The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
POKÉMON GO! ALLURE
“Poke-mania” continues, as 21,000 people attended #PokemonGOFest2018 July 14-15
Lorain County residents just will not stop playing Pokemon Go.
The blockbuster mobile game has kept its hold on players for more than two years.
And, if all the players one can see still playing are any indication, it may continue that hold for years to come.
The free game, made by Niantic Inc., has been downloaded more than 100 million times on Google Play Store and has received more than 10 million reviews for a rating of 4.1 out of five stars.
Currently, it is the No. 1 adventure game available on the platform, and players participate in global challenges.
“I drive to all kinds of places. That’s kind of the fun of the game to go to different spots and all the cool parks.”
— Patrick Higgins, 41, of Vermilion
Pokémon has been popular for much longer than the app has been available, as so-called “Poké-mania” swept the world in the late 1990s and early 2000s following the release of Pokémon
Red and Blue for the Nintendo Gameboy.
Those games, and each installment of the core series that has followed, cast players in the role of a Pokémon trainer just starting on their journey to “be the very best, like no one ever was,” as the theme song of the animated series based on the games said.
The app tasks players with walking around searching for the titular monsters in the real world.
When one finds an errant Kangaskhan or Sudowoodo a direct hit with a pokéball, a kind of containment system that defies the laws of time and space, and if you’re lucky, the beast will become yours.
Of course, all of this takes place in the augmented reality of the mobile phone’s screen, except for the walking. That’s very real.
The Morning Journal spoke to a group of devotees of the game July 12 as they were huddled near West Erie Avenue at Lakeview Park in Lorain.
Patrick Higgins, 41, of Vermilion, said he and the rest of the group gathered to defeat a particularly difficult Pokémon: Mewtwo.
Higgins said he often travels to catch the more elusive monsters.
“I drive to all kinds of places,” he said. “That’s kind of the fun of the game to go to different spots and all the cool parks. I caught a bunch of stuff in Marblehead.”
Higgins said he keeps playing because of the cohorts that surrounded him as he spoke.
They were all members of a group chat on Facebook for those who play the game. Their group chat currently has 236 people discussing various facets of the game.
Higgins also highlighted the additions made to the game by Niantic over the past two years.
“They just introduced trading, which is what these guys are doing,” he said motioning to two members of the group standing close by with phones out. “So, they’re trading back and forth.”
He said they plan to keep playing.
Niantic schedules special events, such as the opportunity to fight Mewtwo, at different locations across the country.
Beth O’Brien, 60, of Lorain, said there was a big event July 14-15 in Chicago.
“... tickets for (Chicago Go-Fest) sold out in —” O’Brien said.
“— Thirty seconds,” Higgins interrupted. “I was on it at the time, and couldn’t get one.”
Bob O’Brien, 53, and Dan Schaffer, 44, both of Lorain, also are members of the group.
When all were asked why they play, the answers all had an emphasis on fun.
“We got into it because of our grandson,” Bob O’Brien said.
“And now, here we are,” Beth O’Brien said with a laugh.
Bob O’Brien used to coach sports and he said many of the children also played the game, so he started playing himself.
“Now, they don’t do it anymore, but I’m still doing it,” he said.
The group agreed the majority of players now are adults.
Higgins said he’s attracted to the game because of the sense of community that has arisen organically.
“It’s all about community and all about everybody working together and coming together,” he said.
“You meet people you wouldn’t have met anywhere else,” Bob O’Brien said.
Higgins’ 12-year-old daughter Ivy Higgins, of Vermilion, said she does not play the game because she doesn’t have the chance to travel and find them very often.
“It makes (adults) feel nostalgic for when Pokémon first came out,” Ivy said.
She plays the core series, which is still published for Nintendo handheld devices.
Ivy said she enjoys them more than the mobile game.
“They actually have a story, and you can battle and breed,” she said. “There’s actually a point to it, because Pokémon Go is just: get this Pokémon, get Mew and boom, you’re all good.
“In the (Nintendo) 3DS version, there’s actually a point to playing it: the story.”
Ivy said she got bored of the mobile app.
For those who’ve not gotten bored or who want to try the game, the group advised there will be a community event at 5 p.m. July 19 at Lakeview Park in Lorain.