Written by Sebastian on Sep 14, 2016 in Freelance

An experiment

In the upcoming weeks, I’d like to do an experiment involving Pokemon Go and the in-game currency Pokecoins. In short: I’ll work with a specific client for 2 hours each week doing my usual work and I’ll use the resulting money to buy Pokecoins. This work will be done on top of my current work.

Client needed

I am currently looking for a new client I can work with. There are a few requirements that need to be met in order to be a fit:

• I’ll only work for 2 hours/week with this client
• The work is done async

Ideal work would be:

• Small development work which isn’t time critical (PHP, Python, Dart, Javascript)
• Code review and/or overall codebase check (PHP/Python only)
• DevOps work like setting up a vagrant environment or improving an existing Ansible setup

As statet in the title, this is an experiment, which means that I’ll work on a rate that is lower than my usual hourly rate. Other than that, the client can expect my full commitment and my usual high quality work. If you know any company/person who would be interested in this, please forward my contact info which can be found at http://agileaddicts.com!

The experiment

The Pokemon Go hype got me! I’m not playing as much as a month ago (which might be because I was on holiday back then), but I invest quiet some time into the game. If you are not familiar with the game, it’s essentially running around with your mobile phone and catching Pokemon that pop up. You can also fight with your Pokemon in gyms, which gives you a reward (Pokecoins) which you can then use to buy additional items. You can also buy Pokecoins for real money. 100 Pokecoins cost 1€ and it takes me about 1 1/2 hour to get 100 Pokecoins, which is also the maximum for one day (21 hours to be exact).

Doing the math, it’s insane to spent over 1 hour to “earn” something which is worth 1€. On the other hand, I play other games for hours which do not give me any “reward” and I do watch Netflix and I do various other activities which actually cost me money.

And this is where my experiment comes in. I’d like to use the money from the 2 hours a week on Pokecoins and see if this changes my experience. I didn’t spent any money on the game yet which means I can directly compare the two ways of playing. I’ll also make sure to reduce my playing time by 2 hours, so those 2 hours won’t come out of my sleeping time or other activities.

I expect that the two hours working will increase my Pokemon Go experience. The amount of coins will be a lot more than I could get in-game and can be used to make up for the two hours “lost” working instead of playing. Of course, there is the possibility that I’d rather play to earn those coins than work. Or it could be that not much changes.

I’ll of course update my blog with results!