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Athabasca's catching all the Pokemon fever

New smartphone app getting local kids and visitors 'addicted' to going outside, enjoying local landmarks
Athabasca is not immune to Pokemon Go, the new smartphone app craze that has hit the world. Pictured here, Noah Campbell from Edmonton hunts for Pokemon on the Athabasca
Athabasca is not immune to Pokemon Go, the new smartphone app craze that has hit the world. Pictured here, Noah Campbell from Edmonton hunts for Pokemon on the Athabasca riverfront.

Kids and adults alike are training to be the very best in Athabasca County with the new Pokemon Go mobile phone application.

Every day, more and more locals can be found wandering the parks and streets of Athabasca, noses buried in their phones hunting and collecting different types of Pokemon.

“I got it like five minutes ago, and I'm already addicted to it, ” said Athabasca local Mark Thompson last Wednesday. “It really makes people active and gets them to go out and see the world. ”

The new game is an adaptation of the popular Pokemon series video games created by Nintendo in the late 1990s. The game's object is to get players out in the real world in search of the fictional digital creatures called Pokemon. The creatures appear on the person's cell phone, where they attempt to “capture it. ”

The game - considered an “augmented reality ” game - was released on July 6 in select countries, and by July 12 it had become the most active mobile game in the United States with 21 million active users.

“It's addicting, ” said Meagan Ganske on Wednesday, after having it for no longer than ten minutes. “It actually gets you out of the house. I know that sounds dumb but it actually makes you want to go walk around. ”

“I've played for four hours (per day) for the past two days, maybe more, ” added fellow Pokemon trainer Nathan Minkus.

The game offers features that motivates users to walk around outside. There are “Pokestops ” posted at landmark locations, where players can gather items to assist in their Pokemon hunting. There are even three Pokemon Gyms in town - one at the Rotary Club clock tower, another at the Athabasca Riverfront, and the third at the Athabasca County building. Minkus was the “master ” of two gyms for a period last week.

“Right now, we pretty much just drive and walk around for a couple hours (a day) and just catch Pokemon, ” said Jamie Johnson while looking for Pokemon on the Athabasca riverfront on Friday. “I would probably never be down here (at the Riverfront) if it wasn't for Pokemon Go.

“One guy drove past us in a truck and yelled at us for taking his gym over, ” he added.

Although the game wasn't officially available in Canada until Sunday, the lack of availability did not stop any Athabasca players from downloading the free game on their phones, by switching their Canadian iTunes account and changing their location to the United States. Android users in Canada would find Android Application Packages (APK) online, which would also grant them access to the mobile game.

“You see a lot of people playing it, even though it hasn't been released in Canada yet, which is sort of weird, ” Nolan Haggerty said while hunting for Pokemon on the riverfront, as well, on Friday. “It's kind of crazy. ”

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