This past semester, one of my students constructed a rather complex database, which he called the Pokemon DB. The database was an elaborate group of database tables that stored pokemon, which are are creatures (pokemon means pocket creatures) of varying shapes and sizes that live in the wild or alongside humans. They were developed by Nintendo in consortium Game Freak, and Creatures.
Last month I tried poke, which is raw tuna. Not my favorite, but it did taste good.
And last week Pokemon Go was released. I’m not the biggest gamer, but I love the social and health implications of games. In fact, I try to incorporate games into my course quizzes, albeit they are far from fun games like Pokemon Go. But I downloaded it nonetheless. So far it’s been fun, but I have no dreams of being an expert trainer. The dynamics of the game, however, have been fascinating.
The pokemon franchise came out long after I was a kid caught up in the phenomenon and therefore have no fondness for its nostalgia. However, I am impressed with how Niantic has brought the pokemon experience into the real-world where you can collect pokemon on street corners, train and fight pokemon at local gyms and scavenge for items across city landmarks.
Right now I’m a Level 8 Trainer (levels go up to 40), but I’m acknowledge my lack of skill. I’ve been to the gym and haven’t won a single match! All-in-all, it’s been fun though, although I don’t see myself dedicating my life in search of rare pokemon… I heard this one guy quit his job! God speed my friend.
