Pokemon Go Review - The Biggest MMO in the World

SBFord

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Pokémon Go is now officially the United States’ biggest game in the history of mobile gaming. It’s very nearly poised to pass Snapchat, too which is one of the biggest apps in history period. There’s no denying that the game is one of the biggest crazes to hit the gaming world since well… Pokémon originally landed on the Game Boy. But is it any fun? Read on for our full initial review.

Xarko

F2P in a year.

SEANMCAD

I have a Garmin GPS which by the way is the worst tech product I have ever purchased that I can recall.

I bet you a dollar to a donut that Pokemon Go is a better GPS device the Garmin is.

ha!

Yochy

1> the game have the 151 pokemon no 133 you only see the number of pokemon from the first to the last you catch or see, in the list
2> when you have a gym you get coins every day more gym more coins every day
3> you can dodge and do special attack in the battles and you can atack a gym 2 , 3 or 4 ppl a the same time and you see in the battle 4 vs 1

filmoret

I'm surprised at the hype over this game. Hype rating is 10. But gameplay itself is more like a 2. Definitely got the kids attention but so did games like Pogs. Which was just slappin things down and flippin things over. I think the longivity will die very soon just like pogs and those other one hit wonder games.

Sovrath

filmoret said:

I'm surprised at the hype over this game. Hype rating is 10. But gameplay itself is more like a 2. Definitely got the kids attention but so did games like Pogs. Which was just slappin things down and flippin things over. I think the longivity will die very soon just like pogs and those other one hit wonder games.

I also think it will eventually die down but there are more than kids playing it. I've seen and heard stories of so many adults who are into this game.

Not really my thing.

TyranusPrime

Biggest MMO in the world? What? This does not match my definition of an MMO at all..

Kabulozo

When I go out I hardly look at the phone, except to receive calls. No way I'd leave aimlessly to find emo digital monsters.

SEANMCAD

TyranusPrime said:

Biggest MMO in the world? What? This does not match my definition of an MMO at all..

I smell marketing dollars somewhere on the pokemon thing

k61977

TyranusPrime said:

Biggest MMO in the world? What? This does not match my definition of an MMO at all..

It actually is just an MMO, which stands for Massively Multipler Online.  It is all those things.  It encompasses the entire globe as the gaming world, which is the massive part.  It does have multiple people playing all at once in the same gaming environment hence the actual world.  And finally it is online.

The thing it is not is an MMORPG which is what you may be thinking.

deniter

Anyone remembers that barcode game from early 90's?

Pokemon Go reminds me of that game in many way, but mostly because of a very unique idea. Unfortunately, apart from catching pokemons in real world the game seems to be very generic, just like the barcode game was. "Battles themselves are just “have higher CP and tap fast on the enemy” but hopefully that changes soon. Right now, the act of fighting Pokémon is far less engaging that actually hunting them and that’s a damn shame".

The idea of the game is original but execution is still half-baked. It's like someone just figured how to create 3D-worlds, but don't know how to create stuff inside for players to interact with.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

SEANMCAD

blueturtle13 said:

but I can Ingress so that is fine

unfilteredJW

It's fun enough that once they add more features, it'll be that much better. Put in almost 30km walking since Friday.

SEANMCAD

unfilteredJW said:

It's fun enough that once they add more features, it'll be that much better. Put in almost 30km walking since Friday.

awesome! 
I tried to get into Ingress because I do like the idea of getting exercise in while also playing a game (not just achievements) but I could not get into it. To be honest I found that game a bit odd on the controlls. never the less I am glad people are seeing the value here in this GPS gaming (which is what I call it) I dont consider it AR gaming

maskedweasel

Yochy said:

1> the game have the 151 pokemon no 133 you only see the number of pokemon from the first to the last you catch or see, in the list
2> when you have a gym you get coins every day more gym more coins every day
3> you can dodge and do special attack in the battles and you can atack a gym 2 , 3 or 4 ppl a the same time and you see in the battle 4 vs 1

Another note is that with the new update they no longer require the google access you mentioned in the review @SBFord

And you do get a lot for owning a gym,  using items is a big part of collection and leveling strategy,  and currently, there is slightly more to pokemon that people don't understand.  For example, I found out about the leveling arc a few days ago..  it's very important to understand how strong a pokemon is in relation to their arc,  including what evolution stage they're in.

