Pokemon Go

[scooter]

I'm utterly fascinated by this game. I think it's kinda fun, but it's the overnight phenomenon it's become that really blows me away. Several times now I've seen small huddles of people of all ages with their phones out catching stuff together. Not to mention the uptick in people walking on the sidewalk lately. As I type this I hear a neighbor kid freaking out over a nearby pokemon, and my social media feeds are riddled with people who don't normally play games posting screenshots of pokemon they've found.

Also, it's only a matter of time before someone dies playing this game while driving, right? Not to mention stuff like this which felt inevitable:

http://gizmodo.com/armed-robbers-used-po...1783416898

When's the last time a game has caused this much instant hysteria? Wii Sports? Pokemon Red/Blue?

[sunrise089]

Farmville

[picklepikkl]

Pokemon was always pretty addictive, but previously one needed a specialized game device to play it. Furthermore, it was a cultural phenomenon: even people who didn't play games knew about it, understood the premise, could name some characters, etc. So I think what we're seeing is a case of the barrier-to-entry coming tumbling down on a thing lots of people knew their friends were going to get into and turned out to be legitimately engaging.

[Dp101]

I think it is great how many more people are just out and talking about it. Total strangers are having conversations about shared interests, and this didn't happen often enough before.

[BRickAstley]

I downloaded it and was really engaged. But I'm not in an area where it's leading me to interact with people more. Plus I don't care about the gyms, just the collecting. I deleted the app after a few days, it's a neat concept but not worth the time put in to it for me now.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Downloaded it last night. Loving the freaky stories and AR screenshots. Surprised they took this long to find a way to monetise Pokemon through a freemium game tbh.

[Jkaen]

Doesn't seem to be released in the UK yet so cant try it out

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Doesn't seem to be released in the UK yet so cant try it out

Use the workarounds if you google it. I'm in the UK and it all works fine.

[NobleHelium]

I've played some of the Pokemon games, but they seemed to have taken most of the strategy out of it in favor of a simple button pressing game, so I don't see the appeal of this at all.

[T-hawk]

When's the last time a game has caused this much instant hysteria? Wii Sports? Pokemon Red/Blue?

The right answer is Portal.

Not Pokemon Red/Blue. That caught on with a slower burn over a period of a few months to a year. It was before the internet was universal enough for every meme to spread everywhere instantly.

A few others that come to mind: Grand Theft Auto 3 and 4, the first Halo, Half-Life 2, Bioshock. But Portal is the last one that hit such a big phenomenon so instantly, and did it just as the social media networks were coming together to spread it.