Okay, two more: Get it!
Er, okay, and a whole bunch more words: If you have no idea what this is, let me tell you a little bit about it, one newb to another. You may have played Pokemon on Gameboy like 20 years ago or maybe not. It doesn't really matter. This is totally other level. The game/app uses your camera, so Pokemon seem to be in the real world. (Um, Drowzee, please get out of my way so I can get out of the subway station. You're being weird.)
The basic idea is you're trying to 'collect them all' and level them up by collecting additional of the same pokemon. At Level 5, you choose a team/colour representing your fighting style (mine is yellow for instinct) and then you can fight other trainers to try to take over gyms for your side.
I've heard people say this game was very motivating to get out there/walk but man, I had no idea how true it would be. First of all, in searching for these adorable and sometimes hilarious Pokemon, you have to physically walk to different locations. One to three steps depict how close they are. Even for the close ones, sometimes you realize they're getting further away and you have to go back and walk a different way. Additionally, there are eggs that hatch by walking a various distances. Oh man, do you want those eggs to hatch! Between catching and hatching, you walk a ton and hardly even notice it.
It's also a great way to meet people as a suprising number of people are playing this game. I went out with some friends (who would never just go for a walk together) hunting pokemon at 1 AM last night and we ran into multiple other people doing the same thing. It's kind of crazy how addictive it can be.
Warning: Pay attention to your surroundings. Watch out for cars. It eats up battery like it's candy it shouldn't be eating and I'm not sure what the data bill will look like... More importantly, people have already used this for nefarious means, like luring people to a certain area in order to rob them. Be careful. Also, random: thanks to this game, a girl discovered a dead body.
That said, today, I've walked over 14K steps and I'm going out with my roommate again tonight in search of more. If you want something to get you out and walking without realizing it, seriously download this game! Even if you're just hanging around the house, if you have the app open, you won't be able to resist getting up every few minutes to catch a pokemon.
Okay, I have to go now. There's an Jynx around the corner.