I wasn’t going to, but I did. I went ahead and installed Pokémon GO on my Android device
Everyone has effectively been losing their minds over this game since its initial release and as a Canadian, we just got the chance to lose our own minds on July 17, so shit only just got real about 5 minutes ago. To be honest, I wasn’t going to get on this train but when my boss pulled out his phone to catch Charizard (during my performance review), I knew then for sure that all hope was lost. RIP humanity.
So I went back to my desk and installed it myself.
Pokémon GO is a collector’s dream
The verdict: Pokémon GO is a collector’s dream. Hell, Pokémon GO has the potential to become the obsession (zillions of people are already hooked) of even the most casual of completionists. In fact, can one even use the words ‘casual’ and ‘completionist’ in the same sentence? That said, capturing Pokémon is what it has always been about, ever since that very first Pokémon episode.
Pokémon GO and Niantic Inc. are pitching the idea about playing the game in “The Real World”, so getting people out “in the wild” and off their couches is definitely a good thing. You can think of Pokémon GO as a cross between Geocaching and well, Pokémon. Just like finding geo-cached treasures out in the wild, Pokémon GO employs pretty much the same principles, but through Pokémon colored glasses. Just don’t look for Pokémon in traffic. Seriously, don’t be that person/casualty. I mean, it’s great that people are “getting out there” and being active and all, but it’s still kind of people getting out there and staring at their phones while invading private property. Anyway, it is early days so perhaps the mania will wear off a bit.
That said, there is always the GPS hack to spoof your location for Pokémon GO which enables you to catch them all, without “getting out there” in the wild. Is IP spoofing considered cheating? Yep. Does it really matter? Not really.
If you don’t know what Pokémon GO is (in which case you’re probably living under a rock), check out the following gameplay video to get a good introduction to the game:
Developer: Niantic, Inc.
Get it for Android
Get it for iOS