Augmented 2.0, Or After Pokemon Go

I Am The Trainer Who Pokes

On a daily basis, I walk my dog through my neighborhood for a couple of miles. It's almost always a solitary experience, which is fine; we can both use the exercise, and I do some of my best writing (well, pre-writing) at the other end of his leash.

But tonight, we had company... my two kids, locked into their phones from the most viral video game of their lifetimes, and having a grand old time while getting covert exercise.

As the miles passed and my kids utterly failed to notice sore feet, darkness that usually spooks them a bit, and the sudden and mildly dangerous phenomenon of other kids playing the game, but on bicycles, I thought about what happens next for this relentlessly viral hit. Over 1 out of every 20 Droid phones have the game now, in just a week of release, each one a conscious download, and it's hard to imagine that this is going to be the last manifestation of mobile phone with augmented reality. I can easily imagine, say, a zombie apocalypse game with similar movement needs, maybe a player vs. player first person shooter, hopefully with more comedic aspects than gore. The toothpaste is out of this tube, and all that's left is to see how many bogus "news" stories will spawn from it, or how long the fad will run. (My guess for this game? At least until Labor Day. After that, all bets are off.)

There's something cheery about the community here, though. Mobile technology has helped to stunt social skills, in my opinion, with people retreating to text their emotions in virtual safe spaces, rather than learning real-life conflict resolution. Now, at least, perfect strangers are interacting around a simple shared interest, making virtuous trades, maybe even making new friends. I'm told that peer versus peer gaming is soon on the horizon, which will likely spur more interactions, if not more friendships.

I suppose that, on some level, this is the kind of VR we should have expected. No special gear, no over-the-top age-inappropriate graphics or restrictions, and with faint whiffs of digital hoarding; it's as American as you can get, despite not being American at all. But just because this is first, and it might be the biggest one for a very long while... that doesn't mean it will be the last. Or that the concept won't soon infest every airport, waiting room, doctor's office, DMV and pharmacy where making people wait without getting annoyed about the waiting is well worth the cost of wifi.

* * * * *

Feel free to comment, as well as like or share this column, connect with me on LinkedIn, or email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or hit the RFP boxes at top right. RFPs are always free, and we hope to hear from you soon.