Are you sitting in your office looking through the glass at your kingdom only to find your employees are disappearing? Are lunch hours being extended? Perhaps “smoke breaks” have become more frequent or bathroom runs have increased? If you’re finding your work force has suddenly gone missing in action for extended periods of time, it could be due to Pokémon GO. Pokémon GO is the new augmented reality game from Niantic Labs and Nintendo that the internet is abuzz about.
Pokémon GO is a brilliant collaborative effort between Niantic Labs and Nintendo. Niantic Labs may sound familiar as they developed the surprisingly popular augmented reality/scavenger hunt mobile game Ingress. A game that has built a very active and faithful following around the world. And I doubt anyone reading this needs a reminder of what Nintendo does.
The game places you into the role of a Pokémon trainer, armed with Poké Balls, finding, battling, and collecting various Pokémon creatures as they are overlaid on real world locations that actually apply to their characteristics. So, water based Pokémon, for example will be found in or around the likes of rivers and lakes. Like Ingress, Pokémon GO encourages players to leave the couch and go actively explore the world around them.
Pokémon GO is about discovering the world around you. It’s basically Ingress wrapped in a more appealing Nintendo wrapper. Discovering the world around you requires you to be out in the world. Finding Pokémon takes some work and you’ll have to mostly get off your duff to play the game. As an original Ingress player I know how much time a game like this takes. So if you’re finding your workforce has thinned, fire up Pokémon GO and you just might find them… you may even join them. Who needs to work anyway?
Last Updated on January 23, 2017.
