Pikachu has landed on our shores!!!
Over the weekend, Pokemon Go was quietly launched in Asia and everyone went crazy. Suddenly, we see kids who never would have wanted to leave their rooms coming outdoors and walking miles to actually hunt for these virtual monsters! My teenage son, whom we have been nagging to go for a morning run for ages, woke up early on Sunday morning and declared that he was going for a “run/walk”. We found him wandering far from home with his iPhone in front of him as we happen to be driving past a shopping mall later that morning. Amazing!
This huge social game phenomenon is already taking the whole world by storm. I was told that 10% of the world population are currently playing. While we hear of some dangerous incidents of overly occupied players getting injured, the positives totally outweigh the negatives.
Families now have a thing in common and picnics are in vogue again, especially in places where there are multiple PokeStops/Gyms/Lures to be found. Kids are actually looking forward to going outdoors rather than being cooped up in their rooms playing MMORPG games. Malls are also getting into the game by buying lures to attractive human traffic into the shopping centers – Lures only cost USD 1 and all players around it benefit. The marketing implications are just too staggering to imagine. Maybe this game alone can help jump-start the stagnant global economy 😉
Like email/FB/Whatsapp, Pokemon Go could be the next game changer in developing a new stage of social media, bringing everyone on planet earth even closer together.
By the way, older son has reached level 11 on day 2. Shssshhh….
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