DanceSport Meets Pokemon
The event usually draws hundreds of dancers. We reported about the initiative a few years ago (here).
Last Thursday evening, however, Pokémon Go players far outnumbered the dancers. From a distance it looked like a street festival. There was music, there were balloons and there were hundreds of people either dancing or mingling shoulder to shoulder. Most of them had their sight locked in on the screen of their smartphones.
To play Pokémon, you fire up the game and then start trekking to prominent local landmarks — represented in the game as “Pokestops” — where you can gather supplies such as Pokeballs. Those are what you fling at online “pocket monsters,” or Pokémon, to capture them for training. At other locations called “gyms” — which may or may not be actual gyms in the real world — Pokémon battle one another for supremacy. Players can also use lures to attract wild Pokemon. In big groups, like the lure party on Robson, hundreds of lures can be set which means hundreds of Pokémon can be captured. In this way, the game encourages social interaction. Like dancing?
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