I have to admit that I am a 23 year old playing Pokémon Go. As I write this, I actually checked once or twice to see if there were any Pokémon around me. I know I am not the only one… but despite this game seeming to further addict people to their phones (or mobile devices), I see it as inadvertently getting people to move around more, which is awesome! I am also interested in the popularity of the game with young adults.
The timing of its release couldn’t be more perfect. School has just let out and kids (and young adults in my case) are free during the day. Instead of playing Pokémon or other video games inside on an Xbox or PS4, they are being encouraged to go outside and hunt Pokémon. Since you actually have to move to find them; and the app uses the pedometer + GPS services on the device. So it can tell if you’re walking, running, or even driving. Even though there are ways to make the Pokémon come to you (incense and lures), you still have to walk a little to find the rare ones.
I have seen herds of neighborhood children riding bikes to find Pokémon. I haven’t seen group bike rides like that since I was a kid.
The app is not easy to fool either. I performed a little experiment, where I was trying to hatch an egg faster by driving the needed 5 KM instead of walking. But no dice, the pedometer feature gave me away. Now I have an added benefit to walking my dogs or taking a stroll during my lunch break.
Now it’s time to gush over the concept, so simple, but so new. Many games are set up where you are the character in question, but very few actually take place in your world! Even though it is a bit cheesy to have a Rattata appear on your living room floor, it is exactly what I imagined as a kid when Pokémon was all the rage. Since then the popularity has waned but kids still play Pokémon, this app is just the re-imagination of the Pokémon universe, where you can actually catch them all.
Because of the re-invigoration of the game, young adults are attracted back to it. Pokémon started with the Nintendo Gameboy. The game upgraded with the different platforms the Gameboy morphed into. But as 90’s kids grew up, we outgrew those devices. Now the game has found us again on our phones! It’s a combination of seeing the new features and nostalgia driving us to download the game. Then we talk about it with our friends and the network of adult Pokémon players grows.
Maybe it is a fad, and will get boring soon. But for right now reliving a childhood dream to be the best Pokémon trainer makes playing the game worth it. Plus it has the added bonus of providing rewards for physical activity, which getting people up and moving is a great accomplishment.
