I Love Pokémon Go

As the only member of Mixed Company who plays Pokémon Go, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one whose opinion specifically on the game matters. This piece is not a broad indictment or defense of our use of public space; it’s a list of reasons Pokémon Go is a really cool game and is not a harbinger of the end times (true harbinger of end times is that humans have taught fish to recognize our faces — given what we’ve done to the oceans, I don’t think we have much longer left before they rise up against us). I’m not going to explain the whole game, so if you’re not familiar, 1) go download the game and have a 10-year-old teach you how to play, or 2) read this primer, so you can understand what I’m going on about here. Keep in mind that the game has added features since the piece was written, so you’re better off asking a child.

This child, for example.

1. It’s like science-magic. I was a nerd-child (and, okay, am a nerd-adult), obsessed with the idea of parallel universes and invisible worlds layered on top of ours. I was convinced/intrigued/terrified that I could wander into a portal to another dimension at anytime (shout out to unsupervised library time and watching lots of Unsolved Mysteries and X-Files in your formative years). Walking around with Pokémon Go open on my phone, seeing Drowsees and Zubats and maybe a Pikachu around my neighborhood makes the child in me so so so excited. The game is like having glasses into another dimension — We’re not alone! There are Pokémon among us! I’m going to catch them all! I know it’s not real, but even grown-ups should get to pretend sometimes.
2. It helps me get up and out. I really love sitting on the couch, watching TV, and eating snacks. In this way, I am a true American and I will not apologize. But since Pokémon Go came out, I’m watching less TV and spending more time wandering around my neighborhood, deploring the absurd plethora of Pidgeys.
3. It helps me zone out. I know that folks often view zoning out, or not paying attention to what’s going on around you, negatively. But, often, the everything is terrible and nothing is good (have you ever even read the news? how about lately?) and zoning out is necessary and okay. I won’t argue that checking out from reality consistently or choosing to ignore the sheer horror of life on planet Earth is healthy; but no different from my 100th viewing of Jurassic Park, playing Pokémon Go lets me shut down the socializing and thinking part of my brain (pretty sure that’s the scientific explanation of what’s happening) and recharge for my next day, in which I will have to do some smashing of the White Supremacy Patriarchy.
4. It helps me notice. This claim might seem counterintuitive given the previous point, but hear me out. When I’m up and out in my neighborhood playing Pokémon Go, I notice, see, and hear things that I’ve previously missed. I may be zoned out from some of my everyday stress0rs (for example, again, that everything is terrible and nothing is good), but I’m quite checked in to the game’s augmented reality. As I said before, the game is layered over the physical world — that means my neighborhood is still very much part of the game. When not playing the game, I have neighborhood places I go and places I don’t, very much by habit. When I’m logged in, often playing with Neema, my spouse, we end up chasing down Eevees in parts of our ‘hood that we hadn’t seen before. We also look for PokéStops, where we can collect PokéBalls to catch more Pokémon (yes, I hear how that sounds). These stops are placed in public locations — schools, churches, monuments, works of art, parks, businesses, etc. — many of which I hadn’t noticed before. I don’t always, or even usually, linger at these places, but now I know they’re there when I’d previously just walked or driven by. Further, the game doesn’t allow for a Pokémon to always be in your location — in those moments, walking around, seeking even just an everyday Ratata, I notice the flowers in bloom, the cracks in the road, and the actual rats and bunnies and squirrels we humans share our urban neighborhoods with.
5. It brings people together. My points this far have been about what I like about Pokémon Go as an individual. Maybe you’re thinking, okay fine, it’s fun for one person, but what about the fact that so many people are on it, zoned out, clogging up our favorite beaches, ignoring others on the bus? It might be fun for an individual, but also bad for society. If you have only watched Pokémon Go being played a public place, then it’s reasonable that that’s what you’d think. But if you have played it, you’d know that the game brings people together. We talk to each other about our latest catches; we discuss strategy; we guide each other to nearby rare finds; laugh at that we are adults in our 30s playing a game alongside kids and elders alike. At Natalia’s beach, I’ve run into people from all walks of life; parents playing with their kids; people speaking a range of languages; men with boom boxes playing explicit hip-hop or EDM; Hijabi teens, stoner college students reeking of weed, pre-schoolers who can barely hold their parents’ phones, high schoolers sharing one phone between a group of five, nerds, hipsters, geeks, larpers, and the list goes on. I can’t imagine much else that could bring so many people together to share space and collectively squeal with delight at a just-stopped Charizard.

Yes, the summer of Pokémon Go may be over, but some of us play on and await all the augmented reality games to come.