I wanna be the very best… like no one ever was

Victoria Goldberg (Editor-in-Chief) and Cedric Cruz (Contributor)

Featured illustration: One of the reasons why many older teens and adults embraced the game was simple: nostalgia. | Branavi Balendran

It’s the craze that’s sweeping the nation; the hobby that turned into a lure; the app that helped find a dead body; and it’s taking over York.

York has jumped on the bandwagon and has officially gone Pokémon GO crazy.

As part of their orientation week, Student Community & Leadership Development did a marketing campaign with college mascots being augmented into the game, encouraging froshies to catch the mascot and the hype.

Officially released in July 2016 by Niantic Labs, the game was only available in the United States, New Zealand and Australia as a part of an extended launch that tested their servers. It wasn’t long until eager Pokémasters figured out how to cheat the system and download the game despite geolocation restrictions. According to SensorTower, Pokémon GO was downloaded more than 10 million times within the first week, and reached 15 million global downloads by mid-July.

Not everyone was a huge fan. Sheldon Wiseberg, fourth-year kinesiology student, doesn’t play Pokémon GO.

“I never liked Pokémon nor any other anime media because I find the animation creepy. However, I applaud the idea for getting people to be active while playing a game they enjoy,” he says. “Just be aware of your surroundings so you don’t get into any accidents or intrude on private property, and don’t be obsessed with it.”

“The game itself offers a few distinguishing features compared to popular commercial mobile games—it is free, it can be played outside, in groups, so it is a way of socializing and discovering new environments,” says Ganaele Langlois, assistant professor with the Department of Communication Studies.

The game has gotten some positive support from several organizations, including the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital for encouraging children to explore their surroundings as part of their physiotherapy. Getting out of bed can be painful to many patients but framing it as a game with a clear objective can help motivate otherwise bedridden patients.

Some hospitals aren’t as happy with their association with Pokémon GO. SickKids Hospital in Toronto has asked members of the community to stop dropping “lures,” in-game additions that increase Pokémon activity in a specific spot, in and around the hospital. They claim that the increased foot traffic is a hazard to both employees, as well as an invasion of privacy for patients at the hospital.

The exploring motif has also gotten some people in trouble, particularly with trespassing laws and private properties. The game can become quite challenging when rare Pokémon or gyms are inside people’s houses, such as in the instance of Boon Sheridan from Massachusetts. Sheridan and his wife moved into a home that was formerly a church in the 1800s, which led the Pokémon GO algorithms to label it as a gym. Although trainers come by his home at all hours of the day, Sheridan doesn’t feel bothered by it, just bemused.

Langlois expresses concerns beyond private property and in the classroom. “There are those who feel the game to be a nuisance for their everyday life—too many gamers on one’s private property, for instance—and I imagine soon professors being interrupted in the midst of lecture,” she says.
York is home to a large number of Pokéstops, or places that the algorithms dictate to be of place of attraction. A quick play of Pokémon GO during the writing of this article estimates that there are at least 30 Pokéstops, three lures set up, and a Squirtle in the area.

Back in July, York Security Services released a bulletin with guides on how to stay safe around campus while playing the game, reiterating the push notifications that pop up when you launch the game.

It’s been two months since its release and the train just keeps on rolling. It’s not hard to see why the game has gained and continues to gain such popularity. On first glance, the childhood game appeals to smaller children, but according to a recent survey done by SurveyMonkey Intelligence, 46 per cent of players are ages 18 to 29.

One key word has changed the demographic to older teens and young adults: nostalgia.

“Well, for me—and I’m sure many other longtime Pokémon fans—the game fulfills a big childhood dream that until now I thought to be impossible, which is to literally explore outside and ‘catch’ Pokémon. The fact that the Pokémon featured in the game are first generation adds to this total sense of nostalgia,” says Alex Colle, a fourth-year theatre student.

“Most of us imagined our little Pokémon trainer as ourselves in our original Pokémon Yellow Gameboy game. I feel like Pokémon GO brings fans closer to that reality than ever before.

“I’m sure the game will start to generally die down when winter comes, at least in Toronto.”

Winter weather is far down on Niantic’s list of concerns, as they recently began a campaign to deal with “hackers.” Seeing as the game is still in beta, updates to the game’s tracking system have been getting constant negative feedback. In turn, users have created websites and apps that track the locations of nearby Pokémon, going into as much detail as to show how long they will stay in that location. Users were ecstatic to find sites like Pokélocate, PokéVision, and Poké Radar, which use the original Pokémon GO’s API—application program interface—to determine when and where Pokémon will pop up.

It wasn’t long until Niantic started handing out notices asking developers of such sites to cease and desist due to violation of the game’s terms of service.

Overall, Pokémon GO is a hot mess express, filled with glitchy interfaces, difficult-to-find Pokémon and constant updates. Despite its fun and failures, Pokémon GO has done quite well for itself. It beat the top-tier games based on the dollars earned in the first month since the release, such as Clash Royale and Candy Crush Soda. Pokémon GO earned a record $200 million, while the other two earned $125 million and $25 million, respectively.

The Pokémon gaming franchise has been running for 20 years. It all started when Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of the Pokémon series, believed that he could create a game that would enable his childhood hobby and interest of insect collecting.