1705: Pokémon Go

2016-07-11T05:44:58Z

I G U: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1705
| date = July 11, 2016
| title = Pokémon Go
| image = pokemon_go.png
| titletext = Still waiting for the Pokémon Go update that lets you capture strangers' pets.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|A few remarks - I don't actually know anything about how Pokemon Go works. Details are needed for the uninformed (like me). New editor: Was GO released in all of North America, or just the US? Also, is this possibly a snub by Randall to the distractedness of GO players that Cueball takes his phone out AFTER seeing the Squirtle, when if the Squirtle was actually in the app Cueball shouldn't be able to see him in real life, yet he proceeds to try and capture the Squirtle anyway, and possibly another jab in that Randall has made a Squirtle toy, which some would consider more valuable than a Squirtle made of electrons? This would also benefit if someone could add hyperlinks to a Pokemon GO explanation and a link to the Generation One and Two games, possibly a false citation needed footnote for Pokemon being popular.}}

Pokemon Go is a smartphone game in which players attempt to capture first and second-generation Pokemon (Pokemon from the first two series of games released), randomly placed around the world in an AR format so that they can only be seen through the phone. Randall is playing a prank on all players happening upon these Pokemon who would assume that they are from the game and that their phone is having trouble loading them.

Pokemon Go is an augmented reality (AR) smartphone game, where players walk around the real world trying to find digital Pokemon around them to capture, then leveling them up and/or evolving them, and using them in battle, similar to the classic Pokemon games for handheld consoles. Due to the popularity of the Pokemon franchise, after Pokemon GO's release in America on July 6, 2016, many fans of the series have been walking around with their smartphones out to capture and battle Pokemon, sometimes looking very ridiculous in the process. Randall jokes that he has replicated the AR properties of the Pokemon in the app (that is, when you encounter a Pokemon, it is a small computer-generated sprite placed over your phone's front camera image that moves about your screen, giving the appearance of a "real" Pokemon in front of you) in real life by making small plastic models of various Pokemon so they would seem to fit on a smartphone screen due to perspective, embedding a gyroscope in them so the wobble about their base and give the appearance of basic computer-created movement, and adding a subtle underlight to give them a slightly computer-generated look compared to the real world around them. These effects combined fools avid Pokemon GO players into taking out their smartphone to capture the Pokemon for their game, when in fact it is just a toy sitting in front of them.

This comic is part of the My Hobby series. In this case, the hobby is pranking players of Pokemon Go by replicating the appearance of the augmented reality mechanic.

In the title text, Randall is still waiting for an update that allows capture of strangers' pets- besides the obvious, playing by the rules of Pokemon only wild Pokemon can be caught (not any with an owner). However, in the Pokemon Colosseum games, through the use of a specialized device the player steals from the villains, the player can capture other trainers' Pokemon. This is also a callback to an earlier strip wherein Black Hat wishes for a Pokeball that works on strangers' pets.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

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1705: Pokémon Go