It was only supposed to be one new game in a sea of games. But somehow, Pokémon GO is rivaling Hamilton in cross-demographic, nationwide, mainstream popularity. It’s likely that a lot of those Poké-fans will be attending San Diego Comic-Con. So…a room that seats 460 people probably isn’t big enough.
As reported by The Beat, the panel “Re-Imagining Reality: Bringing Games into the Real World with Ingress and Pokémon GO” has recently been moved into Hall H.
Now, let’s just put this in perspective. Hall H seats 6,000 people. Hall H is where all the huge movies and TV shows go. Hall H is where people like Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams go. Hall H is the place most people don’t actually get into, but are willing to camp out for hours (sometimes days) just to try to get into.
What’s more, the panel isn’t even exclusively about Pokémon GO. Here’s the official panel information from the SDCC website:
UPDATED: Thu, Jul 14, 05:10PM
John Hanke, founder of Niantic and pioneer of real world gaming, will examine the past, present and future of extending games beyond the screen and re-imagining reality through the lens of Ingress and Pokémon GO.
So, it’s about a topic that merely includes Pokémon GO, and yet they anticipate such a turnout that they’re busting out the big guns and Hall H-ing it. Dayum.
I haven’t played the game yet, and don’t have a nostalgic connection to Pokémon, because I never played it (or watched the cartoon) as a kid. So, this just feels like everyone around me has learned to speak a foreign language without telling me, and are speaking it exclusively.
So, maybe you all can answer this question for me: having zero prior experience with or connection to Pokémon…would I get anything out of it? Should I be playing Pokémon GO? Because this has gotten bananas.
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