For those of you who were around in summer 2016, you may have noticed random large groups of people walking the streets with huge grins on their faces, staring at their phones, possibly oblivious to oncoming traffic. I remember the culture of Pokemon Go back when Niantic first released the game. It was magical. For the first time in history, video games were bringing people outside. I remember I was living in Minneapolis at the time, and my friends and I would go out searching for Pokemon around the neighborhood. We would run into other groups of young adults and kids doing the same thing. Parents and their children, teenagers, adults, even a few seniors were off of the couch running around searching for Pokemon. It was a beautiful phenomenon in many cities. Gym battles were epic, people would exchange information on where the best Pokemon could be caught. Businesses would give discounts based on what team you played for. TV stations covered the craze. People were injured, relationships formed, rivalries ignited. It truly created a feeling of camaraderie among the younger generation.
As I re-downloaded the game I was hit by a wave of nostalgia for what the game could have been. Unfortunately it was plagued by glitches and constant downtime and this eventually led to many people abandoning it mere weeks after it came out. A general sense of missed opportunity was felt by many. Niantic dropped the ball a little. It seemed the game had been released too early and the societal impact it had was not anticipated.
Overall, the game was the biggest summer fad of 2016 and showed how Augmented Reality could help revolutionize the video game industry. For once games could improve people’s social lives instead of isolating them. I believe the true magic of Pokemon Go was that it captured the dream of many millenials who grew up with Pokemon, and allowed them to experience what living in the Pokemon world could be like. This dream coupled with the timing of its release created a perfect storm of sorts, you really had to be there–to witness it for yourself.
Zeke Johnson,
Feb 2018