Gilroy draws thousands of visitors for its garlic, but now virtual reality monsters are literally putting it on the map.
The mega-hyped PokémonGo is a Nintendo reality game that uses cellphones to bring players into the real world, where they have to catch imaginary figures on their phones in real places.
Downtown Gilroy has become a hotspot because of how many Pokéstops there are.
“It’s fun to walk around and see hotspots and see other people playing it,” said Jacqueline Biondi, who traveled from Prunedale to catch characters in Gilroy. “It’s great, it’s really fun, it’s fun to get out.”
Since the players have to walk to find Pokémon it has gotten them off the couch.
“It takes you out and makes you explore and exercise,” said Gilroy resident Yahir Leon, 11, who was spotted with cellphone in hand by the downtown mural.
Downtown is filled with Pokéstops, which are locations where players can get items such as used Pokéballs to catch Pokémon. They include the historic downtown Gilroy sign, the colorful tree mural, the Second Chesbro Building historical marker, the Louis Hotel historical marker and the Gilroy Victory Outreach Church.
They also include—controversially—St. Mary’s Cemetery, where several Pokéstops cause players to walk over graves and tombstones. Nationally, the company generated controversy by putting characters in Washington, D.C.’s Holocaust Museum.
“This is a crack up,” said Rose Barry, a pastoral associate at St. Mary’s, who hasn’t seen any players yet. “One point of view is to worry about the reverence. The other side is to say we are a welcoming church even for silly people playing a silly game. You never know, they might be in awe of the building and the cemetery and say, ‘Wow, this is a cool place.’”
Barry said it’s not unusual for people to be using their phones around the parish to track the location of a grave or to let family know they are visiting one, or to take pictures.
It wouldn’t be appropriate if they were inside the church, particularly during Mass, she said. The church already asks parishioners to turn off their cellphones.
“In a gentle, pastoral way, we would invite them to Mass and ask them to play the game afterwards.”
Few products have created such a media buzz (remember the Pet Rock?), fueled by incidents such as two players who fell 75 feet from a cliff while playing the game and suffered injuries in Encinitas, California.
Every day there are players downtown failing to pay attention while they walk aimlessly, staring at their phones. When the app starts up it even says, “Remember to be alert at all times. Stay aware of your surroundings.”
The game was released on July 6 and added $7.5 billion to Nintendo’s market value in the first two days, according to Business Insider.
The game has appeal to college-aged adults because they grew up playing the video versions. It also appeals to youngsters discovering it for the first time.
Several people interviewed didn’t want to give their names because they didn’t want to be labeled as nerds.
“Pokémon is a childhood memory. I play for the throwbacks. Plus it encourages me to get together with friends and exercise,” said San Jose State student Taralynn Martarano, 22.
As you walk in the real world your avatar walks in the game looking for Pokémon in the surrounding area. The game shows which Pokémon are nearby and lets the player know just how close by, by the number of footsteps. Each footstep equals 50 meters and players have to walk and figure out where the Pokémon is by process of elimination. Once a Pokémon is within 50 meters it will appear on a player’s map, where they can click on it and have a chance to catch it.
The game uses the player’s front camera and the real-world location in front of them, and places a virtual reality Pokémon where a player can throw a Pokéball to catch it. Since the app requires the player to track their avatar while watching, players must stay glued to their screens and some have been injured.
Leon admits when there is a Pokémon nearby that he hasn’t caught that it’s sometimes hard to pay attention to both the game and real world.
The game is still in its infancy and Nintendo and Niantic Inc. plans to release regular updates to improve gameplay.
Tell us about your best local PokémonGo battles and locations at www.gilroydispatch.com
