Why Goodale Park is Full of Sweaty Nerds

Originally Published by (614) Magazine, by Erik Tait

A 20-year Pokémon fan explains why Columbus is wandering through life staring at their phones

A lot of people have asked me what Pokemon Go is; I think it’s time we provide an explanation for those who don’t quite understand. I’ve been a fan of Pokemon for two decades, and when you live with that affection in your heart for so long, you learn to explain it to people in very simple terms. (Note: for brevity, I won’t be using the accent over the E in Pokemon. I don’t feel like learning that keyboard shortcut and the people who really need this explanation won’t be typing it that way anyhow.)

So, here goes…

“What the hell is a pokeyman?”

It’s Pokemon. As in “poke” like with your finger; “eh” like the Canadian colloquialism; and “mon” like a child using an inadvertently racist Jamaican accent to say “man.”

“Ok nerd, what is Pokemon?”

Remember in the ’90s when you were trying to figure out why you had funny feelings about girls? While you were doing that, a bunch of us were playing this video game where we captured adorable monsters and then used them for an elaborate version of virtual cockfighting. By a bunch of us, I mean a metric crap ton. The original versions of the game sold more than 22 million copies worldwide—this new app is an augmented reality version of that original game.