'I caught a Pikachu in her kitchen' - #lakewoodnews

Clark Wilson, 12, was at summer camp in Massachusetts earlier this month when the new app, Pok mon Go, was released for iPhone and Android.

"All the camp counselors were talking about it as soon as it came out," Wilson said.

Though the campers weren't allowed to play the game during camp, counselors started catching Pok mon immediately.

"The app was pretty big news," said Wilson, back home in Highlands Ranch and looking for Pok mon with his mom at Civic Green park last week. "I downloaded it after I got home."

The Pok mon franchise, once limited to trading cards and video games, is growing larger and larger since the release of Pok mon Go on July 6. Though the app is free to download, in-app purchases generated more than $14 million in just five days, according to SuperDataResearch.

The eagerly awaited app --; which uses augmented reality technology --; hit the top of U.S. sale charts 13 hours after its release, according to Boy Genius Report. Players use their cell phone cameras to view their surroundings. The game then adds Pok mon characters to the screen, making it seem as if they have appeared in real life.

"Research suggests the game is so popular because of the appeal of combining the virtual world with the real world," said Annie Butler, associate professor and department chair of human services at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. Butler specializes in addictive behavior as it relates to video games and technology.

"It sounds like a fun game, but there are two sides to every coin," Butler said. "Some people can use it and it's no big deal. But it becomes an addiction when people try to stop playing and can't, or let it interfere with their relationships."

Butler believes the game appeals to different demographics in different ways.

While kids enjoy the cartoon images and the gaming pieces of it, she said adults are more likely to enjoy the way they can use the app without experiencing the usual solitary aspects of gaming.

Christopher Cole, a Pok mon Go player and father of two, is one of many adults who have become avid Pok mon trainers this month. Cole typically plays the game with his two children and his wife, Karen.

"We go on walks around the neighborhood and make it an adventure," Cole said.

In the first 12 days since downloading the game, the Parker resident walked more than 55 miles.

"It motivates people to go to places they've never gone before and see parts of the city they've never seen before," he said.

Pok mon Go works with Google Maps to direct players to Pok stops, sites where they can catch different Pok mon based on their geographical location and the time of day. These places are usually located in neighborhoods, parks, stores or malls.

Brittany Rickson, 22, Matt Shircliff, 17, and Jill Zablonski, 26, often go to Parker's O'Brien Park to catch Pok mon.

"We usually come here together," said Zablonski, who was the first of the friends to download the game.

"Brittany downloaded the game a few hours after I did, when I told her I caught a Pikachu in her kitchen," she said.

"I play Pok mon Go too much --; I'm always on it," said Rickson. "I play a good four or five hours a day, at work and everything."

The three friends are just a fraction of the many people catching Pok mon in O'Brien.

"Even at 10 at night, the O'Brien parking lot is full," said Cole. "It's interesting to see all the people getting together and having fun, regardless of age and location."

from Lakewood Sentinel - Latest Stories http://lakewoodsentinel.com/stories/I-caught-a-Pikachu-in-her-kitchen,231044