Pokemon Go: How long do you think it will last?

How much longer can Pokemon madness last? In an informal poll, we asked, and you answered.

How long will Pokemon Go last?

Most readers think the frenzy will last a month or more, which on a worldwide scale is definitely possible, given that Go has only just launched in its first European market.

Which would you give up first?

Unsurprisingly, Pokemon Go binge sessions haven't reached Netflix levels of popularity yet, but that's not saying much: twice as many of our pollsters would abandon HBO before Netflix, despite the immense power of "Game of Thrones."

What is the most useless Pokemon you've caught?

It's hard out there for Rattatas.

How would you rate your experience with Pokemon Go?

In spite of a solid number of individuals still waiting for access, there have been more positive than negative experiences with Go.

Pokémon GO Isn’t Destroying Society, It’s Making It Better

 

I don’t like people. I don’t like going out, saying hello to neighbors, or gathering in groups. Everything about social interaction stresses me out, but I’ve been tolerating it, even seeking it out, because of the craze that is Pokémon GO.
Pokémon GO is an unprecedented phenomenon. We see this economically and digitally — Nintendo is $8 billion more valuable than it was last week and the app is used more than Tinder and Twitter — but look around; we see this socially. Catch anyone swiping quickly upwards on their smartphones and there’s a great chance they are throwing a poké ball at some elusive Rapidash (more likely Pidgey). Go to a park or walk down the main drag of a city and you will see dozens of people playing Pokémon GO together.
The knee-jerk reaction to this, to all media-based crazes since there was media, is to say the game is destroying society. Yes, kids are on their phones now more than ever, yes, people are inappropriately playing in sacred locations like holocaust museums and graveyards, yes, people have been robbed while looking for lures, or have found dead bodies. Such Poké Alarmism rings of previous social panics over pornography, or cell phones, or banned books. If you focus on the negative and buy into the bias that fueled those panics, yes, it does look like Pokémon GO is making society worse.
Look up from the tall grass and see all the ways that Pokémon GO is making society better.
If your first phone was a smart phone, you’ve never lived in a world without the Pokémon franchise. Everyone who is actively using a smartphone today is in Nintendo’s target demographic. That, plus the meme-ability of the game, its simplicity, familiarity, and nostalgic appeal have contributed to the app’s tremendous uptake. It seems like everyone playing it because everyone is. Imagine if everyone who used Twitter gestured in public such that you could tell they were tweeting. You’d notice dozens of people on your way to work, in the park, pretty much everywhere. Pokémon GO has reportedly surpassed Twitter’s number of daily users.
What Pokémon GO has on other apps is that it encourages and requires people to come and work together. Sometimes this means an interaction that scares us. The idea of being literally lured into a mugging or worse is terrifying. I like to remember Mister Rogers when our bias to focus on the negative takes over: “Look for the helpers.” Set aside the scary stories for a moment and look at what Pokémon GO is doing for people.

VIDEO YOUTUBE - Lose Weight with Pokémon Go - Weight Loss App?

How many people are actually playing Pokémon Go?

It seems like everyone in America is playing Pokémon Go. 

It seems like everyone in America is playing Pokémon Go. For now, our best estimate is about 9.5 million daily active users.

Let us explain how we got there.

Data analytics firm SimilarWeb made a lot of noise this week when it published data that claimed Pokémon Go was used by almost as many people as Twitter.

It updated those numbers Wednesday and claims 5.9 percent of all U.S. Android users opened the Pokémon Go app on Monday, July 11. That’s almost double the 3 percent of Android users who opened the game on July 8.

SimilarWeb doesn’t specify how many people in the U.S. have Android devices, so let’s try to figure that one out separately. Pew Research Center found in October that 68 percent of American adults have smartphones. According to the latest Census data from July 2015, there are roughly 248 million U.S. adults. So that means there are roughly 168.5 million adult smartphone owners. Cool? Cool.

