The vast majority of my day was spent doing one thing: walking around and catching Pokémon. Pokémon Go, the new augmented reality/location based game from Niantic, the creators of Ingress. For anyone who doesn’t know what this madness is, it’s the newest mobile game craze that allows anyone to become a “real” life Pokémon trainer. In some ways it is very similar to the main series Pokémon games, in others it really isn’t. You catch Pokémon, but instead of manipulating a virtual sprite with a pad on a Gameboy Advance or DS, you walk around in real life while your phone tracks your location and Pokémon show up on the screen for you to catch. Your location is represented by a 3D avatar on screen, and your real life surroundings are represented around that character as a map. Streets, buildings, fields, and rivers are shown on screen, all with Pokémon hidden away for you to find. Once you are near enough to a Pokémon, you can tap on it. Bringing you into a first person view which renders the Pokémon over video taken from your phone’s camera, allowing you to see a Pokémon on the sidewalk you’re walking on, or a table you’re sitting near. Or even by your wife as she gives birth. Anyone on the Pokémon Go subreddit or on Twitter has seen many strange places to find a Pokémon in your augmented reality.

Today was my first real day of playing Pokémon Go, I’ve had the app since the pre-release Field Test and the launch but had never left the house to play it. Today I went out with a friend to various busy locations in Santa Cruz, California. What I experienced today was very strange, kinda scary, but definitely amazing. As my friend drove downtown we hit traffic (do NOT drive and PoGo), which allowed me to actually grab some Pokémon because we were going slow enough for that to be possible. I started to see how many Pokémon, PokéStops, and Pokémon Gyms were out here, not to far away from my home. I got excited, up until that moment I had only seen the tens of Zubats, Rattatas, and Pidgeys around my house. All of which are Pokémon that can be found in heaps everywhere. You can barely go a few blocks without coming across these.

We hit downtown and explore, there was PokéStop with a “Lure” nearby. A Lure is a player-placed buff on a PokéStop which increases the likelihood of Pokémon appearing in that area. We walked the few blocks to the park, as we turned the corner there were three people standing on the spot where the Lure was placed. We all knew why everyone was here, and I say: “This game is crazy.” One of them turns to me and my friend and says “How’sa goin’ guys?” This is when it really hit me; people were being brought together by this game. This was my first encounter with other players, we didn’t talk much. But the little that we did was about the encounters they are having with people. Sadly we didn’t get anything too exciting, a Fearow appeared to both me and my friend. The nicest thing about this game as an outing with friends is that the Pokémon nearby are not first come first serve. The nearby Pokémon are consistent to everyone, so if anyone sees something rare, we all catch it. We walked around the area to claim all the free goods from the PokéStops. By the time we were done we could claim them all again because the refresh is around five minutes, which honestly is probably too short. This is fun.

Next we go further into the busier downtown area, even more Pokémon and PokéStops, it’s overwhelming. The fact that other people are playing Pokémon Go becomes more apparent the more people I see. It’s starting to feel a little creepy, as we point at people inconspicuously and whisper: “They’re playing,” as they do the same to us. We walk down the street when two women behind us do the same exact thing, and I can’t help but smile because Pokémon Go has changed everything. We walk over to a clocktower memorial that serves one of the virtual Pokémon Gyms. My friend tries to take it but the bug that makes it impossible to defeat the leader kills his attempt. The game still isn’t perfect. Many issues need to be sorted out. We see other people around us fighting the same gym leader. We walk around town getting more Pokémon and PokéStops, all while easily spotting many others doing the same. I overhear two friends talk about a 900cp Magmar defending a gym nearby, “How?!” He says.

Later, I walk into a favorite comic book shop I frequent. The guy running the store today looks at me and smiles. He sees my phone in hand, he asks “Team Mystic?” I apologize, (for some reason) because I’m team Instinct. He shows me his main, it’s a 900cp Magmar. It clicks with me and I tell him that earlier there were people just talking about this Magmar. This game is crazy.

Pokémon Go is a unique experience that is bringing people together and reuniting them with the characters from their childhood. Other players tell us there are a lot of good Pokémon up on campus at UCSC, and that a few towns over there are some rare Pokémon.

After this long day, I get home, my incubated egg hatches, a Cubone comes out. A Nidoran is next door. A Jigglypuff is down my street. And an Abra eludes my search.

This game is crazy.