Pokemon Go: have we all lost the plot?
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/ ... plot/#stop
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/ ... spot/#stopAt the time I had no idea what the hell Pokemon Go was, and, uninvited, one of the young men — who was a dead giveaway wearing his Pokemon jumper and headphones around his neck — excitedly told me about the game, which was launched in Australia on Wednesday.
I thought he had lost the plot, and perhaps had been partaking in some Freo-style herbal self-medication.
For those of you who don’t know, Pokemon Go is game that uses a phone’s GPS and camera to create an augmented reality where Pokemon appear in the “real world” around you.
The user catches Pokemon by walking around the streets, interacting with landmarks — or "Pokestops" and “gyms” — and other players. If those two sentences sound like Stephen Hawking explaining gravitational singularity theorems, you’re not alone.
The game challenges players to walk around their neighbourhood collecting virtual animals, or Pokemon, hidden in parks, homes and on streets, to add to their collection.
When the Pokemon are found, the app uses GPS and mobile phone cameras to allow people to “see” the animals in front of them.
Last night one of the biggest Pokemon hotspots in Perth was Kings Park, with nearly 1000 people spending the coldest night of the year chasing the elusive creatures.