Fans dream of 'Game of Thrones'-themed Pokemon Go-style game
When Jigglypuff met Joffrey: It probably won't happen, but it's fun to imagine the fantasy series landing an augmented-reality game.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
It doesn't take much to send "Game of Thrones" fans off on a merry fantasy quest, and when the HBO hit show was mentioned in the same breath as Pokemon Go, the dreaming began.
Archit Bhargava, global product marketing lead for Pokemon Go and Ingress at Niantic Labs, recently told CNET sister site GameSpot: "My personal fantasy is like a 'Game of Thrones' game where Westeros is mapped out on Earth and you join House Stark or whatever."
That was all it took. "Personal fantasy" quickly became "obviously this must the next game on Niantic's calendar," and reporting outlets and fans went to town.
And why not? It could work. Ingress divides its players into opposing factions, and it's easy to imagine a game where players sign on with the Starks or the Lannisters or the Targaryens or the Boltons (aaugh, please, no) and travel around their towns claiming territory, like the bannermen of the series. The Bolton bannermen would somehow hack the program so they could flay sweet little Pikachu; Daenerys would somehow end up commanding an army of Charizards; and the poor Starks would take all of 5 seconds to start nobly beheading Bulbasaurs for reasons that probably sounded good in Ned's mind.
Hey, as long as Jigglypuff somehow defeats Joffrey.
