>>28137775Pokemon GO was a branch out to all of the kids who liked Pokemon as kids but dropped it when it was "uncool", as well as to the parents and older siblings of kids who liked it, who wound up watching some of the show and learning some of the names. This alongside the existing Pokemon Super-fan category explains the vast majority of players.
Pokemon GO sold primarily to the first two categories did have a small effect on outsiders, however this was not because of the "left out" effect you speak of. Primarily it spread to outsiders on job-sites and classrooms, between coworkers and acquaintances as a form of competition between them, and something that people who otherwise do nothing but see each-other could do to have fun with one-another in a minimally intrusive way. The craze set in when the game's "keeping up" nature began to reveal itself. Every day you didn't GO, you were a day behind everyone else. Whether you were the Pokefan, out to prove his superiority, the casual who wanted to stick it to the fan, or the outsider who just wanted to hold his ground, there was incentive to stay in the game.
The people who "tear down" the game are the people that recognized that GO was a shoddily cobbled together game, that was selling only nostalgia and community, and no actual quality gameplay. The people "propping it up" are those who dumped time and money into it, and are hesitant to walk away from that investment. Many of this group are the ones who claim that "it will get better, they will fix X, introduce Y, and let us Z" to give them hope that their time investment will pay out.
There is another sub-group of detractors who pin GO as an example of the problems of our time. It encourages people wandering around with their nose in their phone, oblivious to their surroundings, unable to separate for more than a few moments, all the wile freely giving up metric tons of data that are the real reason for the product in the first place.
