By Shambhavi Saxena and Rohini Banerjee:
This morning, a baffled voice on the radio asked, “Yeh ‘Paakimon’ kya hai?” Those of us who grew up in the ’90s and early 2000s took a minute to snicker rudely at his expense, before we got right back to the newest virtual world craze – Pokémon Go.
Pokémon (a contraction of “pocket monsters”) was created in 1989 by Japanese game designer and insect-collector Satoshi Tajiri. Populated by strange powerful creatures, ‘trainers’ who “gotta catch ’em all”, and the evil but incompetent trio who call themselves ‘Team Rocket’, the Pokémon universe is right up there in the ’90s kids’ imagination, along with Harry Potter and Disney. Prior to Pokémon’s TV release in India, flyers were distributed outside schools, and kids who’d already been trading Pokémon cards were over the moon. But despite its initial success a decade ago, things have been fairly quiet on the Pokémon front. That is, until now.
Pokémon Go, launched on July 6, 2016, by the makers of the original game and TV show, has become the biggest mobile game in history. It has surpassed the user-base of popular social media platforms and websites such as Twitter, Snapchat, Netflix, and even dating apps like Tinder.
The game allows you to play as a Pokemon trainer whose job is to capture and train them. To play, you simply have to walk around with the app open and catch the various pokémon that show up in various places around your city and win points.
Sounds pretty simple, right? But people have been absolutely losing their shit over the game since it launched. From popping up in totally inappropriate places, to causing sudden herd mentality, Pokémon Go has caused some very strange things to happen. Don’t believe us? Don’t believe us? Well check out some of these noteworthy instances:
1. The game is literally moulding patterns of human movement!
2. Eeps, even the Holocaust Museum isn’t excluded.
3. This pastor thinks Satan’s using Pokémon Go to “murder Christians”.
4. Oh, and he isn’t alone.
5. This dude got stabbed, refused treatment, because Pokémon. What even…
6. And these people were mugged.
7. This US soldier in Iraq took it to the next level.
8. Jack and Jill went up the hill to play Pokemon Go…
9. Donald and Hillary wanna catch ’em all (voters) too.
10. The best thing so far.
11. Not at all comfortable with this, though.
12. Indian parents must be super happy.
13. A mother thought she’d lose her daughter in a road accident because of the game.
14. This guy wrote an explanation for how Pokémon Go “is a death sentence if you are a black man”.
15. Relationship status: Pokémon Go ruined it.
Hey #PokemonGo – thanks for stealing my boyfriend. I HOPE YOU'RE VERY HAPPY TOGETHER.
pic.twitter.com/vjZbm2Mdfk
— bennettboy_ (@bennettboy_) July 9, 2016
With inputs by Lipi Mehta.
Featured image credit: Mike Lawrie/Getty Images.
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