Pokemon Go: What is it and what’s the big deal?

A closer look at the cellphone game that everyone’s playing

Monday’s adventure: get paid to play Pokemon Go. Wait, what? First, let’s be clear, I’m not a cellphone user, I’m definitely not a gamer and while I’m aware of Pokemon, I don’t know the first thing about Pokemon Go, except of course that it’s become a worldwide sensation in less than a week.

Pokemon Go launched in Canada Sunday afternoon, though the concept isn’t new. The “augmented reality” app created by Niantic Inc. uses smartphone GPS technology to connect the real world with a computer-generated one and it’s free; no console required.

I was given two hours to explore the city of Hamilton in search of these virtual creatures. I hadn’t even left the newsroom when a bizarre looking green monster popped up on my screen. My job was to fling a ball at it in order to capture it and add it to my collection. The character is named Bulbasaur. He has four legs, red eyes, and features a round green pumpkin-like ball on his back. It took me several tries, the help of my colleagues and about five minutes to finally capture Bulbasaur.

First stop: Downtown Hamilton, where walking around, starring at my cellphone screen, I looked up to find a warm smile from Elise Nagy, 25, lover of Pokemon and fellow gamer.

“It was a dream of mine that kind of came true,” she said of the game. “It was probably one of the first TV shows I got hooked on when I was quite young … to catch Pokemon is probably the coolest thing ever.”

Pokemon appear randomly on your screen whether you’re at a park, City Hall, a restaurant, a beach, a library, a school or pretty much anywhere you go. It begs the question, who is actually playing this fantastical cellphone-based game.

Daniel Bader, technology analyst for Mobile Nations, said it’s caught the attention of “lots and lots of adults.”

“It appears that it’s appealing to people with expensive smartphones, which is mostly adults, but it’s also appealing to those who grew up playing Pokemon on the Game Boy.”

That was about 20 years ago and those people would have been between 10 and 15 years of age. Quite early into my game playing I discover a few challenges, safety being No. 1 as you’re constantly peering down at your phone.

Life-threatening situations strike me as a common issue people could have — I certainly don’t want to get hit by a car, crossing the street just to catch one of these virtual creatures.

Bader says the “highly addictive” game does have its drawbacks, which he outlined in an email.

“It’s fairly repetitive and not that interesting, encourages constant attention which has the potential to be dangerous,” and “it has lots of inapp purchases which could get expensive.”

There are some positive aspects, too. “It encourages physical movement and socializing, it’s easy to learn but difficult to master,” and “it’s very nostalgic which appeals to members of Gen X and Y,” he said.

Back to the game and my next stop: Bayfront Park where I bumped into Tania Frazier and Ricky Harris, who were engrossed in their game.

“I like the interaction with people. Everyone is just hanging around catching Pokemon,” Harris said.

What surprised me was how quickly I was able to grasp the basics of the game and, I will admit for not being a gamer, you do feel a certain sense of victory when capturing strange little monsters.

Will I play again? Short answer, no, but thanks for the fun.