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Pokemon Go: What Nintendo Needs To Learn From Ingress

Posted by timothy on from the abstract-lessons dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Pokemon Go marks Nintendo's biggest move into mobile yet: the augmented reality mobile game makes use of your location as well as your phone's camera to let you interact with pocket monsters in the real world. It's an audacious idea — with an accompanying trailer — but as one writer points out it will have to nail a lot of different systems to build up an active community in the same that developer Niantic has done for its previous game, Ingress. The author looks at Ingress to see where Nintendo and Niantic may draw inspiration, pointing out that the game's portal modding system could prove a great mechanism for allowing Pokemon evolutions. Expect plenty more Pokemon amiibo to interact with the upcoming wristband, too.

7 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. It's all fun and games... by Aelanna · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...until you realize that there are people who are unable to separate games from real life. What ruined Ingress for me was the continual harassment and bullying from people who forget that it's a game and that there's limits to what is acceptable behavior in a social setting. Shit-talking in a video game is one thing; you generally have a way to squelch unsavory people or otherwise ignore them, but you can't ignore the psychotic tryhards who threatens to shoot you in person if you take their couch portal and they're crazy enough that you're not sure whether they're joking.

    If Pokémon Go has PvP (which it seems to, from the trailer material), then I can't wait to see what happens when some neckbeard threatens a little kid over losing a fight or steals/breaks their phone.

    1. Re:It's all fun and games... by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Interesting

      One of the reasons I have no interest in on-line gaming, and never will.

      Interacting with the screeching masses in a video game seems like a pointless endeavor.

      No thanks, if I can't play my game in an off-line mode, I really am not interested in it ... which is why I have no interest at all in the latest generation of consoles. I want to play to relax and unwind, and I don't need the rest of the intertubes for that.

      All of those people whose fun comes in the form of being raging assholes in a video game? I want nothing to do with that.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:It's all fun and games... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The funny thing I've found with Ingress assholes, is that in many places they are 90+% confined to a single team. It varies from place to place which team it is, and I've known several who've done faction flips after moving (or getting high enough level to realize they are on them bad team in the area they started). But then it is a lot calmer. The one jerk in our area on the less jerky side just gets ignored, and can't do much. The non-jerky people on the other side end up coming to coffee or bars with the opposite faction instead of organizing events for their side, and it seems to work out well for them too. Like any other social setting, it comes down to making friends with the right people and ignoring others.

    3. Re:It's all fun and games... by Darth+Muffin · · Score: 2

      Yes, I'm worried about this too. I see the harassment, bullying and stalking within Ingress also. Even physical threats. This is not Call of Duty and the same taunting is not appropriate here. Your map is the real world and you'll meet real people in real life. Some people can't reconcile real harm part with the fact that they're competing over virtual objects.

      I am hoping that they learned a bit for Pokemon and it's not going to be a game about controlling turf or even teams, because that's just a recipe for disaster with kids.

      Niantic really really needs to up their customer support for this. Right now there is none. Complaints about cheating, harassment, bad portals, etc all go into a black hole right now.

      --
      Real programmers use "copy con program.exe"
    4. Re:It's all fun and games... by jiriw · · Score: 2

      Apparently we have a statistically incorrect over-abundance of mature players in the region I play then...
      Yes, I know what you mean with the unsavoury kind of 'players'. However, if said people pop up here and begin ruining the gaming experience for 'the ****** smurfs/frogs' because of "MUST DO WAR EXPLICITLY" it won't take long before they are shunned by both sides. May take a bit longer if said player was more of a regular. We had one on the opposite faction becoming quite dictatorial in handling the area he lived in, also to his fellow team-mates, making demands to do this or that. Let's say he now has to do all the legwork himself if he wants to have any chance of a lvl5+ portal near him.

      After some huffing and puffing, things cool down and we soon go back to our friendly games of capture, recapture, sneaky guardians, P8's, either naturally developing or by planned event (and associated game of interception) and a city/region enveloping field once every few months. When sides meet there is a nice talk 'about the weather', followed by some exchange of neutral in-game topics (game changes from the latest updates, that sort of stuff), some questions about unexpected activity of regular/long-time players everyone in the area know about but suddenly retired or re-entered the field, sometimes talk about immature players mentioned earlier... and then we go on our merry way.

    5. Re:It's all fun and games... by swillden · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Interacting with the screeching masses in a video game seems like a pointless endeavor.

      Actually, it's the social aspect of Ingress that has made it popular. I'd even say that socializing with like-minded geeky folks is what the game is all about. Without that the game is pretty pointless and boring, just grinding for levels and medals, with a fairly weak motivating story. The fun in the game is all about the people you meet and work with to accomplish goals. I've met a fair number of the players in my area and become friends with some. Still only "online" friends, in that I really only communicate with them electronically, but I could definitely see that changing because I've found several that share many non-game interests.

      The game is designed to more or less force socializing. For example, to max out a portal takes eight players. Now, they can come along at different times so they don't actually need to interact, but in most areas if they don't coordinate at least somewhat it won't happen before the portal gets smashed by the opposition. Throwing big fields basically requires extensive social networks and cooperation. Not only do you need to get portal keys transported long distances, but it's very hard to establish long links because of all the blocking fields and links in between. So you need to have people at the edges ready to throw the long links and people throughout the interior ready to go out and smash any blockers, and everyone needs to coordinate the timing of their efforts. The same applies to blocking the opposition's efforts.

      As a result, groups of players self-organize and communicate constantly, mostly via Google Hangouts. Because group Hangouts are persistent and because people need to monitor them to be ready to go do stuff when the time is right, the groups end up connected constantly, which leads to lots of random conversations, many of which have nothing to do with the game.

      As for jerks, from what I see they tend not to get invited into the groups, and to be pushed out pretty fast if they do get in. This means that for them the game is pretty pointless and boring. It's hard to accomplish much by yourself. I suppose it's possible that there are organized groups of bullies. I haven't encountered that. Also, though several posters have said that Niantic doesn't take action against cheaters and bullies, that's not my experience. Mine is that Niantic tends to be pretty aggressive about it.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  2. Make or break for AR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    This is AR's big moment, its foothold into the mainstream. I've got my fingers crossed that Nintendo can pull it off.