Pokemon GO: Come out and Catch!

What kind of game is it?

Pokemon GO - a new game in the line of mega-popular franchise Pokemon. Although in Ukraine the Pokémon were at the peak of popularity long enough (during the release of the animated television series "Pokémon" in the early 2000s), in the rest of the world they gained public love thanks to the numerous games that regularly appear on the game consoles.

The word "Pokemon" is derived from the English word combination Pocket Monster , that is, a pocket monster . These creatures are devoted to a super-popular series of games, films, comics, toys and all that, invented in Japan in 1996. During its existence, the Pokémon have visited both at the height of global popularity and in the abyss of total oblivion. Now we see an unexpected revival of this glorious brand.

So, we found out that in this universe the main characters in action are pocket monsters - Pokémon. They are very different: more than 721 species are known, but only 174 of them are included in the game so far. However, this is quite enough for a start, because each Pokemon has its own set of unique characteristics, its history and development path.

And here's the most important thing that you should understand before playing Pokemon GO . For 20 years of its existence, the Pokémon world has developed so much, has acquired such a number of written and unwritten rules, traditions and conventions that an uninitiated person can not understand them at all.

The new game from Niantic stands out prominently against the background of its predecessors. If 16 years ago, fictional animals gathered people of all ages at TV screens, now Pokemon literally "catch" in the streets, in parks, on construction sites and even in offices.

In fact, this is the first franchise game that uses augmented reality: the game takes place in the real world, which complements the Pokémon. First, the user has to find the character on the map and approach it: the Pokémon can be anywhere, including fountains, livnevki, ditches, parks, shops, museums, toilets and in the chairs of your bosses.

Then the player can turn on the smartphone camera and see the Pokemon, then the monster can be caught by throwing a pokeball at him. After this, the monster can "train" and develop his abilities, firing into battle with other Pokémon or getting rid of him, freeing up the place in the incubator.

Every caught pokemon brings an in-game currency. Thus, the search and capture of Pokémon became as close as possible to the "real" experience of the trapper of strange animals.

The results of a survey conducted by analysts of the research company Survey Monkey indicate that the game Pokemon Go came in first place in terms of the average daily number of players.

Development and output

The idea of ​​the game appeared in 2014 from Satoru Iwata of Nintendo and Tsunekazu Ishihari from The Pokemon Company on the first of April. Then Google was a joke - the company published a video, which showed the future function of the service Google Maps - augmented reality with Pokemon, which can be caught while traveling the world. This turned out to be more than just a joke, and Pokemon Company, Google and Nintendo invested $ 30 million in Niantic, Inc. For the realization of such an opportunity in full earnest. This choice was based on the fact that Niantic, which was founded in 2010 as a startup by Google, already had the experience of creating augmented reality games. Its creation is called Ingress and is a game where two teams of players compete for virtual possession of cultural attractions of the real world. "Pokemon's strategic investments in Niantic open the way to the mobile experience of a society that the world has not yet seen," Ishihara said in October 2015.

An unusual game that would combine reality with the virtual world, called Pokemon GO, was announced in January 2016. While warming up interest in the project, Niantic in his blog was named 2016 as the year of augmented reality. In March, Pokemon GO tests began in Japan: players could already catch Pokemon, raise them from eggs and find "pokemon" and "gima" near notable places, such as historical monuments. In April, testing spread to Australia and New Zealand, and in May - to the US. Subsequently, in June, the developers added a photo function, with which you can take pictures of Pokémon. The release of the final version took place on July 6 in the US, Australia and New Zealand. Gradually the game goes on in other regions, on July 13 it became available for download in Germany and 14 in the UK.

Game process

Pokemon GO offers players to act as trainers for Pokemon creatures, who need to catch and train for further battles with the Pokémon of other coaches. In the beginning, the player creates his avatar, adjusting the details of his appearance with a choice of several options. While the player moves in the real world, his avatar travels through the map thanks to the use of GPS . If there is a pokemon nearby, the game informs about it and suggests to find it using the camera of a smartphone or tablet. The image of the Pokemon is superimposed on the picture of the surrounding world, obtained from the camera. In this case, the creature type is calculated depending on the information about the terrain. Therefore, for example, water Pokémon will be found near rivers and fountains. For poke-coins ( English pokecoins ), obtained after purchase for real money, in-game purchases of useful things are made that accelerate the player's progress. Sometimes they are sought, as well as Pokémon. All such purchases and finds are added to the inventory, which holds 500 items.

