Pokemon Go is popular all over the world, but this popularity stems from the relatively innovative gameplay of this game, and it is also a big explosion that developer Niantic has accumulated from quantitative change to qualitative change in the field of augmented reality for many years. The biggest highlight of the game is the combination of AR (augmented reality) technology and the role setting of pet elves. The highlight of the core gameplay is that after starting the game and turning on Google Maps and positioning functions, the game will superimpose Pikachu, Squirtle and other elves in the real-time picture shot by the camera. These elves may be hiding in any corner. You need to walk around with your mobile phone, find it and catch it.
Rely on Google Maps to find elves, but Google Maps has been absent from the China market for 6 years, and the accuracy of domestic data is greatly reduced.
So the basis of this game is to rely on Google Maps to find elves. Catching elves is closely related to the built-in map data, which is also the basic support of the game. Hank, the founder of Niantic, was a former director of Google Maps and Earth. He knows the importance of the accuracy of map data to Pokemon, because map data determines which Pokemon are in which locations, and many location data are often submitted by users. It is said that the current game map contains 5 million locations. Developers need to know where there are streams, rivers or ponds, zoos, parks, etc. , and arrange different Pokemon through these positions. In other words, in this game, there are many Pokéstops (pocket sites)-historic buildings, museums, art galleries, parking lots, commercial streets and other landmark buildings, which contain a series of "treasures", including fairy balls and fairy eggs. Google Maps has no problem locating Pokéstops in Europe, America and Japan, but it faces difficulties in China.
Google Maps has built a global ecosystem that relies on its map API. Google Maps is rich in data abroad and updated in time, but it is another scene in China. 20 10 After Google withdrew from China, its data collection and information update in China have fallen behind. Even if Google Maps returns to China, Google's map information updating system, channel development and data collection will almost all start again. Google has been out of China for six years, and there are too many shortcomings to be solved. Therefore, the impact of this is that if you play Pokemon Go through Google Maps, the domestic data is not perfect, the accuracy is not enough, and the positioning is often wrong when playing, and the effect is greatly reduced. If you want to cooperate with other map manufacturers to navigate and locate, then there are certain gaps and differences between the technologies such as map street view technology, 3D map, photo tour technology and panoramic map, or the map foundation changes, and the content and data of the game are needed.
In China, Pokemon doesn't have a huge fan base to support the feelings of the game.
In addition, Pokemon is a game with a history of more than 20 years. It is a big IP and has a huge fan base all over the world, especially in Japan, Europe and America. Many of its fanatical fans won't miss every Pokemon game. Even not long ago, some fans created a cartoon with the theme of the constant change of Nintendo's handheld hardware and the evolution of Pokemon series, showing the 20th anniversary of the change of Pokemon series. Its baby exchange function ranges from the original GBC PDA to DS cassette, and now it exchanges Poké mon through the mobile network. Its CEO Hank called it the "core element" of the game, and it is still used in this game. The loyal fans still love this model, which shows that the fans of this game are all over the world.
Does Pokemon have fans in China? Yes, but the fan base is small, which is basically negligible compared with the original fan base in Japan, Europe and America. Two weeks ago, most users in China were unfamiliar with Pokemon, not to mention the so-called feelings. Only through the viral spread of social channels, some users have aroused the appetite of many people in China for this game. In the final analysis, this is also a game that relies on fan emotions to drive popularity. In China, it lacks this important internal driving force, and there is still a long way to go to popularize it to the whole people.
Games customized based on western culture do not meet the preferences and tastes of domestic players.
However, it is difficult to match the pain points of China players in the absence of fan base, single gameplay and level experience system. Some people have concluded that Pokemon GO can become an explosion because it is a sports artifact that urges otaku to go out to exercise. But we know that China still lacks such outdoor social and fitness culture. Will China gamers be driven by an elf to go out for fitness and socializing frequently? I believe that domestic game geeks and people who know something about the character of gamers will be skeptical.
We know that gamers in China value the factors of team games and the level of experience, and take the games to the street for social fitness. In fact, it is more in line with western culture. The culture of barrier-free communication, making friends and fitness and social interaction with strangers is in line with the western cultural soil. In China, there is no social culture in which strangers collectively catch elves. This is not the G-spot for gamers in China. The G-spot of China gamers is online sense of honor and value, which makes them. One or two early users will find it very interesting. Over time, you will find that the whole game lacks a suitable game goal. The only fun of playing is collecting pets. In the long run, the fun and motivation of the game will rapidly decline, and users will quickly lose. This is part of human nature and actually applies to some western users.
Therefore, some game users commented that ingress's gameplay is monotonous enough, and Pokemon Go doesn't even have a team battle part, which will be boring. A veteran player in Zhihu said, Imagine you play Pokemon and cancel all the battles. There is no level experience value in this game. The only thing you can do is to catch elves in the grass with an elf ball. How long can you persist in this game? Is there any reason to continue playing besides feelings?
This game has the characteristics of a series of phenomenal products: but how to avoid aesthetic fatigue is the key.
