MANSFIELD — For years, children born since the 1990’s have loved “Pokémon.”
Last week, a smartphone game, “Pokémon GO,” was launched in the United States and gained popularity immediately, becoming the top grossing app in the App Store.
The idea of the game is pretty simple: walk about the world and search for virtual Pokémon creatures and collect them on your phone using pokéballs.
This modern, augmented reality smartphone game meshed with principles of geocaching has found a ton of attention on social media.
That’s where Lexington High School juniors, Kathryn Moir, 16, and Nadia Stewart, 16 found out about the game.
“I was a Pokémon kid,” Kathryn said. “I had the cards; I had all the games. Now this game is out and I think it’s really cool how you are reliving your childhood, and how it’s making people go out and be active.
“I think the stereotype is that people who play Pokémon are lazy and don’t get out. It’s a good idea that you have to get out to move. That’s a real problem in the U.S.”
The two juniors have only had the game for several days, and had only been on the hunt for the virtual creatures for about 20 minutes, but in that timeframe, the two had meet many other trainers around downtown Mansfield.
“We were outside of Relax, (It’s Just Coffee) and someone saw us and asked us if we were playing Pokémon Go? ‘Go to the square, there are so many Pokémon,’” said Kathryn. “Some girls said to go to the reformatory too. There’s tons at the reformatory.”
Nadia said this game is proving people wrong about millennials and their attachment to phones. She said the 20 minutes she and Kathryn had proved the phones and the game helped bring strangers together.
“A lot of older people think we don’t talk in person because of phones,” Nadia said. “But actually they are bringing us together. This game is an example of it.”
Kathryn agreed with Nadia’s statement and said she could foresee using the Pokémon Go as a dating service, by bringing people together to go exploring.
“I can see this being a norm. Maybe like Pokémon dates where people exploring together. That was my first thought. You could learn for from them and also make a new friend,” she said.
“That’s the difference between now and the Gameboy or the (Nintendo) DS (game’s version. Now that we have this technology, we can be used by anybody, and bring a lot of people with you.”
Kathryn said she thinks the game could change people’s perception of technology.
“Because right now people say it keeps you inside, away from the world. But with this you have to go outside. You can meet new people. Even in Mansfield. You can meet people and they’ll say ‘Oh, go here,'” she said.
“It’s just really cool that it is going to make people more active, but also bring people together.”
