Pokemon Go for Landmarks Discovery in Nigeria

Pokemon Go, what is it really? After seeing many display pictures and ravings about this name, I had no choice but to pay attention to what it really was. The first notion before my discovery was – it is the name of someone somewhere that had done something mischievous again! But surprisingly, Pokemon Go is actually a motion sensitive game that allows you to catch some monsters – referred to as Pokemons, short for Pocket Monsters. Players follow GPS maps to designated Pokestops, often landmarks such as murals or historical buildings, where they collect Pokeballs used to trap the creatures (Pokemons). There have been a little bit of excitement from ‘Nigerians’ who have been able to access the game in Nigeria – though the game is not officially launched in Nigeria, people are finding ways to download it. To actually write this article effectively, I had to download Pokemon Go on my mobile phone and play it to know what it is really about. The experiment brought me to the conclusion that Pokemon Go can actually aid landmarks discovery in Nigeria and here is why. With Pokemon Go, you can discover new landmarks in your vicinity. During my little experiment at my office located on Commercial Avenue in Yaba, Lagos (for those familiar with the place), I have to do a lot of walking or running around as the ‘blue map icons’ on the game kept hinting where I could catch the next Pokemon. Clicking on the blue marks, the locations were all notable landmarks in the vicinity of my office like – Niger Palace Hotel (3 minutes walk away from my office) and Hoare’s Cathedral Church at Herbert Maculay Way (3 minutes run from my office if you are as fast as ‘Usain Bolt’). When Pokemon Go is available in Nigeria, it will serve as a great platform for listing popular landmarks we have in Nigeria and also create more awareness about these places. My conclusion is, if you become a fan of Pokemon Go or better yet an addict, and you commit as much as 30 minutes of your time daily to play the game, you would find yourself to become so familiar with places around you. So, oh yes! Pokemon Go can very well be effective for landmarks discovery in Nigeria. The Writer, Akinsiku Hellen is a Tech-savvy and seasoned Communications Expert with extensive knowledge of media production (both traditional and online media), messaging, communications and dissemination techniques.