Of the human desires: Pokémon GO

Meanwhile in the world  

~  The whole world is left completely addicted to the new app “Pokémon Go” ~

Well not the whole world but yeah almost every smart phone bearer. And the latest person to join this bandwagon is me. ME. ME as in the guy in *the everyday me*. Okay.. Okay,  coming back to the point. So even I have started to play this game. I am reserving my opinion about this game because you all know what it would be..(Read: AWESOME!).  

I won’t be surprised if this game would be having more adult users. This game is based on the hit 90’s T.V show and most of today’s youth have grown up watching it. No doubt this game is such a big hit because it comes with a sense of childhood nostalgia which is very dear to all.

While there are some other factors which has also been contributed to the success, such as use of Augmented Reality (A.R) etc, I think the success of the app lies in some deeper human desires.

                                                             image source

One of them is having your childhood dream fulfilled. Raise your hand if you were one of those kids who used to dream about growing up and being a Pokémon master. Back in those days you must be thinking how cool it would be to follow Ash and his gang on their adventure.

It’s 2016 and tada! Your dream has been turned into reality and you actually have to travel places to collect Pokémons! As we grew and eventually “LIFE” happened, we came to know that things don’t always turns out as we want it to be.  Most of those dreamer kids are now stuck in a boring 9 to 6 job. This game gives nothing but an escape from reality.

Another thing which I notice about this game is the entitlement of power which it gives. Being able to “capture” so many Pokémon and being their “master” gives some sort of pride. The more you capture the better. It may sound bizarre but don’t you think it is similar to the man’s desire of having control or power over something? Moreover you battle different masters to take control over a gym and this power tussle continues.

The catchphrase used by the Ash is “Gotta catch ‘em all”. This brings me to discuss about the human greed. No matter how many Pokémon you catch, there will be hunger for more. It is analogous to the never ending satisfaction which we tend to have. We are always chasing a better life, always trying to increase the amount in our pay check. There are very rare people who are content with what they have. This game gives us one more reason to satisfy our thirst of “owning” more or rare things.

With so many things working out for this game, I don’t see the craze dying any time soon.

Before wrapping up, I would like to advice you all to be aware of the surroundings. And yeah if possible, do catch ‘em all!

Hope to see you in nearby gym!