I’ve been playing Pokemon for many, many, many years. I’m sure I’ve spent multiple thousands of hours on Pokemon games. I’ve always loved Pokemon. I Played the games, I collected the cards, I watched the anime, I even remember attempting to paint a portrait of Mewtwo after watching the Movie. Point is, I have loved Pokemon for a very long time. However, growing up, I was never under the impression that Pokemon was the “cool” thing to be into. It’s always been loved by the geeky few who prefer to spend their time at a party in a quiet corner of the room rather than on the dance floor. Having a team of lvl.100 legendaries has never been as impressive as being able to do a backflip or a headstand, except now, it is.

Pokemon GO, the smart phone app which allows you to catch Pokemon as you travel about in the real world has gained tremendous popularity since it’s release. It hasn’t even been made available worldwide yet, however the number of Pokemon GO’s active users has already surpassed that of Twitter. In the past few days, we’ve heard many things about Pokemon GO and the things people have done while playing the game. Somebody allegedly found a dead body while playing Pokemon GO, quite a large number of people have nearly caused accidents while playing Pokemon GO, kids have been lured and robbed while playing Pokemon GO and the stories go on and on and on. Despite the abundance of negative stories surrounding the game, Pokemon GO’s popularity hasn’t suffered. In fact, the game seems to have made Pokemon the “cool” thing to be into nowadays!

While some long time Pokemon fans are quite annoyed by the sudden increase of people who “want to be the very best like no one ever was..”, I don’t mind the surge in popularity. I’d much rather have Pokemon become the current trend rather than twerking or planking. I think it’s great that people are now accepting Pokemon as more than just a “cartoon for kids”. As long as we all try to keep ourselves sensible by not entering restricted areas, assaulting other players, suddenly stopping on the motorway or doing any other clearly idiotic things just to catch a Pokemon, there shouldn’t be any problem at all.

So, to the Pokemon veterans, let’s just be happy that this game exists and we’re all able to enjoy it, and to the newcomers, welcome to the amazing world of Pokemon, enjoy!