Hey guys,

I am 37. I never played Pokémon in my life. Could I possibly get any excitement out of this? (It is not officially out here, but the hype is driving me crazy.) How "deep" is it?

Cheers

@wuddel: It's not very deep at all but you could still have fun with it. The collection aspect can be fun with and without nostalgia for two different reasons. I remember playing newer Pokemon games after a long break and being excited about the potential of finding new Pokemon I've never even heard of. You could give it a shot and see if the loop is for you or not.

I'm 37, and I enjoy it. It's not deep, it's just charming and fun to at least be in that conversation. I don't enjoy holding the phone out while walking. If you never played a Pokemon game, I'd say give them a shot. It will bring back a lot of nostalgia of NES JRPGs, it plays super fast and it's got a lot of customization elements.

The real sad thing is as a 27 year old male who grew up with pokemon.I have to watch my self....if you see an old man lurking around a park or school with his phone out using the camera and looking around with it kiiiiinda makes you look bad.

Just gotta think where you are and what your doing while playing.

It's not deep at all. Nostalgia is a powerful factor in the game's popularity and if you never played any of the older pokemon games you are going to find this even more boring then it kinda is.

Hi, I'm AtomicOLDMan. I play Pokémon GO. There's your answer.

@akyho: You could also just turn AR mode off if you feel uncomfortable using the camera at a park.

I'm going to assume most of the Pokemon Go demographic is a lot of kids and a bunch of 20 somethings who were around for the first pokemon boom.

If you are in your 20s and are starting at your phone people just got to assume that's what you are doing. You get a pass.

Teens and late 30+ will be suspicious.

I think it's kind of neat, and my wife is the one who actually asks if there are pokemon around but refuses to put it on her phone, and she likes to throw the pokeballs every so often. I'd say you can get some enjoyment out of it for sure - but with my lack of caring enough to level/evolve these things the brief fun I have is catching them here and there but I can already tell I'm moving on.

Don't play it for any mechanical depth, there isn't any. Play it if you enjoy a sense of exploration and adventure, play it if you like sharing a random connection with strangers, especially play it if you have a loved one you can share the experience with.

Well if facebook is to be believed i see some grown ass 33/34 year old men and women playing it lol.

You should definitely try it duder, age is just a number after all.

I don't think you need to be a specific age to play Pokemon Go. I see a lot of people both young and old getting into it. It's a very simple game and very easy to get into.

I know people older than you playing it.

Go for it man.

No. Shallow as it possibly could be. Go for a good geocaching game instead, if you're interested - because this game is a very buggy, poorly made geocaching game with Pokemon in its name. It's just the first time a geocaching type game has the power of a big brand behind it, but don't mistake it for a good game - it's just a good, but not at all unique, concept.

I'm 40 and it's kind of dull. If you like something though, enjoy it and don't worry about it being "not for you."

What the hell are you guys going on about? It's 2016.... Every human being I run into is constantly staring at their phones, waving it around. If there is anything to worry about when it comes to playing this, it's the fact that you may be ran over because someone else is also staring at their phone while driving. Not because someone is playing on their phone and they look "suspicious" in this day and age.

It's free, so definitely worth looking at, if you're curious. I've been messing with it and think it's somewhere between boring and outright bad, but people seem to really enjoy the excuse to walk around so I suppose it's not too terrible. I work at a studio that is positively enamored by it right now, so it's sort of hard to avoid. I'll probably mess around with it for a few more days just to understand the conversation around it. Plus I get to rename all the Pokemon filthy things and that's fun.

I've been running into crowds of people in their 20s and 30s playing. Haven't really seen many children yet. It is the strangest experience going to any public place and seeing 80% of the people playing a Pokemon game (and actually talking to each other!)

Also you do not have to go to schools and playgrounds to find Pokémons og Pokéstops.

Just go where you would go playing Ingress. It is the same geo-locations for both games.

https://www.ingress.com/intel

While I think it'd be highly inaccurate to call 'Pokemon GO' a good game, there is a certain satisfaction to be had in it. The 'game' itself is pretty thoughtless -- tapping Pokemon when you see them, swiping Pokestops when you walk by them -- just routinely amassing your cute little monsters and making numbers go up. No skill or strategy involved. Where the satisfaction comes in is that the usual time-sinky mobile-game emptiness of "why the fuck am I doing this. I'm wasting my life," is replaced with "well, at least I did a shit-ton of walking today." Basically, not a bad excuse to get some exercise.

But where it's more truly fun is if you have a person or two or three to talk about it with and share intel. I've got different friends playing it, and it's fun to report findings to each other. "The area around my workplace is a veritable Tauros factory!" "There's like six goddamn pokestops in the park by the art center!" "Want Magikarp? Appropriately enough, the river is teeming with them!" "My house is infested with Staryu, and I'm considering calling the exterminator about it!" "Where the FUCK did you find that Eggsecutor?" There's a definite element of exploration and discovery, and the novelty of checking out real-world locations to see what Poke'ms you find is admittedly pretty rad.

Also, yeah, to answer your question, you're not too old for it. In these past couple of weeks, I've encountered like every age range waltzing about the land looking for invisible animals. Definitely predominately twenty-somethings, but children, middle-agers, and the elderly have all seemed to caught the fever around here too. It's weird.

My mother is 58 and has been playing it. Kids and teachers all over the school I teach at have been playing it. Age is not a barrier to having a fun stroll around, especially with the weather being nice in the UK, we only get a few days a year.

I want something more elaborate to become a thing, perhaps with less cute animals; a zombie outbreak or a space alien based thing would be great. The more RPG aspects the better; 'building' stats and developing over time is fun if the gameplay is tolerable. That you can affect the world the other players play in is a big thing, too.

Right now you can't walk around with a phone without everyone in the vicinity assuming you're playing Pokemon Go. I'm guilty of suspecting others of playing it as well, so yeah... Weird. There are cars driving up to a gym near me, taking it over, and then they drive off again. The effort people put into this.

It's a very good excuse to walk around town for an hour or two.

Everyone at my office's playing, save for me and one other lad. And the oldest person there is 53. So yeah, OP.

I'm 30 and open it up for a minute or two each day. It's pleasant enough, and my only experience with the series is some time with Red in the 90's and hating my Pikachu friend in Smash 64.

Game's cool.

No, it's only for Oddish people.

I think that people that were born between like 1987-2000 have more right to play this game than 'kids'... I doubt a 10-year old could even tell the names of the gen I starter evolutions.

I find the most amusing thing is some of the Pokestops. When I installed the game I happened to be near a cathedral and it was hilarious getting Pokeballs out of the Episcopal Diocese's sign and a St. John's Cross.

If you can operate a smart phone and can move than you can play Pokemon Go.

My mother who is pushing 60 plays Pokemon Go...it's for everyone, trust me.