Pokemon GO

So here is the thing...Pokémon Go is a BIG event in the history of augmented reality and gaming. The reason for this is precisely because the game has been around for SO long — a familiar design and engagement with characters and a very familiar result to the actions pursued by players means that the normally hard interface between reality and the virtual world has been comfortably and softly breached. Breached in the Pokémon kind of way, which of course means through artifice and visualization. The physical sensation is that you are walking through a world that players have always wanted to join, the animated space of cartoons. VR experiments have already taken this many steps further. Pokémon brings players into a more intimate real life connection with their desire to be part of the worlds made possible through digital technologies. Let's face it, the interface is fun, trivial and engaging. The actions are simple but social. This is not a one-off phenomenon but rather, is the beginning of an new and integrated approach to Augmented, Virtual and Experiential play. I am waiting for Magic Leap to add another dimension to this new enhanced reality that mixes up our rather staid and conventional notions of both what reality is and how images work.