Say a word for Pikachu

Honestly, when I heard about the struggle with the Pokémon in the Duma - at first I thought it was such a good joke. But, alas, it was not the first of April. And later, under the influence of news and all sorts of paranoid articles on the Internet - even close people began to write to me with worries about the machinations of the CIA and the global conspiracy. Brave Cossacks took to the streets to fight with the enemy, and society split into those who looked at all this disgrace with a smirk and those who, despite everything, continued to hunt in arms with batteries.

It must be said that the materials in favor of spyware arguments look really believable. Especially for people who themselves have never played a game and do not even have a superficial understanding of how games are generally made and promoted.

All the more fun to read all sorts of strange investigations about how cunningly the Pokemon viral company was arranged. And the fact that just the idea and the implementation are well laid down - for some reason, many do not allow. People simply fear what they do not understand. And I will try to give 15 basic arguments in order to dispel this fear.
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1. Many do not understand what the game is about.

About whom it is clear - about pokemon. But when you talk to most critics, it turns out that very few people played the game at all. Even among game developers. This gives rise to many unfounded fears. For those who have just played - you can skip this section. For those who are afraid to install the game or do not want to spend their time on it (while worrying about a loved one, for example) - be sure to read.

I will try to explain the essence in accessible language. The game is actually quite simple. Users must search for Pokemon, moving on a virtual copy of the map of the world. Position on the map depends on the GPS (the coordinates of which the cheaters learned to fake almost immediately). From the bottom right there is a radar showing a list of Pokemon that are nearby (but their exact location is not shown!).

A pokemon is caught by an accurate and correct throw of a pokeball (famous ball). Each pokemon has its own level of development, which can be increased. Also, Pokemon can evolve as you pump. The whole trick with finding new species is really just excitement. Find someone who does not have friends. Pump up a cool strong pokemon and show the world your coolness. Well, just collecting itself is also exciting.

Also on the map you can find poke-stops, points from which you can collect all sorts of useful items. And there really is no sense in walking around the city in their search, since the reloading of one such point usually lasts 5 minutes. After that you can collect the loot again.

The second type of points - Gym'y (a kind of arena). 3 teams are fighting for their capture. Here you can send your team of Pokemon to attack in order to discourage it from enemies. Or, if the point already belongs to your team, pump the Gym to a new level and thereby allow another player to add his Pokémon to the guard. By capturing such points once a day (actually a little less than a day), you can collect useful resources. In general, from the main and all.

2. Points on the map are scattered randomly.

All this fuss, I remember, began with the fact that they say insidious developers have placed points in inaccessible places for satellites, so that we can find out what our apartments are and state houses. institutions. And this, in my opinion, is complete paranoid delusion.

Most of the points are scattered almost by accident. Sometimes it is empty, it is thick. And often pokestopes - are located in our country at the playgrounds. And yes, in shopping malls, parks and churches for example. Since hardly a single poor man could pick up and process the whole world by hand. Or even 100. Why waste time on it at all?

Obviously, Google’s sights database was used or something like that (to be honest, I was too lazy to look for exact information). Since each point has a name and a photo of the area. Most likely these photos were not made by Google, they were made and laid out by our compatriots. But the alignment of most points was exactly done automatically according to a given algorithm. And initially, this database seemed to be taken from the last game of developers (not so popular and not so spyware).

By the way, until recently it was possible to send requests to add new points. But the ability to send removal requests to existing ones still has not been canceled. So if something is bothering you somewhere, go ahead, in the fight against universal evil.

3. The camera is usually turned off to save battery.

The game by the way is very well eating battery. From what to search for Pokemon usually take external batteries. And they turn off the camera (AR mode). Yes, and this chip is very annoying, because it is not quite accurate. So you can walk quietly, at least for experienced pokemon masters, the camera is often turned off.

4. The game has not yet been released in Russia

Yes Yes. Many for some reason miss this moment. But the game can still be installed only bypass. And if espionage were the goal, it would be at least strange to admit such a mistake. But since the launch (July 6th) - the game is still unavailable in many countries. Including our beloved vast country. And from the very beginning the game was available only in the USA, Australia and New Zealand (these countries are often used for the initial launch).

Developers are just preparing for release in our country and only recently added a Russian-language page of the game. Time to ban it in the country gave the developers quite enough. Or maybe they are still just peeping into the apartments of other countries ...

5. Pokémon servers cannot handle the load.

Despite the soft launch (soft launch software, that is, the game is consistently launched in different countries) - in the first weeks after the server launch, the games were often overloaded. Many experienced problems entering the game. And this suggests that, in general, the cunning developers did not expect such an influx.

As a result, the launch in many countries is still postponed due to the fact that the servers may be overloaded. Even in Japan (the home of the Pokemon), the game came out only recently.

6. Popularity was a surprise

I do not really believe in some kind of directly super-viral marketing. Including because otherwise the developers would hardly have allowed such a puncture to overload the servers if they had expected in advance the explosive growth of the audience. Plus there is no localization of the game and all that.

I remember all this HYIP with Pokémon on TV in the past, I remember how all my classmates went crazy about this topic. And again, many adults have criticized the series, for all sorts of bloated media cases of epilepsy in Japan. But it was still cool, such an everyday common topic for discussion at school. Now ask anyone for 20 or even 30 - most often at least a couple of favorite Pokemon from childhood, but there is.

So in fact, the time just came and found a good idea for a game with geo-location. After all, before that, there were already many attempts to do something similar (including from the developers of Pokemon Go), but all this could not even compare closely with popularity.

7. The main audience of the game - girls

Yes, in the end most of the players are girls who just had another reason to take a walk. As it turned out in a recent study. And it seems that the main wave has descended and the popularity of Pokemon is rapidly falling. That in itself does not sound so threatening, is it?

