A wildly popular new mobile game is not only getting young people out of the house – it’s also getting them through the doors of local businesses and places they might not otherwise have gone before.
Pokémon Go hit iPhone and Android phones just two weeks ago, but it is already has more daily active users than Twitter, drawing young people out into their neighborhoods and beyond as they search for digital creatures hiding around their towns.
Dee Jordan, 64, of Cutchogue began playing the game a few days after it came out. Her adult children used to play Pokémon games when they were younger, and when the new game was released, they convinced her to give it a shot.
“I wasn’t into Pokémon back then, but now it’s so fun,” Jordan said. “I was getting burnt out from exercise, and now I’m walking all over again. I put in 11,000 steps the other day without even realizing.”
Jordan works at the Cutchogue-Laurel Historical Society, where she is a volunteer, trustee and officer.
The society’s Old House, which dates back to the 1640s and the Carriage House, built in the 1870s, are both featured in the game. The Old House is a gym, a place where players can fight to stake claim on the area, while the Carriage House is a “PokéStop” where trainers can play to win items.
“We’ve absolutely seen an increase in traffic, just people walking by,” Jordan said. “It’s really great to see.”
Jordan says she’s considering setting up a “lure,” an item which attracts Pokémon for players to catch, making it a more appealing place for players to visit.
“I’m thinking of setting up a lure at some point when the buildings are open and then announcing it on Facebook so people will come down with their kids,” Jordan explained. “Anything to increase traffic.”
Jordan said the society is “thrilled” to be included in the game.
“When they made the Village Green whole point of the Village Green was to be a gathering place,” Jordan said, referring to the land that the Old House and Carriage House sit on. “And now, in this cool new contemporary way, it is.”
One Greenport woman is organizing a Pokemon Go bar crawl tonight.
“Saw that this was happening in Brooklyn and thought, ‘Why Not?’” wrote Estephany Molina, who created a Facebook event called “Pokémon Go Bar Crawl/Greenport.”
Molina posted a “timetable” but noted “honestly everyone’s probably going to branch out and do their own thing; but there’s always the opportunity to regroup, strategize, and branch out again. Invite people ya’ll.” The event is slated to begin at First & South at 5 p.m.
On any given day in downtown Riverhead, dozens of players of all ages can be found strolling up and down the riverfront boardwalk, phones held aloft, watching their digital avatar float across a map of the real world and waiting for a Pokémon to appear nearby on the screen.
All of this added foot traffic has been a boon for downtown businesses, says James Foster, owner of Sweet Tart Frozen Yogurt on Main Street.
“We’ve definitely been getting more customers because of this,” Foster said. “It’s a crazy little phenomenon.”
Last Friday, he said, between 20 to 30 people came into the shop within the space of an hour after a rare Pokémon spawned inside. “It was wild,” Foster said. “They came in and got some yogurt and hung out.”
He has since commissioned an employee to draw a bright yellow Pikachu on the chalk board outside the shop. “They’re hiding inside!” the board reads.
Sweet Tart is not the only local business getting in on the Pokémon craze. Snowflake Ice Cream on West Main Street changed its flavor of the week to “Pikachu’s Thunderbolt” – lemon ice cream filled with cherry Pop Rocks.
The Long Island Aquarium is advertising that it has “Pokéstops” nearby – locations in the game that players can physically travel to in order to collect items to catch more Pokémon.
“We want people to know that they can check out the Pokémon while they’re checking out our real animals, too,” said Darlene Puntillo, marketing director at Long Island Aquarium.
Pontillo, the mother of young children, downloaded the app herself to see what it was all about.
“I was like, wow we have a lot of Pokéstops here,” Pontillo said. Her kids are jealous of all the Pokémon she can get at work, she said.
There are Pokémon gyms in the vicinity, including one in the shark tank.
The new game is especially popular among older teens and young adults, who grew up playing the Pokémon video game on their Game Boy devices in the mid-to-late 1990s.
Pokémon was created in 1995 as two video games published by Nintendo. The franchise grew to include trading card games, animated television shows and movies, comic books, and toys. Pokémon is one of the most successful and lucrative video game-based media franchise in the world, according to analysts. And that was before the new Go app was released.
“It’s pretty nostalgic. We played this a lot growing up,” said Matt Zellner, 25, of Riverhead, who was walking along the Peconic Riverfront last Wednesday afternoon, smart phone in hand, Pokémon Go app open. He was walking with Everett Tarpey, 20, of Hampton Bays, who had come to Riverhead that afternoon just to hunt for Pokemon. The pair had just met.
“It made me a lot more social than I’d ever been,” said Zellner, who rents an apartment in Summerwind Square.
“I’m definitely talking to more people,” Tarpey said.
The virtual reality game allows players to participate using on an app on their mobile phones. They need to find and catch the little animated characters, each of which is assigned a value. Players rise to higher levels in the game as they capture more Pokémon. When they reach Level 5, they can join a team and play at Pokémon gyms. Pokéstops allow players to collect more Pokéballs and eggs. The eggs must be incubated and players are required to walk specified distances in order to hatch them.
The idea is to get people up and outdoors to explore their communities and places they’ve never been to, in order to capture as many Pokémon as possible. Pokémon Go uses a real-world map of the player’s surroundings and shows where Pokéstops, gyms and nearby Pokémon may be found. Pokémon are captured by throwing Pokéballs at them. Capturing Pokémon earns the player “experience points” and allows him or her to “level up.” Experience points (XP) are assigned based on the type of Pokémon captured, the accuracy of a player’s throw and whether the player has caught the particular type of Pokémon before.
Players can buy Pokécoins, the in-game currency they can use to purchase game enhancements such as power-ups and extra items, such as egg incubators and lucky eggs, as well as lures and incense to attract Pokemon to a spot.
“We always wanted to catch them,” said Christian Alvarado, 17, of Riverhead, explaining why he loves the new game. “It’s fun.”
The Pokémon Go craze has drawn consternation from some quarters, though. Law enforcement officials have issued warnings about the game’s potential to be used by sex offenders to lure youngsters to remote locations. There have been incidents reported of players being robbed, including one last week in Suffolk County. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration warned motorists against playing while driving.
