When Pokemon Go first came out, I remember walking/ driving all over with my friends trying to catch as many as we could. I would even stop places on my way home at night from my friends house’s just to try and catch some! The objective is pretty simple, you just walk or drive to all different places and wherever you see a Pokemon, you can click on it. Then it brings you to the Pokemon, zoomed in and it gives you the opportunity to try and “throw” (swipe with your finger) a Pokeball at it to capture it. It was fun for a little while, but after a few weeks I deleted the app. I got bored, and just put the thought of it completely on the back burner. That is, until I took this course. However when I played, I wouldn’t use the AR feature. When I played a few years ago, my screen looked like the image below.
Now when I play, I use the AR feature, like in the image below. I like it better because it makes the game feel more realistic. As you can see, it looks as if a Pokemon is sitting right on my laptop as I’m watching Netflix. It’s pretty awesome to have a game that actually uses your surroundings, and also makes you go outside quite a bit.
Though I don’t really see an educational benefit to this app, I don’t think that was what it was meant for. It was meant to entertain, however the option for the AR feature does expose people to AR, which is a great way to do it and get people interested.
Megan Bender