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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Can a Pikmin Mobile Game Recreate the Magic of Pokemon Go?

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In a somewhat surprising move, Nintendo and Pokemon Go Niantic have revealed that they’re teaming up to develop a new mobile AR game based on the Pikmin franchise. That game will formally mark the start of a new partnership between the companies that both sides hope will eventually result in a series of AR games based on famous Nintendo franchises.

“As we continue to expand our games portfolio, it was a natural next step to team up with Nintendo,” said Niantic chief executive officer, John Hanke. “We’re looking forward to shaping the future of AR together, bringing Nintendo’s beloved game characters to life for mobile game players around the world.”

Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto expanded on that optimistic outlook by saying that “Niantic’s AR technology has made it possible for us to experience the world as if Pikmin are secretly living all around us” and that the game will be “based on the theme of making walking fun.”

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We don’t know much else about the game beyond a vague 2021 release date, but all we really need to know is that this will be a Nintendo-based AR game developed by Niantic: the team responsible for the biggest gaming sensation of 2016, Pokemon Go. While Niantic has tried to recreate the success of that game with projects like Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (which enjoyed mixed success), we know what this company can do when they work with a major Nintendo franchise.

Still, considering that Niantic has tried to recreate the success of Pokemon Go in the past and given that Pokemon Go itself burned brightly for a relatively short amount of time (even if the game remained successful), you’ve really got to wonder whether or not Niantic will be able to recreate the magic of Pokemon Go and turn this Pikmin game into a bonafide phenomenon.

At a glance, the odds seem stacked against them. Actually, Pikmin‘s biggest hurdle is the Pikmin franchise itself. While Pikmin is certainly popular among Nintendo fans, the franchise has historically struggled to break into the mainstream. Sales figures (especially for Nintendo games) are often spotty, but most figures suggest that no Pikmin game has sold over two million units so far. By comparison, there are 10 Pokemon games released to date that have sold over 20 million units each.

Even if you look past the popularity of the franchises from a pure sales standpoint, you have to consider how the popularity of Pokemon convinced so many people to give Pokemon Go a shot on the basis of the concept alone. After all, who among the millions of Pokemon fans over the years could resist the call of being able to capture Pokemon in the real world with help from a then very novel piece of mobile gaming technology?

That initial hook and the way it drew so many people in generated momentum for Pokemon Go that propelled the game to absurd heights. While I’d argue that Pikmin‘s core concept better lends itself to a more substantial mobile game (the idea of collecting Pikmin in the real world and using them to complete AR generated assignments is fairly close to the premise of the games themselves), I don’t know if that really matters. Like it or not, Pokemon Go wasn’t initially popular because it was a substantial game. It was popular because it offered a compelling novelty. I don’t think you can effectively argue that any version of a Pikmin mobile game that offers an experience at least somewhat similar to the original games will ever be able to offer that kind of irresistible gimmick.

Not all hope is lost, though. If a Pikmin mobile game doesn’t have the inherent benefits that Pokemon Go enjoyed, it will enjoy at least one significant (if strange) advantage that Pokemon Go didn’t necessarily have in 2016: the state of the times it’s going to be released during.

While the idea of a game that promotes the joy of walking sounds like one of those strange things that Shigeru Miyamoto says from time to time, that core concept feels like far more than an oddity in this particular situation. . The hope is that by 2021, most of the global quarantine restrictions implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic will have been lifted. When that happens, people across the world are likely going to want to spend a lot of time being outside and enjoying the company of others.

I don’t know if all of those people are going to suddenly decide to spend their time outside playing a mobile Pikmin game, but I can tell you that the idea of playing what such a game could end up being is significantly more appealing to me at this moment than it would have been even a year ago.

The unique nature of the Pokemon Go phenomenon makes it highly unlikely that any game will be able to recreate that “magic,” but Pikmin‘s mobile game could very much prove to be a worthwhile idea in its own right that may even help bolster Nintendo’s largely uninspiring mobile game library. At the very least, it will give Nintendo fans something to look forward to as the release dates for major new Switch games like Breath of the Wild 2, Metroid Prime 4, and yes, Pikmin 4 remain unknown.

The post Can a Pikmin Mobile Game Recreate the Magic of Pokemon Go? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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globalworship · 4 years

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Ascension: meditation, prayer, art, song

A meditation by Fr. Kenneth Tanner, May 2018:

Paul tells us we are ascended with Christ (past tense); that the Father has seated us with Christ in "the heavenly realms."

This is a mystical truth but no less real for the mystery. Jesus tells his disciples that he goes to prepare a place for them so that "where I am you may be also"...not just at the end of time but NOW.

Jesus takes our humanity into heaven so that heaven can inhabit our humanity. The kingdom life of the world to come is now within us as is Jesus himself...not as a wonderful thought, not symbolically, not even by imitation, but truly. This is the same reality of Christ himself that we call Eucharist.

Jesus and Paul speak of this union between Jesus and his disciples so often and so concretely that I wonder why it's not a greater fixture of contemporary Christian teaching.

