Pokemon – A Social Networking Success Story

It’s hard to believe that Pokemon celebrated its 15th birthday earlier this year. As a game which gripped a generation of children (myself included), it left an indelible impression on the portable gaming world and stands out as a break out from the gaming community, which has gone one to become a multimedia sensation.

Alongside solid gameplay and believable characters, the reason it has maintained its longevity is its ability to let its users communicate and socially interact with other users. Gamefreak harnessed the notion that gameplay could be vastly improved when pitting your wits against peers rather than a computer program. And connecting its users as opposed to isolating them in a gamin world gave users a sense of community unparalleled by other game platforms at the same time. Put simply, it realised the power of a social network and its role in maintaining and developing connections way before Zuckerberg’s ideas manifested themselves as Facebook or World Of Warcraft took over the lives of so many teenage moustachioed pimply adolescents.

Before Gamefreak released Pokemon in 1996, the Nintendo Gameboy was a solitary gaming experience. The portable consoles came with a link cable when sold which allowed games to utilise a multiplayer feature, but this was rarely if ever used. Pokemon was the first game NOT to overlook this feature and consequently allow its users to battle their friends, thus successfully introducing the phenomenon of social gaming to a gaming audience. This has manifested itself today as the Pokemon Global Link, an online social network which, when connected to a computer from a Nintendo device, allows players to compare rankings and access bonuses exclusive to the Global Link. Users can also access their Pokemon trading card collection online, allowing them to practice the trading card game in a safe and secure online environment

So, was Pokemon the inspiration for Facebook? Well, probably not. But it bought the very notion of multiplayer gaming to the mainstream whilst connecting its users in a way never seen before. Social networking was unheard of before in the world ofgaming, but Pokemon bought it to the forefront of the tech industrys thoughts in a way that was and has never been forgotten. Gotta catch ‘em all!