By Erik Hopkins, Staff Reporter.
You’ve probably seen the same mass tweet a thousand times over: “Blink-182 has a number one song, a Clinton is running for president, Tarzan is in theaters and everyone is playing Pokémon again.” Have we time traveled back to the 2000’s? The craze of Pokémon sure makes it seem that way.
According to the Dictionary, Pokémon is “a media franchise including video games, animated television series, movies, card games, etc. that depict a fictional class of pet monsters and their trainers.” Pokémon GO, published and developed by Niantic, is a free-to-play, location-based augmented reality game available for Android and OS devices. Gamers use their devices GPS capability to capture, locate, train, battle, and evolve their captured Pokémon.
According to the official website of Pokémon, the game “will use real locations to encourage players to search far and wide in the real world to discover Pokémon. Pokémon GO allows you to find and catch more than a hundred species of Pokémon as you explore your surroundings.”
Pokémon GO players will use their iPhone or Android’s camera to access a picture of their surroundings. The GPS feature allows certain Pokémon to appear on their phone screens depending on where the player currently is. By walking around and exploring, players will find different Pokémon and build their collection. Players will also be able to find local gyms and battle other players and their Pokémon with duels.
With the game, players are allowed to customize and create their own personalized version of themselves as a Pokémon trainer. You have the ability to choose their clothes, accessories, and hair. The character you create at the start follows you throughout your game play.
“The world is more exciting and it inspires me to get out of the house more,” says Delta student Caity Keidel. “I was a total fan before the app. I haven’t played as many games as my friends, but ‘I’ve watched the show since my childhood and have played every game since Heart Gold.”
Britney Johnson, another avid GOer, has recently made the move from Midland to Sacramento, California. She says the Pokémon GO experience is much different in California than it is Michigan. “There is an area called Old Sac located on the edge of downtown. It has been a very popular gathering area for Pokémon GO players. Restaurants have even changed their hours to open later in order to accommodate the new traffic. It has been a really nice experience for making friends after a big move,” says Johnson.
Johnson also recollects on the importance Pokémon had on her childhood, “I have grown up on Pokémon, so the release of Pokémon GO had a lot of nostalgia-related excitement for me. To me, the game brings you closer to the world that I grew up always wishing was real.”
Other businesses besides restaurants have been benefiting off the app as well. Animal shelters offer people the chance to walk their dogs and catch Pokémon at the same time, giving players the chance to stock up on pokéstops and hatch eggs.
The app has also had a huge effect on Nintendo’s stock, even though the game isn’t technically their property. According to The Verge, after the games release, Nintendo’s market capitalization more than doubled, ending their first week after the release at $42.5 billion. However, since then, stocks have dropped 17 percent, or about $6.7 billion after investors realized that Nintendo didn’t actually make the game.
Since the game’s release, a community of avid fans has spawned in the interest of learning as much about the game as possible. Tumblr user ireallyliketoeatbread posted a master-post of beginner tips, including where to find the main types of Pokémon. The master-post informs, “Fire types can be found at gas stations and during sunny days. Water types can be found at lakes and other bodies of water, or while it’s raining,” they informed, “Electric types can be found near transforming stations and during thunderstorms. Ghost types at night, grass/bug/normal types can be found in the park or other green landscapes, and normal can be found in typical urban areas. Once you know where to look, it’s just a matter of getting there.”
Don’t forget that there are gyms at the Silhouette sculpture and the Hideout Sculpture. Check out the map to get a better look at all the locations Delta has to offer.