It can be as complex or as simple as players want,  most people just have fun catching and care little about battling at this stage.

eddieg50

Phone games? Uhh NO

Siphaed

The game is entertaining, I'll give it that much. Because of the act of being something larger than a virtual reality. The augmented reality of this Massive Multiplayer Online game surpasses the fad of having a helmet on while moving wildly about in your living room. It encourages people to walk about, traversing the actual world that they've long since ignored. There seems to be much more on-foot individuals in small towns, larger towns, and so on (because doing this game while in a vehicle is insane, dangerous, and illegal). I do see this kind of super-fad game [like Minecraft, like WoW, like DayZ, etc] being the initial stepping stone into a whole new breed of MMO games that will lead into the next decade's worth of changes.

The issues I have are numerous though. Phone recognition is limited, so on something like an LG Stylo the AR feature doesn't work which causes it to not communicate between game and camera. That means only the generic virtual Pokemon visual show up instead of the real world + game world combo that the game was intended. And the game syncing with GPS in some areas is also limited even when other GPS-enabled apps work perfectly.

Combat is also kind of atrociously boring, as mentioned in the above review. However kind of makes since considering the main appeal of the game is to be a collector sim. But without having trading, that kind of puts a bubble around players that separates more than includes others within the same game verse. These issues are said by the developers to be addressed in the future, but time will tell.

winghaven1

eddieg50 said:

Phone games? Uhh NO

They make the most money in the gaming business my dude

Octagon7711

Made nearly 5 million on the first day. Waiting for the copy cats to start putting out similar games.

scorpex-x

I know the MMO market is devoid of new titles and as such, so is this future of this website but you're really stretching the term MMO here

maskedweasel

scorpex-x said:

I know the MMO market is devoid of new titles and as such, so is this future of this website but you're really stretching the term MMO here

I don't think it's much of a stretch.. 

Also look at it this way... you have a much better chance of knowing which players are girls playing Pokemon Go than you do when playing games like WoW

Hariken

Zero interest in this or any other Pokemon game. And i don't game on my phone or tablet.

SEANMCAD

Torval said:

SEANMCAD said:

blueturtle13 said:

but I can Ingress so that is fine

Actually you can't unless you're driving under 30mph. Ingress monitors the speed specifically so players can't do fast drive by node grabbing. A well buffed and defended node isn't something you can take driving by anyway. You might be able to do a quick hack at 20 - 30, maybe.

ah very cool

scorpex-x

k61977 said:

TyranusPrime said:

Biggest MMO in the world? What? This does not match my definition of an MMO at all..

It actually is just an MMO, which stands for Massively Multipler Online.  It is all those things.  It encompasses the entire globe as the gaming world, which is the massive part.  It does have multiple people playing all at once in the same gaming environment hence the actual world.  And finally it is online.

The thing it is not is an MMORPG which is what you may be thinking.

Lots of people playing at once does not qualify, if so every popular single player game is an mmo. MMO means lots of people either playing together or the potential to play with people form a large pool.

MorganRamsay

scorpex-x said:

I know the MMO market is devoid of new titles and as such, so is this future of this website but you're really stretching the term MMO here

Check out these articles:

• Augmented Reality is a Massively Multiplayer World by Raph Koster (Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies)
• MMOs are everywhere, they’re just not called MMOs by Brian Green (Meridian 59, Camelot Unchained)
  
• Meet the Mastermind Behind This Summer’s Pokémon Craze by TIME ("Pokémon Go and Ingress, our other game, are both very much MMOs." —Niantic CEO John Hanke, who also worked on Meridian 59)