8. Pokemon use

And yes - do not believe everything. Most news about idiots who beat Pokemon Go somewhere behind the wheel is linden. Now all and sundry , including the media use the subject to attract users, while people are interested. Yes, there are real unpleasant cases with fanatics. But do not judge the game by him, which will always be in any popular direction.

By the way, from the very first versions of the game, while loading, a message like “Carefully, look around” hangs. And if you turn on the game on the way, a window will appear in which you will need to confirm that you are a passenger. I don’t even know what else the developers have to do in order to save the players' grief from stupidities. But according to the same logic, it would be much more effective to prohibit, for example, SMS messages, so that drivers finally stop sitting in this terrible application while driving.

9. The idea of ​​the game was born from a comic movie.

Many have already heard about this. Initially, the idea to make a game with the search for Pokemon on the map arose from the April Fools Google video (and not in the dark offices of the CIA). A strange way to work and take over the world, isn't it? And yes, people wanted to play something, many people liked the idea even then.

10. Game code is not protected.

The game is made on the Unity engine and is easily decompiled . “It’s not a sign of any obfuscation. All packages have readable names. That is, the game code is not protected at all.

To be honest, this is the biggest argument in favor of the game being made without insidious plans. And it simply speaks of the inexperience or excessive haste of the developers of this game. Since for multiplayer games (especially with PVP) - protection is very important, and usually a lot of attention is paid to this. Immediately all right on a platter.

This led to the fact that a lot of cheaters appeared in the game. Many played just from home, grabbing points (using fake GPS coordinates). This, incidentally, is very disappointing for players who actually gathered in groups to fight for the Gym. You used to sit around no one - and they captured a single point, putting some Pokemon there with a suspiciously high level of pumping.

Only recently, cheaters have finally begun to ban. But the problem is still not completely resolved.

11. Request for access to personal data was an error

There was also a panic (originally raised, by the way, not in Russia, but then again inflated by our media) about the fact that the game asks for full rights during installation and may have access to all your personal data. By the way, many popular games do this. And most often - this is again the laziness of the developers.

Moreover, you do not need to issue most of the required rights. After covering the problem in the media - the developers have eliminated this problem and assured that it was a mistake (no wonder, even with the protection of their own interests, that is, the protection of the game from hacking - they have problems).

However, there is a pirated version of the game, which still wants too many rights. So you should be careful not to get infected than worse.

12. Spies have long been in your pockets.

The game developers Niantic originally belonged to Google. And there are, in principle, many startups inside and many of them are very cool. But in general, Google itself is accused in connection with the CIA.

And the most popular today mobile phones - Android and iOS are made by you know where. So the question is - do you really think that in order to take possession of your sacred personal data, find out your location, listen, whatever - did you need such a complex crutch in the form of Pokemon GO ??? Yes, if so judged - the CIA has long been in your pockets. And the data of many (including mine) is carefully stored by Google / Apple servers.

So everything has already been done, if anything went wrong. Although I personally have nothing to hide, so it’s easier to live. Is it true that we are being watched? You can argue long. Would you have such resources? Probably yes. But do not interfere with this Pokemon!

13. The American dream has come true

In fact, the answer is all under the nose. The developers just wanted to make money. And you can congratulate them - the project soared higher than you could only dream of.

“As of July 12, 2016, in Pokémon Go, only for iOS in the US daily purchases of 1.6 million dollars were made, while only 5% of players paid.” "For the first three trading days, Nintendo went up by $ 8 billion due to a 41% increase in the price of its shares." You can find a lot of news in the news about the financial success of the game. But the fact remains that all this was the original goal of the developers, and not something that many there fantasized on themselves.

And Nintendo itself (the owner of the Pokemon trademark) is actually from Japan, and the friendship with the CIA is hardly interesting for them. But they have increased sales of their Nintendo DS. It is worthwhile to read the history of the creation of Pokemon in general and many questions will disappear.

Like any successful game - now Pokemo GO is attacked by an army of clones. Only now she for some reason does not care about anyone. It may be right - hardly any game in the near future will be able to surpass Pokemon in popularity.

14. The game solves real problems.

I myself am not a big fan of the game. Rather, this story is interesting to me purely as a game developer who, like many, has long awaited the appearance of a popular geo-location game. But ignorance must be fought so that there are fewer unnecessary different anxieties. They are always enough.

Take a look at the question from the other side. When this story began - I personally was in Irkutsk. Regarding the provincial town. And there over the years, young people suddenly found a reason to leave the house and begin to get to know each other in reality, to do something together. This is incredibly cool. And even those who, in principle, do not like mobile games, began to play.

In the capital, everything is as always cooler, really. But sometimes with the Gym'a grab, it is quite possible to see a couple from his or someone else’s team on the nearest bench. It is clear that this is just a game and generally empty, sort of like a waste of time. But in the age of the Internet there are actual problems (association is one of them), which this game solves completely. Do we really lack more tangible problems in our country that we should fight against?

15. This is only the beginning.

The world is changing, no need to be afraid of it. After all, in fact, games from geo-locations and AR are just the beginning. Ahead of us is the era of virtual reality, which will quietly enter our lives.

On the one hand, it will be interesting. But on the other - there will definitely be fanatics who do not know the sense of proportion. And also those who try to harm with the help of new technologies to other people.

But in general, it is inevitable for most technologies. And this is no reason not to develop and not to look for a new one. After all, the point is not what we create, but who and how it uses. So just stop running from change. Instead, you should try to first understand what it is all about and less watch TV saturated with political propaganda. Otherwise, so all the fun you can skip.



In general, I hope I have given enough reason to dispel your fears. For me, the game developers themselves as villains turned out to be too reckless if they really wanted to spy. Or they just do not need it. But that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?