Volume 24 Issue 16
Inside: Have You Ever Tried WingZone in New Tampa?
July 29, 2016
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Named The 2014 ‘Small Business Of The Year’ By The Wesley Chapel Chamber Of Commerce! The Direct-Mail News Magazines Serving New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Since 1993! For the complete list of neighborhoods that receive this publication by direct mail in Wesley Chapel (zip codes 33543, 33544 & 33545), see page 42!
(L.-r.) Alyssa Kerrick, 12; Emma Kerrick, 14; Granger Smith, 15; Dylan Helms, 15; and Cole Johnson, 15; working on their Pokemon Go skills at the Shops at Wiregrass.
The Pokémon GO App — Gotta Catch ‘Em All...Over Wesley Chapel! By John C. Cotey On a cloudless and sweltering summer day with temperatures in the 90s and humidity suffocating enough to melt your shirt, the Shops at Wiregrass mall is abuzz. Children, teenagers and even adults walk down Paseo Dr., heads down, staring at their cell phones, eyes darting back and forth, fingers poised. It’s more crowded than on a regular weekday afternoon, and a large group of kids gather at the Wiregrass stage to exchange info. “Gotta love Pokémon GO,’’ says Shops at Wiregrass general manager Greg Lenners. In just a few weeks, the augmented-reality gaming app has players of all ages out hunting for Pokémon in droves. The magical animated creatures, wildly popular since the day they were created by Nintendo 20 years ago, can be found just about anywhere, if you look hard and far enough. You just need the free Pokémon GO app and a cell phone. Using GPS, a map is overlayed on the surrounding area so players can locate the coveted critters on trees, sidewalks or even your kitchen counter. “It has been real crazy,’’ says Gavin Olsen, 19, a student at Pasco Hernando State College and part-time photographer at TSS Photography of Wesley Chapel. “There’s never been a mobile game like this, where you go outside to see people playing it. It’s everywhere.” Gavin started a Facebook page — Wesley Chapel Pokémon GO — that now has almost 100 members where players share their experiences and talk about the game. It is one of a
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handful of new pages devoted to Pokémon GO in the Wesley Chapel and New Tampa areas. The goal is simple, as they say — Gotta Catch ‘Em All. You do that by throwing Pokéballs at the Pokémon — sometimes bribing them with a virtual raspberry helps make that task easier — and adding them to your Pokédex, or catalog. Then, you “train” them and help them evolve into newer, stronger characters. Pokéballs, raspberries and other goodies used to catch Pikachu and Crew can be found at virtual Pokéstops — designated points on Google Maps chosen by the game developer Niantic Labs, and the mall has at least four Pokéstops — and you can battle other trainers at the nearest “gym.” (Note-Niantic, the Google spin-off, also built the popular augmented reality game In-
gress. Nintendo, which created Pokémon, owns a stake in Niantic. Since its release, Pokémon GO has surpassed Snapchat, Instagram and even mighty Twitter when it comes to active users. It has been downloaded more than 20 million times and interest in the game has doubled the value of Nintendo’s stock. ••• The impact of the game can be seen almost anywhere you go in Wesley Chapel these days. Shopping areas, like the local malls and other retail centers, are a popular spot for game players because of the Pokéstops and gyms, and it’s also not uncommon to pass a handful of players while driving around your neighborhood. The Shops at Wiregrass, according to a
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Neighborhood Magazine
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Pages 33-44
number of Facebook pages created to track Pokémon in Wesley Chapel, is prime hunting ground and has nine Pokéstops. The Grove at Wesley Chapel also is bountiful, and the scene at the Tampa Premium Outlets is not much different. Parks and post offices in the area also are popular sites for Pokéstops. Wesley Chapel’s Shawn Doscotch, a mother of two teenagers, is out shopping for the afternoon, and is instantly struck by the sight of so many people staring down at their phones. “What is going on?,’’ she asks. The scene, she jokes, is like something out of the popular AMC zombie apocalypse series “The Walking Dead.” “Do we really need more teenage zombies?,” she quips, as two teenage boys and a girl walk by, intently focused on their cell phones. Doscotch had fleetingly heard about the game before she went to the mall. One of her children had mentioned downloading it, but she had no idea it had caught on so wildly. The zombie scene gave her pause. ••• And, teenagers aren’t the only ones playing the world’s hottest game. George and Jessica Navarro, a pair of married 25-year-olds, are pushing 1-year-old Alise down the sidewalk as they hold up their phones, looking for Pokémon. George says when he first read about the game on a blog, he thought, “that’s kind of dumb.” He had grown up, like so many his age, See “Pokemon GO’ on page 17!