Pokemon Go Detroit

**Lowell** · July-30-16, 11:48 AM

Anybody have any Detroit-related Pokemon Go stories or comments? By now I am sure most have heard about the Pokemon Go App and game that has almost instantly exploded into the biggest bona fide fad of this new century. I've heard about Campus Martius being flooded with players. Within a couple of weeks its active users surpassed Twitter's.

Pokemon has been around for about two decades. Parents like me who had a kid in the 90's remember it well as those collectible coin-like objects whose appeal we could never understand. This has gone virtual and all those kids have smart phones.

For those unfamiliar, this example, set on an OCC campus, describes what Pokemon involves. [locally pronounced pohk'-ee-mahn]

The latest game uses GPS technology to put players on a real-world map. Pokemon — a portmanteau for “pocket monsters” — also appear on this map, and players may find and catch them via their smartphones. Augmented-reality technology also lets people take pictures of the virtual Pokemon creatures in real-world settings.

Mayuiers said that there are numerous Pokestops in and around the campuses where you can charge up and get extra Pokeballs, find a Pokegym at the Doris Mosher Foundation House and more.

Meanwhile, players are encouraged to visit Pokestops, which are placed at real-life landmarks, to gain access to virtual game items.
http://www.candgnews.com/news/%E2%80...campuses-94602

Some things intriguing I have noticed... I like the physical aspect of it, that the players are actually walking around. Even if their noses are glued to their mobile screens at least they are off their asses. Business potential is interesting as Pokemons can be bought as lures for foot traffic.

**401don** · July-30-16, 12:44 PM

I know I shouldn't, but whenever I hear about one of these idiots walking into traffic, getting mugged or shot at for trespassing it makes me smile.

**Dhugger** · July-30-16, 01:55 PM

Pokemon Go in our local suburban park:
1. Group of 7 kids and adults huddled around 1 adolescent girl as she was capturing the Pokemon's on their phones. [[She should have charged each of them.)
2. Strangers running into one another then joining together in small groups.
3. Mom's trailing behind their kids in pursuit of Pokemon's.
4. Two young men hanging out by the public bathroom clicking away at their phones. The restroom was next to the fenced in play scape. Picture this 2 single men with out children at the bathroom door - they really stood out....creepy.
5. Three teenage girls playing the game going in one direction...spot three college age boys playing the game coming in the opposite direction. The girls pass then PROMPTLY turn around to follow the older boys. My thought 'check their I.D.'s fella's.'

I walk daily in the park thus it has been interesting watching the game and social interactions evolve. Myself...if I had a young child I would not be allowing them to play it alone in the park.

**jerrytimes** · July-30-16, 10:26 PM

While this game hurts no one, I find it dumb. But, people can do what they want. It is kind of comical, walking by a park and seeing 40 or so people staring at their phones...... no one talking....

**Hypestyles** · July-31-16, 11:37 AM

I'd love to be on the inside of a design team that is involved in creating these kind of games.

**ThunderTrap** · August-01-16, 05:35 AM

A great place to find Pokemon monsters is along the John R stroll...8 Mile to 6 Mile. Gives one an excuse to be there to ogle and deal with the variety of walkers while doing something legal...No, Uncle Benny, I was chatting with other local citizens about their success [[or lack thereof) playing Pokemon, and I gave her $20 for her special insight and tips.

**dtowncitylover** · August-01-16, 06:34 AM

Originally Posted by jerrytimes

While this game hurts no one, I find it dumb. But, people can do what they want. It is kind of comical, walking by a park and seeing 40 or so people staring at their phones...... no one talking....

LOL Uh no, they're definitely talking. Maybe if you got out of your car and walked among them you would find that out...

**BMoo** · August-01-16, 08:03 AM

Originally Posted by dtowncitylover

LOL Uh no, they're definitely talking. Maybe if you got out of your car and walked among them you would find that out...

Dtowncitylover is right, people who have never played it are far to quick to dismiss the game. Its fine if you aren't interested in playing it, but don't assume that everybody is walking around, paying no attention and not interacting. I have had way more random interactions with strangers playing this game than I ever had before, and I'm a pretty outgoing person.

