[ng-user]

Going to play devil's advocate and ask, did you really expect a tech company to encourage children to avoid all of their products and go play outside like they did 30 years ago when these companies never even existed? Of course they want children and people of all ages on their services. It's in their best interest to get the majority of folks using their platform.

I seriously have no idea why this is so hard to understand.

[malchow]

Niantic doesn't seem to have a problem with this.

[ng-user]

Their situation is not an either/or, it's both. It's an awesome model and I think eventually a lot of companies will replicate something similar using AR.

Thanks for pointing that out though!

[malchow]

Sure. I am thinking of the classic "How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World," in which there is a discussion of natures. It strikes me that Niantic produced a product which resonated with the nature of kids. Apple in the Jobs days strove to produce technology that was consonant with human nature, which meant they sometimes seemed slow but built things that made sense, and made obvious decisions quickly (no ad tracking in iMessage, for instance). Even Google in its early days built a search product that was quite more human than competitors. Products that irritate human nature can succeed, but perhaps not for too long.