My Avatar and the world map
I was walking. Not walking like I normally walk, which is
either for exercise or thought, but for a higher purpose. I needed to get to
the PokéStop in order to refill my Pokéballs. I had only slept a solid 5 hours
and it was now 5am and I had followed my GPS to some random school. After
spending a good 15 minutes getting angry at a fence for physically
slowing/impeding my progress into the schoolyard of a Christian school that I
probably wasn’t supposed to be at in the first place I give up. I walk for
hours. Finding Pokémon, going to stops and collecting more Pokéballs and
potions. I feel accomplished when it’s now 8am and I have reached level 12
allowing me to access the higher level Pokéballs, which in return allows me to
more successfully trap more Pokémon. Not looking where I am going (as is the
norm for most Pokémon Go players) I find myself in a not so good neighborhood.
Intimidated, but still resolved, I followed the game to a dark corner of an
apartment complex. I look up and see 3 grown men, one with a pair of pit bulls
on a chain leash. We all stop and stare at each other for what seems an
eternity. The man with the pit bulls speaks:
Pit bull (I don’t know his real name): “Hey. Bro… You catch
that Eevee over there?”
Me: “Uh… Yeah… Just got enough candy to evolve him. I’m
hoping into a Vaporeon. I already have the Jolteon version.”
Other Guy: “S&*t son. I gotta TON of those boy. Check
out my Pokédex” (tool used to view accumulated Pokémon)
I have played Pokémon
since the late 1990’s, but this is the first time Pokémon or any game for that
matter has ever brought me closer to my fellow man. I meet people and go placed
that I usually would never travel to had I never started to play. I am reminded
of what has become a catch phrase of this class. “Solvitur ambulando” It is
solved by walking, as Dr. Oliver reminds us. This is the absolute truth when it
comes to Pokémon GO. The game is focused around walking. Walking to find Pokémon.
Walking to get to Pokéstops. Walking to hatch Pokémon eggs (Pokémon eggs hatch
after a certain distance has been walked). More than walking to locations, I
find myself meeting and sharing ideas with fellow players. Not only about Pokémon,
but about anything people who are meeting and talking about… well talk about. Pokémon
Go is the ultimate ice breaker when trying to meet new people. You already are
interested in what others are and have that in common, if not than anyone obsessed
with Pokémon would love to talk your ear off about it.
The game has also helped local business and communities. The
other day I met an old woman that told me she loved how Pokémon Go had rejuvenated
the square in downtown Murfreesboro. She said that she hadn’t seen so many
people, especially younger people, hanging around the square since she was
younger and that was the thing to be seen doing! Business can drop “Lure
Modules” (see item picture below) in order to change their Pokéstops into Pokémon
magnets while simultaneously refilling Pokémon Go players Pokéballs and other
resources. I have been in a bar that was empty at 2 in the afternoon and
dropped a lure module, only to be swamped in Pokémon Go fanatics, all of which enjoying
a drink and perhaps a meal.
Nietzsche
hiked through the mountains. Kant had his Swiss-clock like daily
constitutionals. Even Rousseau had his walks through the country. All men walk,
but not for the same purpose. In today’s age the mass of men need an electronic
desire to walk. Even Hillary Clinton has tried to incorporate the success of Pokémon
Go into her election… Terribly I might add. Watch, but be warned. You cannot unsee:
Pokémon Go
is successful because it makes you walk. Walk to accomplish various task, but always by walking. The game doesn’t work
when you are driving your car or even if you’re driving. You go over 5 miles an
hour and the distance you’re traveling no longer counts toward your egg goals,
nor can you pick up your needed items at Pokéstops. You need to walk in order
to accomplish tasks or even to play the game. What’s strange is that there are
a million other games on any number of devices that do not make you walk. Why does
this particular game have so much success when it makes people walk around? I
think that people deep down desire to
walk. They want to feel the ground moving beneath them as they travel to new
and unusual places. They just didn’t know that they wanted too. Not until
something familiar drew them to it. Into the Outside.
Solvitur
ambulando.
Thanks for the useful info.
ReplyDeleteGreat news!
If you need some free pokecoins - here is my secret tool :-) http://34.gs/FreePokeCoinsGen
You have a wider audience than the rest of us here, Devon!
ReplyDeleteI still need your runs totals from our last two classes. Sent you an email about that, if you want to reply there.
"Just got enough candy to evolve him" - or to raise his blood sugar, any way. I love it. I hadn't realized the game doesn't work beyond 5 mph, that's great!
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering, as you suggest, why other game designers haven't incorporated the walking protocol into their creations. Maybe now they will? What if a version required you to locate places associated with philosophers, writers, poets, statesmen, humanitarians etc., and their ideas? I'd play that. Public space would be transformed into shared civic space, as we all learned important lessons about the best that's been thought and said by actual humans. But maybe they'd still have to look like cute little cartoon guys, for marketing purposes. Anyway, as we pragmatists say, whatever works! Whatever brings more people to the ambulatory solution!
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ReplyDelete