**Lowell** · August-01-16, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by BMoo

Dtowncitylover is right, people who have never played it are far to quick to dismiss the game. Its fine if you aren't interested in playing it, but don't assume that everybody is walking around, paying no attention and not interacting. I have had way more random interactions with strangers playing this game than I ever had before, and I'm a pretty outgoing person.

That's the report I am hearing too. People are connecting in real life rather than online. The caricature people in their lonely worlds staring at their screens is being replaced by physical activity and relationships.

Originally Posted by ThunderTrap

A great place to find Pokemon monsters is along the John R stroll...8 Mile to 6 Mile. Gives one an excuse to be there to ogle and deal with the variety of walkers while doing something legal...No, Uncle Benny, I was chatting with other local citizens about their success [[or lack thereof) playing Pokemon, and I gave her $20 for her special insight and tips.

Too funny, but it makes a good point in about the meeting up potential, for better or worse, Pokemon Go can offer. The ability to buy Pokemons as lures for businesses could have a wide range of use including as pranks like buying a bunch and locating them on the grumpy old get-off-my-grass guy's lawn.

**401don** · August-01-16, 10:34 AM

I'm so happy I didn't grow up in the cell phone/video game generation but why anyone, kids or adults, would walk around doing this when they could play tennis, go for a bike ride, throw a Frisbee, etc. is beyond me. It's like choosing to play on your Wii when someone offers the real world version of the same game.

**BMoo** · August-01-16, 10:49 AM

Originally Posted by 401don

I'm so happy I didn't grow up in the cell phone/video game generation but why anyone, kids or adults, would walk around doing this when they could play tennis, go for a bike ride, throw a Frisbee, etc. is beyond me. It's like choosing to play on your Wii when someone offers the real world version of the same game.

Seems like you're trying to say that we should all be out trying to catch real pokemon rather than fake ones on our phones? Or maybe you just want us to throw balls at squirrels?

Joking aside, you're setting up a false dichotomy. Just because people choose to play Pokemon Go does not exclude them from also doing other activities. That's the nice thing about it, its perfect to play while you're traveling between other activities. The two times that I have it on the most are when I'm biking to work or when I'm walking from one bar to another.

**RickBeall** · August-01-16, 11:21 AM

Pokemon Go is a fascinating, very successful first step into augmented reality apps. You will be seeing a lot more of this.

**Gistok** · August-01-16, 11:29 AM

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/15/health...ll-down-cliff/

Who was the comedian who's tag line is "it's time to cull the herd".......

**MicrosoftFan** · August-01-16, 01:55 PM

Bishop Park in Wyandotte is a big place for catching Pokemon Go. There's at least 50 people there each night.

**G-DDT** · August-01-16, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/15/health...ll-down-cliff/

Who was the comedian who's tag line is "it's time to cull the herd".......

Maybe it was Bill Burr; he's got some good, dead-on things to say.

I once said I like to jolt my car an inch at a stoplight just to see who starts to bolt forwards themselves because they are too distracted with a phone or just sheepishly follow the crowd. Yet, it's a practice I try to hold back on. As much as I hate the blind engineered nature of folks [[the kind that tramples others in a crowded room during a crisis), I will try to warn them of a slippery patch of ice or open manhole or girl at a bar with chlamydia.

Good link though. It says a lot. I think it is happening like the lady who fell off the pier on her phone or the one who fell in a mall fountain also on her phone. Gizmos making folks cross-eyed and tunnel-visioned. Einstein warned about it. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AV_JCO...JDzshm1UmyYjU/

Yet, you could just be doing average things and calamity will hit ya'.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_B1PkgA3kA Thank God she's alright.

**canuck** · August-01-16, 04:32 PM

Next Thing you know someone will invent an app that alerts you when you're on the threshold of self-destruct. I had an aunt in Orlando got hit by a car and died while listening to her Walkman. Our smartphones are a bigger distraction by far.

The first few people I witnessed playing this game in Montreal were walking erratically on McGill U campus as I was sitting on a park bench. I had no clue what they were up to. All of them were young Asian student types. Cabot square near my place is the number one Pokemon playpen for hundreds of folks who congregate late into the night and a pastor at nearby Evangel Pentecostal Church hands out free goodies to lure them into her congregation.

