It was previously announced that the United States would be included in the "Pokemon Go" beta testing. The time has finally come, "Pokemon Go" beta is now live in the U.S. giving players the chance to experience the thrill of a "Pokemon Go" gameplay.
Niantic Labs recently made an announcement that "Pokemon Go" beta is now available in the United States. In fact the gamemaker is inviting interested Americans to sign up for the testing and download the game. This is Niantic's way of receving feedback from future US customers by giving them a taste of what a "Pokemon Go" gameplay could be.
But a caveat. Niantic specifically warns beforehand that signing up and even downloading the game does not guarantee that one can actually get into the beta testing. And that is understandable. From a game developer's point of view, this is just a "Pokemon Go" beta testing and naturally does not yet support the millions of players the game is bound to attract in the final "Pokemon Go" release. For now, the slots are still limited.
The United Staes joins the privileged few countries to experience a "Pokemon Go" beta testing phase. Pokemon fans in Austrualia Japan and New Zealand were likewise given the chance of experiencing an actual "Pokemon Go" gameplay via the beta testing platform.
So how does a "Pokemon Go" gameplay feels like? Kotaku shares the experience of an anonymous player who tried the "Pokemon Go" beta in Australia.
According to the player, the "Pokemon Go" beta game feels lonely. The anonymous player complains that the game has no story content and does not seems to give the player a sense of how much he or she has progressed into the game.
Another "Pokemon Go" beta feature, or its lack thereof, that the player noticed as contributory to his impression of loneliness was that the game did not offer some form of social interaction. Players can't battle against each other face to face, which would have been an exciting augmented reality feature.
But his depressing story might be because he played the game alone at night. While looking for pokemons to catch he found himself out of breath and in the middle of the park catching pokemons which he can see on his gadget's screen superimposed on his actual environment. And it was raining.
In case one is wondering why he would be playing outdoors, that is the beauty of augmented reality games like "Pokemon Go." Unlike virtual reality where the real world is substituted by a computer generated one, augmented reality makes use of the actual environment for users to interact with, according to HowStuffWorks. It's like one of those high-tech car screens seen on movies where they show and highlight incoming vehicles and their speed and probably warn the driver of a possible crash.
In the case of "Pokemon Go," it makes use of the actual environment of a player which is supposed to make it more interactive and fun. Going back to the anonymous player, its probably because the game is still a work in progress and does not yet contain all the exciting features of its final form.
Check the video below for a sample of how its going to be. At least one could get some exercize from chasing those pokemons. Watch out for more future "Pokemon Go" updates.
