped players from around the world to use exploits to hack their phones to change their locations to allow them to download the game no matter where they are in the world. As a result, this massive influx of players have been crashing the servers on multiple occasions. It’s become a joke among players as you encounter the dreaded “Blue Screen of Death” (see to the left) when you’re unable to connect to the game’s servers.

Walking (or driving) around is the only method of navigating your trainer throughout this world of Pokemon. With your device’s GPS it tags real-life locations as landmarks and points of interest. Pokestops are necessary to replenish your items (pokeballs, healing items, and even eggs to hatch) and gyms can only be found by getting close enough to these locations to interact with them in-game. Niantic may want to fix this in a future update, but some of these locales include but not limited to graveyards, hospitals, schools, churches, even local businesses. I don’t know about anyone else but my nerdom has limits and I’m not going to kick the door down to every place I go just to wonder around in my quest for Pokemon.

Even when you are connected to the servers, you’re not safe from random disconnects and freezes due to random glitches of this game’s hardware. If that’s not bad enough, Pokemon Go manages to overheat your device and can easily drain your entire battery within minutes from use. There’s a battery efficient option but that’s not enough for most devices. I kept the game running on my Android phone for roughly 3-4 hours until it was almost completely depleted. On another occasion, my Android powered off just from how hot Pokemon Go was making my device from simply running.

Just when you think that’s bad enough, word got out Monday (July 11, 2016) that the game is has FULL access to your Google User Account if you’re using that to sign up to the game. As of this writing, I’m very tempted to delete the game from my phone after this review goes up from this fact alone. I use my Google User Account for a LOT of stuff (this blog for one...) and I’m not leaving myself exposed to being hacked – which would be a field day for hackers given the popularity of this game and with so many children playing it who wouldn’t know better. I don’t care if they ‘change’ this in a future update because that risk shouldn’t been in the equation in the first place. Nintendo knows how crazy the kids go over Pokemon so I can’t forgive them for an oversight like that.  

Niantic released an update on the situation, so I guess there’s hope for those who choose to stick with the game. I was off from work last week so I had more free time to goof around with a game like this but now that life is back into the grind, I seriously doubt I’ll be returning back to this game once I delete it from my phone.

Update: Niantic has released a statement claiming the permissions request was in error. Here’s what they stated over at Kotaku:

We recently discovered that the Pokémon GO account creation process on iOS erroneously requests full access permission for the user’s Google account. However, Pokémon GO only accesses basic Google profile information (specifically, your User ID and email address) and no other Google account information is or has been accessed or collected. Once we became aware of this error, we began working on a client-side fix to request permission for only basic Google profile information, in line with the data that we actually access. Google has verified that no other information has been received or accessed by Pokémon GO or Niantic. Google will soon reduce Pokémon GO’s permission to only the basic profile data that Pokémon GO needs, and users do not need to take any actions themselves.

Update #2: As of Tuesday (July 12, 2016), Niantic has revoked all access to its permissions towards players' Google accounts.

When I was describing and discussing the game with my best friend over the weekend, he brought up an excellent question that I didn’t think of. I wonder how Niantic are going to handle rare Pokemon and the legendaries? No matter where I went, I saw roughly the same Pokemon – Pidgey, Rattata, Sparrow, Oddish, Paras, Venonat, Bellsprout, and occasional G1 starters, but occasionally in highly populated areas (cities and colleges, for sure…) I saw a lot of high level Pokemon or stuff I didn’t see at home while sitting around my own neighborhood. That being said, you could sit on your couch and use the Incense item to bring the Pokemon to you at your own leisure. I found just as many Pokemon sitting on my couch that I did walking around so that tells you right there how iffy this game’s mechanics are. 

Buy into the Hype or Don't Bother?

Most people already have given this game a shot and have contributed to making this the biggest mobile game of all-time in less than a week, but for the skeptics and those leery to give this a shot, I highly suggest waiting as hard as that may be. Right now there's a ton of issues that Niantic need to address that would optimize the gameplay experience and fix what the game currently does wrong. There's multiple crashes and freezes that will annoy you to no end, such as the game freezing when you capture a Pokemon within a Pokeball, the game's servers crashing when trying to monitor your GPS location, or simply crashing while navigating the in-game menus. Seriously, Niantic, fix your shitty servers.

