Go Pokémon Go! Why this game is important…

Let me preface by reminding everyone of my age. I’m 37. From what I’m told, Pokémon wasn’t created until 1996, and reached its first peak of popularity in 2000. I was already drinking age and the only card games I played were in casinos or required me to do shots. Until somewhat recently, I thought the little yellow mascot Pikachu was actually called Pokémon. Needless to say, my time spent playing this game was at absolute zero.

My tenure in the tech sector aligns almost identically with the lifespan of Pokémon. Everyone who knows me, knows that I live and breathe technology. Whether it’s consumer gadgetry, programming languages, data sets, or anything with a button, light, or screen that beeps, blinks, or otherwise turns on; I’m into it. Always have been.

I heard about Pokémon Go about a year ago and promptly dismissed it. After all, it’s a brand I don’t care about, right? Fast forward to present day. This game launches and every millennial on my team is going cuckoo for Pokémon Cocoa Puffs. To not feel like the old guy not invited to the party, I downloaded the app. I promptly caught a Charmander, and proudly proclaimed “I caught a dinosaur and his tail is on fire!”

After playing a little while, I was amazed. Not so much at the game or fire-tailed dinosaurs, but the intersection of so many technologies. I think Augmented Reality is very cool, cooler than Virtual Reality even. I love the blend of digital and actual. This game uses that. I had the app open and it spotted the Charmander. My camera popped on and I was staring at Pokémon sitting beneath the desk of a colleague.

But it doesn’t stop with AR. The game is a bird’s eye view of the real world. Sitting in my lower Manhattan office I see the streets of Battery Park City and even the yacht marina outside my window. If Manhattan is famous for skyscrapers, it should be equally famous for landmarks. In the game, landmarks function as Pokéstops — locations where you can retrieve goodies — and Gyms — locations where you fight other Pokémon. Since Niantic Labs, the developer of the game, is owned by Google they are using Google Maps data.

I learned that Pokémon have different abilities and characteristics. They are elemental. So you have water types and fire types and poison types, etc and so forth. Additional topographical and elemental map data are implemented so I’m likely to catch water types at work being just feet from the mighty Hudson. I’m replete with the useless Magikarp, currently.

As you walk, your character walks, so the GPS function is baked deeply into the game. Sometimes you’ll get an egg and an incubator and a hatch requirement of 5Km. Better get to walking if you want to see what pops out, but don’t cheat because it doesn’t register over 10 miles per hour. My 25 mile commute in the car doesn’t help me hatch new Pokémon.

So we have Augmented Reality/Camera, GPS, accelerometer, and at least 2 kinds of map data. This is the first time we’ve seen so much work in concert. A game called Ingress was the first iteration of this, but got very little adoption. Once Niantic partnered with Nintendo and skinned Ingress as Pokémon, virality hit.

Nintendo has seen a $9 billion surge in its valuation. Google searches for the word Pokémon are at record highs in its 20-year life. And parents are reporting that their kids are off the couch. I’ve been watching the movement closely and kids are out for hours on end hunting Pokémon. The “Go” part of “Pokémon Go” is not the minor function.

I learned of strategy. You get “candies” for each Pokémon which you can use to “evolve” them into a more superior form. I evolved a bird into a bigger bird. I was going to evolve him again into an even larger bird. But a complex consideration of how many candies I have versus the amount required for a level 3 evolve versus how many level 1’s I can send to level 2 and the amount of experience points I can get meant it made sense to do the latter. What? I can’t even write the algorithm these kids are using to strategize and synthesize the best Pokémon out there. Keep in mind, these are kids on summer vacation from school. I don’t know many teens wishing they could do more algebra in July, but put it in a Pokémon wrapper.

I’ve even heard about impromptu economics and trade lessons. As the creators ramp up a new release that includes a player-vs-player battle and trading system, players are frantically strengthening all of their characters and building more in reserve just to use as clout and to entice trades. Your Pokémon Go GDP is your key to success once you can trade with other players.

To the untrained eye, it seems like another time waster. Another digital distraction for already overstimulated gamer teens. But when you look at all the factors required to work in tandem, you quickly realize that this game is taking the world by storm for a reason — a very good reason. Wall Street seems to agree. Nintendo’s stock was $14390 when the bell rang on launch day (July 7) and is sitting at $21830 as of the closing bell on July 13. Shares don’t jump 51% for failures.

So if you’re complaining, stop and go catch ’em all. If you’re into it, let me know when you find a Snorlax.