Robert Cody, 22, recently met his neighbor of two years for the first time — all thanks to “Pokemon Go.”
Cody, a UF mechanical engineering senior, said the game encouraged him to hang out with people on his street he’s never met before.
Although he’s in competition with one of his roommates, he said he likes partnering with friends who are on his team so they can “take a gym” together.
“It’s competitive,” he said. “Just to have fun and see who can have the better Pokemon.”
Areas like University Auditorium and Little Hall have been crowded with groups of up to 150 gamers at night. Cody said it was much the same the other night they came.
Cody and his friends were back for yet another night of catching the creatures.
“We just put lures here, and a lot of people came,” he said. “People are actually leaving their apartments for once.”
Cody’s friend Fred Velez, a 22-year-old UF biology senior, said it has connected him with new friends who also play the game.
“I’m seeing the same strangers a couple times, and we’re starting to have conversations like ‘Do you want to come along with us? We don’t mind,’” Velez said.
He said the game is nostalgic for him but also encourages people to have conversations with one another.
“You don’t feel like you’re a stranger to someone as much,” he said.
During Fall, he said, “forceful peer pressure” will make people who previously didn’t care about the game download it even if just for a short time.
“It’s a quick, easy game to get addicted to,” he said.
Joe Strohfus, 62, was visiting his daughter Kim, a 19-year-old UF nutritional sciences junior, when he decided to give the game a try.
“This place is Pokemon-rich,” he said.
Kim said she noticed a whole other group of students coming out to play the game, so she decided it was important for her dad to experience.
“It’s way better than watching Netflix,” she said.
She said the game has also created a safer campus.
“I would never go for a run past 10 o’clock, but the other night I went around the Pokestops,” she said. “I would’ve never done that without knowing that there was so many people out here.”
Kim and her dad said the game has also served as its own kind of tour, because many Pokestops are actually landmarks on campus, like the concrete bicycle near the architecture building.
“We would’ve never figured out all the different statues,” Kim said.
