If you had told me before that I was going to become a fan of Pokémon GO, I would have thought you were crazy.
As a child, I was never a fan of Pokémon. When I was 10, my friend’s brother had Pokémon and Digimon trading cards. This caused me to think that Pokémon was for boys, so I wasn’t interested in the show, the toys or the games. I also thought that Pokémon was a fad.
Boy, was I wrong.
Upon the release of Pokémon GO on July 6, my newsfeed was filled with status updates by my friends playing the new game. I was annoyed, but a little bit curious. I gave in to that curiosity when my cousin’s boyfriend said that the virtual reality and GPS-tracking game encourages users to be active. I’m not active enough because I would rather play games on the computer or on my smartphone than exercise. I figured a virtual reality game was the perfect way to combat this.
The very day that Pokémon was recommended to me, I downloaded the game on my smartphone—though I hesitate to call it a game. It’s more of an experience. The excitement was huge. I set out with my cousin to find Pokémon in our town. We played under the same account.
I caught a Pokeball right outside of my house, and then the game’s GPS led us to cross the street, and then another street. Then my phone buzzed to indicate there were Pokémon nearby, but the only place nearby was a dumpster. I walked around the dumpster, but there was nothing there. We went back to the last street and found a Zubat between two parked cars. I’m really glad that the cars’ buzzers didn’t go off, because at any moment we could have been mistaken for people trying to steal a car instead of two young women chasing Pokémon.
We walked around our town some more before we came to a gym, but were told that we couldn’t train there until we reached level five. We saw that there was something in the local park. (When you get closer to something, Pokémon GO shows you a picture of it.) When we got to the park, the game’s internal GPS showed that we should walk more. So we walked in front of the fountain at the park, and as I was considering throwing my phone into the water, the GPS told me to take steps back. Why, thank you, Nintendo for saving my smartphone from a sudden death by drowning! Otherwise I would have had to bring my phone back to life by placing it in a bag of rice. We walked back the way we came from, but found nothing. Pokémon GO has some problems with its GPS tracking, but it is still great fun.
We also played Pokémon GO when we went camping. My cousin played Pokémon GO in the car on the way to the campsite. She was in the passenger seat. Do no play this game while driving. Several injuries have been reported by people supposedly playing the game while driving. She caught a Magnemite and a Pidgey at the stop sign.
Seriously, let’s take a moment to appreciate how cute some of these animals are...
So, the crazy places we have found Pokémon were in the trash, at a stop sign, and almost at a fountain. People have supposedly found Magikarp in cooking pans, Pidgeys in toilets, and Pikachu at a German racetrack. Gamers have found Pokémon at the Senate and the White House, which is reported to be a gym.
Where is the craziest place you have found Pokémon?
