For most people born before the Clinton administration, Pokémon will always be about as comprehensible as the religious customs of some lost Pacific island or the codes and shibboleths of some ancient secret society. Which, by the way, is exactly why your kids love it so much. It's too complicated to explain quickly but if you can imagine going on a scavenger hunt to build up your baseball card collection, only to have the school bully beat you up and steal them from you, except the baseball cards are fighting monsters called Pokémon, and it's not real, it's all in a video game, then that's about as close to the Pokémon experience as makes no odds. Pokémon has always been popular, but this latest iteration has exploded into the public mind almost overnight (astoundingly, it currently has more users than Tinder in the US, despite only being in release for 5 days) due to its unique, and uniquely dangerous, gameplay. You see, thanks to the wonders of augmented reality, Google Maps and GPS, the scavenger hunt is no longer just in the game; it's everywhere you go. Hold up your iPhone to a tree, there's a Pokémon sitting in a crook, waiting to be captured and sent to the death ring. Look down on the pavement, and there's a Pokémon staring cutely up at you. And hey look! There's one swimming in that deceptively close and surprisingly deep pond! And there's one across that very busy street! Yes, Pokemon Go-related accidents have already happened, as have related muggings, since the game alerts any other players to your current location. Thankfully none of this has proven fatal, though it's only a matter of time before a health official is forced to remind the general public that real people do not get extra lives.
