Hackaday: Released in 2016, Pokemon Go quickly became a worldwide phenomenon. Even folks who weren’t traditionally interested in the monster-taming franchise were wandering around with their smartphones out, on the hunt for virtual creatures that would appear via augmented reality. Although the number of active users has dropped over the years, it’s estimated that more than 50 million users currently log in and play every month.
6 comments:
Pokemon Go is really a genius concept, and I’ve thought this since the peak of pokemon go playing. Essentially, what the game does is create an entirely immersive game by using the real world. It turns the entire space around you, wherever you are, into a game. So, it brings you to the world of the game (which is the real world) instead of bringing the world of the game to you. There is immense weight to this though. The game can take you anywhere, track your location, see your surroundings, and also can distract you from what is actually happening. On one hand its disturbing that we need a game to show us that the real world is worth exploring, but on the other hand its actually pretty cool and a good way to get people outside and walking around if what they would be doing otherwise is sitting inside.
When Pokémon Go came out I was surprised to hear that the game was free, as I am used to the Pokémon games costing me money. At the time that I first downloaded the game I didn't really think about the ramifications of the downsides of a free game. Especially due to the fact that a lot of games are free to download, but will contain microtransactions that make the game or you playing easier or better. On the surface Pokémon Go dose appear to have the same structure until you realize that you can be an amazing player in Pokémon Go without spending a dime. Which is where the information gathering aspect of this game comes into play that this article mentions. You can be good at the game by paying money or by exploring and gathering the AR data, and based on this article both of these ways of playing the game make Pokémon money.
I think the concept of Pokémon Go is really interesting, and it's so easy to see how it got so popular. I personally never played it, but my siblings did, and I had a bunch of friends who did. I think that what the article mentioned about the game being free was such a huge part of its success. They also marketed this game so well because the whole concept of using the real world as part of the video game was super appealing. Especially because a lot of Pokémon things are at least partially targeted towards children, this idea that the game will get them out of the house or keep them busy while their parents run errands or something is a great idea. The fact that this free game then used its huge platform in the ways that it did is incredibly smart in my opinion. Using the data collected by players through images in order to create 3d models is so cool.
First off, I think it's crazy that there are still 50 millino active players. Pokemon Go was an incredibly successful game but it's astonishing to me that it still perseveres a decade later. Yet, if you walk onto CMU's campus on a given Saturday, you're bound to walk into a group of players.
I shouldn't be surprised by Niantic's scheme and the fact that they were recording all this data. Of course they were, and man it was a smart move. Out of all the things being tracked, this one doesn't seem the most alarming to me, but I still can't say I love the idea. I also was always curious how they made money. Sure they have millions of players and they have a couple in-app purchases available, but no adds. It makes sense that they are making money off of data collection. I haven't really played since middle school, but it appears they've managed to retain enough players.
There are so many people that never read any of the fine print or terms and conditions when agreeing to them. I have a habit of reading employment contracts and not much else. I wouldn’t be worried too much about this collection of data if the company didn’t hold the rights to send any of the AR collected data to other companies. I know a few people who actually take the time to read policies and terms of service, but they are few and far between. The time it takes to read through all of the legal wording just to play a game or even to use a tool is often not worth it. I wonder what percentage of my life would be spent reading the terms of anything I use if I actually took the time to read each and every one. I think that I may look at more fine print after reading this article, but in reality it often seems like it isn’t worth my time.
Terms and conditions on games/other things can hide a lot. I had a friend in high school who would actually read all of the terms and conditions of something before she signed it which I always admired. Companies are relying on the community who wants to use their products being too lazy/overwhelmed to read all of the fine print. While I can understand why companies do that and why the information is useful to them, I do hate how they feel the need to trick people into giving them that information. As the article says, the AR information being used by Niantic is anonymous and does not have any personal identifiable information in it, but it is a good cautionary tale to keep in mind when downloading and agreeing to terms and conditions. I had not heard the saying “If something is free, you’re the product”, but I do think that that is a good way to remind people that tech companies are businesses first.
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