Recently, Sue and I headed over to Sudbury, Ont, to spend some time with our grandchildren, Autumn, 12, Nathan, 7 and Matthew Connor, 2. They are full of energy and had us on the go for most of the time. I was also pleasantly surprised to see daughter Kristina out and about so much. Now, don’t get me wrong Kris is a busy young women with the kids, a full time job and participates in “Amtgard,” a live-action, fantasy, roleplaying activity. However, she seemed to be taking more walks than usual. Then I realized what was going on. She had signed up for Pokémon Go.
I have a somewhat love/hate relationship with video games. Back in the dark ages the first game I played was Pong. Two paddles and a puck and away we went. Next up was Space Invaders, Centipede and Pac-Man. Then I got a job. Years went by and games came and went. I would go to a party and everyone wanted to play Guitar Hero, why not? I even outscored Kristina on Dance Dance Revolution. She’s never forgiven me. Most recently it was Wii Golf. I was just as bad at that as I was at real golf.
With regards to Pokémon Go, I didn’t want to judge too quickly, so I asked Kristina how it worked. She explained that an app had been created based on the classic Pokémon game, whereby you can walk, run or bike and, using GPS, find little Pokémon creatures and catch them. The cool thing is that they will appear on the screen of your cell phone and it appears as if they are really there. Apparently, this is called “augmented reality.”
Then Kristina really surprised me. She said she wanted to join me in a five-kilometre race. On the Sunday before I left, we got up bright and early and headed off to Massey, a small town 120km south west of Sudbury. Every year, this town of 3,000 people, puts on a marathon, half marathon and 10-km race. This year they had added a five-kilometre race. We waited at the race line for five minutes and at exactly 5.45 a.m. the gun went off. This was Kristina’s first five-kilometre race and she set off like a bullet. Over the next few kilometres she slowed down, but as we approached the end, she got very excited. There was a ”weedle,” one of the smaller Pokémon characters, sitting on the finish line. We both started to sprint and Kris pipped me by 0.1 of a second.
On the way back, Kris snoozed in the passenger seat and I reflected on the fact that, finally, there was a video game that got people off the coach, enjoying the outdoors and interacting with each other. Go Pokémon Go!
© 2016 Martin Parnell
www.martinparnell.com