Let them have fun, I just hope not too many people get hurt doing it.

**Sandhouse** · August-02-16, 10:39 AM

I'd like to know who programs this game, and how [[although I don't want to know bad enough to get a phone and the game app). Does some guy sit at a desk in Japan with Google Maps? Or is it done by someone with local knowledge? It would be fun to send game-players to seldom-seen places unique to Detroit.

Where would you stick `em:

Lafayette Coney Island?
The giant wooden stove?
The Hotel Yorba?
The Scarab Club?
The schvitz?
A middle-eastern restaurant on West Warren?
A taqueria on Bagley?
The Russell Industrial Center?
Piquette Avenue?
Fort Wayne?
Delray?

I bet someone has much better ideas than these.

**BMoo** · August-02-16, 11:01 AM

The game sources itself from another game made by the studio [[which is formed from the team of people who originally made Google maps). Basically it automatically looks for clusters where cell data is used and makes that a landmark in the game. So nobody actually sat down and handpicked the locations. As a result, some of the stops are pretty random things [[for instance they will sometimes be small statues and plaques even when a major landmark is right next to it)

**dtowncitylover** · August-02-16, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by Sandhouse

The giant wooden stove?

Uh, the giant stove burned down years ago...

**Bobl** · August-02-16, 01:34 PM

It would be nice if they would not leave litter [[fast food drink cups seem to be most common) behind.

**Gistok** · August-02-16, 04:02 PM

From a business perspecive....

The Pokemon Go augmented reality game was released in Japan on July 22 and was estimated to have been downloaded to one in four iPhones in the country within days.

However, Pokemon Go fever may already be cooling off in the home of the famous franchise; by Aug. 1, the app had dropped from the top of the highest-grossing game charts to No. 4, behind three local releases.

Nintendo stock has fallen around 40 percent from the peak it hit on July 19 in the wake of investor excitement about the potential for the game.

**BMoo** · August-03-16, 08:14 AM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Nintendo stock has fallen around 40 percent from the peak it hit on July 19 in the wake of investor excitement about the potential for the game.

That has nothing to do with the game, and everything to do with Nintendo announcing that they actually have a very very small percentage of stock in the game and did not develop it.

**G-DDT** · August-03-16, 03:54 PM

If the game is run like a scavenger hunt, then yeah, some folks can invest stock to lure players in their direction [[yes, yes, go to the dingy van with blacked out windows and "free kandy" scrawled in spray paint on it...). The question of private or restricted areas should always be considered [[yeah, kids loved going into the tunnels of abandoned mental hospitals-but is that wise these days?)

However, you already got vets pitching fits [[and knocking over tents) over kids coming into scenes that upset folks at trying moments. Fun and games should be available to all....that said, there simply are scenarios that don't warrant fun and games. Sending gamers into funeral homes, church vigils, shivas, memorial parks, etc....let folks preserve their God-given right to be solemn and mourn where they need to, without interlopers.

That gets trying with the issue of hospitals. Do you lets sick kids be cheered up by the game in a medical facility, while burdening others in trying situations? For the most part, hospitals are abysmal places. They are the number one place folks go to die. It's where they go to see a loved one who just got traumatically injured or get the news broken to them that someone [[or they themselves) may have something terminal [[yeah, I got a story to that one). Folks need little disruptions in those environments. It's one thing to run amok the Mayo and quietly take pictures of the amazing art pieces they have hoarded there, but it's another thing to go barging into a radiology lab looking for a "Tancoon" or in a patient's room just as they are pulling the sheet over someone's loved one.

**Jimaz** · August-03-16, 04:12 PM

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

— H. L. Mencken

**G-DDT** · August-03-16, 04:48 PM

Ach!-who says I want to ruin anyone's fun. There is just a time and a place for everything.

Besides you may be using "no fun" blasting rhetoric that was better used elsewhere.https://www.pinterest.com/pin/302585..._navigate=true Ironic, that some of the weirdest games are coming from Asian regions that strictly enforce so much standards, honor, and discipline from children from their tiger parents.