How Pokemon Go got my 13-year-old kid out of the hotel room

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This was published 7 years ago

How Pokemon Go got my 13-year-old kid out of the hotel room

Updated
Gotta catch 'em all: And at least the kids will get out of the house while they're doing it.

Gotta catch 'em all: And at least the kids will get out of the house while they're doing it.Credit: Penny Stephens

Day one of our summer holiday in Italy started on a familiar and fairly depressing note - with our 13-year-old, Rory, insisting on downloading a new app. From previous experience, this meant he would soon become a snarling, screen-obsessed monster, run up a vast bill for "in-game items" and would never stray outside the range of hotel Wi-Fi.

He had put up dogged resistance from the moment he heard my wife and I talking excitedly about our planned stay in the smart Rosa Alpina in the Dolomites. We dreamt about long hikes among the wild flowers of the Alta Badia, pit stops in mountain huts, and a gourmet pilgrimage to Norbert Niederkofler's two Michelin-starred St Hubertus restaurant. He couldn't think of anything he'd less like to do.

But all that changed this week after he downloaded Pokemon Go on to his phone.

Cathedral St Marks Square in Venice, Italy.

Cathedral St Marks Square in Venice, Italy.Credit: iStock

For the uninitiated, the mobile game that has become an instant global phenomenon uses the phone's camera, GPS and other features to superimpose Nintendo's fantastic, lizard-like characters on their real-life surroundings. The player has to attract and "catch" them as they pop up on screen. And as the Pokemon catchphrase goes, you "gotta catch 'em all". I'm told it's highly addictive.

Even though it was only launched a few days ago, Pokemon Go has been downloaded millions of times, and is already the best-known example of the emerging market of augmented reality products. It means players have to take a walk to collect new characters, which can be trained to fight battles. And it may just have saved my family holiday.

Our quaint Italian village, nestled within the folds of an alpine valley, took on new significance for our son as his phone revealed the location of nearby Poke Stops. Suddenly, Rory couldn't wait to explore among the great cathedrals of rock.

The augmented reality app requires players to look for Pokemon in their immediate surroundings with the use of GPS and internet services turning the whole world into a Pokemon region map.

The augmented reality app requires players to look for Pokemon in their immediate surroundings with the use of GPS and internet services turning the whole world into a Pokemon region map. Credit: Getty Images

Yes, we had to allow his mobile phone to roam (I don't want to think about how much all that mobile data will cost us), but it was jaw-dropping to have our teenager demanding to go outside, of his own free will.

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Nor did we have to offer any kind of rational inducement to inspect local churches, or visit the Bear Museum. (Me: "l really want to find out about Ice Age bears and how the Dolomites got their name from geology." Him, checking his mobile phone: "Wevs!")

Thanks to the app, the richly decorated interior of San Cassiano's church has taken on a significance beyond the mere material because it now hosts a virtual Pokemon "gym" where our son, once he has accumulated enough points, can battle any Pokemon left by a previous player to defend it.

The game developers also worked out how to deal with my inevitable angst about him walking off the sheer face of a mountainside in pursuit of new characters: he does not have to keep his eyes glued to the screen, since his phone vibrates with any surprise encounter with a Pokemon. ("Look Pidgey!")

Yes, there are annoying in-app purchases to enhance the game, but he says there is enough in the basic version not to be tempted to buy - yet. This week, he had captured, trained and deployed Pokemon for battles, and even interacted with locals, albeit virtually. The only time this holiday he has been even slightly cross was when another player reclaimed control of the gym.

Today, we are heading to Venice. We had been fretting about how to persuade the teenager to visit the secret chambers of the Doge's Palace, cross the Rialto Bridge and marvel at the bronze horses of St Mark's Basilica. Now we don't have to worry about motivating him to look around the world's most stunning city. Blue Guides, eat your heart out.

Let's just hope he doesn't end up in a canal.

The Telegraph, London

See also: 37 questions: Hell is applying for a visa here: Traveller Letters
See also: Inside Tokyo's mad world of geek maids

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