Pokémon GO - First Time for Everything

If you haven't heard of Pokémon GO in the last week you might be living under a rock. Pokémon GO is a free to play, location based AR (augmented reality) mobile game. It was developed by Niantic and published by The Pokémon Company and released almost world-wide on July 6, 2016. 

Now. That was a whole lotta words to describe a mobile game so let's break it down a bit. 

• Free to play: just means the app is free but there are in-app purchases.
• Location Based: gameplay evolves and progresses based on your location, typically using the built in GPS on your phone. 
• Augmented Reality (AR): is defined as "a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. Graham, M., Zook, M., and Boulton, A. "Augmented reality in urban places: contested content and the duplicity of code." Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-5661.2012.00539.x 2012.

Basically you're entire environment is now teeming with Pokémon 

and with your phone you're able to see them and catch them. 

Confessions of a Gamer Mom: My Origin Story

My evolution into a gamer began way before the name "Mom" ever came into existence in my reality. Growing up, my family and I spent many a weekend playing boardgames like LIFE, Monopoly, and Clue. We also grew up with a healthy dose of card games such as Spades and Pinochle tournaments. It was a time when home computers weren't a staple in every house and video game consoles were still "babies in diapers". The word "gamer" wasn't found in the dictionary. Getting the picture yet?  Yes, sounds a bit post-apocalyptic in this tech everywhere world, but it was a "simpler time" as the old folks say, and I'm NOT including myself in that category.