Pokemon Go

Well, I have gone over to the dark side, or the pokemon side, to the tremendous ridicule of my family!  But in reality, as I am studying technology in education and online learning so pokemon go is actually really fascinating.  It leverages the technology that is so available in our phones, gps, cameras, and of course the processing power.  

Boy does the phone heat up.

So, first thoughts?  Lots of folks have scuttled out of their basement gaming consoles to come into the sun and walk around, which is definitely cool, most of them seem to be doing it with friends or a partner, which is also really neat.  It also seems to spawn a certain amount of conversation amongst other pokemon go players.

It does seem to indicate a fairly short attention span however, as the pokemons you find while walking even the shortest distance come thick and fast.  We seem to need a lot of feedback, and quickly.  Not a lot of patience amongst the searchers, which is noticeably different from geocaching, which need quite a lot of patience for the reward to come.  Different.  Geocaching also needs considerably more problem solving skills, a much tougher game.

By the same token, the use of augmented reality on the phones is very cool, and does add degree of interest to it.  And it does require you to get quite physically close to spaces, which increases the chance of people going out in person and doing this, and also of them socializing as they are physically in close proximity to one another.  

It'll be interesting to see what I figure out from it as I level up.  Not sure how long the interest will last, but it is a neat usage of the newest technology and could certainly be used in an educational setting, as it is essentially a treasure hunt.  

Things I dislike is the clear gendering of the avatars, there is no option but male and female, and you cannot alter body shape (which is generally quite unrealistic) or hair length, either in the men or the women.  A little frustrating.