Pokemon Go players flock to Jakarta stadium

Members of the Pokemon Go Indonesia community flocked Bung Karno Stadium in South Jakarta at 7 a.m. on Sunday to catch Pokemon species.

From the stadium, they marched to the fX Senayan shopping mall bus stop and headed to Semanggi city park, then returned to the stadium to catch the species, said to include Doduo, Bulbasaur, Horsea and Pikachu, among others.

The community spokesperson Sulhan told The Jakarta Post that the stadium hosted many PokeStops, as did gyms. The former is a spot where players can get free items such as a Pokeball (a ball to catch and restore the species), while the latter is where players can train their Pokemon species and put them in battle. The stadium got even more crowded when players used Lure Module to attract more Pokemon species. “And more PokeStops are available outside [the stadium],” he said.

Sulhan said that they intentionally chose spots where PokeStop and gyms were located somewhat far from one other so that the players would need to walk to reach them. “It is better to move than just stay at the same spot,” he added.

Aside from catching Pokemon species while burning calories, this very first gathering of Pokemon Go Indonesia aims to increase engagement between its members.

“I can meet new people and gain new friends,” said one member, Ibnu. “It proves that Pokemon Go players are cohesive, although we come from different teams.”

source: technology.inquirer.net

Sponsored locations soon in Pokémon Go

While storeowners are dropping pokémon lures to increase traffic to their respective businesses, Niantic is talking about adding a new revenue stream for the company in the form of “sponsored locations.”

According to a report on Tech Crunch, Ninatic CEO John Hanke said that in addition to in-app purchases of power-ups and virtual items, sponsored locations will provide another option for revenue generation. Companies and retailers would be given opportunity to be featured on the game’s map as a local landmark.

This same revenue model was also implemented in Ninatic’s other augmented reality game, Ingress. Some of the companies that invested in this include convenience store chain Lawson and Tokyo Mitsubishi Bank in Japan, as well the Jamba Juice café chain, Duance Raede pharmacy and Zipcar car-rental service.

Advertisers will be charged on a “cost per visit” basis similar to how Google charges on the “cost per click” model.  Alfred Bayle

source: technology.inquirer.net

Pokémon Go offers small-business opportunities

While drivers offer their service to drive budding pokémon trainers around for a hefty sum, small shop owners could also get a slice of the Pokémon Go craze.

An article in Business Insider offers a few suggestions for taking advantage of how the game is played.

The game generally picks out local landmarks around the player and turns them into either Pokéstops or Pokémon Gyms. These could be historical landmarks, tourist spots, houses, churches and even establishments. Shop owners can take advantage of this by setting down pokémon lures and watch the pokémon hunters trickle in.

One pizzeria owner commented on Reddit threads that putting down a lure has given his business a boost with the influx of adults and children walking in to look for pokémon. The adults ended up buying a slice of pizza and a drink until the pokémon lure ran out.

If near a Pokémon Gym, establishments could do giveaways of custom Gym badges, keep score of who’s currently in control, and take to social media to publicize updates on the Gym’s current status.

Finally, entrepreneurs could simply follow where the pokémon roams, in this case places near Pokéstops and plant a lure. One could open up a small refreshment stall, sell some trinkets, and whatever else business-minded folk can think of provided it’s legal and the proper paperwork has been done.

Pokémon Go is taking the world by storm and there is little sign of it dying down any time soon. Whether entrepreneurs can capitalize on this or not is entirely up to what their business instincts tell them.  Alfred Bayle

source: technology.inquirer.net

Drone does the walking for this Pokémon Go player

While everyone is running around chasing after virtual pokémon on their smartphones, one prospective pokémon trainer thought of strapping his smartphone to a drone and let it do the leg work for him.

According to a report on The Verge, reddit user hyperion995 used a DJI Phantom drone while mirroring his smartphone’s screen on a laptop using a program called AirDroid. This program allows users to remotely access their android device from a paired Windows or Mac computer system.