A defining difference between where Jesus ascended and where we now stand is his immunity to time. Seated at the right hand of the Father, Jesus's humanity is no longer bound as it was in this life to past or future. Heaven is a mystery that cannot be described or understood without remainder but we might call it an "eternal present" that is available to every moment of time—past, present, or future—because it stands outside of it. And heaven is not somewhere 'out there' but a realm that has drawn near to us in Jesus.

I have begun to experience union with Christ's risen presence in greater and greater measure. Because he dwells in me I can have ever-increasing freedom from the hurts and wrongs of the past. I can walk in ever-greater forgiveness and reconciliation with others, letting go of resentments or regrets that bind me to the past by Christ's capacities in me, as I seek to redeem relationships in the present moment.

Likewise, it's becoming possible to live in the moment with less and less fear or anxiety about the future. Many Christians are slaves to the future, worried about our nation (a tremendous binding fear these days), the larger geo-political world, their families, their livelihoods, diseases, the natural order and just about everything. Fear and paranoia are epidemic and we are easily manipulated by whispers of conspiracy.

Of course, it's not possible to be absolutely free from the past or the future so long as we are time bound. Memories and the lessons of the past are important to the present moment. Planning ahead for certain things is also prudent and means we must extend our self by imagination into the future from time to time in order to live as well as we might.

But we cannot live in the past or live in the future. We have to live in the present. The past is gone and the future is unavailable. We cannot get to either of them. All we have is right now.

God is present in the moment, ready to act in and through us for the sake of his kingdom, to redeem others and the creation by our union with Jesus Christ. Are we at peace with the past and future and available to God right now?

We should recognize that it's possible for us to escape the moment by not being fully present to it. This can at times be beneficial. Good art (books, music, film, theater, painting) can help us reflect on our past, future and present, even helpfully transcend them at times, but we can also live in near-perpetual escape from the present moment.

We have perfected the art of escape via virtual worlds, 24-hour entertainment, news, and sports, and the omnipresent electronic screens that rob us of immediacy to others and even ourselves; this wars against our ability to be here, right now.

Our union with Jesus, as we draw by grace on the new humanity he has taken with him into heaven—that kingdom that also now resides in us by his presence in us—grants us freedom from the wounds and sins of the past and the worries and fears of the future, helps us to resist the temptation to escape the present in destructive ways, disciplines us to live in the moment, that we might be aware of and available to the work of the Spirit, ready to cooperate with him in the renewal of all things.

This is critical for there are many that sit in darkness and the shadow of death that need those filled with the light of Christ Jesus to be light, to step into the good works that Christ has prepared for us to walk in.

https://www.facebook.com/kenneth.tanner/posts/10215852317318222

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This depicts Jesus Christ ascensing into Heaven. Mary and the Apostles stand around the rock atop Mount Olivet and watch. I framed the scene in a twelve-pointed star surrounded by plant and animal ornament. Above I wrote the words Ascendit Deus in a Lombardic script; below I drew a miniature of the prophet Elijah taken to Heaven in a fiery chariot.

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The ascension of Christ is filled with theological significance. Christ’s ascension means that in heaven there is one who, knowing firsthand the experience of suffering and temptation, prays for us and perfects our prayers. His ascension is a witness and guarantee of our own bodily resurrection, as well as an invitation for us to set our hearts and minds “on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1-2) to rule over all things in heaven and throughout the universe (Eph. 1:10, 20-23). - CICW

An Ascension Day prayer during COVID-19 written by Cornelius Plantinga,

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, you emptied yourself of heaven’s riches and came to share our lot. You made yourself poor so that by your poverty we might become rich. Perfect in purity, you yet submitted to baptism like any sinner in need of cleansing. Perfect in fellowship with the Father and the Spirit, you yet sought the friendship of Lazarus, Mary, Martha, and the other disciples.

Word of God incarnate, wisdom from on high, you mediated at creation, pouring your self-giving love into the world. You mediated in salvation, taking our flesh, taking our pain, taking the death we deserved. You arose in might and have gone home from battle. You mediate for us now in heaven. You have ascended on high for us and for our salvation. We thank and praise you with tender hearts. Our minds do not grasp the length and breadth, the height and depth of your love for us sinners. Our minds do not grasp your unfathomable love, but our hearts hold it. Our hearts do hold it.

God of all providence, in Jesus Christ you give living water for the thirsty, bread of life for the hungry, the shelter of your wings for the fearful. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, thank you for your mercy.

Dim in knowledge, I call to you: Christ, be my light. Cold of heart, I cry to you: Christ, be my warmth. Unsure at crossroads, I appeal to you: Christ, be my guide. Shine through the darkness. Always be my light, my warmth, my guide.

Lord Jesus Christ, your followers need you. Let whatever is ugly in us become small. Let whatever is beautiful become large. Let our fears become small. Let our confidence in you become large. Shrink our pride; enlarge our humility. Shrink our envy; enlarge our gratitude. Rise above our pettiness, O Lord Christ. Rise above our sorrows and fears, and let us rise with you.

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Orange Pekoe has been one of my favorite bands in the world for years - a Japanese duo who usually work with a changing cast of studio musicians.

One half of the core duo is guitarist and composer Kazuma Fujimoto. This jazzy song - “Wings of Ascension” - is from the 2014 album released under his own name.

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