Hundreds cram Clergue Park as Pokémon Go craze officially hits the Sault (13 photos)

Clergue Park is starting to look like a zombie movie as hundreds of people flock to the Sault’s waterfront, eyes glued to smartphones as they play Pokémon Go, the new and very popular mobile game that uses GPS technology and augmented reality.

The game has players walking around in real-life in order to try and collect imaginary creatures called Pokémon.

Apparently, the waterfront is a great place to go if you want to catch Pikachus, Squirtles, Bulbasaurs, or if you’re really lucky, a MewTwo.

Pokémon Go was launched in the United Sates and other countries on July 7 and at that time many Canadians were playing it using various workarounds until its official Canadian launch just a few days ago on July 17.

Spencer Mitchell, a security guard whose job is to patrol the boardwalk and Clergue Park nightly, said that since the game was first launched he’s seen up to 400 players in one evening walking around the Sault’s boardwalk from the Art Gallery of Algoma to The Mill Market.

“The first time I noticed people was maybe a week and a half ago, shortly after the game’s launch. One night at around 2-2:30 a.m. this young man jumped out of the bushes dressed as Ash Ketchum (a Pokémon character). At the time I thought nothing of it but then the next day it went from one person to about 50 to 100 people . . . then my friends told me about this new game,” said Mitchell.

The highest concentration of players in the city seem to be in Clergue Park, right beside The Art Gallery of Algoma where hundreds of people between the peak hours of 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. (people's off-work hours) can be seen wandering around.

“It’s a social phenomenon. I think that sociologists and anthropologists would be boggled by what’s going on with this game. It literally changed the world in one day in the sense that people who sit on the couch got out of their seats and went outside as soon it was released,” said Ryan Derasp in an interview at 2:45 a.m. Wednesday morning in Clergue Park after he had been playing the game for seven hours that day already.

The Clergue Park area is filled with a high-concentration of ‘PokéStops’ and ‘Pokémon Gyms’, important locations for game play that often coincide with real-world landmarks.

In that area, PokéStops can be found at city landmarks like the ‘Algoma Blue’ sculpture, the ‘Harbour Dolphins’ sculpture, and the Millennium Fountain.

Mitchell said he’s counted up to 200-250 people playing Pokémon at one time in the Clergue Park area.

On Tuesday evening around 150 could be observed wandering around.

“It’s crazy down there. The gyms change color every ten minutes,” said Kelly Williams, the administrator and creator of the Facebook page Pokémon Go Sault Ste. Marie, a site she set up to provide people with information on how to play the game.

Williams said she used to take the bus to work but because the game has incentives for those who walk more kilometres — and it can tell based on speed tacking if you're trying to cheat by driving or biking — she now walks to work everyday so that she can further her game progress.

Of course, the positive side effect is that she’s getting more exercise than usual as well.

“Now I’m walking everywhere . . . In the first week of playing I walked 20 kilometres and I didn’t even notice. I just looked at the amount one day and thought ‘Holy cow that’s a lot’,” said Williams.

At Clergue Park players cited exercise as well as social benefits as being positive aspects of the game.

“Its great for people to get up and walk and go outside for change. The last few nights I’ve been getting more outdoor exercise than ever,“ said Mario DeMarco.

“It definitely gets you out there. There’s a lot of physical activity to it. People run around when there’s a special type of Pokémon. I’ve logged over 15,000 steps in a day and it's more activity then I’ve had in the last 9 months. I’m already down six pounds, it’s really cool,” said Dan Bobillot, who said since he started playing the game in the last two weeks he’s walked 54.6 km and at 2:30 a.m. this morning was on his second all-nighter in a row down at Clergue Park.

“There’s definitely a social aspect to it to. People that have a social barrier and need to break those walls are talking to one another,” he said.

One player who wished to only be identified by their Pokémon Go game-name, Livingrhythym, said that the Pokémon Go game might be a great answer for the Sault’s bored youth and possibly lead to a decrease in undesirable activities like vandalism.

“The whole Bored Youth Sault movement is about how there is nothing for youth to do in the Sault and the Pokémon Go game is for youth and everyone else so it not only brings everyone together but it also gives people something to do. You’re going to see a lot of people less bored (with the release of this game),” said Livingrhythm, who as a level 23 player is probably amongst the Sault’s top players of the game.

One thing is for certain, a whole new subject of humour has been born.

At Clergue Park on Tuesday a small group of people were looking at their smartphones and one person commented, “That’s not a Weedle, that's you” to which another replied with a cheeky smile, “Oh, is that what you call it?”

If someone wants to learn more about Pokémon Go or how to play it, a good place to start might be Williams' Pokémon Go Sault Ste. Marie Facebook page.