Pokemon the New Addiction

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.

 

 

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