The infatuation with Pokemon Go

Introduction

As I’m typing this Thursday afternoon, I’ve hit level 24 on Pokemon Go already.  I’ve collected 103 out of the 145 or so Pokemon.  This post isn’t to get you to play the game, but more of – what is this infatuation with this game?  So I’ll tell you why I play this game.

 

Reason 1 – It’s a social game

My wife plays the game too.  In fact, she started playing Ingress for months now.  And when this game came out, because she grew up in the Pokemon craze, of course she started to play out.  I never really got into the Pokemon craze, but I did play it on the Nintendo DS way back in the day.  I can tell you that this version of the game is way more fun than the ones you play on the Nintendo DS.  A reason for that is because this version is more of a social game than the DS version.  I’m sure you or someone you know plays the game.

Some of my good friends play the game.  I saw an old friend recently, she asked me if I played and of course we then shared out “decks.”  So it’s conversation fodder.  My close friends play it too, and we’ve gone on “Poke-walks” together, meaning you wander around hunting for them.  A FB friend said she met some people while she was out hunting (although I have a feeling it has more to do with the fact that she is attractive.)  So there’s a social aspect to this game.  You don’t want to be FOMO!  Remember the episode where Joey had no idea what the group was talking about and so he bought the encyclopedia book of the letter V and tried to talk about Mt Vesuvius?

 

Reason 2 – The minigame inside the game

When you are ‘catching’ a Pokemon, you are essentially throwing a ball and trying to hit the Pokemon’s head.  You can get creative and try to spin the ball.  Sometimes the Pokemon will jump over your ball or knock it down to aggravate you.  You would think this simple mundane act of throwing a ball gets old, but it doesn’t.

And sometimes the thing will break free from the ball.  The ball will shake 3 times, and there is a mini adrenaline rush between the 2nd and 3rd shake because you’ve caught him once you see the 3rd shake.  It’s akin to the rat pushing the lever to get a piece of cheese (minus the jolt of electricity.)  

 

Reason 3 – Gotta catch them all

I’d say that I’m a pretty competitive person.  I’m not the type that gets angry when I lose at Monopoly, but I do want to win.  This means for Pokemon, I have to catch all 145 Pokemon or so.  Maybe it’s my OCD nature or whatnot, but I just have to catch them all.  I know some friends who casually play for a few minutes a day, but I want to be the first to say I’ve caught them all, all for bragging rights and say I’m the first (see competitive nature.)  Once I’ve caught them all, I’m sure the game will come out with new ones to keep you in the rat race.  We’ll see what I do at that point.

There are also “gyms” that you can battle other teams.  I’ve chosen the red team and I want to dominate all the blue gyms out there.  Beating a gym gives you 10 Pokemon coins, which is equivalent to $.10 since it costs you $1 for 100 Pokecoins.  I won’t mention how my wife and I have detoured from our route home just to beat some gyms.  We may stop however since I realized last night, “Did I just go out of my way for 10 minutes so I could earn the equivalent of a quarter?”  My time and gas costs far exceed that.

 

Reason 4 – Exercise

My dog may love this game more than me – he’s gotten more frequent and longer walks now that the game has been released.  My wife and I even went on a “poke-walk” the other day at a park.  The park was probably 10X busier than before the game.  This game may do more for childhood obesity than any government program.

 

Conclusion

I’m not sure how long I’ll play the game.  I’m actually worried when they enable trading between players since that’ll just make people create multiple accounts to consolidate into one really strong deck.  This will then discourage the casual players.  Until that day comes, I’ll enjoy the ride.