Pokemon

Who's Poke-ing? Who's kids are Poke-ing? Apparently it's taking over the app store and social media feeds. I haven't installed yet or seen anyone in town doing it. Curious if there are any critters floating around Maplewood.

It's a data mining scheme.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/11/pokemon-go-is-a-hacker-s-dream.html

Nintendo's stock value rose 20-25% in 1 week which is remarkable. Worth it to note however that value is down 70% from its recent peak in 2007 during the release of the original Wii console and its best-seller Wii Sports. Investors don't hope for any particular success or longevity for the Pokemon Go App, and are much more interested in these very short-lived high profile releases.

Angry Birds in 2010 took 5-6 years to get 10 million downloads. Candy Crush in 2012 took 8 months to get 10 million downloads. I'm hearing Pokemon Go has already reached that number in a week.

Look for stories about it this summer but I doubt there's anything about the game itself that will keep it in the news as more augmented reality Nintendo IP apps are developed and the folks producing them (Niantic Inc.) learn whether or not they can hit 10 million points of access in a week every time. Niantic is an internal startup at Google so that may be the service they're providing. I don't think they are in the video game industry as people would already be familiar with.

I don't download apps with a growth rate like this and I don't advise anyone else to either.

Many, many Pokemon hunters around here.  My teen and a friend have been out for a couple of long walks to play.  Friends with a yard strangely full of Pokemon find unknown kids sitting at their curb to collect them.  If you spend any time in our local parks you see small groups of kids sitting near the duck pond to collect water creatures.  

At camp pickup, we were also passed by a kid who was making the unwise decision to ride his bike and scan his phone at the same time -- at least he had a helmet on.

We also have a young adult friend a town over who will probably be adopting the young stray cat who befriended her while she was out hunting.

It might be a data mining scheme (um, it knows that my teen walks around the town in which she lives...huge surprise there), but it is also a scheme to get our kids out and walking, and seems to be a good one.

grocerylist said:

Who's Poke-ing? Who's kids are Poke-ing? Apparently it's taking over the app store and social media feeds. I haven't installed yet or seen anyone in town doing it. Curious if there are any critters floating around Maplewood.

I know several young people who are heavily into it. Should we really be paranoid about the data mining aspects? I can see how that could happen.

I'm having trouble getting upset with the idea of "data mining" to collect information that says that people walk around the duck pond and to and from playgrounds, parks and churches....

And after putting it on my phone for my little guys to try out, suddenly I have company when I go out to walk the dog, and we are taking an extra lap around the duck pond after swimming lessons.

loving this. Teen nephew has been out -gasp- walking around! the past few days playing. 

My kids have been playing since Day Zero. I still believe it's a government surveillance PsyOp conspiracy! 

http://blackbag.gawker.com/pokemon-go-is-a-government-surveillance-psyop-conspirac-1783461240

susan1014 said:

I'm having trouble getting upset with the idea of "data mining" to collect information that says that people walk around the duck pond and to and from playgrounds, parks and churches....

And after putting it on my phone for my little guys to try out, suddenly I have company when I go out to walk the dog, and we are taking an extra lap around the duck pond after swimming lessons.

The app wants access to your camera, contact list, and the like.  I'm not going to use it so I don't know if they ask for permission or just do it.  Either way it's not on the up and up. 

lol

And they have placed their targets in the most inappropriate places (9/11 memorial, houses of worship, etc.).

.

yeah, very inappropriate to direct people to places where they can learn about and discover new things. Let's put them all in mcdonalds. Seriously, people can find issue with a game that is getting millions of people up off the couch, interacting with their environment and experiencing new things. Only on mol

They used a public domain database of cultural and historic locations.  The good news is that kids generally don't need to go into the buildings to get the tag...but yes, like all new technology, the etiquette lessons need to be quick and clear.

So far, this program seems to be a pretty impressive exercise plan for a segment of our population prone to sitting in front of screens.  For that, I'm willing to put some effort in to figuring out the safety, etiquette and privacy issues involved.

tomcat said:

And they have placed their targets in the most inappropriate places (9/11 memorial, houses of worship, etc.).

exactly

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/12/485759308/holocaust-museum-arlington-national-cemetery-plead-no-pokemon

IMO, getting 1000s+ of people to a place they wouldn't normally go can only be a good thing to promote education and understanding. Certainly some decorum and etiquette rules should be in place but let them learn and be exposed.

That's pretty ambitious to think there's an opportunity to promote awareness of their surroundings.

http://nypost.com/2016/07/09/pokemon-go-is-afflicting-players-with-real-world-injuries/

I predict a crash almost as spectacular as its rise.

The U.S. market will see the "Pokemon Plus" peripheral before things settle down - if you've installed the app, I wonder if you've seen an ad for it yet. It's a device that allows users to remove the point-your-camera-and-there-it-is! feature and push a button on a watch that automatically collects the game reward that would happen otherwise.

For the record I think it's great to get people motivated to move around and see different things and do cool stuff. I also think it's important to realize this may be just one tool for getting that done. Even if you think the personal data you give out is worth pennies to you, it may be worth the cost of a trampoline or BigWheels or summer camp to me.

I think it sounds like fun, but I have enough stuff to waste my time and no little kids to use as a cover...   

Trying to catch my Pokemon character was a total disaster. I was delayed after getting caught in flash mob, ran into someone while they were planking and took a shot to the jaw during someone's version of the knockout game.

Stoughton said:

Trying to catch my Pokemon character was a total disaster. I was delayed after getting caught in flash mob, ran into someone while they were planking and took a shot to the jaw during someone's version of the knockout game.

I honestly don't know if you are joking or not.   

marylago said:

Stoughton said:

Trying to catch my Pokemon character was a total disaster. I was delayed after getting caught in flash mob, ran into someone while they were planking and took a shot to the jaw during someone's version of the knockout game.

I honestly don't know if you are joking or not.  "> 

Don't worry, I was just invoking the Ghosts of Street Trends Past.

The update that was released yesterday has already addressed the issue of overly broad access permissions, from what I've read.

And the LATimes reports that two Marines playing Pokemon Go in Fullerton noticed a man behaving inappropriately toward nearby children and found police to arrest him.  He turned out to be wanted for attempted murder....

So, like all things, there are good aspects and bad...the fact that your house of worship is a PokeStop doesn't mean that you should play during services.  But checking the app in the parking lot may make a kid that much happier to be there.  

It is just another opportunity for parents to teach electronics manners (as well as the risks of walking or biking while looking at the phone)

I got a few thousand extra steps on my tracker yesterday and ran into a couple of friends while letting my little guys try out the program on my phone.  I also know that if I tell them that Turtleback Zoo has at least a dozen PokeStops/Gyms, they will be more eager for a return trip to the zoo to study both real and pretend animals.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHy6Cf-jck8/

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/12/485759308/holocaust-museum-arlington-national-cemetery-plead-no-pokemon

What a stupid video to link to.

Another perspective re churches, etc.: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pok%C3%A9mon-go-creates-unique-opportunity-churches-libraries-jim-aloye

I was in Point Pleasant yesterday...and there were a bunch....I mostly noticed north of the aquarium.  My phone isn't compatible...