I’ve been having so much fun playing Pokemon Go on campus. I don’t even care that much about the Pokemon franchise, and there’s not a whole lot of gameplay, but being part of such a large-scale augmented reality is amazing. Pokemon Go is pretty much a location checkin game, with a bit of threeway capture-the-flag thrown in, but man, I love having a cute invisible world all around me, and I love seeing others checking out of the real world and checking into our shared Pokemon fantasy.
The other day, I followed a lure to Pokestop by the campus bookstore, and joined a bunch of teenagers at sportsball camp (lacrosse? I think?), a family on a pre-college visit, one of the groundskeepers, and some other virtual Pokemon hunters sitting on the grass catching invisible monsters.
I’ve also been trying to dress like an adult for classes, which means that my students are constantly shocked to see me chasing Pokemon or to hear that I play. Today I was in my cardigan and skirt in the hallway, listening to students talking about challenging the Pokemon in the nearest invisible gym. They knew I was there, but they didn’t know it was my Eevee they were discussing.
This is the cyberpunk future I’ve dreamed about.
