Pokemon Go
If you see people wandering Capitol Hill with faces buried in their phones… well, it’s just another Thursday in Pike/Pine. But there is, indeed, something new on the streets of Capitol Hill and it is giving the mobile device-enabled yet another digital addiction to serve as well as a new excuse to wander the neighborhood.
Pokemon Go, an “augmented reality” game the company has been hyping with Nintendo and Google spin-off Niantic since last year, has finally been released to the wild — along with, apparently, Squirtles, Caterpies, Beautiflies, and Heliolisks. (OK, bring it nerds — I dare you to be the first to tell CHS that there are no Squirtles in Pokemon Go.)
Capitol Hill is lousy with zubats #PokemonGO
— fluffy (@fluffy) July 7, 2016
I just spent the better part of five hours walking all over Capitol Hill to catch Pokémon. Can't tell if that's a bad thing or not yet.
— Ryan Dominguez (@Dominguezzz) July 7, 2016
Saw 4 guys walking on my Capitol Hill Seattle street on the hunt for Pokémon. Finally, a location-based game nerdier than Ingress!
— Jason Weill (@J2XL) July 7, 2016
I've been playing Pokemon go all evening. Just walking around Capitol Hill
— Joshua Lewis (@realjoshlewis) July 7, 2016
JUST CAUGHT A DROWZEE IN FRONT OF THE FIRE STATION IN CAP HILL. #PokemonGO is the best thing that has ever happened !!
— lerm (@leahkucera) July 7, 2016
The game, as far as we can tell, involves exploring the real world looking for fake Pokemon creatures Some of the juxtapositions between the “Pokestops” and the meatspace Capitol Hill are funny.
This isn’t the first time augmented reality has people acting peculiarly with their phones around Capitol Hill. The Ingress game, which apparently is also part of the information base Pokemon Go’s version of Capitol Hill is built on, produced weird stuff like this in 2013 in Cal Anderson Park.
If you’re not into the augmented reality thing but still want to wander around looking for special objects on Capitol Hill, there is also a game for you. Gotta catch em all.
anyone in caphill know what's going on with these USA-shaped pieces of bread being posted around cal Anderson park? pic.twitter.com/bHPGwygvRt
— Caroline Chamberlain (@Carolinewchamb) July 7, 2016
Well this is an odd thing to see in my RSS reader. ;)
My home is also designated a Pokestop. In celebration of that I put a Pokemon logo up in my unit’s window (in defiance of the building’s rules, OH NO). I was thinking about also setting up a speaker to play the Pokemon Center theme for passers-by but I figured that might be a bit too annoying.
I saw a guy trying to do this on Broadway on a bicycle yesterday. He’s going to die, or cause someone else to die, I’m certain.
There were 50+ people coming and going in the sw end of Cal Anderson Park, all playing PokemonGo there was free pizza!