The thing we love about Pokémon Go is actually pretty lo-fi
Letterboxing was a low-tech version of today’s viral outdoor adventure
Pokémon Go may have launched last week but your ancestors have been playing it for decades.
The game has created viral mania. The free mobile app uses augmented reality, forcing the player to move around their space to catch Pokémon and visit Pokestops. Players spent the days following its release running into walls, finding dead bodies, getting robbed, and (yay!) making new friends — because everyone was outside playing.
Its roots don’t just stop at the Pokémon game itself, which debuted in 1996 exclusively for Nintendo Game Boy. A phenomenon then, the franchise expanded to movies, television series, comics, card collecting, toys, and more. Its success as a video game franchise is second only to Mario.
Pokémon Go feeds on humans’ profound, storied fascination with exploration and reward, specifically in the tidy package of the treasure hunt.
And contrary to outcries of a dystopian future where everyone roams the street heads-down in their phones, games like Pokémon Go are actually bringing thousands of people together.
That’s precisely what similar games intended, over 160 years ago.
The practice of letterboxing began in 1854, in Dartmoor, Devon, England. Travel guide James Perrott installed a glass jar in a peat bog known as Cranmere Pool; travelers could drop their name cards to log their visit. Soon people began leaving postcards addressed to themselves or relatives; the next person to visit would collect the cards and mail them. The boxes evolved to include many games, puzzles, or activities besides letters. A common letterbox included a custom stamp that finders could “collect” by stamping their journals and, in turn, leaving their own stamp in the box’s log.
It wasn’t until the 1970s that letterboxes became a cult phenomenon and inspired a widely popular movement known as geocaching. With roots in the early consumer web and GPS, geocaching was first played in the year 2000. Unlike most letterboxing, participants rely on modern technology to target precise coordinates, some along highways, others at the top of a mountain peak. Proper geocache locations feature a waterproof box with a log, a pen, and a stamp. Some encourage the visitor to leave behind a memento; then the following person may choose to take that object and swap one of similar value.
Just as its origins began with innovative technology, geocaching hunting has become more sophisticated over time. Enthusiasts download GPX files full of updated geocache location data from websites, which they can read on newer GPS receivers or mobile apps.
Pokémon Go combines the nostalgia of a ’90s franchise with, ironically, a previously troubled technology. Augmented reality has struggled to take off with consumers. Before Snapchat filters and Pokémon Go, few saw the value add of AR beyond cool party trick. By layering computer-generated media into a real world environment via proxy, for example, a smartphone, users can interact with digital objects and people that aren’t tactile — at least in the traditional sense.
Pokémon Go’s genius is pairing AR with the beloved tradition of treasure hunting. Play is not particularly difficult once you get the hang of launching virtual Pokeballs around your living room to capture monsters. The hard part might be the physical action required to discover new Pokestops (item drops located at interesting places or landmarks) in one’s neighborhood. (It’s like a screen version of The Amazing Race.) Gamers aren’t used to disclaimers that warn them to stay alert in their environment (lest one enter a construction zone unawares).
The game and geocaching actually have that in common. Geocachers sometimes encounter danger or the wrath of law enforcement as they struggle to locate treasures. Though the geocaching community posts rules about avoiding private property and dangerous waypoints, safety run-ins are unfortunate risks. It remains to be seen how much trouble Pokémon Go may cause, as more players log in and explore. Some are already learning the hard way. Others are calling foul, declaring Pokémon Go a surveillance conspiracy or a ruse to get people visiting more Starbucks.
So far the game has generated loads of fun, curiosity, and interaction with people’s communities in new ways (even charity work). It may take a smartphone and an Orwellian privacy policy to play, but that tradeoff doesn’t seem too harsh. Level up.
