What is Pokemon Go?

It’s responsible for a couple hundred million dollar (edit:couple billion now) increase in market cap for Nintendo and it’s become such a popular game that it makes the news more often than not.  And it has only been around since last week.

Before going any further, let me be clear that I hate Pokemon.

It's just a trading card game and a way to burn through money similar to what baseball cards were in the early 90s.  At least when I bought and sold baseball cards it was with the very realistic expectation that I'd be able to retire off of my Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card (current value, an optimistic $50).  

They’re gigantic in elementary schools but we refused to buy our son any regardless of how much he begged.  One day last fall I made the mistake of bribing Luke with one Pokemon pack per win at a tournament and 10 if he won all of them, a total six matches.  He could barely care less that he won first, he wanted to go to Target and buy Pokemon.  We had to go to two locations because one of them stopped selling them due to theft.  Later I was swiping my credit card for a little over $50 when I realized the darn things cost $5 a pack.

PokemonGo isn’t the card thing and it doesn’t cost money to get started with it.  You install the app on your phone and ‘hunt’ for Pokemon in the real world by walking around looking for them.

When you find one on the map (they can be found via rustling leaves on the map in the app) the pop out and show up on your camera, somehow tied to a geographic spot.

Think of it as deer hunting but without the lease fees and beer.  In other words, deer hunting you can do with your five year old.

I was helping with a steer show this past weekend and during one of the early American classes I pulled out my phone to see if there were any Pokemon nearby.  I knew my kids would go crazy if I brought one home.

And what do you know....there was a Pokemon there in the ring Saturday.

Don’t believe me?

Full disclosure, in true Texas hunter form, I baited that Pokemon into the ring with spices.  Evidently spices in Pokemon world are the equivalent of corn in deer hunting world.

Really.

The problem is I took the time to get a screen shot of him instead of catching him.  By that time I needed to move on to getting the next class ready to come in and forgot to catch him.  I caught all sorts of heck from the kids for it.

Yes, of course I knew that.

The long and short of it is it’s free.

You get to do something with your kids.

It’s hunting.

Take my advice, your young kids will love it and it’s as close as some of you will ever get to enjoying playing a silly little game with your kids.

(until one of you rich guys funds a geobased actual deer hunting game)