Pokémon Go #1: This Looks a Little Familiar

In Electronic Frontiers: Branding the “Nintendo Generation” (1985-1990) the author discusses how “Nintendo colonizes its child players” and makes their “attention, time, desires, ambitions, and fantasies become attached to the Nintendo world” (Kline 126). While the piece focuses on how Nintendo did this with the Mario series, I think the same can be said about what Nintendo did with Pokémon, too. While the “Nintendo Generation” is classified from 1985-1990, the following ten-fifteen years saw the rise of Pokémon; with Pokémon Go, Nintendo is trying to market to older players the same way they used to market to children, banking on nostalgia to get us to play. (Admittedly, Nintendo isn’t the only group that owns Pokémon, but the brand is generally associated with Nintendo).

I’ll admit I bought into the Pokémon Go craze when the app initially launched; the nostalgia of revisiting a much beloved childhood series with a fresh perspective was difficult to resist at the time. It almost feels like cheating that I’ve played the game before and could begin where I left off, but it was nice to not have to start from scratch again. Still, before I can go into what I think of the game now I believe it is essential to reflect on what drew me to the game at first, and why I stopped so quickly after starting.

Nintendo’s marketing plan for Pokémon Go was great, but in the end they failed to create the app that was promised. The commercial showed all sorts of features (trading, battling with friends, etc.) that weren’t actually present in the app; these missing features are what would have likely made the game worth playing for longer than a month.

What we did get simply got boring after the novelty and nostalgia wore off. Gyms were annoying, there was no way to train your pokémon, and it was often difficult to find new or interesting pokémon without going to ridiculous lengths. I got tired of staring at my phone while walking around, watching my battery drain for a game that wasn’t actually that fun when I broke it down to mechanics.

Still, the craze was interesting to watch – especially after I stopped playing. It became a game to pick out people who were playing the game rather than talking to the group they were with (they were always easy to spot, especially in crowded places). Reading all of the sensationalist headlines in the media held some amusement, as well – really, it seemed like the hype surrounding the game held my attention more than the app itself.

I am interested in seeing what’s changed since I previously played; it has been about half a year after all. I suppose we’ll see if Pokémon Go manages to catch my interest any more this time around!

(This blog post represents my first play session, although I didn’t discuss actual gameplay all that much. I played on my phone throughout the day on campus).