The Fantasy of Pokémon Go Is More Important Than Ever
The wise and good chose Pokémon Go, pokemon go accounts for sale while the foolish and furious chose what came to be called QAnon. Or maybe it was just an accident. Maybe it didn't matter what kind of person you were before you entered. After you were in, you were in; your reality became significantly augmented, not to say distorted or even obliterated. And while QAnon is the subject now of much analysis—including in Clive Thompson's column in this issue—Pokémon Go deserves a closer look four years after its launch. The global phenomenon never went away. When contrasted with QAnon, Pokémon Go suggests that augmented reality games are not intrinsically corrosive. The players exhibit, of all things, a kind of online well-being—sociability and outdoorsiness, amusement and irony. While some in other quarters of the internet have gone gravely wrong in their hunt for enchantment online, millions more Pokémon Go “trainers,” as they're called, have kept their imaginations fired in a world where the endearing virtual monsters are mischievous or mighty or loving but never sadistic—and bear no resemblance to humans in the news. Pokémon also can't die; instead, they cutely swoon.IN THE SECOND half of 2016, two roads diverged in an online wood. Each wound through a universe populated by fabulous creatures. One was delightful. The other was morbid. One knew it was fantasy. The other was deadly serious, and some who ventured there ended up spoiling for civil war, committing violent crimes, and brandishing knives, guns, and bullwhips against their phantoms.