Three short weeks ago I had never heard of the newest craze sweeping the planet. That craze is an app titled Pokemon Go. My brother Allen had called my sister Mary while I was staying at her house, he asked her if the kids had been playing Pokemon Go. My sister never heard of it and she asked me if I had. I was clueless, I don’t usually tend to keep up with the games the kids play unless they tell me about them. I should have paid no attention to this one either, instead while my sister described what my brother had told her I became intrigued, after all who doesn’t like a game that’s interactive. I go to the app store and look it up, sounds pretty cool so I decide I might as well check it out, after all if I don’t like it I can just delete it.
Right after I have the app downloaded and ready, my sister asks if I would like to go to the store with her. Great, now I can actually try the game out. Not long after we get in her car my first Pokemon shows up. Now I did read a little on what to do so I flick my poke ball at the cute little creature and I catch it on my very first shot. Wow, I gotta say I was pretty impressed. We get to the parking lot at the store and more Pokemon show up and I continue to flick poke balls and catch the creatures. I look at my phone and see that my battery is almost dead. How can one game use up so much power? At this point I am not as impressed with the game. When we get back to the house I plug my phone back in and let it charge back up.
After reading a lot of reviews on the game I find that I am not the only one who suffers from battery loose, but there is a battery save mode on the game. I also read that you can conserve more battery life by not keeping it in camera mode. So now I do both of these things and I am once again ready to do battle. Well while sitting at the house you do not really get many Pokemon come your way so I get up and start walking. This is a great way to get some exercise in. My battery is lasting a little longer and all is right in my own little world.
Next we head out to Ocean City, MD for our week of fun and sun. I think to myself, how great is this game going to be while walking on the boardwalk. Well let me tell you I was not at all disappointed as the boardwalk is full of poke stops, this is when you collect a lot of poke balls and other items that you will need to enhance your game play. This is also when I discover that you can get some really fun shots on your camera. OK, now I am hooked.
I did not set out to be so engrossed on a game but here it is, I am a Pokemon Go addict. I find myself keeping the app on most of the time, hoping for that little stray creature to enter my path. I am hatching eggs and leveling up. I find myself searching out the many gyms where you can do battles or just help out your team. Oh yeah, I forgot after level five you have the option of joining one of three teams and so I join team Mystic. While at the shore I also noticed that there were more adults hunting Pokemon then the kids were. Now everywhere I look I see people hunting down these strange-looking creatures. I also see just how big this game has become in such a short span of time. This really beats Angry Birds and Candy Crush.
Now that I am hooked I wonder if there is going to be any counseling done to help those who are way more hooked then me. I actually see people driving and looking for Pokemon, or crossing streets without looking. I am glad that even though I am a Pokemon addict I still have common sense enough to no when to put the game down. I still refuse to play while eating dinner out, while driving my truck and while crossing roads. In the end I still can know that it is just a game.