Now we turn to comScore, which found in January that 52.8 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers over the age of 13 use an Android. For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume that number is the same for the group of U.S. adults 18 and over. That leaves us with roughly 89 million U.S. adult Android users.

Circling back to SimilarWeb now, which you’ll remember found that 5.9 percent of those 89 million Android users opened Pokémon Go on Monday. That gives us 5.25 million daily users.

Easy!

We don’t have usage data on iOS users from SimilarWeb (the company doesn’t track iOS app usage yet). But we know from comScore that 43.6 percent of U.S. adult smartphone subscribers have iOS devices. That’s 73.5 million iOS smartphone users, when coupled Pew Research data.

Let’s pretend the same percentage of people who use Pokémon Go on Android also do so on iOS (5.9 percent). That leaves us with approximately 4.3 million daily Pokémon Go players on iOS.

4.3 million (iOS) + 5.25 million (Android) = 9.55 million total daily U.S. users for Pokémon Go.

Pokemon Go Launch Adds $9 Billion to Nintendo's Market

Pokemon Go, the newly released mobile game in which players catch creatures in the real world, is already a big hit--and it's not even out in every major market yet.

The mobile game is only available in the US, Australia, and New Zealand. However, The Wall Street Journal reports today that the game is coming to Europe, Japan, and other Asian nations "within a few days." This information comes from "people familiar with plans for the game."

Last week, Pokemon Go developer Niantic Labs acknowledged the game's server issues and "paused" its international rollout for the time being. Thankfully for fans in those regions, it appears the wait won't be too much longer.

WSJ also reports that Pokemon Go's release has made a huge impact on Nintendo's business outlook. Shares of the company rose 25 percent in Tokyo today, building on increases from last Thursday and Friday. This comes out to $9 billion worth of market capitalization, pushing Nintendo's total market cap to almost $28 billion.

Pokémon Go’ Catching Tips: Tracking Pokémon

 

 

Pokémon Go’ Catching Tips: Tracking Pokémon

Catching Pokémon in Pokémon Go can be tricky, but even worse is when the Pokémon you want doesn’t even show up. While we still don’t know how to summon specific Pokémon you want to catch, we have an idea how to track down the ones nearby.

Pokémon Tracking

When playing Pokémon Go, you may have noticed a tracker in the lower right corner showing nearby Pokémon. Clicking the icon brings up a bigger menu, showing up to nine of the closest monsters for you to catch. If you see a Pokémon you watch to catch in this menu, click on it to make it the only one displayed on the main screen.

From here, you’re going to have to do some guesswork, but following the steps should help you get close and catch your prey. Keep in mind that the fewer footprints there are, the closer you are to the Pokémon. Also, the further down the list of nearby Pokémon yours goes, the further you are from it.

1. Select the Pokémon you want from the Nearby Pokémon list
2. Start walking in a direction of your choice
   
   1. If the Pokémon disappears from your Nearby Pokémon list, turn around and walk the other way
3. Keep walking in one direction until the footprint icons drop from three to two to one
4. Once you have one footprint left, start looking around for rustling leaves on your map
5. Hope that the Pokémon shows up!
6. (OPTIONAL) Use an Incense to get extra attraction power

This method has had some first-hand success, but doesn’t work all the time. Often, a Pokémon will simply disappear from your Nearby Pokémon list, only to reappear right after you’ve given up and started walking in the other direction. While the method isn’t perfect, it at least gives some direction for your hunt.

Catching Pokémon GO

As we’ve mentioned before, catching Pokémon is pretty straightforward. Simply flick the Poké Ball from the bottom of the screen up to the Pokémon. For an easier time, follow these tips:

• Wait for the circle to be as small as possible before making your throw. This seems to help capture Pokémon
• Use a Razz Berry to make the Pokémon more calm and friendly
• If you are Level 12 or higher, switch to a Great Ball by clicking the Backpack icon
• If you want to get a curve ball bonus on your throw, spin the ball in quick circles before flicking it at the Pokémon
• Wait for Pokémon to finish their attack animations before throwing your Poké Ball

Is it possible to cheat in Pokémon Go?

