It's the hot new topic among Millennials looking for a bit of cheer between the shootings and the political nonsense - Poké
mon!With the release of the new Poké
mon Go! app, geeks everywhere are flooding the outside world, eager to catch 'em all. On Thursday, July 7th, the game was put on the app store for Australia and New Zealand fans, and was soon available in the US. The release date for UK fans has been pushed back, so many are trying to figure out workarounds in the meantime to play the game the whole internet is buzzing about.I was never a huge Poké
mon fan growing up, but the stir was big enough to make me curious, and I downloaded the app for myself. I was one of the lucky ones - I was able to start playing right away, and my download time only lasted a few minutes. Far more common are stories of hours waiting for the game to install, of servers crashing before you can even sign up, and general inability to get the game at all. I almost feel bad for my luck; several of my friends that have been lifelong fans are still struggling to even start the game, three days after initially downloading it. Meanwhile, pretty much all I knew about it was from three random episodes of the show that I had seen a long time ago, the only detail of which I remember is Squirtle being cute as a button and one character carrying around a half-hatched egg thing.I've learned since then, of course. The benefits of being friends with a number of fans. I took several screenshots on my phone of shadowy outlines labeled 'Poké
mon near you!' and sent them to my friend to get various of the following conversation: "What's this?" "A Rattata." "Is it good?" "It's a purple rat." "I want it." "Then go forth."And go forth I have (though I still haven't found my little rat friend yet). If you live in a city, or at least a populous suburb, then you can go from one starter Poké
mon in the morning to 15 captured within two days. They're everywhere, and it's amazing. However, for those living in more rural areas, a common complaint seems to be very few Pokémon, and those that are around seem to be the same few low-level ones that no one wants.There are some other issues. Instead of being a background app, like many assumed, wherein you would just go about your business and occasionally get an alert that a Poké
mon is nearby, the app has to be open to detect any nearby gyms or Pokéstops, which drains battery life and eats up data. Not to mention the continued crashing of the servers...However, it is the first version of a whole new type of gameplay, and for what it is, it's pretty fantastic so far. The first Poké
mon I caught (after choosing my starter) was actually in the employee entrance hallway at work - a level 53 Nidoran!There are still bugs to work out, but the game itself has only been available to the public for less than a week. I think future updates will smooth out some problems, and I look forward to catching them all and taking over that gym across the street from my house.
man running in forestPhoto by 
