Trekking through the 100-plus degree heat to capture virtual creatures is hot in Tucson, thanks to “Pokemon Go.”
The free app that Nintendo launched July 6 on the iPhone and Android app stores, has proved highly addictive, with record numbers of daily active users. It’s popularity here in the Old Pueblo appears to be no different, according to Tucson “Pokemon Go” players on both the street and social media.
Walk through downtown, North Fourth Avenue, the University of Arizona campus among other highly-frequented Tucson places at any point in the day or night and see for yourself — hoards of kids, college students and adults alike, nose to their phones, attempting to catch virtual Pokemon.
“At the mall, I saw at least 10 or 20 kids just walking together, playing there, and I was like, ‘wow, that’s incredible,’” said UA student Susanne Borchalouy, 19.
To play, the app uses a phone’s location to essentially create an augmented reality — a view of the physical world supplemented by computer-generated elements — where Pokemon, Pokeballs and other Poke-things appear on your phone’s screen to be captured by you, the trainer, as you walk through Tucson.
While you encounter Pokemon, you also encounter Pokestops — real-life hubs on the game map where you can stock up on Pokeballs, Pokemon eggs and other special items. The university and downtown areas are “goldmines” for Pokestops, according to UA student Jonathon Sawyer, 25.
“You can literally walk from one building to next and get a ton of items,” he said. “Yesterday, with all my friends walking up and down the (UA) mall, you could just see a whole bunch of people with their phones out, playing it — even some people on their bikes.”
Gentle Ben’s on University Boulevard is another busy Pokestop, according to bartender Jackson Pinny, 23. “You’ll see staff when they get off work running around the restaurant looking behind the service stations and everything” he said. “And I definitely see some customers playing when they come in to get some food. It’s a good atmosphere.”
Players can also interact with and battle other trainers in real time as they encounter them in the game, which has made for a pretty friendly “Pokemon Go” community in Tucson.
Erik Chavez, a UA graduate student studying physical chemistry, likes the game’s collaborative aspect.
“It’s nice that it has features that encourage people to gather and meet over a common interest,” he said. “It’s really rare for games these days to do something like that because most of them require you to be in a fixed position for a set period of time, and this is the complete opposite of that.”
The game’s Tucson popularity is also apparent in the social media sphere.
Trainers plan meetups to share tips and tricks, memes, locations of specific Pokemon creatures and general Pokemon-related findings on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit. There’s even a Facebook page dedicated specifically to UA students playing “Pokemon Go.”
