KENNER, LA (AP) — The "Pokemon Go" mobile video game has been as much fun as anything Ronnie Knight has done in years. It's given the 30-year-old Metairie resident a reason to visit parts of his community where he rarely goes and to talk to people he otherwise might not have met.
However, the addictive exploration game also was the reason behind Knight's first visit to a police station.
The computer networking student and gaming tournament organizer wasn't in trouble. He was just hoping to smooth things over with the Kenner Police Department, which recently shut down vehicle traffic to a section of the city's lakefront following a flood of complaints that "Pokemon Go" enthusiasts had haphazardly parked their cars or dangerously walked in front of drivers to play the game.
"Things … looked like they were getting out of hand," Knight admitted.
He ultimately learned the rules that players need to obey to maintain their access to a spot where players seem to have unusually high chances of thriving in the game. He spread the word to others who, like him, have frequented the Kenner lakefront because of the game.
The meeting also gave him a more complete look at the unintended consequences — good and bad — that the game has had since it was released earlier this month and took America by storm.
Based on characters and a mythology that first rose to prominence in the 1990s on the hand-held Nintendo Game Boy, "Pokemon Go" uses the GPS and clock on players' smartphones to position them on a cartoon map of their immediate surroundings.
Players walk around in search of the game's 151 supernaturally powered creatures, who appear in different places and at different times. When they come close enough to one, they touch their screens to make the creature materialize, set against whatever is in view of the phone's camera, and try to "catch" them.
Players of the game — whose catchphrase is "Gotta catch 'em all!" — can then train their Pokemon and have them do battle at preset "gym" locations.
The formula was a winner. Drawing in 20- and 30-somethings raised on Pokemon as well as children and teens seeking their next fixation, "Pokemon Go" reportedly needed just a few days to register more users than Tinder, a popular cellphone app whose sole purpose is to set people up on romantic trysts with no strings attached.
Some local businesses and public parks have embraced the craze, encouraging those who are out catching Pokemon to stop by.
One example is City Park in New Orleans, which recently spent about $200 to ensure that the grounds around its Carousel Gardens amusement area would have more creatures than normal.
Players were then invited to pay $6 to get into Carousel Gardens and take an extended ride on the park's train, which would make two stops for aspiring Pokemasters to hop off and snag what they could.
Players also would be treated to a snowball fashioned after the game's trademark red-and-white Pokeball.
Folks lapped it up. About 1,000 people showed up for the event, said John Hopper, the park's chief development officer. But packing its grounds with Pokemon wasn't the park's sole motivation, he said.
"More than anything, we are just trying to do something fun," said Hopper, whose park planned a similar event recently. "People are out, walking around and exercising. It's better than sitting in front of a TV screen."
Jeff Januszek, a social media consultant for Breaux Mart, struck a similar note.
Januszek said he learned that a mural on the side of the Breaux Mart store on Severn Avenue in Metairie was a place that "Pokemon Go" players were visiting to get items that would help them in their adventures. So he spent about $10 to ensure the grocery store was well-stocked with Pokemon and then told players via social media to come spend an hour snatching them all up.
Some 60 people heeded the call, with about half showing up specifically for the hunt and the rest hanging out after coincidentally going to the store, Januszek said. Meanwhile, he said, managers have noticed an increase in people playing the game in the store while doing their shopping.
Yet a marketing opportunity isn't the only reason Januszek is glad "Pokemon Go" arrived. He said it's given the store a chance to let customers participate in something lighthearted at a time when violence in Baton Rouge, Dallas, France and elsewhere has terrified the world.
"The country was looking for a break — there's a lot of heavy stuff right now," Januszek said. "This game has been a welcome chance to (be) … wholesome."
Yet there's no denying the underbelly to the game's quick proliferation.
There have many reports of people across the country being robbed, stabbed or shot while out playing the game. Some players reportedly have discovered dead bodies. A person driving while playing the game plowed into a police car.
In the New Orleans area, there was the situation at the boat launch at the north end of Williams Boulevard, near the Treasure Chest Casino on Kenner's lakefront.
That spot has grown popular with players because it seems to produce more Pokemon — both common and rare — than any other place in the area, Knight said. Crowds of between 100 and 300 people have been common some nights, with Knight meeting people who have come from as far as the West Bank, Slidell and even Baton Rouge.
The crowds recently made for pandemonium, according to police. Cars were blocked in by double- and triple-parkers, with tickets being given to people who refused to move their vehicles. One would-be Pokemaster's phone was snatched away, resulting in Kenner police opening a robbery case.
Countless players were stepping into roadways without looking up from their phones to see if any cars were coming, with some nearly getting run over.
A recent Sunday night was so chaotic that traffic to the boat launch was backed up almost a half-mile to Joe Yenni Boulevard. It was at that point that police shut down traffic to the area, affecting those who may have wanted to gamble or go boating as well as Pokemon fanatics.
Knight, who moderates some local "Pokemon Go" groups on Facebook, decided to take action. He and a New Orleans cop friend drove to Kenner police headquarters and sat down with Lt. Brian McGregor to see what could be done to avoid another boat launch shutdown.
McGregor laid it out simply: Players needed to park legally and avoid stepping in front of moving cars.
"You have to keep it safe and let everyone have a good time," he said.
Knight said he understood. He got on Facebook the next day and urged his fellow Pokemon lovers to park at the Pontchartrain Center — a little farther away from the boat launch — and then walk over to the lakefront, carefully.
"We have to fix this problem ourselves," Knight wrote in his message.
McGregor said he was optimistic the worst of it was over.
But Kenner parks and recreation officials didn't take any chances with the police's concerns over safety. They canceled a planned citywide Pokehunt that had been set.
– by AP/ Reporter Ramon Antonio Vargas with The New Orleans Advocate
