By Emma Puranen
The Summer of Pokémon G
1776 was the summer of independence. 1969 was the summer of Woodstock. 2016 was the summer of Pokémon GO.
In terms of big, momentous, season-defining events, a new alternate-reality video game is certainly something that would have been predicted in a sci-fi novella of decades past. So good job, 2016- we are in the future.
The sheer magnitude of the phenomenon that is Pokémon GO and the speed with which it enveloped society made for an unprecedented summer for video games, and a summer of memories strangely tinged with the otherworldly glow of my cellphone screen competing with the orangey sunset to light up the mosquitoes hungering for my blood as I paused to capture my millionth Rattata.
One day in July, as I leaned on the seafood counter where I worked at my neighborhood Giant, catching my breath in a momentary lull in business, three teenagers loudly sped by. Their noses were almost pressed to their phones, their fingers scribbling against the screens in the anxious hopes of catching whatever animated Japanese collectable monster happened to be floating in the air, ghostlike, in front of them.
“ Hey, you guys playing Pokémon GO?” I called, slipping off my freezer gloves and waving.“ Yeah!” they replied, excited that someone had recognized their journey.“ Anything good in here?”
“ Not really, just Pidgeys. There was a Koffing by the Exxon, though!”
The real beauty of the game was the way it brought people together like this. I spent many an evening after work walking to the lake near my neighborhood, my path dictated by the placement of the virtual blue diamonds, known as PokéStops, on my phone’ s GPS, and came across all manner of fellow players. There was the tenyear-old kid on a skateboard who breathlessly informed me that there was a Snorlax at the corner of Zion and Roberts. The dedicated middle-aged woman who I passed at the lake every night without fail. The young man who watched his toddler play at the lake until she found a Dratini, at which point she exclaimed“ Daddy, look, it’ s a snake!” and he anxiously replied“ Let daddy handle this one, honey” and took the phone from her despite her protests. The man who exited the REI as I was trying to catch a Pidgeot and asked me eagerly“ Did ya catch that big Pidgey?”
Today, Pokémon GO is still going strong, releasing fun holiday bonuses and unveiling new changes like the buddy system and daily bonuses. I have no doubt that it will continue to be a popular app, and I’ ll definitely keep playing. But there was something truly special about the summer of 2016, a feeling that I’ m not sure will be recaptured. Twenty years after the Pokémon franchise debuted, the world went crazy for it all over again. It provided an odd sort of connectedness in an otherwise tumultuous year.