Invasion of the Poké-Catchers - Pokémon Go hits Manchester!

Over the last few days residents may have noticed more people on the sidewalks than the usual dog-walker, or couple on an evening stroll.  A new type of pedestrian is roaming the village; they hold their cell phone out in front of them, and will frequently stop for no obvious reason to exaggeratedly swipe across its screen. They are Pokémon trainers, playing Pokémon Go, and it’s been easy to catch them all around the village.

Corbin & Clayton Everly (23) trying to win Wurster Park for the blue team.

Pokémon Go is a newly released augmented reality mobile game, where players are encouraged to get out of their house and into the world to search out and catch hidden Pokémon.

Pokémon Go is the latest iteration of the now two-decades-old franchise of games, cartoons and toys created by Japanese game designer Satoshi Tajiri. The original narrative centered around having each player act as a "trainer" who catches Pokémon (a Japanese portmanteau of the English words "Pocket" and "Monster") in the wild, trains them for combat, and sets the monsters to battle other monsters in an arena called a "gym." The original variants of the game focused primarily on the combat. But in 2013 Satoru Iwata of Nintendo and Tsunekazu Ishihara of The Pokémon Company collaborated with Google to sketch out a design that used Google's maps to anchor Pokémon in the "real" world.

The result: the village is now infested with thousands of secret, adorable creatures, and all you need is a smart phone to reveal them. Go to the park and discover cartoon foxes and rhinos and puffballs; go down to the river and find cartoon crabs and fish. Cartoon rats scurry along the sidewalks downtown, and cartoon pigeons perch on fences. And all are there to be caught, cared for, and sent into combat.

Players of Pokémon Go visit notable locations in town to stock up on supplies, or battle.  In Manchester most of these are “Pokéstops” are churches, or parks, but there are also spots like the old Blacksmith Shop. There are a few “Gyms” where players set their Pokémon to battle with other Pokémon and hope to claim the gym for their team.

Clayton & Corbin Everly were among 8 players virtually battling at the most popular “Gym” location in town, Wurster Park. They swapped stories with those gathered about where they found certain Pokémon, and wondered if anyone knew where to find a Squirtle.

This weekend has been a constant parade of Pokémon Trainers of all ages traipsing around getting to know the Village and the people they share it with it.

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by Danielle Muntz

Danielle lives in Manchester Township and has many interests which she takes part in with varying degrees of success. She can be reached at Danielle.Does.Stuff@gmail.com.