The newbies totter their way forward, eyes down and steps uncertain. You’ve probably seen them, though you might not know why these people, many of them young, seem so out of place, like this year’s fawns.
They, of course, hold smartphones, but that’s hardly unusual. What’s different is that an app on their phones has merged a game’s fantastical world with the real one, in a billion-dollar business venture that exploded last month. You and they live in the same world, but thanks to Pokemon Go, they stand astride a virtual one as well. More than any recent innovation, this one merges the real and the imagined in a way that’s likely to herald the arrival of countless imitators.
So get used to seeing even more people stumbling along looking at their phones.
Thanks to the GPS accessible through smartphones, players can encounter game characters hidden in places with real addresses here in the Valley and around the world. Those characters pop up on their phones, their likenesses blending in with the real world captured by the device’s built-in camera. If you haven’t gotten a look, try it. Then you may grasp why it is taking over the gaming world. A few weeks into this global phenomenon, Valley businesses are quickening to the challenge of connecting with Pokemon Go fans. That’s a heads-up play, as George Myers found out when the Hadley business he co-owns, The Quarters, managed to attract a crowd of players by decorating for a July 20 Pokemon theme night.
The Quarters had the good fortune to be designated by the game’s creators as a “gym” — one of the desired destinations in Pokemon Go. Myers and his team rolled with it. Customer traffic is customer traffic, whatever brings it in.
Erica Campbell, the assistant manager at Sweeties Fine Chocolate & Confections in Northampton, says she grew up with Pokemon, so it was no stretch for her to take an existing customer promotion — inviting shoppers to make signs to label the candy selection — and roping in the Pokemon Go world. The verdict? “I would say there have been more people in the store since Pokemon Go has happened.” That’s good for business, even police business. Police logs have included odd sightings of people loitering here and there at equally odd hours.
We hope that gamers remember to keep their eyes on the sidewalk as well as on their screens.
And look up now and again. The real world is pretty fascinating, too.