While many would consider this as outright cheating, it is an undeniably clever solution to a common dilemma. The Pokémon Go app generally does not count the distance traveled when riding vehicles toward the hatching of a pokémon egg in an incubator.

The drone, however, can fly slowly enough to simulate the speed of walking, thereby tricking the app. Team Rocket would be so proud of this man.  Alfred Bayle

source: technology.inquirer.net

‘Hunger Games’ to become mobile game

SAN FRANCISCO - "The Hunger Games" is becoming a mobile game.

Interactive entertainment company Kabam announced Friday that it agreed with film studio Lionsgate to make a title for play on smartphones or tablet computers based on the dystopian books and films.

San Francisco-based Kabam specializes in mobile games that are free-to-play, instead bringing in revenue through tactics such as digital ads or hawking virtual goods or abilities.

"Lionsgate has an unparalleled track record of developing and producing blockbuster movie franchises like 'The Hunger Games,'" Kabam chief operating officer Kent Wakeford said in a release.

"Partnering with Lionsgate, Kabam will build a mobile game that's as much fun to play as the movie is to watch."

Kabam's vision for the game included casting players in roles as District members out to build alliances and liberate themselves in the spirit of the story told in the books on which the film is based.

The story centers around a futuristic society which stages televised death matches among youth.

The first two "Hunger Games" films starring Jennifer Lawrence have taken in more than $1.5 billion at box offices worldwide, according to Kabam.

The next installment in the series is set for release in November.

"We are so pleased to be working with Kabam to give the fans an experience like they have never had before," said Lionsgate executive vice president of digital media Danielle DePalma.

"Being able to role-play with the mentors straight from the world of 'The Hunger Games' will let fans feel as if they are in the middle of the action."

The game will be developed in the Kabam studio in China that made a mobile game based on "The Hobbit." — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com

Even kids can make their own 'Flappy Bird' game in 15 minutes with this simple tool

What better way to celebrate a flappy, er, happy first birthday than teaching children to make their own "Flappy Bird" game?

A US-based organization advocating computer science education did just that, posting on its website the code for making a "Flappy Game."

"Flappy Bird is a simple game, and using the basics of computer science, any student can create their own version with endless possibilities," Code.org said on its website.

With the code, it said children can build their own Flappy game, "whether it’s Flappy Bird, or Flappy Easter Bunny, Flappy Santa, Flappy Shark with Lasers, Flappy Fairy or Flappy Underwater Unicorn."


It also said that with the code, any student can create his or her own variation of the popular but now-defunct mobile game "with endless possibilities."





"You can make your own rules, and make your flappy game as easy or as hard as you want. You can even reverse the scoring or make it change randomly as you play," Code.org said.

But best of all, it said students can share the code with one click so their friends can play the game on any computer or phone, or even inside Facebook or Twitter.

Meanwhile, Code.org also marked its birthday with one billion lines of code written by students in under three months.

"Since we launched the Hour of Code and its follow-up course in December, over 27 million users, in 34 languages, across 170 countries together wrote one billion lines of code in our tutorials," it said.

In 15 minutes

A separate report on GeekWire said the code allows children to develop their own "Flappy Bird" game in 15 minutes.

It quoted Code.org co-founder Hadi Partovi, a Seattle entrepreneur who founded Code.org with his brother Ali, as saying the idea for a "Flappy Bird" tutorial came about during a Code.org employee happy hour.

"The entire group was playing Flappy Bird competitively when they realized they could not only play this fun game, but also let others create it," it said.

“We already know that the chance to ‘make an app’ is something people aspire to, but they think it’s out of reach. We want to give kids something that lets them express a degree of creativeness,” Partovi said.

“There are endless possibilities and kids can try them and realize the creativity involved in computer science within just 20 minutes,” Partovi added.

Code.org described itself as a "non-profit dedicated to expanding participation in computer science education by making it available in more schools, and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color."

"Our vision is that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer programming. We believe computer science should be part of the core curriculum in education, alongside other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses, such as biology, physics, chemistry and algebra," it said. — VC/TJD, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com