Some players also questioned the subsequent development of this game. He said: "I am very willing to walk three blocks for a Tyrannosaurus Rex, because I am crazy about this elf. But the question is, what if there is no' spirit' that I miss so much in the distance? " So gameplay is its biggest shortcoming. If the existing gameplay is not improved and adjusted, players will be seriously lost in a short time.
So we know that its problem is how to keep users fresh and enjoy the game. This game has strong limitations in gameplay. Basically, when you walk, you meet elves, catch elves, flip cards to get props, and fight in budokan. The limitations of gameplay and species are very obvious. Coupled with the limited range of places where players usually go, there are not many kinds of elves, and the bottleneck period of users' aesthetic fatigue will soon come.
This game also has a series of characteristics of phenomenal products: simple, fun, personalized, no entry threshold and no difficulty in operation. Secondly, a strong social relationship chain promotes independent participation in communication. Players can communicate with NPC (non-player characters) instead of playing games alone, which increases the fun of the game. However, the single gameplay and lack of promotion and glory level drive make it difficult to extend its life cycle, and it is difficult to retain users only by driving players through social and fitness points.
The game between high traffic and game interest: it is difficult to win the user retention rate.
Another point that many people in the industry have also said is that this game consumes a lot of power and traffic. It doesn't matter if you don't have enough electricity to go out and bring more charging treasures. AR effect requires high performance of mobile phones, which is not a problem. Nowadays, domestic mobile phone users are changing rapidly, and most of them have high-performance smart phones. However, the huge consumption of traffic may be the pain point of users' enthusiasm fading in the later period. Gamers in China generally have a low economic level and are relatively sensitive to traffic, so users have a high voice for "unclear traffic" and "speeding up and reducing fees". In September last year, the three major telecom operators in China also officially launched the service of unclear monthly traffic of mobile phone packages.
The gameplay of this game is that AR overlays a virtual scene on the real image, which is said to consume a lot of traffic almost all the time. The novelty of AR new technology can drive users to catch elves in the early stage. However, in the case of increasing fatigue of single gameplay, if there are no new elements to match the preferred gameplay of domestic game users, players will weigh between high traffic and game interest, and user activity and retention rate will decline rapidly.
Whether the China market will be valued in the future is crucial: the possibility of being defeated by the same domestic model is very high.
Secondly, it is very important whether this game will value the China market in the future. Foreign Internet products are everywhere in China market, because of acclimatization, cultural inadaptability, failure of marketing strategy, ignorance of users' needs and China's national conditions, and arrogance. Most of them are concerned about this market in the early stage, and little resources are invested, or the operation mode and market strategy of game developers are not suitable for the domestic situation. It is said that in order to ban China players, He Jian, the Asian co-ordination marketing manager of Pokemon go, said on Twitter a few days ago that a BUG in Pokemon GO has been urgently fixed, and China players will no longer be able to access the game, saying that they are sorry for the trouble, and so on.
"The bug has been fixed and China players can't play at last." This attitude towards the China market can basically predict the difficulty of entering the China market in the future. In addition, the game lacks fan users' precipitation, emotional identity and player base in China, so it often turns out that the China version of the same paragraph can easily beat foreign explosions, and there are countless cases in the domestic Internet field. If domestic game developers can quickly develop similar augmented reality games based on the popularity of Pokemon GO, they can quickly seize the market. Based on the understanding of players' psychology, users' needs and the local market, it is not impossible to beat Pokemon GO in the domestic market.
To sum up, if Pokemon GO and other mobile games want to land in China, they have to solve many problems and weaknesses, as well as the preferences of China players and the adaptability of national conditions and culture, including the improvement of gameplay, and even think about how to avoid the safety of players. There have been many armed robbery crimes against this augmented reality mobile game player in the United States, and some players have asked not to arrange elves in dangerous areas, but at present, Pokemon GO producers still have no solution to the security problem. In China, frequent personal safety problems caused by games will be fatal and even lead to policy restrictions. However, based on the understanding of the domestic market and policies, after the game content is localized and adjusted, local games will be more suitable for China's national conditions.
The biggest contribution of Pokemon GO brought by Nintendo and Niantic Company is to present the high-tech technology of "augmented reality" used in the game to users skillfully and innovatively, bringing amazing experience to users and bringing more inspiration to the mobile game industry. At present, its popularity lies in its freshness and interest, which is almost the same as that of phenomenal products. Some insiders also said, "The success of this game depends more on the value of IP. There is no difficulty in the technical level, and there is no special algorithm for AR. "
So fresh, but not playable, there is no high threshold in technology. The most remarkable significance of Pokemon GO is that it opens a window for mobile games. For the China market, there may be more mobile games or mobile application development fields to strengthen the use of augmented reality technology. In the future, domestic AR mobile games are likely to introduce more local elements based on the gameplay of this game and launch AR games more suitable for the domestic market.
Therefore, the author believes that Pokemon GO may not be able to catch fire in China, but it is more likely to be a more in-place domestic version of Pokemon GO aimed at the pain points of domestic users. Let us continue to look forward to it.