Top 10 reasons why Pokemon Go was more then a game

The design of Pokemon Go was an instant breakthrough when it launched several years ago.  It is worth evaluating certain elements of its deisgn to understand why it did so well.

 

For the discussion here, let's look at ways that Pokemon Go was a valuable game to play with kids.

One of the remarkable things about this game is that it gets both you and your kids outside doing something physical.  There are very few games available that can make that claim.  Now, similar to the Nintendo Wii, just simply having a physical element to the game play will not instantly cure obesity overnight — but a game that promotes physical movement instead of sitting motionless will get our vote.

It has been amazing to watch the differences between my son and my daughter playing Pokemon Go.  They are both about the same age (my daughter is a few years older).  My son is naturally a bit more coordinated while my daughter has to work a bit harder.  While playing Pokemon Go, the motions required to find and capture a Pokemon came very naturally to my son.  For my daughter, she had to work a little harder in figuring out how to tilt, aim and throw the PokeBalls to properly catch a Pokemon.  Interacting with this Augmented Style reality (it’s not true AR - but I digress) has helped her brain connect physical space with a virtual device.

While walking around our neighborhood I got to have a good 20 min conversation with my kids.  The conversation started discussing what kinds of Pokemon creatures we might discover while out on our walk.  There were dozens of questions about the Pokemon universe I could ask.  Including asking them whether or not their friends play Pokemon or which Pokemons their friends have captured.  I could then ask them questions about these other aspects of their lives, including how they are getting along with their friends, who is nice to them at school and so forth.  We had a good 20 mins or more of interaction that allowed me plenty of time to connect and talk with my kids about the important things in life - Pokemon Go was simply the starting point.

When my son was first introduced to Pokemon Go, he thought it was so cool that there were these invisible creatures living all around us and that we could see them using an app on our phone.  As we caught the various Pokemon he loved seeing the different styles, shapes, colors and other features of the Pokemon.  The more we walked around the more his thoughts started to roam on the possibilities of what kinds of Pokemon he might be able to find and capture.  We have even had some fun conversations on what type of Pokemon he would create if he was able to design his own.

PokeStops are basically landmarks found throughout your city.  At these PokeStops you can gain special items such as additional PokeBalls, candy for the Pokemons and other in game items.  The catch is that you have to be within a certain range of these PokeStops in order to interact with them.  In our home town we have PokeStops at the local parks, playgrounds, statues, and some other very interesting landmarks.  Several of which I didn’t even really know much about before visiting through Pokemon Go.

The lifeblood of the game are the PokeBalls.  You need PokeBalls to capture new Pokemon.  At any given time you have a limited number of PokeBalls.  As you progress higher in the game you will have to make hard choices about how to spend your precious PokeBalls.  Do you spend them on capturing another common Pokemon that you already have 10 of, or do you save your PokeBalls for the chance of coming across a rare Pokemon that you have not collected yet.

Walking through the neighborhood your kids might notice that down by that creek and across that construction site there is the possibility of finding a rare Pokemon.  This is the opportunity for you to teach your kids about safety despite the temptation to go to areas that are unsafe.  Teach them that despite the temptation to hunt and find that rare Pokemon, they need to decide what is best for their personal safety.  Teach them that risking their personal safety in order to catch a Pokemon is never worth it.  Along the same lines as teaching your kids about personal safety, you will have the opportunity to teach your kids about interactions with strangers.  Just because someone invites them to come inside a car or a house with the lure of offering a rare Pokemon - does not mean that they do it.  The old notion of offering kids candy if they get inside the van, can be taught through the means of offering Pokemon from a stranger.

As you progress further in the game you can start participating in Gym Battles.   PokeGyms are certain locations on the map that allow you to use one of your Pokemon in a contest of sorts to capture the opponents Pokemon.  Each Pokemon has a very different set of skills and abilities.  For example, a small Pokemon might be able to attack faster while a large Pokemon might deal more damage.  In these battles your kid will need to decide which types of Pokemon to use to defeat their opponents.  They will want to choose Pokemon that will have skills that will challenge their opponent in the greatest fashion.

Catching your first Pokemon was probably hard.  It may have taken a few tries to throw the PokeBall just right, etc.  There are also game play elements that can cause the Pokemon to come loose once it has been captured.  This allows your kids to have a challenge to work against - and the feeling of success once they have caught their Pokemon.

Games that employ collection techniques are always able to offer more depth and challenge.  In Pokemon Go, there are a large number of Pokemon that you are challenged to go and find.  if you want to capture all of them, it will take a very long time to do so.  This gives your kids a long term goal to work towards.  In order to accomplish that goal they need to spend a lot of time, make smart decisions and work hard towards searching and finding the Pokemon.