Go Pokémon madness overtakes the world – Daily Page Seven

AFP / San Francisco

There are people chasing Pikachus and Bulbasaures in a hospital in Amsterdam, challenges Pokémon in Sydney, young people who risk getting into private areas in the United States: Go Pokémon fever, the augmented reality game that captures these virtual creatures, invades the world.

In parks, subway stations, cafes … everywhere can see the same show: “hunters” with his nose close to your smartphone, they try to catch these small fictional characters, hidden – thanks to technology in the real world.

Since last week, the free version of Pokémon Go, based on augmented reality technology that adds virtual elements to real-world images focused by phone cameras is available in the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

Use geolocation to enable its users to catch Pokémon, small creatures that became popular almost two decades ago. the success of the game, discharged to date more than seven million times, is partly based on combining the real and the virtual.

“it’s ‘cool’ to truly play as a Pokémon trainer in real life,” says Lucas Garcia, a 17-year-old Californian fan version for the Nintendo console that appeared late was 90. “it’s very nice to have a game that really forces you to walk rather than sit in front of the screen TV with control in hand “.

Almost a week after its release, Pokémon Go has made the game throws positive figures on download platforms Google and Apple applications. The application is downloaded from the AppStore and compete with Twitter in terms of traffic generated on the internet. Go Pokémon has already generated millions of dollars in revenue and Monday even helped Nintendo’s action increased 25%.

The unusual success of the game, which once was seen as the exclusive domain of tweens, has almost become a widespread craze. The incidents have increased in the United States, to the extent that the authorities now ask players not to invade private property or transfer closed to the public to try to catch a Pokémon areas.

This is largely due to running game, based in particular on Pokéspots, lairs of creatures according to their characteristics, which are attracted by the urban world, water, fire, grass, etc.

Police in Missouri has warned that four people were attracted by the game to ambushes by robbers who stripped them of their belongings, and asked to remain “vigilant.”

The game also has it led to calls to respect the rules of coexistence, such as the one made on Tuesday Andrew Hollinger, director of the Holocaust Museum in Washington. “it is not appropriate to play this game in the museum, which is a monument to victims of Nazism,” he said The Washington Post.

A Dutch hospital, the Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam, has even had to point out that “is caring” a sick Pokémon to try to keep out the players. We have “seen youth groups walking with their cell phones in the building, in places where they should not be “, including the basement, where clothing is sterilized, told AFP a spokeswoman for the hospital. In Sydney, thousands of people gathered Sunday to search Pokémons in the historic center of the capital of Australia, including its botanical garden.

On Tuesday, the servers that store the application were not enough to meet demand. The game is not available in all countries. Niantic, the star-up created by Google that created Pokémon Go with Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, has delayed until now the global launch. For players, large concentrations to capture Pokémon are not abnormal, even contrary is “comforting” says Lucas Garcia, “see that there are many other people like us.”