"A Filipino Player's Review on the Struggles and Visions of John Hanke and the Pokemon Go Identity"

#PokemonGO: You know that feeling on what it actually means to play a game you once watched from the sidelines and gave it a chance once it comes around a year later?In my case, I watched it evolved from its over hyped release to become the cultural "Unifier" of the moment until it became a steady game with lots of skepticism, uncertainty, crucifixions to John Hanke, and the distant hopes of the future. Even today, the way many vocal fans react, treat, and see this game still baffles me as if they want this to be the true path to becoming the supposed successor to the main series. But for me after playing Ingress in the past, this AR focused game is essentially a "Slow-building Pokemon spin-off." A better example of my comparison would be like raising a Deino up to a Hydreigon through normal wild pokemon level grinding only.I only decided to come and try out the game around the tail end of the old GYM system while I happily walk around places I never considered exploring during my last 2 school years in college. However, I also got the chance to learn most of the frustrations and issues of the game's first generation pack. So once 2nd Generation came, it became what is essentially a fun experience for me and a motivator to become a willing wanderer and explorer on how much I can push this infant AR technology to its limits.Just imagine after the typical computer office work, you get to walk to various places for around half an hour before riding a vehicle back home. As a little bonus, working and living at a country with very bad traffic conditions, sometimes, the traffic end up helping me on what I enjoy the most out of this game: hatching eggs. With Team Instinct essentially having the parental manners and adoration, there is something so fun about discovering Pokemon through the egg you worked upon while you constantly make sure that you keep yourself healthy and exercised. Though I always eat more meat than vegetables in most meals, this exercise is like a mental check to myself that I have to avoid unnecessary fat quantities on my body.Just remember, Philippines and Japan do not have massive land masses like America. So our city structure is more "higher" because we lack land space. Everything around our cities is condensed with just about everything we need being easy to go to. I believe that this geographical and city structure vastly differs the experiences we all get as to how one plays this game. The urban vs rural is a dead beaten discussion for me to repeat.If any of you watch Star Trek, I believe some of you can see John Hanke like an actual Spock due to how his workplace at Google nurtured him with Tsunekazu Ishihara (The Pokemon Company CEO who loved Ingress according to intervierws) being closer to a Kirk. Any of you feel like these two are indirectly straining the other because of their business and creative differences?For this case, I feel like it is not just Niantic and John Hake at fault for the fiasco many reddit and non-reddit members state on Pokemon Go during its hype day. You see, I cannot help but see Mr. Ishihara accidentally ended up slipping off the lesson he learned from Myamoto where "A Delayed game is better than a rushed game." Now why am I stating that Ishihara unintentionally got involved with the blunder if Pokemon Go's initial release last year? I may be insane to criticize the CEO of a beloved franchise I lover so much. Well, here is my reason.Before Nintendo even attempted to make Miitomo, Fire Emblem, and Super Mario Jump for Android and iPhones, it was TPC and Gamefreak who had been "flirting" and testing the mobile phone environment with their Pokemon Brand during the time where Nintendo are VERY HESITANT to jump on mobile gaming like what Konami just did. It was the Pokemon franchise who convinced big brother Nintendo to be ok testing the waters of mobile phone gaming. It just so happens that TPC's CEO had a ** "New Toy Syndrome" ** (Ingress) where he ended up setting a deadline standard to early for an infant Niantic to even handle a game of epic proportions for its 20th anniversary. I bet the blunder of Pokemon Go is what told Miyamoto back then to delay Breath of the Wild for the Nintendo Switch like ... 3 times?Honestly, when I saw the trailer for the first time prior to its release, I expected an app like that to be a 2018-2021 project. But ... we know what happened. Yet even after all of the review bombings of this app and the digital cruxifixion of John Hanke, I still find hope and joy for this game as someone who has many fun things to do. As an adult with work to keep myself fed and healthy, I really still see this game like a very, very subtle telling of Satoshi Tajiri's life before he made Pokemon be the culture phenomenon it is today. Right now, the state of Pokemon Go is probably like the time when he enjoyed playing arcade games just after the forests were cut down from his hometown and the bugs disappeared.Long story short, what every player in Pokemon Go experienced is essentially us reliving the whole life of Satoshi Tajiri filled with frustrations, joys, struggles, and hopes for a brighter and more optimistic future while we nourish the passion and innocence of our childhood. Only this time, we mix his story with our own experiences to his experiences of exploring the wilderness and catching bugs when he was a kid in the 1960s via /r/pokemongo http://ift.tt/2yv519l