Like it or not, Pokémon Go changed the world
The first day was an explosion. I happened to be one of the people who got to play it a few hours early (by doing some questionably legal sideloading), and it was pure addiction from the first toss of the pokeball. It took no time at all for my view of the world to split in two. The first, in roads, cars, and buildings. People rushing to fulfil obligations and pushing their way through the daily grind. This was the world I was accustom too.
The second, however, was in monsters, towers, and challenges. Everywhere I went, I wondered what creatures lurked in the shadows. Coldplay and Childish Gambino filled my ears as I hunted, stole gyms, and battled with glitches while on my way to being a Pokémon Master. I found myself staying up late looking for things that I could show off to people. I almost cried when I caught my first Charizard. In the first week, a rumor started about a park that was full of growlithes. That night, my two roommates and I caught several of them. I was smack dab in the middle of the adventure of my life, and I never saw it coming.
The first question I got asked at work every morning was “What is your rank?” and “What is your highest CP (Combat Power) Pokémon?” My city was filled with hidden nooks and crannies filled with rare monsters just waiting to be found. And the best part was that I wasn't alone. Everywhere I went, I was met with 10-30 other players doing the same thing I was doing. We were urban explorers looking for invisible monsters with our cell phones. Kids loved it. Parents loved it. Everyone, from old timers to college kids, roamed the streets looking for the next rare find. It was fun for the whole family.
At the height of Pokémon Go’s popularity, I stood in the middle of Dallas hundreds of other players at 8:00 pm, and yelled the whereabouts of Dratinis and Pikachus to several people I had only met that day. I chatted up a local cosplayer as we chased down the shadow of a Squirtle. We toured museums and college campuses alike. Seventy-year-old men walked side by side with middle school children as they felt the pure joy of catching super dangerous creatures in tiny balls. The world was working together to figure out spawn locations, evolutions, and gym battling. I have never seen a free mobile game create this much of a community in less than two weeks.
The funny thing is, the game was barely a game. If you thought you were jumping into a feature-complete experience with a plot, interesting characters, and something to do besides catching, then you had another thing coming. Sure, there were the gym battles, but that amounted to just rapidly tapping at the screen to beat the monster of somebody else who was rapidly tapping at their screen to get their monster there. Not to mention that you would be kicked out of the app the more people who showed up to play the game. If more than 100 people were playing in that area, then you were just out of luck.
And that CP that I mentioned earlier, it could only be raised by finding multiple copies of the same Pokémon so that you could feed them to the digital grinder. What resulted was "candy" that you could use to raise the copy of the Pokémon you actually liked. This was fine if you wanted a team of super-powered sewer rats and pigeons. Oh, you wanted a usable Charizard. Good luck.
So why? If the game was barely there and buggy, then why did it cause the stir that it did? The simple answer is nostalgia. Picture this. You're going about your daily grind when all of a sudden you get the opportunity to be a Pokémon trainer. The people you see every day have gone from background characters to competition, picking teams to outwardly show where their allegiances fall. And the game forces you to move. To go outside. Explore. I don't know many people who would pass on that.
There's a good reason that the game launched with only the original 151. Niantic knew that there was a large group of people who were itching at the bit to go on their own Pokémon journey. In fact, back in 2014, Google did an April Fools joke where you could catch Pokémon on Google Maps. This "joke" (and totally not a test run) ended up going over gangbusters, which led to the game we have today.
However, after the first couple of months, the player base began to fall off. Parents realized they shouldn't have children out that late, and the trend hoppers found something else to occupy their time. I went from seeing 50 players in a park to only seeing 10 to 15. Gyms were staying a little bit longer than they used to. The decline was gradual, but before you knew it, I got to a point where I forgot the app was installed on my phone.
In hindsight, Pokémon Go was more than just a popular mobile game. It was a social experiment. A moment in time where you just had to be there to understand it. Niantic proved to the world that no matter how old a person gets, they never forget the connection they had to the joys of their youth. Sadly, they also proved that those joys can be monetized and sold back to you with microtransactions and a subscription fee.
Nowadays, everyone is looking to sell you nostalgia. Niantic didn't start this trend, but they sure did show how profitable it could be. 1 billion in the first year, off a game that you have to exercise in order to take part in is no laughing matter. Even if it isn't pulling in the money or the people that it did back in 2016, the industry remembers the impact it had. It showed how serious mobile gaming could be in the USA. It's the reason Nintendo ended up pivoting to the mobile market with the likes of Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, etc.
Pokémon Go changed the way we interacted with the world around us. It wasn't the first crazy fad by any means, but if we judge by player base and money earned, it is easily one of the best. Niantic, for all of its faults and shortcomings, managed to bring several countries together with the simple goal to catch them all.
I'm glad I got to live the summer of Pokémon. Hopefully, before I leave this floating rock, I get to experience the joy it brought once more.
