To overcome the hurdle posed by patchy network signals in their race to capture virtual cartoon characters, Asian fans of smartphone game Pokemon Go are hunting out the best telecom providers and network gear.
Lifestyle changes for many gamers is also being driven, who must trudge through real-life locations in their quest, from Indonesia to Hong Kong and Cambodia, due to the wild popularity of Nintendo's augmented reality app.
Enthusiasts are finding they must first vanquish shaky transmission signals after the game was launched in many Southeast Asian countries on Aug. 5. The game had been launched a month earlier in the United States, New Zealand and Australia.
Reuters cited an example of a 29-year-old bank employee in Indonesia, Muchamad Syaifudin, whose friends snapped up modems, at a cost of $20 each, to lock on to the signals and Syaifudin himself switched to a mobile carrier offering better data packages.
"We can bring the modems to play, especially at places where a signal is hard to find," Syaifudin told Reuters.
Playing strategy games at home was the favorite pass time for Syaifudin and his friends who live in Central Java - a province famed for its idyllic paddy fields and mountains.
The Pokemons that appear at temples and other landmarks where people gather are the new venture destination for them as they are now armed with the new devices to catch the Pokemons that appear at these places.
While in countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, the U.S. State Department has sent tweets warning players to beware of unexploded wartime mines, in Hong Kong, commuters are hopping on the trams known as "ding dings" in their forays.
Using proxy sites to access app stores elsewhere, tens of thousands of enthusiastic adopters among a population of 250 million had started playing the game earlier even though it officially launched just two weeks ago in Indonesia.
With nationwide sales of 4G modems, priced around 300,000 rupiah ($23) each, have jumped fivefold in just two months, for companies such as PT Smartfren Telecom Tbk, the gamers are fuelling a boom for modem makers.
Derrick Surya, Smartfren's vice president for brand and marketing communication said that the firm has launched new devices with bigger battery capacity. As more gamers seek devices to minimize the expense of data packages and to power up mobile connections, retailers also benefit.
"More and more customers are looking for alternative sources of additional mobile network capacity," said Billy Cahya, a salesman at an electronics shop in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
Ranging from new characters to a higher maximum level players can reach, Syaifudin said that the demand for game innovations is also surging.
"Looking for Pokemons, looking for items, battling at gyms...We have done that again and again. It probably needs a new concept to retain our interest," he said, referring to game sites where players stage contests between virtual characters.
Other players stockpile sites to secure equipment needed to catch Pokemons or complain rural areas have few Pokestops.
"We have fewer Pokestops in Legazpi City compared to metropolitan areas. In towns that I have visited, there's almost none," said Rey Anthony Ostria, a player in the Philippine city about 340 km (211 miles) from Manila, the capital.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
Lifestyle changes for many gamers is also being driven, who must trudge through real-life locations in their quest, from Indonesia to Hong Kong and Cambodia, due to the wild popularity of Nintendo's augmented reality app.
Enthusiasts are finding they must first vanquish shaky transmission signals after the game was launched in many Southeast Asian countries on Aug. 5. The game had been launched a month earlier in the United States, New Zealand and Australia.
Reuters cited an example of a 29-year-old bank employee in Indonesia, Muchamad Syaifudin, whose friends snapped up modems, at a cost of $20 each, to lock on to the signals and Syaifudin himself switched to a mobile carrier offering better data packages.
"We can bring the modems to play, especially at places where a signal is hard to find," Syaifudin told Reuters.
Playing strategy games at home was the favorite pass time for Syaifudin and his friends who live in Central Java - a province famed for its idyllic paddy fields and mountains.
The Pokemons that appear at temples and other landmarks where people gather are the new venture destination for them as they are now armed with the new devices to catch the Pokemons that appear at these places.
While in countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, the U.S. State Department has sent tweets warning players to beware of unexploded wartime mines, in Hong Kong, commuters are hopping on the trams known as "ding dings" in their forays.
Using proxy sites to access app stores elsewhere, tens of thousands of enthusiastic adopters among a population of 250 million had started playing the game earlier even though it officially launched just two weeks ago in Indonesia.
With nationwide sales of 4G modems, priced around 300,000 rupiah ($23) each, have jumped fivefold in just two months, for companies such as PT Smartfren Telecom Tbk, the gamers are fuelling a boom for modem makers.
Derrick Surya, Smartfren's vice president for brand and marketing communication said that the firm has launched new devices with bigger battery capacity. As more gamers seek devices to minimize the expense of data packages and to power up mobile connections, retailers also benefit.
"More and more customers are looking for alternative sources of additional mobile network capacity," said Billy Cahya, a salesman at an electronics shop in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
Ranging from new characters to a higher maximum level players can reach, Syaifudin said that the demand for game innovations is also surging.
"Looking for Pokemons, looking for items, battling at gyms...We have done that again and again. It probably needs a new concept to retain our interest," he said, referring to game sites where players stage contests between virtual characters.
Other players stockpile sites to secure equipment needed to catch Pokemons or complain rural areas have few Pokestops.
"We have fewer Pokestops in Legazpi City compared to metropolitan areas. In towns that I have visited, there's almost none," said Rey Anthony Ostria, a player in the Philippine city about 340 km (211 miles) from Manila, the capital.
(Source:www.reuters.com)