By Raven Smith
Photos by Google
It seems like every year, April Fools rolls around with its fair share of pranks and tricks. Due to the ability to instantly share anything on the internet, it has grown into a worldwide event. Big companies and websites have decided to hop on the bandwagon and use this day as an excuse to release fun pranks, from fake trailers to ‘new’ features. But these jokes are way more than a way for companies to blow off steam. The time and thought put into these jokes show us that companies use these jokes to draw attention to their apps and products. This year, two jokes drew a huge amount of attention, the most notable being a fake DLC trailer from Titanfall featuring Optimus Prime as a playable character, and Google’s new search for the next Pokemon Masters via Google Maps.
Titanfall is a game for the the Xbox One. It’s a first-person shooter game that incorporates teams of soldiers in jetpacks fighting to gain points and lower the countdown timer to pilot a mech (large-scale fighting robot) against the opposing team. While the game received generally high reviews across the board–an 8.9 out of 10 on IGN and an 86 on Metacritic.com–the game faced some backlash over the fact its fighting style doesn’t feature much variation.
In almost every match, players try to kill each other in order to access the 24-foot mechs. Despite there being six different battle modes, they all devolve into a team death-match. What better way for a game to diffuse some of these comments by mixing it up and throwing in old school Transformers, notably Optimus Prime? Transformers are instantly recognizable due to their semi-recent Hollywood fame and longstanding cartoon TV show. Titanfall is not only drawing potential players by giving them something familiar, but also giving people who may have felt the game was growing a little stale something new to chew on. They only have something to gain by incorporating this fun little joke.
It is important to note that the DLC was only a hoax. Sorry, guys.
This is the same with Google, who this year went all out with their joke. They released a YouTube video under their Google Maps channel claiming they were looking for new exceptional people to become Pokémon Masters. The video claimed that by climbing and traveling to new locations, you could capture Pokémon by looking through your phone. Though virtual reality games aren’t that far along yet, Google did a great job by taking this joke a step further and actually letting you capture Pokemon on your phone. All you needed to do was open the Google Maps app, find one, click on it, and click catch! Easy right?
Well, yes. In fact, it’s so easy and entertaining that many people have set out to do exactly that. And what does Google gain from this other than a fun joke they get to talk about in the company newsletter? For one, it gets people using their products–Google Maps for example–and it makes people think highly of Google. There’s something about a company willing to lean back and make a lighthearted, fun joke that reassures the average-Joe and makes them think, “Hey, the people working there are just a bunch of cool guys who like to have fun.”