I am one of the last people who would ever play Pokémon Go. I haven’t played a video game since the original Nintendo, I don’t know what Pokémon is and I tend to easily ignore pop culture.
But my editor assigned me to write about the augmented reality craze going on all over the world, including Juneau. (Augmented reality is when the gaming world interacts with the real world.) So, I resigned myself to downloading the free video game app (for iOS or Android) and met up on Tuesday afternoon with two Juneau players — Jennifer Miller, 18, and her boyfriend Gavin Blood, 22. They were my gateway into the world of Pokémon Go.
Miller and Blood had just been in the Mendenhall Valley playing but decided to go downtown where “there are PokéStops all over,” Miller said.
They walked me through the setup process and introduced me to the basic elements of the game — choosing your avatar, how to acquire Poké balls and how to catch Pokémon.
Pokémon are creatures that can be found “in every corner of the earth,” according to the game. The goal is to find and collect Pokémon. You catch them by throwing Poké balls at them. Once you get one, it goes into your Pokédex.
Warning: Pokémon players can, understandably, be easily distracted. In the midst of explaining things, Miller exclaimed, “Ah! I found a Pokémon.”
In between living their lives, like going to work and running errands, Miller and Blood have been playing Pokémon Go every day since the game was released last week.
On Monday night, the pair were downtown “and there was a lure at the State Museum and, like, 40 people showed up because they’re all attracted to it,” Miller said.
What’s a lure?
“A lure attracts Pokémon to a PokéStop so there will be a ton of people there trying to catch them and the more people that show up, the more rare Pokémon show up, too,” Blood explained.
Businesses around town have been regularly dropping lures. (The Juneau Empire, which is a PokéStop, drops lures at 2 p.m. daily.)
The way to play the game is just by walking. As we walked down Franklin Street, Miller pointed out two young women who were likely also playing. They were walking, concentrating on their phones and tapping the screens.
“It’s kind of fun because you see people and they’re playing all over the place and you can join up with people, say, ‘Hey, do you want to play together?’” Miller said.
When you get within range of a PokéStop, you can click on it and you’ll be able to spin it for stuff like balls or eggs, and it gets added to your inventory. The game also often has an informative description of the stop.
Miller and Blood said a unique thing about playing Pokémon Go in Juneau is the incorporation of trails.
“We longboarded Brotherhood Bridge trail and we caught (Pokémon) along the way,” Blood said.
Pokémon Go relies on GPS so most of the major trails are listed, though not all.
“The glacier also has a lot of stops,” Miller said.
“Even the West Glacier Trail is mapped on it so you can go to the ice caves and catch them,” Blood added.
Pokémon Go encourages people to exercise, like walking, biking or, as Miller and Blood were doing the other day, longboarding.
“Sometimes you have to walk a couple miles before you even see any Pokémon,” Miller said.
Despite all the time spent playing, they said it’s not taking over their lives. Wandering around Juneau and exploring is something the couple would be doing anyway.
“We already hike trails. We like to hike trails around Juneau and then we follow animal paths off the trails,” Blood said.
“I like gaming, but I like gaming outside, so this is awesome. This is perfect,” Miller said.
Pokémon Go can also lead you to places you maybe have never been before. PokéStops include shops, parks, museums, churches, historical landmarks and tourist locations. Any business or site that doesn’t want to be a PokéStop can go through a process to be removed.
And while you may see a Pokémon in someone’s backyard, Blood said you don’t have to trespass on private property to catch it.
“You can click on it from the street,” he said.
Juneau resident and Pokémon Go player Russadell Buzard, 24, is holding an informational meeting about Pokémon Go at 6:45 p.m. July 20 at the Valley Library.
Buzard wants the meeting to serve as a forum for people to voice concerns and get some answers.
“As a Pokémon Go community, we need to make sure the community of Juneau knows what’s going on so when they see groups of people showing up at their church or their business, swiping at their phones and talking about this, that and the other thing, they know they’re playing a game,” he told me by phone Tuesday afternoon.
At the time, Buzard was at the Alaska State Museum with 13 other people playing Pokémon Go. Their ages ranged from 5 to 50.
He also wants the meeting to educate parents who may not be well versed in Pokémon Go.
“This game is not going away,” Buzard said.
I tried playing Pokémon Go on my own, without the aid of Miller or Blood.
The game cautions, “Remember to be alert at all times. Stay aware of your surroundings.” I found this to be a pretty good reminder. Walking around downtown Juneau on a sunny day surrounded by tourists, vehicles and pedicabs, while concentrating on my smartphone (and holding an audio recorder) was a bit challenging.
I have to admit, the game was kind of fun. Within a small area, I learned and observed new things about the town I live in. For instance, I’ve never noticed the wooden key hanging outside the Ben Franklin Store or knew who C.L. “Doc” Polley was. The game allowed me to walk around downtown Juneau and view it in a brand new way, a place where Caterpie, Pidgey and Jigglypuff hang out.
• Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.
