Simanaitis Says
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POKÉMON GO VERSUS THE CANADIAN MILITARY
DAUGHTER SUZ is an ardent player of Pokémon GO, the augmented-reality game wherein players chase digital animated creatures all over the world. And when I say “ardent,” I note with paternal pride that she has a “Quintuple Forty” rating. I’m uncertain what this means, except that it seems to impress those who ask about my special Pokémon GO tee-shirt that Daughter Suz got me at the fabled 2017 Chicago event.
This and the following images by Suzanne Simanaitis.
She also shares “Pika-Who? How Pokémon GO Confused the Canadian Military,” by Mariel Padilla, The New York Times, January 1, 2020. Padilla reports, “Canadian military officials have shared internal documents with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News Network that show how the military, both curious and confused, reacted to the wildly popular app.”
The problem, according to Padilla, dated back several years and civilians “driving onto Canadian military bases at odd hours and wandering onto government property… distracted by their cellphone screens.”
Apparently some players were not heeding this in-game warning.
Maj. Jeff Monaghan, an official based in Kingston, Ontario, noted, “Plse advise the Commissionaires that apparently Fort Frontenac is both a Pokégym and Pokéstop. I will be completely honest in that I have no idea what that is.”
Buddy, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore. (Buddy is a Tepig.)
Daughter Suz explains that she accumulates Pokéballs at Pokéstops, uses the Pokéballs to capture Pokémon characters, and that Pokégyms are where players gather to battle especially powerful Pokémon and earn rewards.
A motley crew trained by Team Mystic enjoys a brief calm while defending the gym against aggressors from Team Valor and Team Instinct.
“It has been discovered,” the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service advised, “that several locations within DND/CSF establishments are host to game landmarks (Pokéstops and gyms) and its mythical digital creatures (Pokémon).”
Mythical?? Who’s mythical?! True, I am digital.
Padilla notes that “Officials in North Bay filed a complaint with Niantic Inc., the game start-up that teamed with The Pokémon Company to make Pokémon GO, stating that a Pokéstop location on the base would increase traffic and negatively affect the base’s mission, according to CBC News.”
“Other military officials,” Padilla reports, “were more optimistic about the increased traffic. ‘Maybe some extra people will visit the museum!’ Maj. Alicia Saucier wrote of the military base in Petawawa, Ontario.”
Even Zubat needs his morning coffee fix.
Padilla also reports that a man stopped on a military base was “trying to get more points than his children….”
Only a fool would try to beat a Quintuple Forty. On the other hand, maybe he spotted a rare wild Lapras. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2020
Simanaitis Says 
I had no idea. But now that I do, I wonder how we here at the Cobalt Historical Society might incorporate a Poke-something or other into our trails to draw traffic…
hmmm.