Most people played Pokemon Go for a few weeks in July of 2016. But because I don’t do anything halfway, including augmented reality games for children, I’m still at it a year and a half later. I have also since completed Pokemon X and Pokemon Sun for Nintendo 3DS, which Vlad gave me for my birthday last year.
The best thing I’ve gotten out of this game (besides the cool factor, obviously) is meeting people I probably never would have otherwise. These days only the hardcore folks are left, and we are all pretty weird. Most encounters happen during raid battles, when a boss Pokemon appears at a location for a 45-minute window and players come together to defeat it, win items, and get a chance to catch it.
Some choice anecdotes:
- The FedEx delivery guy at the Snorlax raid shouting, “Come on guys, tap tap! Gotta get back to work!”
- The 50-year-old woman who works on Wall Street and rescheduled her meetings so she could be at a MewTwo exclusive raid.
- The private Facebook chat of raiders in Hamilton Heights that a friendly trainer added me to.
- Meeting some people at a raid and then joining forces to take down the next one a few blocks over.
Instantly bonding over the game with strangers is one thing, but I also have a crew of trainer friends to compare notes with. Matt, Hannah, and Dan are part of the Martha’s Vineyard crew, and we maintain a group chat to talk Pokemon shop when we’re apart. I decided to make these pieces to commemorate our bond:
