Right now, it feels like the world is divided neatly into two groups: those who are playing Pokemon Go, and those who are wondering what on Earth the rest of us are talking about when we complain about how there are no Pokestops nearby, or gloat that we found a Geodude in our own kitchen!
Pokemon is an international phenomenon that got started more than 20 years ago, in 1995. The video game has inspired comic books, movies, and television series, so even if you never played the game, you might recognise its weird mish-mash monsters, or might at least remember the name Pikachu.
Pokemon Go is the latest installment in the franchise, and its first game for smartphones, developed by Niantic Labs, who earlier created a fairly similar (if not quite as successful) game called Ingress. With Pokemon Go, the team seems to have landed a super hit. Here's everything you need to know about Pokemon Go, from the obvious, to the mind-blowing.
Pokemon Go is a game for smartphones based on Nintendo's classic Pokemon games.
It's available for both Android and iOS. It officially hasn't launched in India yet, but is easy to get if you have an Android phone.
It uses your phone's camera to show you cute monsters (Pokemon) you can collect for points. You can also train these Pokemon up and make them battle in "Gyms".
Less than a week after its release, Pokemon Go is already more popular than Tinder.
To find Pokemon to collect, and gyms to battle in, you have to walk around in the real world. Your character in the game walks and turns when you walk and turn.
Some things, like hatching Pokemon eggs, require you to walk a set distance to accomplish - picked up a rare egg? Prepare to walk for 10 kilometers to get your Pokemon.
Getting people out of the house means that a lot of strange and weird things are happening to Pokemon Go players who go into strange alleys looking for Pokemon - including one girl who found a dead body!
Niantic has been overwhelmed with the demand for Pokemon Go, and the biggest complaint on Twitter right now is that the game's servers cannot keep up. This is the reason why the game's international release has been delayed.
Pokemon is a contraction for Pocket Monsters. The original game was made to give kids a feeling of what it was like to go out and collect things. The new game makes that a reality.
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