The Pokémon craze sweeping the world
“I’m halfway across the street – nose buried in my iphone – before I look up and see the sign affixed to the wire fence: ‘PATROLLED BY ARMED GUARDS’.” For a moment, said Clem Bastow in The Guardian, I find myself weighing up the pros and cons: is it worth trespassing on a military barracks in the hope of capturing a cartoon monster from a Japanese computer game? “This is my life in a post- Pokémon Go world.” And it’s not just me: all across America, Australia and New Zealand – the three countries where Nintendo’s new smartphone game was launched last week – the streets are suddenly clogged with Pokémon Go addicts, searching for virtual monsters in the real world. The game has overtaken Twitter as the most downloaded app on Android phones; shares in Nintendo surged by 53% in three days.
This craze is based on a heady mix of nostalgia and new technology, said German Lopez on Vox.com. A generation that grew up in the 1990s, playing Pokémon on their game consoles, now has the chance to do it in the “real world”. The aim is much the same – to catch and train 151 Pokémon creatures – but this time they are “hidden” around your neighbourhood. The game uses the GPS in your phone to help you find them: when you turn on your camera, the creatures pop up on your screen. Some Pokémon are urban, some rural, and some only come out at night. You have to travel “far and wide” to find them all.
This has its perils, said Megan Jula in The New York Times. US police have issued warnings about the dangers of walking, and even driving, while playing Pokémon Go. Some creatures have been hidden in highly unsuitable places, including the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. And there are concerns that one of the features of the game – a virtual “lure”, which attracts the creatures to an area for a short time – could be used for nefarious ends. Already, three men in Missouri have been arrested for using a lure to entice teenagers to a secluded spot and then robbing them at gunpoint. On the other hand, this game gets people out of the house, exercising and exploring their local area. As crazes go, it might actually be good for our sanity.