Tag Archives: Apps

Pokémon NO GO December Events

24 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by in About Reno, Business, Communication, Customer Relations, Customer Service, exercise, Generational, Health, Honor, Information Technology, Internet, parenting, Pride, Public Image, Public Relations, Recreation, Technology, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

The Pokéstop locator screen reinforces the blandness of the game with no interesting creatures for kilometers

The Pokéstop locator screen reinforces the blandness of the game with no interesting creatures for kilometers

Pokémon GO has announced its Christmas/New Years events and players were served coal in their stockings. It’s clear the people at Niantic are out to teach their customers about having expectations, and they want to end any hope for trainers that the game will become reenergized.

The stunning game of the Summer of 2016 has been replaced by an anemic and expensive app that rapidly drains the phone battery, insults players, and rewards loyalty with false hopes. Those loyal players have kept a belief that Niantic was committed to keeping the game interesting, and that by the end of the year there would be scores of new characters in the field to seek and capture.

Instead, we discovered that the naysayers who pitied us for playing a game that they felt was a waste of time, were correct. The Pokémon GO game has become Pong. 

Niantic’s cruel trick of December 12 was doubled down with the anti-event for the end of the year. Not only did Niantic fail to add new characters in the field…AGAIN, they took away the double point bonus of the Halloween and Thanksgiving events.

I’m embarrassed by my support for Pokémon GO. I thought Niantic was a company who appreciated their customers, and were keenly aware of what had to happen to keep their loyal players and bring back their old ones, but I was completely wrong. I apologize to former players who I mislead. Niantic is not going to reenergize the game, and it is a waste of time.

Pokémon GO: December 12th Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

13 Tuesday Dec 2016

Posted by in Branding, Customer Relations, Customer Service, exercise, Generational, Health, Information Technology, Internet, Management Practices, Public Image, Public Relations, Recreation, Respect, Social Media Relations

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

That is sage advice that I almost never take. 

12 December 2016, could have been a big day in Pokémon GO lore. It was the day that Niantic would recapture the interest of millions of trainers who have lost that loving feeling for the game. It was the day that Niantic, in a stroke of brilliance, would tease, and then deliver on infusing life back into the game.

December 12, 2016: Disappointment Day

December 12, 2016: Disappointment Day

Let’s back up for the muggles. The alpha and omega of Pokémon GO is capturing virtual characters in the wild on a player’s smartphone. There are currently 149 characters of which, some are common as dirt, others uncommon, others rare, and a few that are almost nonexistent. There are other aspects of the game, but those are secondary to capturing ‘wild’ Pokémon GO characters.

Since its launch in July, millions of people have played the game and moved through multiple levels of the game; however, the game has lost the attention of many players (or trainers) because they have caught most of the available 149 Pokémon Go characters. When someone has reached Level 25, they have seen and captured almost all the ones that they can realistically find. By Level 25, a trainer is mostly seeing the five to ten ‘common-as-dirt’ characters, and that makes the game boring.

Rumors have been flying for a couple of months now that Niantic has been aware of the issue and was preparing to introduce the “2nd Generation” or 2nd Gen of characters, that would add about 100 new Poké creatures. Last week, Niantic updated the sound files on everyone’s smartphone app, adding 100 new files, leading to speculation that the addition of the 2nd Gen characters was imminent. Then, Niantic said that on 12 December they would make a major announcement about adding new characters. The stage was set and anticipation was building.

What happened? They apparently added eight baby characters, and gave Pikachu a Santa hat. Oh, and the new characters can’t be caught in the wild. A trainer has to take their phone for a walk of up to ten (10) kilometers to hatch an egg that may or may not have a new character inside.

Do you hear that sound? It is the deafening sound of millions of former trainers shrugging their shoulders, shaking their heads and walking away.

So what positive things can I say about Niantic’s big 12 December announcement?

(This section intentionally left blank.)

Pokémon GO Partners With Starbucks

08 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by in Branding, Business, Communication, Customer Relations, Customer Service, exercise, Green, Information Technology, Internet, Public Image, Public Relations, Relationships, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Social Media Relations, Technology, The Tipping Point

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

It's official!

It’s official!

It’s no longer rumor. Pokémon GO is now a partner with Starbucks, and it is the perfect match.

At shortly after noon today (8 December 2016,) Mountain Standard Time, Niantic (the developer/partner of the Pokémon GO app for The Pokémon Company International aka: TPCi) turned on over 7,500 new PokéStops and Pokémon Gyms at Starbucks locations around the United States. Starbucks also began serving Pokémon GO frappuccinos to complete the partnership.

During its July launch, Pokémon GO placed PokéStops and Gym in retail centers and malls, creating a windfall of potential customers; however, businesses were not active partners with Pokémon (TCPi.) This week’s launch of business partnerships with Starbucks and Sprint (launched yesterday) signals a new era in cross-pollination of business interests with increased customer traffic created by the Pokémon GO game.

Rumors suggest that Pokémon GO is not finished in December surprises. The most anticipated update is the addition of the second generation of Pokémon GO characters. Trainers (players) are running out of new characters to capture, so a holiday event that includes expansion of the character field would be vital to keeping trainer interest.

Stay tuned!

Successful Exercise Incentive Program Disguised As Smartphone Game

03 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by in About Reno, Aging, Business, exercise, Generational, Green, Health, Information Technology, Internet, Public Image, Public Relations, Sports

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Exercise is evil. Almost anything we do to exercise is tedious, which is why many of us don’t do it. Newsweek® tells us that seven out of ten people in the United States are overweight. Several sources have suggested that we should walk about 10,000 steps a day, or 8 kilometers (about five miles) but most of us don’t.

However, all that changed in July of this year.

On 6 July, a new game application (App) was launched for use on smartphones. The App creates a real world Google-based map of the player’s location and uses incentives to encourage players, (also known as the trainers,) to walk. Incentives include fictional characters that must be collected. Some characters are common, some are less common, and some are exceedingly rare. Each character that is collected, or captured scores points for the trainer.

Users of new exercising app

Users of new exercising app

In addition to ‘hunting’ for characters, trainers can walk around public areas such as parks, campuses, and commercial shopping areas (like downtown areas and malls) to find locations, or stops, to free supplies used to capture, cure, and hatch more characters.

The hatching process also encourages walking. Trainers who collect character eggs at a stop must walk either two, five, or ten kilometers (1.2 mi., ≈3 mi., or ≈6 mi.) to hatch the egg. The greater the distance to hatch an egg, the rarer the character.

The game limits the speed of the trainer to a walking pace. Even the cruising speed of a bicycle is too fast for obtaining mileage (kilometerage?) credit towards an egg hatch, and most game functions shut down at anything approaching the speeds of motorized travel.

After it’s launch, the game became the most successful launch of any App in history with over 10 million people downloading the App in the first week. It was so successful that some were threatened by the amount of people exercising in public areas. 

Most people know the exercise App by the name Pokémon GO. Millions of people use it every day and many of them don’t realize that it is encouraging them to exercise.

Copyright 2016 – Paul Kiser