"Pokemon Go" is a smartphone game published by Nintendo, where you walk around the world and capture Pokemon - little creatures like Pikachu or Pidgey. And when I say you can walk around the world, I really do mean you. Instead of pushing a control stick to move your character, you actually have to get up and move.
The game world is our world - streets, parks, lakes, buildings, everything. It pulls data from Google Maps, so if you’re walking next to a river, you’re more likely to find a fish Pokemon, whereas if you’re walking in a park, you might find bird or bug Pokemon. The game also keeps track of how far you’ve walked, and you can hatch Pokemon from eggs after you’ve walked with them for a few miles.
I’ve been absolutely amazed with how many people are playing - especially people who have never played a "Pokemon" game before. I’ve seen families walking around hunting Pokemon, groups of people of all ages huddled around an in-game "Pokemon" Lure, and a bunch of friends running down Mead Street yelling, “There’s a Bulbasaur over here!” The other night, I saw more than a thousand people at the Keeper of the Plains, so many of them playing the game or with people who were. It was kind of a surreal experience for me to speak the same "language" to a perfect stranger regardless of cultural background because everyone is experiencing the same thing together. It's pretty powerful even if you think the game is just a ridiculous waste of time. Of course, having played since the first "Pokemon" game came out, I feel like I’ve been training for this cultural event for 20 years.
A friend of mine said that “the real secret to world peace, kindness, understanding, and connection lies in finding something that brings us out of our ‘safe spaces’ so we can be in close proximity to each other, and have that thing also be a light-hearted ridiculous thing that involves team-work, exercise, and a healthy dose of fun competition that we can all get stupidly excited about.” I think I agree, and I think this is a great step in that direction.
