Pokemon Go...

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past two weeks, you’ve no doubt heard of Pokemon Go. It’s an app for a smartphone which (from what I’ve read) is the most downloaded game ever. Opinions range from “one of the greatest things ever” to “one of the stupidest things ever”. Pokemon reminds me of when my sons were young. They enthusiastically collected Pokemon cards, watched the TV show and even went to several movies. I remember them waiting anxiously for Tuesday when Wal-Mart got their latest shipment of cards and us going there to spend their allowance on packs of cards. I remember how excited they were to get a powerful Pokemon (Pocket Monster) and especially a “holo” (card with holographic background). Like most everything else though, they faded away and something more popular replaced them. Now with the introduction of this app, Pokemon are popular again.

We had gone for a visit to Wisconsin to see Josh. He had downloaded the app. It sounded intriguing so I downloaded the app and started playing it myself. I’ll give you my thoughts on the app. This isn’t any sort of all-inclusive description at all nor do I have much more knowledge than I had back then of how this all works.

There are several parts to the game. First, the game supports augmented reality. You can have the app use your camera to make the Pokemon appear to be actually located in the area you are viewing. I will tell you I turned that off pretty quickly and I see more of a generic background – it still uses your phone’s GPS and shows streets and such. As you move around, you are alerted to the presence of a Pokemon. You then click on it and you are then able to throw Pokeballs at it to try and catch the Pokemon. You can gain experience points doing this (along with other things) to raise the level of your character. There also places called PokeStops. They are generally located around landmarks of various types. You can visit these to gather up items you need – such as Pokeballs. There are also PokeGyms. These seem to be located at large public gathering areas. The most common place I’ve seen these are at religious gathering places. Once you reach level five, you can go to a gym to either fight other Pokemon or defend the gym. This depends on what color team you join. A big part of the game is you have to spend a lot of time walking around to get to/do these things. You cannot just drive past them to do them. You also collect eggs which you can hatch in an incubator. Hatching is done by walking a certain number of kilometers (2,5 or 10). Driving will not do this, it must be walking.

We had a lot of fun just walking around trying to do all these things. On the way from Josh’s apartment to where I get my morning donuts, I managed to catch several Pokemon plus there were multiple PokeStops to replenish my supplies. The company where Josh works was rich in Pokemon, PokeStops and gyms since it’s a large spread out campus. We went to downtown Madison one night to look around and had our phones out doing this (along with a ton of other people). I’m not super good at the game, but I’ve gotten better and caught all sorts of Pokemon. Josh and I even took over a gym for a bit (by the Verona Library) and I had to text Jonathan and Cheyenne and show them what we’d done.

I’ve heard a lot of disparaging things about the game. No doubt some people are thinking “what on earth is an old guy like you wasting time on this”. It’s fun to play. While Josh and I were walking around on a “PokeWalk”, we spent a lot of time talking about all sorts of things. We did extra walking playing the game (Several extra miles a day) so the game can help you get additional exercise. You end up seeing things you didn’t even realize were in an area when you go to a Pokestop, It’s social, which is a big thing among young people. When we stopped for cookies in downtown Madison, a young man saw me playing the game and started excitedly talking to me (he was shocked to see an old guy playing the game I’d guess). The big thing is something I discovered after listening to a radio story about it and talking to Josh (and which I alluded to earlier). It reminds young people of when they were kids and the only thing they really worried about was trying to "Catch ‘em all!”. I think most of us can identify with the feeling of looking back with nostalgia to our youth and remembering simpler times.

My final thoughts are these. It’s a fun game. It’s like most any earthly pursuit though. In moderation, it’s fine (presuming of course it’s legal, moral, and not against the teachings of the Bible) . If you spend too much time playing it to the exclusion of important things in your life (God, Christianity, family, friends), that’s a problem.