Pokemon Overview
Pokémon is an animated TV series that became very popular with the hit catchy theme song. Pokémon had the intended crowd of children and was a very popular game on several different consoles with different versions starting off at Pokémon Red and Blue, then yellow shortly after that, finally ending with the last two versions of Pokemon Sun and Moon. Niantic was the first “author” to make Pokémon pop up in the real world with the mobile app of Pokémon Go. We all have played or known someone that has played Pokémon Go, since it was released in the summer on July 9th, 2016. The “author” or developer of the game Pokémon Go was Niantic. Niantic was originally formed in 2010 with their first augmented reality mobile game of Ingress.
What is it about?
In Pokémon GO, your task is to complete your pokedex, have the strongest pokémon, and take over the gyms in your area. In order for you to take over a gym you must join one team out of 3 once you reach level 5, the teams are: Valor, Instinct, and Mystic all being favored to the 3 legendary bird pokemon of Moltres, Zapdos and Articuno. With taking over gyms you are able to seek rewards depending on how many gyms you are a part of. The reward is 500 stardust and 10 coins per gym you are a part of. With stardust and the candy to that specific pokémon you are able to power up your pokémon caught resulting in them becoming a stronger CP (combat power).Niantic not only created the incredibly popular mobile app of Pokémon GO, but they also created the aesthetics of the game such as being able to catch a pokémon and snap a picture of it where you found it with the augmented reality function of the game. 
With all the cool mechanics of the game and features of the game it resulted in becoming very popular because it was a way to relive your childhood,but not by playing Pokémon on a console but on your phone and in the real world. Even though there are several great features of the game that are similar to those of the console there are huge differences such as not being able to trade pokémon with other players and not being able to battle against your friends and others. 
Playing Pokémon GO since it first came out, I can argue that Niantic is an artist because this game was not just incredibly hyped up when it first came up, but it was a masterpiece that changed several lives causing several people to be come active and lose weight as a result of playing Pokémon GO and walking around. According to Becker, “The forms of cooperation may be ephemeral, but often become more or less routine, producing patterns of collective activity we can call an art world” resulting that working together as a developer help create an art world or in this case a video game. Becker feels that with collective activity results in art so with relating to Niantic and Pokemon GO all the people that are involved in Niantic could be labeled as “artists” because they created the masterpiece of Pokémon GO. It’s important for Niantic and others, that create different games, to be labeled artists because without those artists there would be no games resulting in less things to be viewed, played, and praised.
Howard Becker. (1982). “Art Worlds and Collective Activity” in Art Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press: pp. 1-39.
Video Games and/as Art 
Pokemon Go is awesome! I still find myself playing from time to time. This might be off topic but do you consider Niantic a good artist? I know a lot of who were turned off from the game because of some of the changes they made.
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Pokemon Go really is awesome, it’s such an amazing game that changed several peoples lives for the better. Yes, I do consider Niantic to be a good artist because they took a lot of time to make up pokemon go and it has so many details to it, that not may be visible or appealing to other people. A lot of people did turn off the game after they started getting bored of the first generation of pokemon, but I know a lot of people returned to the game once the second generation of pokemon were released to the game.
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I remember the hype when the game first came out. All of my friends were going to parks to catch pokemon. People were crazy about it. There were a bunch of people in parks at like 2 in the morning trying to catch rare pokemon. I’m actually surprised by the gender breakdown of people that play that game. I stopped playing pretty early since going outside is lame and I didn’t really agree with all the decisions that Niantic made. However, they are artists. I’ll have to give them that. They put a lot of work into the game and it shows.
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I was one of those few people that would stay up late to go catch pokemon, I remember staying up to like 1 in the morning at my local Black Bear Diner, which had 3 pokestops in a small radius, refilling my pokeballs and catching pokemon while talking to friends outside the restaurant. They are always making improvements in the game which is a thing I admire about Niantic.
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Interesting that you point to Niantic as a distributed authorship, but not beyond that company. They move it to a new platform, certainly, but do they actually change the format of the Pokémon genre? As such, why is the original designer (Satoshi Tajiri) not the author of this one too? Or the Pokémon Company, who owns the copyright and directed Niantic? Why for this one unique/different in its authorship? You need to really make that argument.
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I understand your point of Niantic being the author however my own opinion stands as the authors being the players themselves simply because of the dynamics of the game. Yes, the game was made and developed, however it was the players that gave it the meaning. It was the player going out and looking for Pokemon, Niantic planted the seed but the players were the ones watering it. I know most games could apply to this concept, however Pokemon Go is different because its a game that mixed reality into the realism of the game.
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Loved the title, I was never a big fan of Pokemon Go because I have a really big connection with the original game but I loved reading your article about the app, and the other comments have pushed me to consider downloading the game
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I think it’s incredible how this game has incorporated aspects of the real world. What do you believe has made this game go viral and why?
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I believe the aspect of being able to catch Pokemon out in the real world is what brought several people to play the game. Also another thing that I believe that made this game so popular is the nostalgia that it brings of all the childhood memories of playing Pokemon games on your gameboy and Nintendo systems.
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Though this game has seemed to have wowed everyone, I have never played even though i was a big fan of Pokemon when i was a kid. Maybe I just got too old for it. But great job explaining its features that correlate to the real world.
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You definitely should check it out it’s an easy game to get addicted to. I’ve seen several stories of elder people downloading the game. just because it gives them a reason why to get up and get some exercise. Even though the hype has died down a little bit it is still an interesting game especially when there are events that go on every now and then.
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Are you disappointed with the changes Niantic made to the franchise of pokemon, such as battling other pokemon trainers? And I wouldn’t label everyone in Niantic an artist but as individuals who helped an artist visual come true through collective activity.
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I can agree that the individuals who helped make the game be considered an artist. Yes sadly I am disappointed that Niantic has yet to release battling other Pokemon trainers because that would cause some competition resulting in people wanting to strengthen their teams. I feel like if the game had trading and battling in the beginning it would’ve been way more popular and competitive.
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