I remember the first time I sang the entire theme song without missing a beat. Grinning from ear to ear, I watched the episode while feeling full of pride. Younger me wanted to be the very best and catch them all. I knew I couldn’t become a Pokemon Master in the real world, but I could beat every single game on the original Gameboy and Gameboy Advance.
When the Nintendo DS came out, I couldn’t wait to play the Pokemon Trainer game and be able to do more than just hope the ball would stop shaking. Granted it wasn’t too much more, but it was still improvement.
During high school, my love for Pokemon didn’t really change, but I stopped paying attention to it. I was no longer interested in the new shows or movies coming out. I also really wasn’t into the new games that much either. I loved the original and just didn’t enjoy the new concepts. A lot of teens from both of my high schools felt the same. That doesn’t mean I didn’t wear my Pokemon branded apparel with pride.
Fast forward to 2016 and we are experiencing such an amazing time to be alive. Younger me would be so jealous of the technology we have available so ever kid, teen, and adult can actually become the Pokemon Master they’ve always dreamt of being. Pokemon Go is starting a revolution.
Gamers who have always been made fun of for staying indoors now have a game that involves moving around and getting outside. Gamers are gathering at popular locations and have the opportunity to interact with others playing the game. Although some games have competitions that draw players and fans alike together, Pokemon Go is encouraging players to meet up and get fresh air every single day.
If you couldn’t already tell, I’m a fan of the game. I honestly can’t wait to see what happens as the updates continue to come out. I would love to see local trading and friendly battles come out in the near future. I also think it would be pretty cool to have battles with wild Pokemon and see Pokemon Centers come out for healing our Pokemon as well.
However, what I’m most excited to see is when people start to grow up. Most users aren’t children. Most of us are adults with jobs, apartments/houses, and cars. It has been just under 20 years since Pokemon first came out. In that time, we should have learned how to act in public places, but it seems many of us never learned those lessons or never grew out their childish phases.
Teams are taking pride for their team to point of vandalizing. Of course there is no problem representing your team everywhere you go. However, just like with sports fans, it’s still looked down on and considered disrespectful to put mark nature with your team.
With the millions of dollars and hours put into no texting/talking/drinking/distracted driving campaigns, it should be a no brainer to not play Pokemon Go while operating a moving vehicle. Yet memes have already been created about crashing because of trying to catch a Pokemon. Looking both ways before crossing the street also seems to have been forgotten.
We have been gifted with the ability to almost fully immerse ourselves into a game. Let’s not take such a wonderful opportunity and ruin it. Pokemon Go is giving us the opportunity to escape the disgusting and pitiful reality we live in for small amount of time. We have enough hatred, torment and sadness in this world to last the human race for a multitude of generations. Use the game for what it is and should be, entertainment.
Don’t risk your life or someone else's to catch a Pokemon while driving.
Don’t stand in the middle of the street without making sure cars aren’t coming.
Don’t ruin the ever shrinking amount of nature we have left just to say “Team Valor/Mystic/Instinct was here.”
Don’t bring the hatred or problems from the outside world into this app.
Just focus on being the very best while being the safest you can be.