 

Is it possible to cheat in Pokémon Go?

Yes.

First, though it’s not technically cheating, the app offers in-game purchases that allow you to spend real money on items like lures and incense that will help you catch more Pokémon more often. These purchases can enhance your gaming experience and increase your chances of procuring a desired Pokémon, giving you an advantage over people who are just playing the game for free.

And then there are actual cheating hacks, like installing programs that alter or spoof your GPS settings, in order to potentially catch Pokémon in places you might not have access to. Doing this would allow you to, say, nab a Pokémon off the coast of Maine even if you live in Kansas. Altering your GPS settings would also let you "tell" your phone that you’ve walked a certain distance, and one of the features of the game (hatching eggs to give you Pokémon) is based on how far you travel.

But even if you just want that Articuno so very bad, don’t cheat. Cheaters have terrible reputations as game ruiners.

How much data and battery life will I use while playing Pokémon Go?

 

 

How much data and battery life will I use while playing Pokémon Go?

You will use a lot of data, so if you don’t have an unlimited data plan for your phone, be careful. Think about it: Pokémon Go requires your phone to be constantly checking and transmitting your location via GPS, which is a data-heavy endeavor. And the very nature of the game — namely, the impetus to get outdoors and keep moving — means that more often than not, you’ll be using a cellular connection rather than a wifi connection.

Additionally, the game’s constant use of your camera will quickly drain your battery. You can try the age-old trick of decreasing the brightness of your screen to save some juice, but your best option is to have some kind of external and preferably portable power source, like a backup battery pack.

Is Pokémon Go dangerous?

Is Pokémon Go dangerous?

Please don’t play Pokémon Go while driving.

Pokémon Go is a lot like texting. Its augmented reality setting that uses your smartphone camera is distracting; even though you’re theoretically paying close attention to your surroundings, you’re doing so through a camera lens with the aim of spotting and catching Pokémon all around you. Crossing the street into traffic or walking into the ocean are both distinct possibilities with this game. Getting lost is a risk too.

Outdoorsy nuisances like bug bites, sunburn, dehydration, and blisters might be part of your experience, depending on where you live and how intensely you play. And in my case, there’s a PokéStop (an in-game landmark that Pokémon can be lured into visiting) that happens to be near a children’s playground. Consider the optics of a grown man with his iPhone pointed at a children’s park for several minutes at a time.

There are also reports of Pokémon Go users getting robbed. One player went out in search of Pokémon and found a dead body instead. Chances are you won’t stumble across any corpses, but you should remain aware of your surroundings nonetheless.

Meanwhile, in terms of internet safety, Niantic — the game developer that runs Pokémon Go — has faced criticism for giving itself too much access to information on your phone that you probably want to keep private.

What is Pokémon Go?

What is Pokémon Go?

To fully understand Pokémon Go, you have to go back to the canonical beginnings of Pokémon. Around 1990, a video game designer named Satoshi Tajiri began hammering out the concept of Pokémon, which combined his childhood hobby of insect collecting with his love for video games.

Places to catch insects are rare because of urbanization," Tajiri told Time in 1999. "Kids play inside their homes now, and a lot had forgotten about catching insects. So had I. When I was making games, something clicked and I decided to make a game with that concept."

Six years after Tajiri came up with this initial concept, with the help of Nintendo and designer/illustrator Ken Sugimori (Sugimori drew the initial 151 different Pokémon himself), the first Pokémon game was released on Game Boy.

The word Pokémon itself is the Americanized/Westernized contraction of "pocket monsters" — which, yes, can sound sort of inappropriate — and the original first-person game centered on a young trainer capturing 151 different types of Pokémon, ranging from ones that vaguely resemble turtles (Squirtle) to humanoid ones (Jynx) to the most recognizable Pokémon in the world, Pikachu.