OK, last week I know I left you with a tease. I mentioned Pokémon at the very end. I do not know how you feel but personally I am tired of hearing about it…whatever it may be.
Nevertheless, let us explore Pokémon.
The Pokémon started its illustrious career in 1995 and was created by Satoshi Tajiri. It was a game made specifically for the Nintendo Game Boy.
The idea was that human players were called Pokémon trainers. Their job was to train the little, chubby, yellow, long eared, soft looking "monsters" to fight each other for fun. "Pokémon" is a combination of two Japanese words, "Poketto" and "Monsut" which is "Pocket Monsters" in English. That was the beginning and since these creatures were very popular they continued to grow. Since their creation there have been movies, TV shows, card games, a Pokémon monopoly board game and some knuckleheads even started a Poké religion.
However, a few weeks ago (July 6, 2016) an electronic game "Pokémon Go" appeared on the market, created by a California company, Niantic. It was recently announced that Pokémon Go became the most popular download in the history of video games. Within 10 days of its release it was downloaded over 21 million times in the U.S. alone.
The game is a free Android and iPhone, "location-based, augmented reality" game. To play you first download the app from your perspective game store. It requires many permissions from your phone. Some authorizations make sense like photos but others like access to all of your contacts…for me, NO! This is the reason I have talked to game players and not installed it on my phone. It seems too invasive for me.
Basic gameplay is you walk/run around outdoors looking for Pokémon in the wild on your phone’s screen. You capture them when you see them by throwing an imaginary Poké Ball at them. Once you capture them they can battle other Pokémon in the game at Poké Gyms, etc.
The only part I find interesting is this takes place on a real screen with the things your camera sees in real time becoming part of the game. You may see your Pokémon is running around in your yard, at the mall, in a parking lot, wherever. If you hit them quickly enough you capture them. After you capture them they will battle for you to win more Pokémons or lose some of yours. The goal is to collect all 151 (at this time) types of the pocket monsters.
I have read that problems are abundant with the game. There have been a few security issues alone with bad guys adding similar apps people download which collect your personal information. There have been reports of Pokémon Trainers being chased off of other people’s personal real estate looking for the monsters. There have been many reports of people walking into things, falling down, breaking bones from falling in ditches while chasing Pokémon, etc.
Unfortunately, there have been some car accidents caused by people trying to capture a Pokémon while they should have been watching traffic.
What is wrong with people today anyway? I always said computers were making people more ignorant all the time. In my opinion this game helps prove it. And this is coming from a computer nerd.
