Last Wednesday, Pokémon fanatics’ dreams came true with the release of the Pokémon Go app. If you have been living under a rock, let me give you a quick rundown of this worldwide uproar.
Back in the early 2000s, you could capture Pokémon and battle other trainers on your handy dandy Gameboy. Now, using GPS technology, you can capture Pokémon that are physically located near your exact location. By using the camera feature, you can see these Pokémon in plain sight and attempt to catch them. It is pretty much the most genius invention of the century.
Though it has been less than a week, I have likely put almost fifty hours into playing this game. With that much of a time commitment, I have noticed some unexpected results of playing Pokémon Go. Let me elaborate.
- Before I go to bed, I check my phone to see if there are any Pokémon in my room. Logic tells me that this is not natural, but my growing Pokédex disagrees.
- I walk extremely inefficient routes when traveling across campus for the sole purpose of hitting more Pokéstops. I can’t say no to free items!
- I randomly stop in the middle of pathways and turn in circles in order to discretely catch a Pokémon that suddenly appeared.
- I try to hide my Pokémon catching activities from unsuspecting passersby, but that is difficult to do seeing as you must hold up your camera to see the Pokémon. No, I promise I’m not trying to take a picture of you, random stranger. You just happen to be standing next to a wild Pikachu.
- I am more willing to go on long walks if it means hatching the egg in my incubator faster. Talk about health benefits!
- I have ended up in random yards in an attempt to catch a certain Pokémon. I apologize, neighborhood civilians.
- I am extremely grateful to live near a college campus, where I can look around and see six gyms and 85 Pokéstops in the vicinity.
- I have never been more upset than when I released an incense, and the app crashed and the servers went down. Such a waste.
- Furthermore, when I wait all day to get off work and play, and then the servers are down – that is the worst.
Will the hype over this new app ever die down? Is this just a fad? If they can fix the server issues, then I think not. I’d prepare for this craze to stick around for a long while.
