By Joe Sheller / Guest Column
In the weeks before RAGBRAI my training bicycle rides, especially in the late afternoons in downtown Cedar Rapids, began to seem surreal.
Clusters of people were wandering public places, mostly ignoring those around them. It looked a little like the zombie apocalypse had swept the Corridor, except that the people all seemed to be staring at their cellphones and weren’t shambling after the living to snack on brains.
Local media outlets took note. There were news stories from Greene Square in Cedar Rapids and the pedestrian mall in Iowa City. KCRG, KGAN and KWWL all covered this phenomenon – Pokémon Go.
Pokémon Go is an “augmented reality” game that uses a smartphone’s camera and GPS to make Pokémon characters appear on your smartphone screen in your location. Players can collect characters by tossing virtual balls at them, and gain in status by defeating other players’ Pokémon figures in contests at “gyms.”
It seems a whole segment of people in the Corridor have gone Pokémon Go crazy, playing the hot new game issued by Niantic, a spinoff of Google. A Facebook page of Cedar Rapids game players had 1,400 likes by July 17.
And businesses have taken note, too.
According to The Gazette, Ruby’s Pizzeria in downtown Cedar Rapids has become a “Pokestop” where Pokémon characters may be captured. Do you want a slice of pepperoni with that Pikachu?
This summer fad reminds me a little bit of the Harry Potter craze of the 1990s and early 2000s. Remember what it was like when that series of books was first being published? When a new one was issued, bookstores would host HP parties, and in the weeks after the release, people could be spotted in public with their noses in the latest books. In 2003, my youngest son and I were photographed by The Gazette at the Freedom Festival fireworks celebration at Kirkwood Community College, sitting on our blankets, killing time by reading our copies the fifth book, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”
Pokémon Go is wildly popular for several reasons. I haven’t played it, but there aren’t a lot of complex rules. You move around to collect your Pokémons and find gyms to do virtual battle. Any kid who grew up in the 1990s recalls Pokémon cards, so there is a huge nostalgia tie-in.
And, like Harry Potter, the game creates its own social reality. Its adherence share a world that outsiders don’t comprehend.
Courtlin, a morning DJ at KHAK, wrote on the radio station’s web site about another reason why the game is so hot now: “I’d rather see 10,000 posts about Pokémon in my newsfeed than 100,000 posts about horrible things happening in the news. It’s a nice little break from the awfulness in the world.”
Pokémon Go provides an escape from police being shot; The Donald vs. Hillary; and coups in Turkey or terrorism in France. I get that, although Netflix provides escape, too.
Then again, Netflix isn’t social – you don’t wander around town meeting other “Game of Thrones” fans or claiming Greene Square for your team.
Pokémon Go may not be the zombie apocalypse, but it’s spreading and contagious like one. It’s a fairly primitive augmented reality game – not even the best or first created by Niantic. But it shows how media and the gaming world are evolving. The line between virtual and reality is getting fuzzy.
So, maybe your business needs to be a lure for pocket monsters. Or maybe not – sometimes business, and life, is best done in the real world.
Joe Sheller is an associate professor of communication and journalism at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids. He can be reached at jsheller@mtmercy.edu.
