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Pokemon Go

Gryphos

Auror
This game is f*cking huge, but on the bizarre off-chance you don't know what it is, it's an augmented reality game you play on your phone in which you catch pokemon in real life and train them up and fight gyms and stuff. Gyms and pokestops, where you stock up on supplies, usually take the form of churches, pubs, train stations and monuments.

And yeah, it's a fun pastime. It gets you out of the house, gets you exploring your neighbourhood, and is generally all round a really neat game. That is, when the servers aren't crashing.

#TeamInstinct
 
#teamInstinct

I've been walking with my sister around the city all day collecting things. I've got some ghastly and a jinx.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
I went to college in NYC, where everybody walks and exploring neighborhoods is already a thing, so my facebook wall has been flooded with PokemonGo anecdotes. A friend of mine in the metro said he blurted out, "I just caught a ratatade," like six people yelled, "Me too!" and the whole train car burst out laughing.

I haven't played it. It sounds like fun. But it leaves me with mixed feelings about this world we're coming to.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
Oh? How so?

Just the idea that these kinds of low-involvement games are coming to dominate our free time. I don't want to sound like I have a problem with PokemonGo. I've heard that it's done good things for people (more than the typical "this game is fun" stuff). If my lifestyle were a bit different I would probably be playing it. But if you look at the meta of how we're coming to live our lives obsessed with our screens, games like this now fill up time that we should otherwise be away from those screens.

I guess I just mean, it's cool that an augmented reality game is getting people out and about and exploring. But reality should be awesome enough without needing to be augmented.
 

Gryphos

Auror
But reality should be awesome enough without needing to be augmented.

...Says the fantasy writer.

In all seriousness, I get what you mean, but I guess it's a generational thing that the younger generation is content to find enjoyment any way it can, and embraces screens as a way to see things we can't see otherwise.
 
I see good and bad with this App. The food is that people are walking. The bad is that peoe often invade another's privacy by walking onto that persons property without permission.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
I see good and bad with this App. The food is that people are walking. The bad is that peoe often invade another's privacy by walking onto that persons property without permission.

It's a little more than just walking. The game has people exploring, it drives traffic to businesses, it gets players to interact with each other face to face.

This has started a new genre of games, though, and sooner or later these games will let places opt-in or opt-out of having their property featured in the game. Four square used to have people compete to be "mayor" of a location, but a future iteration of this game might go so far as to have businesses competing to become a pokemon gym for their neighborhood.

If this kind of thing "sticks," for better or worse it's going to change the landscape far beyond the game itself.
 

Caged Maiden

Staff
Article Team
I joined today at lunch time, and so far, I've logged 2.5 miles with three kids in tow, and I've got two walks scheduled tomorrow.

I suck at the game, but walking with a phone in my hand, waiting for it to vibrate has given me a reason to get out and away from my computer. I love it! And my kids are excited to ride bikes with me as I walk at the park and explore our neighborhood! This game is so much fun!
 

Reaver

Staff
Moderator
...Says the fantasy writer.

In all seriousness, I get what you mean, but I guess it's a generational thing that the younger generation is content to find enjoyment any way it can, and embraces screens as a way to see things we can't see otherwise.

Fiction (especially in our chosen genre) is an escape from reality, not an augmentation. But I see your point as well.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
In all seriousness, I get what you mean, but I guess it's a generational thing that the younger generation is content to find enjoyment any way it can, and embraces screens as a way to see things we can't see otherwise.

Wait . . . are you calling me old?
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
It sounds like I am, doesn't it? My mistake, I'm not.

I was born in '83, so depending on who you ask, that's part of an "inbetween" generation. I was a kid and remember buying the NES. I was something like 10 when we got our first computer, and I remember waiting up half the night for a game to install from the floppy disk. My first modern-feeling computer was one I got for college - which is also when I got a cellphone. Something about "growing up with the technology" makes it a slightly different generation.

I guess my answer on Pokemon Go was also inbetweenish.

My wife and I talk about it sometimes. She was born in '85, which is the same inbetween generation. But she leans a little more towards millennial than I do.
 

Reaver

Staff
Moderator
I was born in '83, so depending on who you ask, that's part of an "inbetween" generation.

According to The Pew Research Center and a few other well respected organizations, Millennials (or Gen Y) were born after 1980 and reached adulthood in the early 2000's.

I'm a Gen Xer and my first video game console was an Atari 2600. Our first home computer was a TRS-80. Only text based games on that bad boy. Anyone remember Zork?
 
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Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
Well, you do live in an old barbarian retirement village. :D

Heh no, I left that rubble village weeks ago. I will spend the last of my days walking alone through world teaching old barbarian ways to any teenage millenials getting mugged while they're catching pokemon.

If you have not ripped out the tail of a Charizard and let its flame cauterize the inside of your gullet, then you have not lived.
 

Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
I am quite surprised and a little alarmed at the wild success of this Pokemon Go game.

It's great that people are enjoying it so much, but I think that the game is causing the Smartphone fever to get even worse. I have noticed that too many smartphone users often get pretty much hypnotized by those devices since months and years ago, to the point that some people cannot live without carrying the smartphone all the time.

I disagree that it has something to do with age.

I was one of those kids that played NES and SNES games like crazy and watched animated movies in my family's Beta VCR. I was like nine years old when one of our neighbors got a Microwave oven (a rarity back then, at least where I lived) and it was wonderful to watch how the microwave popcorn was prepared.

And... guess what? Many people way older than me are playing smartphone games, and they carry their phones, tablets and even laptops everywhere and they cannot stay at a hotel if it does not have powerful and flawless Wifi.

My first cell phone came to me back in 2004 (a very basic phone that would be considered trash today), so to me it feels a bit worrying that kids these days are getting advanced smartphones so young.

I am not saying that these new lifestyles are bad, just that I do not quite understand them... I think that Pokemon Go and other games in that style should be taken with more caution, that's all.

My advice for Pokemon Go players would be this:

Enjoy the game, but stay safe! Do not venture into either dangerous areas or private property just to catch the Pokemon. Always pay attention to your surroundings when you play, because suffering an accident or running into dangerous people is really easy. When you drive, keep your eyes on the road.

I prefer to play PS3 and PS4 at home, but I hope that smartphone players will enjoy their games very much. Just play safe =)
 
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