It's for anyone: Pokemon Go!

There has been a lot, and I mean a lot, of talk about Pokemon Go.  Most of it is positive but there are some people who seem to have jumped on the meme wagon without truly thinking through what the game is all about.

lets start at the beginning, nope not the beginning of Pokemon, but the beginning of Niantic, the company that created the, in my opinion, first augmented reality app, Ingress.

Ingress is a game were people like me went out to capture portals all over the city, or for other people, the globe itself.  It's a map of portals superimposed onto google maps and the aim of the game is to capture as many of the 'Enlightened', I mean oppositions portals as possible.  In order to capture portals you had to get out your house and travel, walk, or in some cases, hike to portals, hack the portal for items, blow up all the resonators on that portal, and then place all your teams resonators on that portal to claim it for the resistance... or the enlightened... if you were that way inclined.  To me, this was a way to get me out walking and get some exercise, it had the bonus of being fun too. In other words it motivated me to become a little healthier than I was before.

Niantic then created the overnight phenomenon, that is Pokemon Go. Now the Gyms in this game work basically the same as an ingress portal, you sent in your Pokemon to try and take down the opposition and claim the Gym, but there is so much more to it.  You walk even more with Pokemon Go.  You are out at Pokestops collecting items such as Pokeballs to capture Pokemon in, your wandering endlessly looking for Pokemon, especially rare ones. You get home you can 'power up' the Pokemon you have caught or evolve them, you can send your duplicate Pokemon to the in-game professor for Pokemon candy in order to evolve or power up your Pokemon.  So I made the switch to Pokemon Go because there was more to do for me.

My Niece, who lives with us,  didn't play Ingress. It was a bit too grown up for her and it was not her style, I had to play it by myself when she was at school, but Pokemon lets us go out together and walk.  She talks a lot more when we walk together so I know whats going on with her more now than I ever did because we can be walking for hours, not just the ten minutes it takes to get her to school.  She loves the app, she gets all excited when she catches a new one and so do I.

I would not feel comfortable with her going out alone or with friends to play the app as she is only ten but this is where it is good to be an adult who plays games, or apps, like this.  We both have fun, I can keep an eye on her and make sure she is safe, and its something that we all have in common in our house, when you have 'tweenagers', yes I said 'tweenagers', having something in common is always a great thing no matter how small it may seem.

My Niece had seen some of the Facebook memes and decided to do her vlog about Pokemon, she asked me to record her video and ask questions during it.  She answered in her own way, she is straight up and truly, even had a perspective on this I had not thought of.  So please watch, enjoy and please, learn from her words.