Pokemon Go craze hits the Triangle. Here's what you need to know
DURHAM (WTVD) -- Pokemon Go is the game that's taking over smartphones everywhere. Here's what you need to know about it and what players here in the Triangle are talking about.
ABOUT THE GAME
Pokemon Go is an augmented reality game that anyone can play through a free app you can download for Apple and Android devices. The game challenges users to walk around and explore in the real world, to find digital Pokemon.
The app uses your phones camera to make it look like there are Pokemon throughout the real world and its how people are taking pictures like these:
The game channels nostalgia for the Pokemon fandom of the early 2000's and is popular among millennials.
"I played the Pokemon games when I was much younger," Jerry Laramay said at a Pokestop in Durham. "I'm 31 now but I started playing in like, 7th grade and I think it's just part of everyone's childhood in our age group."
A Pokestop is an area where players can restock on essential items.
The game is so popular, The Durham Bulls are opening up the field Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. so people can catch the Pokemon that are located on the field.
Tickets for the event are $5 and the money goes to benefit Second Chance Pet Adoptions.
The Bulls said they realized Pokemon were out there when players were walking out while staring at their phones.
Folks locally are organizing events around Pokemon Go on a local Reddit thread here and on Facebook here.
INTERACTION
The game encourages people to get up and walk around, as people have to go to new places to catch Pokemon, go to Pokestops to get more Pokeballs to keep playing, and go to Pokegyms to battle Pokemon for your team.
Some Pokemon Go players said they've bonded with others and are enjoying meeting new people through the game.
Gabe Caviness works on Ninth Street in Durham and was playing Pokemon Go while on his lunch break with two other guys named Ian Lipman and Gabe Gorelick.
Caviness had never met the other two before.
"I set a lure during my lunch break so I can catch a few and came up to find these guys," Caviness said.
"Living up on Ninth Street we got the notification, and I saw the purple ribbons and figured it was a good opportunity to catch some, catch them all," Lipman said of himself and his friend Gorelick, referring to the Pokemon slogan "Gotta catch 'em all!"
POSSIBLE RISKS
The game allows players to put out lures to attract Pokemon, but what attracts Pokemon also attracts Pokemon Go players, making players a potential target for crimes like the one that happened in Missouri. Armed robbers used the app to target victims.
RELATED - MO. police: armed robbers used Pokémon Go to target victims
Pokemon can crop up all over the place, for those playing the game and have appeared in some people's work places and private property, including their driveways and backyards.
One Twitter user in Cary even said the closest Pokestop to her is at a preschool and that she feels like a "freak" going there several times a day to get more Pokeballs.
Law enforcement officers in Virginia have actually taken to Facebook to warn people that the law still applies, even when it comes to Pokemon Go.
READ MORE: Sheriff warns: stop trespassing to find Pokemon.
"In the real world they can appear, sometimes in your house, sometimes in your living room, sometimes on the street and you can get hit by a car," Lipman said
Tiffany Dougherty works at a veterinary office in downtown Durham, and she's also concerned about safety when it comes to Pokemon Go and motorists.
Dougherty said her husband encouraged her to play the game for the nostalgia and while she said she thoroughly enjoys it, she hopes people are using it as an opportunity to walk their neighborhoods.
"Pokestops, you can just walk to them rather than having to drive," Dougherty said. "I feel like driving and trying to get Pokestops and Pokemon is really dangerous, and it worries me to think about people driving around and like potentially hitting other people trying to play Pokemon Go."
