IxD Case Study 1 - Pokemon Go (2016)

Pokemon Go is the augmented reality (AR) mobile game authorized by Nintendo and Pokemon, and developed and published by Niantic. It uses the mobile device GPS to locate, capture, battle, and train virtual creatures called Pokémon, which seem to be in the player's real world. The game is released for free and supports in-app purchases of other in-game items. The game starts with about 150 kinds of Pokemon, and it has increased to about 500 by 2019.

The game also released a peripheral device called Pokémon Go Plus, which uses Bluetooth to connect to the mobile phone and push notifications when there is a Pokémon nearby.

The Pokemon Go’s AR mode uses the camera and gyroscope on the player's mobile device to display images of Pokémon as if it were in the real world. Players can take screenshots of Pokémon encountered with or without AR mode enabled.

The gameplay of Pokémon GO is not very similar to the orthodox series. Players need to capture Pokémon in the game world and train them. The map of the game world is the entire earth in the real world, and the basic data is from the previous work "Ingress" by the developer Niantic.

Spontaneously, the gameplay of the Pokemon Go is very interesting. Once player created their account and avatar, the avatar will be displayed on the map according to the player's geographic location. When players move in the real world, their avatars move in the game map as well. Different Pokemon species live in different parts of the world. When the player encounters a Pokémon, they can view it either in AR mode with a live rendered or normal background and throw the ball that on their screen to the Pokemon in order to catch them.

The Pokemon Go brings many unexpected positive effects. For instance, it makes people more willing to go out walk around in order to encounter rare species Pokemon. It is good for people to get more social life as well, some foreign players pointed out that there were no friends in life, but after playing the game for a few days, they met 25 new friends.

In my opinion, Pokemon Go makes good use of AR technology to narrow the relationship between people, and at the same time, it also shortens the distance between the virtual world and human world. For example, people can communicate with unknown people through Pokemon GO. Because the game settings will prompt players to go out and encourage contact with other players. People can get in touch with the joy brought by the AR technology world. Next, AR technology realizes people's illusions about the virtual world. For example, Pokemon is displayed in the human world through AR technology. I believe that in the future AR technology will be more mature and bring people a better life and convenience.