Outside of Gym Battles there's no other competitive nor multiplayer aspect to the game, but Nintendo has promised to add trading and player versus player options later down the road. Right now, the game is limited to only 250 Pokemon that can be found and captured but it's not like most players are going to rake in that many Pokemon in the game within the first few weeks of the game no matter how far they walk around their own neighborhood(s) as I'm sure that Niantic and Nintendo has limits and level cap(s) in store for that players don't find all of those elusive Pokemon right off the bat in these opening weeks, or even months, of the game being out. Most people aren't aware that there's a Bluetooth headset peripheral that can be purchased to work with the game that retails for roughly around $39.99 so don't think that Nintendo are doing this free-to-play format out of the kindness of their hearts.

If I'm perfectly honest, I hate the game solely for the addictive mindset that it's encouraging and promoting people to go out and roam around the world in places and settings that they may or may have traversed before. Adults know better in terms of safety but teenagers and children aren't going to know any better in terms just mindlessly roaming around trying to catch 'em all. I hope that I'm wrong but I fear that this game is going to lead to some rather unfortunate events due to players not being aware of their surroundings or going to extreme lengths to acquire Pokemon.

I do applaud the game for being able to bring people who struggle with social anxieties (like myself) to interact with strangers and encourage them to be more comfortable in social settings and bringing people together in this very scary time in modern American history, showing that there isn't all hate between people and we can come together in our common love for the world of Pokemon.

I know that there's TONS of closet Pokemon fans with even my co-workers (who are a lot older than me...) were asking me about the game since their children (and more likely them too since they were FAR too knowledgeable about said game when they're usually asking me stuff about games their children are playing) are obsessed about said game. If it takes a video game for you to get up and be active then that's a personal problem. There's no applauding a video game for that. You don't see people praising Dance Dance Revolution for people playing that for exercise in the early 2000s. If you're a lazy slob and some random video game gets you off of your fat ass, then bravo for you on a personal level. The video game in question doesn't deserve the props for your change of heart.

I found myself doing stuff that I wouldn't do normally in my grind to try to level up in this game. For example, the local Gamestop in my town is a registered Pokestop for items. After I came out of seeing Ghostbusters (review pending), I swung by since I saw that someone had a Lure Module active to attract Pokemon to that area. I found TONS of players in that area hanging around in the parking lot playing the game - from all ages, young and old. I made some friends after using my own module after the current one wore off and became the praise of all of the players nearby. I only caught a measly Parasect for my troubles, which oddly I heard the players nearby said they saw as well. It made me wonder if a LOT of players are nearby playing the game, do they encounter the same Pokemon? It was at this point where got to my breaking point on this game. It happens in all of these free-to-play games. It's the same reason I stopped playing Spider-Man Unlimited, WWE Immortals, and even Avengers Alliance on Facebook. In all of these free-to-play games, you eventually hit a plateau where no matter what you do with your resources in the free aspect of the game, if you want to truly compete with your peers, you are going to HAVE to invest in spending on items and tools to help you level up by spending some real life cash. That's where I have to cross the line with these free-to-play games. I'm done.

For a lot of gamers, Pokemon is more than a game - it's a way of life. Pokemon hasn't been a quintessential part of my life not since I was in middle school and throughout high school back when this craze began. At the end of the day, Pokemon Go is just like everything else in the franchise. Either you buy into the hype like everyone else, or you just allow it pass you by because it's not going anywhere. For what it's worth, there's nothing wrong with giving this game a chance to see what's the hype all about. It's bringing people together in a positive way that no game in history has been able to do on a social aspect. In these truly trying times today with all of the mindless killing and slaughter going around, it's great to see something positive that brings people together instead of drive them apart because of hate. I could make fun of people being "too old" for Pokemon or what not, but I'm the same guy who fought for acceptance in my own nerdy exploits growing up and continue to do so in my adolescent life, so who am I to judge my fellow gamers and nerds?

Simply put, you could take part in the madness (no pun intended) or not, it's your choice. Whether you like Pokemon Go or not, there's going to be plenty of people trying to catch 'em all.