Senior Zane White plays Pokemon Go at red stops when he’s on the road driving and once he turned on his hazard lights to pull over the side of the road to catch a Pokémon. White tries to play the game every chance he gets.

“I ran halfway across a mall in two minutes because a friend told me [a Pokémon] was down there. The looks I got were kind of demeaning but it was worth it to get a starter Pokémon fully evolved,” White said.

Pokémon Go is the location-based augmented reality game that over millions of active players are engaged in. The game was developed by Niantic, Inc. and released on July 6, 2016. The game requires the player to physically travel to a destination in order to capture a Pokémon and evolve to a stronger, better Pokémon. Pokémon Go stimulates physical activity due to the walking when one tries to find a Pokémon. The game has rose tremendously in popularity and has surged into a full blown sensation.

Pokémon Go has seized the main attention of player’s time. Gamers risk their lives when they cross dangerous boundaries and ignore the rules of the community around them. Some even will resort to going into other’s backyards to capture a Pokémon and some play while driving. Others cross the street playing while there is oncoming traffic nearing them. The virtual world of Pokémon has led players to do the most craziest and unimaginable things.

Michael Dawkins, a junior, finds the game to be enjoyable and brings back childhood memories for him such as the Pokémon card games and DS and playboy games. While Dawkins played Pokémon Go, he trespassed on a friend’s property.

“I went into my friend’s backyard and they didn’t know I was back there,” Dawkins said. “She texted me in all caps saying ‘what are you doing in my backyard’ and I said ‘there was a Pikachu back there’.”

The world uses the game as a way to get out and about. Junior Hugh Byrd believes this to be true. He has socialized with others while trying to catch a Pokémon in the community and it allows him to see things outside of the virtual world:

“I followed a bunch a people down in Big Spring Park for a Pokémon and we were death sprinting. Everyone was moving and I was part of a mob,” Byrd said.

Gamers such as junior Joe Weis enjoys playing the game and even occasionally he drives around with his brother to play Pokemon Go. Even though he finds the game, he believes others should be careful and use their common sense.

“With all the stories with people doing something stupid, that’s the user’s era and not the game,” Weis said. “You have a common sense on what to do and what not to do.”