POKÉMON EXPERTS FOR HIRE
NEW YORK — For those “who want to fit in” with the Pokémon Go craze “but don’t have time,” one Craigslist go-getter is willing to “catch all these Pokémon for you.”
For $20 an hour and up, another Craigslist pro will “level up” your Pokémon account, hatch “eggs” and even “walk your dog if needed.”
Shortly after Pokémon Go was released and became a global sensation, a microindustry of self-anointed Pokémon Sherpas has blossomed. They advertise services on Craigslist, in posts that sometimes disappear soon after they’re published.
Many opportunists looking to sell their services seem to boil down to a millennial cliché: overeducated, underemployed and eager to cash in on their 1990s-childhood nostalgia.
“The service I’m trying to offer is, well, simple: sit in Central Park for a user and catch all the Pokémons that I come by,” said Tommy Zhang, 26, a tech entrepreneur in Manhattan who collected Pokémon cards and stickers as a child. A “level 24 trainer,” he posted a Craigslist ad, “Professional Pokemon Trainer for Hire,” to earn a few bucks after his startup ran out of funds.
Being a Pokémon pro was not necessarily a life’s goal for Alastair Doggett, 25, a British expatriate, when he received a master’s degree in mathematics from NYU. But after spending a few days in Central Park on the hunt for himself and friends, he gleaned a new way to make rent.
“The idea manifested when my housemate was moaning he didn’t have enough time to make considerable progress in the game, what with being at work all day and returning home late,” Doggett said. “Being unemployed and having considerably more time on my hands than he, I said I would happily help him out.”
Mobility is a big plus in Pokémon Go, with high-value targets scattered at landmarks around the city. So Steven Astudillo, 20, a part-time Uber driver who lives in the Bronx, moonlights as a Pokémon chauffeur, since players are not supposed to drive and stare at smartphones at the same time.
“One, that would be illegal,” Astudillo said. “Two, that would be dangerous. Three, they just don’t like walking around. They like to cheat by using a car or bus.”
Mopeds work, too. Matt Clark, a graphic designer in Brooklyn, has rechristened his old Puch Maxi Sport the Poképed, ferrying players around the city for $25 an hour.
Granted, hiring someone to play your video game may seem no more entertaining than paying someone to flip your Scrabble tiles. But players sometimes need help to “level up,” said Jordan Clark, a 24-year-old in Brooklyn who started a business with his roommate Lewis Gutierrez. A pro can whisk them past the early levels, so they can chase more rarefied creatures and do battle in so-called gyms.
“We’re leveling the playing field for people who don’t have the time but are interested to play competitively, or at least hang in their neighborhood,” Clark said.
Indeed, the social aspect of Pokémon Go is a big draw. Reddit chat threads are brimming with banter from players who crow about conquests and share insight on where to find high-value targets.
For many of these Poképros, it’s hard to say where business goes from here, if anywhere. One trainer, Ivy St. Ive, who was profiled in Gothamist, quickly retired after friends informed her that she was at risk of being banned from the game for violating its terms of service, which state that players agree to never use another user’s account.
Zhang, the tech entrepreneur, has yet to find a paying customer, though he has received several responses, including one that read, “Get a life.”