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Associated Press reporter Todd Richmond tries to conquer Pokemon Go” while walking around Downtown. The 44-year-old downloaded the app and played the game, which involves moving through the real world in search of virtual monsters, in an attempt to understand its popularity.PokemonContinued from Page Alof it. Heck, until just last week I thought “meme” was pronounced mime.”I tried to ignore the Pokecraze. I really did. But when my son's Little League senta message warning kids to be careful when searching for Pokemon during games, I had to find out what the big deal was.Dr, Willow presentsOn starting the app , an animated dude named Dr. Willow greeted me. He looks like a teenage version of Doc Brown from Back to the Future, with spiky white hair,a lab coat and Spandex tights.The game asked me to access my location, briefly triggering visions of blackhelicopters and agents ransacking myhouse in the dead of night But it's hard to play a map game without being on the map, so after a few tense moments of indecision,1 threw caution to the wind.Back to Dr. Willow, who delivered awarning that l should be aware of my surroundings at all times. Thanks, Dr. Willow. Next he ordered me to create an avatar ofmyself. 'This was actually fun - I gave mycharacter hair. That might be the most satisfying part of the whole experience, given that I’m what some people would call fol-licly challenged. || |gSquirrels under the domeSuddenly my character was standing in a map of the state Capitol. A clawed squirrelwith a tail that ends in a ball of fire appearedin the Capitol press room.44 See your little Poke Ball ? Capital Times reporter Jessie Opoien screamed. “Launch it at him!” It took three tries, but I got him. Dr. Willow re-appeared and ordered me to travel the world searching for these things.I started wandering the Capitol's corridors, and soon captured something called a Rattata, an angry purple rat with huge buck teeth.But the pickings, seemed, slim, so outside 1 went, waving the phone in front of my face as if I were warding off evil spirits.Next to fail was a Spearow, a cross between a chicken and hawk, that appeared at the base of the Hans Christian Heg statute. Hans Christian Heg was a Norwegian-American Civil War soldier from Wisconsin. He died a hero at the Battle of Chickamauga Now's he’s a virtual reality roosting spot,The rest of the Square was largely Pokemon-free, although another Spearowdid turn up on the east lawn. I failed to hit it before the app died. Pm sure I looked ridiculous, though not as bad as the nearby fitness class doing jumping jacks in the86-degree heat.Close encounter with a busThe next morning Downtown, it quickly became clear that the app is about as stable as the San Andreas fault; it froze nearly a half - dozen times. I also had a close encoun -ter with a bus and developed an awful kink in my neck from constantly peering down at my phone. Chiropractors, rejoice.On the plus side, I became a stone-cold hunter. New creatures fell to my deadly aim, the strangest being an Oddish, a rac-quetbail with legs and. palm fronds, for hair. Every time 1 looked up I noticed other play -ers on the sidewalk. They were impossible to miss, clumped into groups of twos and threes, staring at their phones, stopping on a dime and pointing.By the end of the outing I'd accumulated enough experience points to enter a “gym, a virtual arena where Pokemon fight. 1 lost five straight times to a Flareon, a fire-breathing Chihuahua.So went the Great Pokemon ExperimentPokemon post-mortomIt's easy to see why kids love this game. It’s fun at first, in an open-your-presents-on-Christmas-morning kind of way, and it binds them even tighter to their omni -present phones. The game also offers bits erftrivia about local landmarks, where Poke -mon lurk, so I suppose kids can take something away from it.But it’s dangerous as all get out, It’s hard to tear your face away from the phone. God forbid, that .anyone tries to play while driving; it’s tough enough to avoid walking into a tree. /Call, me old-fashioned, but the more 1 played the more 1 realized I was missing out on something. I was out of the office, in the summer sun, breathing fresh air; the real world in all its wonderful grandeur and beautiful complexity spread all around me. But I wasn’t part of itTherein lies the real danger. The game both pushes players into reality and isolates them from it, constricting human communication even further in an age where it's never been more important.Give me Pac- Man any day.
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NA, 31 Mar 2022
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