Pokemon Go is nothing like hunting, enjoying the great outdoors
Pokemon Go may get people out of the house, but it is nothing like real hunting or actually enjoying the great outdoors.
FILE - In this Feb. 16, 2014 file photo, a Pikachu of Pokemon display hangs above Toy Fair 2014 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York on the opening day of the 111th American International Toy fair. Japanese video game company Nintendo Co., the Pokemon Co. and Google spin-off Niantic said Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015 they intend to transplant the virtual realities of the famous Pokemon "pocket monsters" into real world locations with a smartphone app that players can use to catch, trade and stage battles between the creatures. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
You might have observed something odd over the past few days.
Maybe you were grabbing a drink at your normal spot and noticed that your fellow patrons weren’t following the customary attention pattern of drink, cell phone, game on TV, repeat.
Instead, they were staring at their phones and then suddenly glancing out of the window, as if they were expecting the cops to show up.
Or maybe you were driving around town, as I was, and almost hit two 20-somethings darting across the Seventh Street exit with their faces buried in their phones.
One of these adrenaline junkies was wearing a hat that I recognized from the “Pokemon” show my kids watched. Then it clicked: They were playing the new have-to-play-it-game, Pokemon Go.
How does an outdoorsman like me know anything about Pokemon Go? Because I have listeners that are attempting to convince me that this game is, and I quote, “JUST LIKE HUNTING.”
No. No it is certainly not “just like hunting.”
If hunting was just like Pokemon Go, each game animal would be fitted with a GPS tracking device and their exact coordinates would appear on my phone!
Their next argument: At least people are “getting outdoors.”
Yes, yes you are. Score one for the uber nerds. Enjoy the jolt of Vitamin D.
But getting outdoors and experiencing the outdoors are two completely different things.
Just because you have escaped the four walls of your parents’ basement and your skin feels the sting of sunshine for the first time in weeks doesn’t constitute experiencing the outdoors.
That would take peeling your eyes away from the glow of the phone screen and adjusting for the sunshine.
There you will see trees, birds and fellow human beings. You know, the real world.
Not the virtual world. The real world.
Regardless of location, playing video games is NOT experiencing the great outdoors!
Oh, and I was just informed the Pokemon Go has fighting gyms. No, fighting in a Pokemon Gym is NOT exercise.
Just a preemptive strike for those that will try to make the Pokemon Go fitness argument.
Lord, help us.
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Comments
3 Comments
My Mom says that deer hunting in Wisconsin, for my Dad, meant sitting in a bar, with the front door open. If a deer happened to walk by, everyone shot at it, from their bar stool.
Interesting. I make a legitimate comment asking why relatively out of shape men sitting in a forest, waiting to shoot an innocent animal, is considered "enjoying the great outdoors", and it gets deleted. I'm not against hunting except when people try to call it a "sport" or "enjoying the great outdoors". At least Pokemon Go is getting kids off the couch. BTW, the only way hunting could be a sport is if the animals start shooting back.
So, walking the streets around town is considered outdoors?! Wait! What? Offroading is outdoors. Camping is outdoors. Hunting, fishing, boating, kayaking; all outdoors. Stepping outside your house? Is not in any shape or form, categorized as going outdoors or being outdoorsy. Wow! This generation. I give up. I just don't think there's any hope for them. Well, maybe there might be hope for some. Get out in the great outdoors and chase down locations.... oh wait....that would be geocaching, or hiking, or exploring. Never mind.