{"id":3981,"date":"2016-09-28T18:06:37","date_gmt":"2016-09-29T02:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=3981"},"modified":"2016-09-28T18:06:37","modified_gmt":"2016-09-29T02:06:37","slug":"pokemon-go-takes-mobile-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/pokemon-go-takes-mobile-gaming\/","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon GO Takes Over Mobile Gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Ashton Newton\r\nEntertainment Editor<\/pre>\n
\"screen-shot-2016-09-28-at-7-05-00-pm\"
\nSummer 2016 can easily be described in two words: Pok\u00e9mon GO. The augmented-reality Pok\u00e9mon hunting game from Niantic was released in early June and quickly took over the world. It became nearly impossible during its peak to go out in public without seeing people playing. Pok\u00e9mon GO hit 45 million players during its peak in July.<\/span><\/p>\n
The game uses GPS to place players in an augmented reality where Pok\u00e9mon spawn and players must walk from point to point to catch them. Players can stop at landmarks, which are denoted as either Pok\u00e9stops or Gyms, to get supplies and battle other players. Western has an abundance of these around; walking from one building to another could easily put a player within range of at least one new Pok\u00e9stop.<\/span><\/p>\n
Niantic even made a deal with McDonald\u2019s in Japan for a non-obtrusive corporate sponsorship by making Japanese McDonalds\u2019 Pok\u00e9stops. This brought in more business for McDonald\u2019s and more sponsorship revenue for Niantic.<\/span><\/p>\n
After its release, Pok\u00e9mon GO quickly shot up both the most downloaded and the top grossing section of the App Store. Even now, Pok\u00e9mon GO is the third grossing app. The financial success for both Niantic and Nintendo gave them the funding for the anticipated \u201cDetective Pikachu\u201d film that is now in the works at Legendary Pictures.<\/span><\/p>\n
Pok\u00e9mon GO is both a social and active game. It forces players to go out and search for Pok\u00e9mon around cities and parks meeting other Pok\u00e9mon trainers as they go. The game features three different teams that players can join: Team Mystic, Team Valor, and Team Instinct. The team feature gives users either an instant connection or instant rivalry with other players they meet. As for the active side of the game, Pok\u00e9mon GO features Pok\u00e9mon eggs that players can hatch by walking two km, \u00a0five km or 10 km. The incentive behind putting in the miles is the chance to hatch a rare Pok\u00e9mon that may not be found in your region. <\/span><\/p>\n
The app has players going where they wouldn\u2019t normally go to catch rare Pok\u00e9mon. A Wyoming teenager climbed down to a river for a better chance of catching a water type Pok\u00e9mon when she stumbled across a dead body. Luckily now the game has a periodical message telling players not to enter dangerous areas or trespass while playing, as well as messages telling players not to play while driving if their speed is over 20 mph. <\/span><\/p>\n
In addition to the popularity of Pok\u00e9mon GO, Pok\u00e9mon\u2019s popularity in general has skyrocketed since the release. Pok\u00e9mon merchandise of all kinds can be found in stores everywhere. This includes clothes, backpacks, school supplies, toys and more. The success of the game has provided an opportunity to bring back all of Pok\u00e9mon\u2019s popularity and, so far, has been successful in doing so.<\/span><\/p>\n
While Pok\u00e9mon GO\u2019s popularity is on a slight decline after reaching its peak over summer, Niantic is still actively updating it. The most recent addition to the game is the Buddy System. Players can choose a Pok\u00e9mon to travel with them, earning candy as they walk, which can then be used to rank the Pok\u00e9mon up. This gives players a chance to upgrade rare Pok\u00e9mon without having to endlessly hunt for them.<\/span><\/p>\n
Over the summer, Pok\u00e9mon GO meetups became a very popular activity. By using sites like Reddit and Facebook, players found times to meet up and hunt for Pok\u00e9mon together. The Pok\u00e9mon GO subreddit is great for any player looking for tips, tricks, strategies, or people in their area to play with. Meetups are still happening often, including meetups here around Western! The most recent was on Sept. 24, so keep your eyes peeled for information on upcoming meetups. <\/span>
\nContact the author at journalentertainment@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Ashton Newton Entertainment Editor Summer 2016 can easily be described in two words: Pok\u00e9mon GO. The augmented-reality Pok\u00e9mon hunting game from Niantic was released in early June and quickly took over the world. It became nearly impossible during its peak to go out in public without seeing people playing. Pok\u00e9mon GO hit 45 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":823,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/823"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}