Pokemon Go Catches Us All!

The wildly popular Pokémon Go is a free, GPS-based augmented reality mobile game developed by Niantic for iOS and Android devices. That means instead of sitting in one place to play it, as you do with Angry Birds, you have to go outside and explore the community to locate and capture the virtual Pokemons. The GPS and clock on your phone tell the game where you are and the “available” Pokemon characters appear on your phone so you can “catch” them. This is an augmented reality game that combines real-world locations with virtual prizes.

The basic idea of the Pokemon cartoons, movies, and games is that there are magical creatures that can be captured and trained by Masters, and then used to fight other Pokemon in battles.

After all these years, it remains a cultural touchstone, as most recently shown in last year’s “Paper Towns” film, as three high schoolers sing the theme song.

It is great that this game is bringing people out into the world and encouraging them to interact with each other. But there have been some problems, ranging from a girl whose search for Pokemon led to the discovery of a dead body to muggers using Pokemon Go to lure their targets. The story about Pokemon Go is being responsible for an auto accident is, thankfully, false. Its success is sure to lead to a wide array of new augmented reality games. What will be next?