slide 1: The Internet Sensation: Pokémon Go and
All of Its Sometimes Infamous Glory
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Davis J martin
Writer at Alertra writes on
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slide 2: About 20 years ago Pokémon was a raging phenomenon. Parents
waited in line for hours hoping to get their hands on the coveted
Pokémon cards praying that this time their child would get the oh-so-
rare Charizard or some other card that was missing from their beloved
collection. The most advanced the game got in terms of technology
were the little cartridges players would put into their Gameboys some
of those Gameboys even being “special edition” models created just for
Pokémon players. Anything and everything having to do with Pikachu
and his friends was bound to be a smashing success. But it’s 20 years
later. Is Pokémon even relevant today other than for those who
perhaps kept their collectible cards out of some sense of nostalgia
The answer is quite surprising. Pokémon is back and it’s back with a
vengeance. However the Pokémon of the new millennium is a very
different creature than what it was back in the 1990’s. Welcome to a
world where Pokémon Go is now taking the masses by storm and
while new opportunities are arising from this game so are new
problems.
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slide 3: What Is Pokémon Go
Gone is the game that allowed children and some adults to be couch
potatoes playing card games or video games from the comfort of their
living rooms. If you want to play Pokémon Go you actually do need to
get up and “go.” In this new version of the game you search the world
around you for Pokémon that seem to be hiding everywhere.
Unlike the older versions of Pokémon this one is free to play although
in-app purchases are supported of course. All you need is a
smartphone with GPS capability and a built-in camera and you can be
one of the many Pokémon Go players that have come forth from the
woodwork. The game allows you to capture battle and train the virtual
Pokémon that you catch by finding them in your local surroundings or
not so local surroundings depending on how serious you are about the
game. When the app is in play the creatures appear on the screen of
your device as though they were right there in the real world.
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slide 4: Not exactly the Pokémon that many grew up either loving or loathing.
In fact the only real similarity to playing Pokémon Go as opposed to
yesteryear’s Pokémon is that some of the characters are still more
coveted than others and are harder to find perhaps making it more
addicting for those who have entered into Pokémon Go territory.
The Amazing Success of Pokémon Go
While the game was first released to mixed reviews one of the biggest
advantages of the app was that it proved to be an incentive to get
people out of the house and interacting with the world around them.
Instead of adventuring from your living room couch you actually had to
go out and play in the real world to achieve success with the app. What
could possibly be bad about a game that got people out of their houses
and interacting with the real world again
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slide 5: Unfortunately when the game was released the company did not
resolve all of its technical issues causing numerous people to become
frustrated with the app. The players wanted it to be love at first sight
they really did. That’s not exactly what happened however. Regardless
that did not prevent Pokémon Go from becoming a stellar success.
Within days it became one of the most-used apps on the planet
bypassing the success of long-time favorites such as Candy Crush
Saga and even causing a spike in the stock of the parent company.
What few seemed to be asking however was how this new
phenomenon would affect other websites and apps already in
existence or even those waiting to emerge and piggyback on the
success of the newest big hit.
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slide 6: Speaking of Technical Difficulties
Due to the unprecedented success of the game at launch Pokémon
Go suffered from quite a few server outages caused by servers being
overloaded due to extreme usage. Crashes were frequent.
Authentication errors persisted for a number of days. In fact for the first
two days after launch players weren’t even able to access the game’s
Trainer Club accounts and only Gmail-based accounts were able to
enter this new world of Pokémon. Then there were the fights over who
should be using whose servers. On July 16 just a few hours after the
release of the game in Australia outages began and Australian players
began pointing the finger at United Kingdom players for not using their
own local servers and instead jumping onto the Australian servers for
access. Then a few days after that the game went down again when it
was launched in Canada.
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slide 7: With so many outages the launch of Pokémon Go became a perfect
example of what not to do when launching a new app and why testing
and monitoring are much too important to overlook during the launch of
any new app or website.
Now while some may say that an app that may have been launched
prematurely is sure to encounter some problems here and there we
need to realize that Pokémon Go is a completely different ballgame. Not
only does it affect its own servers but the game can also affect the
servers of apps like Reddt Vine Tinder and Tumblr which are all
popular sites for Pokémon Go players to frequent and discuss their
newest adventures. As such some of these apps could suffer. New
sites catering to the Pokémon Go crowd could also suffer if they don’t
plan properly for the possibility of going viral.
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slide 8: Becoming a Part of the Pokémon Go Craze
Now while some sites may suffer some drawbacks due to the popularity
of Pokémon Go others may benefit from it. Data tracking companies
have begun to note what Pokémon Go players do with their downtime
and activities usually involve stopping at a restaurant or shopping. By
implementing Pokémon Go promotions some businesses may be able
to drive traffic during what would normally be slower times of the day or
can maximize traffic during peak business hours. However an online
presence will be crucial and maintaining that online presence and
monitoring the uptime of it will play a large role in the success of such
marketing endeavors. In short you don’t want to launch a Pokémon Go
promotion without having proper website monitoring in place since one
can never really anticipate the effect that the Pokémon Go phenomenon
will have on a website.
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slide 9: Alertra is a leading provider of website monitoring and alerting services.
We monitor the availability and performance of Internet-connected
devices. Alertra website monitoring provides timely alert notifications
and access to detailed reporting. We offer site monitoring service to all
sizes of businesses from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies.
For web monitoring service details visit us at Alertra.com.
Thank you for spending your precious time in reading this article.
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