Having met a wild Pokemon, the player must catch him, accurately throwing a virtual trap pokely. Pokémon have a different catching difficulty, indicated by the color of the ring around them, where the player should get to. Creatures in the green ring remain in the pokeball, in orange - they can escape, in red - they will most likely be able to free themselves and run away. At any time, it is possible to photograph the Pokémon among the environment. With a successful hunt, the pokemon moves to the player's collection and he gets in-game currencies: "star dust" and sweets necessary for the development of his Pokémon.

Another way to get Pokémon is to buy their eggs and an incubator in which to grow the creature. The form of the Pokemon at the same time depends on the real distance overcome at a time: the more a player walks on foot (the movement is not taken into account), the stronger the Pokemon hatches. The distance varies from 2 km (gives weak creatures in the game, like Pikachu or Chermander) to 10 km (gives the opportunity to get Onyx, Kabuto, etc.). In addition, you can buy lures, which will escape the wild Pokémon, facilitating their capture.

Feeding pokemon sweets and spending "star dust", the player gets the development of the Pokemon - increasing its parameters or switching to another form. Simple enhancement raises the level of damage dealt in combat and health, requiring "dust" and a few sweets. To change the shape (evolution of the Pokémon), it is necessary to feed a lot of sweets - usually 25, 50 and 100, respectively, the number of forms. Such as Medzharakp, special cases require several hundred sweets for evolution, which is compensated by the strength of the received form. In addition, the creature can evolve for free if the player has caught a lot of Pokémon of the same species, than his efforts to capture are rewarded. In combat, success is assessed by two main parameters of the Pokémon: combat power ( English Combat Power ) and health points (English Hit Points). The defeated Pokemon returns to the collection with 1 point of health and becomes available for new fights after using a special potion that restores his health to the highest possible level.

Catching or growing new Pokémon, developing them and participating in battles, the player virtually increases his level of development, gaining new opportunities. He becomes able to catch ever stronger Pokémon, and the reward grows. Upon reaching the 5th level, he can join one of the three teams of coaches who will compete among themselves in battles. In addition, each team has its own view of Pokémon: "Valor" bet on the development of physically strong Pokémon, "Mystic" is convinced that Pokémon wins through the mind, and "Instinct" ( English). Instinct ) - that the secret of victory lies in the development of feelings. In crowded places in the world of the world, there are "Pokestops" where you can find valuable items, and "Gyms" in which you can challenge other Pokémon coaches. "Guimas" are controlled by one of the teams, which must worry about its prestige, answering the calls of other teams, winning victories and earning medals for the data automatically tested. The coach will train his pets only in the hyme controlled by his team. The more Pokémon in the Hyme, the stronger is his defense. If prestige falls to zero in the course of losses, the winners appropriately "gim" themselves, increasing their influence.

Reasons for popularity

About how the game tightened the game, says SimilarWeb statistics. On average, US residents spend 43 minutes 23 seconds a day on the Pokemon Go . For comparison: WhatsApp "takes" from American users about 30 minutes 27 seconds, Instagram - 25 minutes 16 seconds, and Snapchat - 22 minutes 53 seconds.

Experts have been discussing the prospects and reasons for the frantic popularity of the game for several days already. Of course, most agree on the main point: the cause of the worldwide triumph of Pokemon Go is augmented reality.

"It turns out that Pokemon Go is much more than just an exciting online brodil.You play, you get to know and communicate with other players in person, and not in virtual chats, and, of course, you do not sit at home, but walk and breathe fresh air ", - says blogger Pavel Gorodnitsky.

According to him, the Pokémon have three key advantages at once, making the game viral: first, a broad target audience, and secondly, there were no explosive hits in the mobile games market for a long time. And thirdly, everyone was tired of sitting or lying, buried in the screens of gadgets.

Of course, Pokemon Go, according to experts, was influenced by the Pokemon brand itself, which is still strong in all major markets - in Asia, Australia, North America and Europe.

Additionally and useful:

Www.pokemongo.com the official website of the game.
Pokémon list (1-51) a detailed description of the Pokémon on the Wiki.
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