Kai has had an interest in Pokémon for several years now. He was collecting the cards though he hasn't added new cards to his collection in a while, he plays with a Nintendo 3DS game once in a while, and occasionally plays a Pokémon game on the Wii. In addition he does enjoy "studying" them on the internet.
Now, though, his interest in Pokémon is going to another level.
Pokémon Go was released last week and Kai has been looking forward to playing it since last Thanksgiving when one of his older cousins first told him about it. You play on your mobile device... players walk around in the real world and encounter Pokémon. It seems to be tied in with Google Maps as it displays the street you are on, and shows pictures of buildings, signs, and even significant park benches. When a player sees a Pokémon, he may view it in either Augmented Reality (AR) mode or with a pre-rendered background. AR mode utilizes the camera on the player's mobile device to display an image of a Pokémon as though it were in the real world.
And so when it was released last Thursday, Kai downloaded the app on the first day and started to play right away. Here's a photo of him when he caught his first Pokémon after going out in his pajamas the evening of the day the game was released.
This weekend, he actually asked to go for a walk at our local nature center, something that he never does, so that he could go walking and look for Pokémon in a different area. Here he is on the trail of a Pokémon.
And here showing Mom what he sees.
I must say that I liked that this app actually got him to go for a walk; we all got to enjoy the outdoors on a very lovely day.
But I know that we need to put limits on this as he tends to obsess over everything.
Though judging by all the news articles, Kai is not the only one going gaga over this game. I read that Nintendo stock increased in value by $9 billion on this first day of trading since the game was released. Oh my!
Good idea...except...I can see it now...children are going to be navigating their way across streets, not looking at anything but the screen. Or say...walk into water or holes because the resolution is not so great on a screen. So long as the child has an adult with him...I am sure it will be great fun.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I can see that it is very distracting, for both children and adults who play. I am sure it won't be long before we hear stories of all the accidents that are happening as a result of this game. We will not let Kai play without us around with him.
DeleteI was just watching about this on the news. Looks like a lot of fun! And it's great that it's interactive and gets you outside! Can't believe the money attached to that...makes you wish you thought of it! haha.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how many people are already playing this... I heard that as many people are playing this as the number who use Twitter every day. But yes, I like that it gets people off the couch and motivates them to go outside and see different places. We'll see how long this craze lasts, but Kai sure is enjoying it right now!
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