JACK PARKS: New craze takes Pokemon to public

Still gotta catch ‘em all…

I finally got a new phone. The last time I got one was in 2011, and one of the main reasons I kept it as long as I did was so I could keep my original unlimited data plan. It served me well over the years, and I never really started having problems with it until about a year ago, when the battery started to wear out.

It eventually got to the point where I couldn’t use it unless it was on a charger, and the battery was swollen so bad that I couldn’t get the back cover to firmly latch. Then I dropped it just the right way and the screen practically shattered. I was no longer able to really use many apps because they got too large and my phone didn’t have enough onboard memory to support them.

Through it all, I kept soldiering on, partly out of sentimentality, partly out of concern for my unlimited data, but mostly out of sheer stubbornness. Sure, it may have been both legs and most of both arms in the grave, but it still kinda sorta worked.

Then Pokemon Go came out, and my phone wouldn’t support it. It was only a week before I became the proud owner of a new one that could handle it. So while there were a number of factors behind it, ultimately the reason I got a new phone was so that I could play Pokemon, and I don’t know if that makes me a nerd or a dork. Probably a bit of both.

Anyway…

For the uninitiated, the Pokemon craze runs the gamut from confusing, to irritating, to just plain dumb. The reason for this is simple: they just don’t get it. So I’ll try to explain it in layman’s terms.

Pokemon is awesome.

An “awesome” from me should be the only explanation needed, but for some reason people usually want more information before eventually saying, “Yeah, that is pretty awesome.” So, here we go.

Pokemon (pronounced “Poe-key-mahn”, singular and plural) is a role-playing game, or “RPG” in gamer terms. For video games, this means that the player is able to take charge of a character and determine certain attributes and abilities, and as the game progresses they can increase these attributes as they see fit. This may mean getting stronger, increasing focus, better weapons proficiency, or different attack moves depending on the game. This variability can drastically change the experience for each player and is part of what makes RPGs so popular.

Pokemon takes that concept and adds another layer. Your character travels the countryside collecting Pokemon, which are cute and cool looking animals with some fantastic and powerful abilities and trains them, using them to fight other trainers and eventually becoming a Pokemaster. There are many different types of Pokemon, and the different types have advantages and disadvantages against each other. For instance, fire-types are very effective against plant-types, but are not good to battle against water types. Likewise, Water-types may be good against fire-types, but they are weak against plant-types. You typically don’t know what kind of Pokemon a specific trainer will have so it’s good to have a variety with you.

That variety isn’t a requirement, though. Regardless of how many Pokemon you have captured, you can only take 6 with you at any given time so you have to have a strategy. You can choose to vary your team, or you can specialize in a specific type of Pokemon if you wish. Even if you are fighting a type with an advantage over yours, you can still win the battle if your Pokemon are strong enough and you choose the right moves.

You can even go it solo, and use only the first Pokemon you started out with, leveling it up until it is powerful enough to take down even the strongest of its opposing type. You have to be careful though, because you can only use a specific attack a certain number of times before the Pokemon must be rested.

Pokemon GO takes the game out into the real world. Now, you can walk down the street and receive an alert that there is a Pokemon nearby, and it will use the camera function on your phone to show you that there is one on your car. You can physically see this animal sitting on top of your car, and I have to say it is quite exciting. I thought I was going to be real calm and cool about it, but the first one I found was right next to my wife’s car and I lost myself in the excitement of trying to catch it before it hurt the car.

The game requires you to go outside and walk, and it is fun searching an area for Pokemon. I haven’t encountered any other trainers while I walk yet, but I have only heard of positive interactions.

It really is a lot of fun. It’s free, gets you some exercise, and if you’ve been playing for 20 years like I have, lets you feel like a real Poketrainer. You don’t have to play it or enjoy it if you don’t want to, but I would encourage everyone who hates it or thinks people who play it are wasting their time to just give it a try. You really don’t know what you’re missing out on.

Jack Parks writes about nerd culture in his column “Talk Nerdy to Me.”