Is Pokemon Go the open world MMO we’ve all been waiting for?

Pokemon Go

Pokemon GO is a full scale open world MMO

And we didn’t even know we wanted it.

Now that Pokemon Go has become a worldwide phenomenon in the most full blown proportions. Surpassing Twitter in daily active users and even blowing Tinder off the top spot in app downloads this week. Its easy to see why. Most people, even non gamers can easily get into it. It is especially popular with the 90’s generation of kids that started playing Pokemon or watching the cartoon since 1997.

But why?

Pokemon Go has managed to tap into the gaming space, the inner-child space and the exploratory space in most peoples heads by now. Just like in games like WoW you see something far off in the distance and have to see it. This time though, you actually have to leave the couch.  Some Pokemon and places can only be found by walking there. Sure you can drive and sort of cheat. However you’d be depriving yourself of the real meat and potatoes of the game. Exploring places you otherwise wouldn’t have been, or simply getting up off the couch to go find the closest gym and challenge it.

Just like in the Pokemon games for GameBoy and the DS your character is you, the Pokemon trainer. However this time instead of being ten years old, you can be however old you actually are.

Players gathering in one spot is reminiscent of meeting with other player characters in games like WoW or meeting with NPC’s in other MMO’s to go on raids. Except this time, its in real life, with people you either already know or just met. Here in my town people have been coming together from all sorts of different places and meeting to set off a lure at a nearby Pokestop, make some new friends or finally get the chance to catch some rare and powerful Pokemon.

Players only starting now shouldn’t worry too much about not being able to catch up with the crowd swarm of folks already playing. Each individual has an equal chance, no matter how late they begin. Gamers may find they can walk down the street to catch a very powerful creature and find themselves battling a gym and taking it over. Its all too common, which adds to the serious allure of the game. Finding that prized Pokemon, catching them all or just joining in the fun. Its all up to the player to choose.

Teams

Pokemon Go also has three factions to choose from. Players can choose Team Valour (Red team) Team Mystic (Blue Team) or Team Instinct (Yellow team). Choosing which team you’re on is apparently of incredible importance. Showing others who you really are.   Or just go with the herd and choose Mystic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living the dream

In the 1990’s, kids everywhere wanted Pokemon to be a real thing. Something they could collect, battle and train. Back then players had to go forth with their GameBoy and meet other kids in the school yard to battle or trade and collect them only in the world the game has already laid out for them. he challenges became the same after so many play-through’s and the Pokemon certainly didn’t look quite as realistic as they do in Pokemon Go. Now its almost as if you can live that dream, albeit 20 years later and as grown adults. Patience is a virtue, and clearly none of us had enough patience when this game was dropped into the world. Its practically everything we’ve ever dreamed f as hardcore Poke-fans and its real and in our hands.

 

Trainers are everywhere, players are everywhere. Join them, defeat them, or catch’em’all. Its up to you! 

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