One that got away
Boy hunts Pokemon. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl.
Of all the “Pokestops” in all the towns in all the world, she had to walk into his.
Brandon Yaghobi, a 22-year-old college student, was looking for Pokemon with the new hit smartphone app, but may have found a real catch instead.
He met a young blond woman outside the Parliament St. branch of Toronto Public Library, where another gamer had left some virtual bait known as a lure.
“Are you playing Pokemon, too?” Yaghobi asked her. For 20 minutes, they chatted about everything and nothing: work, their neighbourhoods, the Pokemon they had and those they wanted. They stopped talking only to nab the digital creatures that flashed on their cellphone screens. The two went their separate ways before Yaghobi thought to ask for her number.
“I hope I see you again,” he called out to her after she started walking away.
“And she just like turned around and smiled, and then I’m like, ‘Damn.’ Should’ve got her name, should’ve got her number, should’ve got something, you know?”
The same night, Yaghobi tried to reach out to her by posting a missed connection on Craigslist, the online equivalent of sending a message in a bottle.
“You offered me an Ice Cream Bar.. I was too shy to make a move.. Maybe we can go hunt some Pokemon sometime?” he wrote. Alas, he hasn’t heard from her. Unbeknown to Yaghobi, he wasn’t the only Pokemon Goer searching for the one that got away. Gamers who — in the words of one Pokemon-related missed connection — were struck by “cupid’s Pokeball” have posted personals ads on the popular classifieds site in major North American cities.
Chicago, w4m (woman seeking a man), July 19: “Me: blue-eyed brunette in black. You: tall, good looking bearded guy in a plaid shirt . . . I wanted to invite you to go Pokemon hunting, but was embarrassed to say it out loud.”
San Francisco, m4m, July 17: “You were wearing shorts and had a backpack on, I think you also had two phones with you. Big cave legs.”
New York City, w4m July 13: “I wanted to talk to you but you were so engrossed in your phone and I had to leave for work . . . If you see this, come catch me at Webster Hall later . . . & let’s catch Pokemon together.”
Denise Marigold, a social psychologist at the University of Waterloo, says there is no clear explanation for this apparent trend.
One possibility, she says, is that the rush of catching a rare Pokemon adds to the excitement of meeting someone new.
“You feel a sudden thrill and you look up and there’s a cute person and you feel more of a thrill in their presence,” she said.
At least one company has noticed that there’s love in the air as well as Pokemon — and it’s attempting to cash in. A Chicago start-up is offering to set gamers up on PokeDates. After filling out a questionnaire online, they are fixed up with someone else for free the first time and $15 for every subsequent date. Canadians will be eligible for PokeDates starting next week, a company spokesperson told the Star.
PokeDates aren’t Yaghobi’s style, he said. He prefers to leave things up to fate.
After last week’s chance encounter, he isn’t exactly optimistic about hearing from the girl at the Pokestop. Without seeming overeager, he said it would be nice to run into her again.
“I am very shy so half the time I’m like ‘it’s probably better if we don’t meet,’ ” he said.
If they were to hang out, he said, he would like to take a stroll together with his dog Joon (a Farsi term of endearment meaning “My dearest”) and grab a cup of coffee.
“We would probably end up playing Pokemon again that time anyway,” he said.