I hope PokemonGo never goes away! My 6th Anniversary with a life-changing game.

I will celebrate my 6th PokemonGo Anniversary on July 11. I can’t remember life before this game. It’s been a constant personal motivator as well as a bonding experience for me and my husband of 22 years. Initially we wanted the kids to play with us since they were avid Pokémon card collectors when they were younger, but that didn’t last long. My niece and nephew were also among the legions players that left the game over the past few years when the initial nostalgic obsession faded, but my love of this game has never been stronger!

My husband has joked that if PokemonGo is ever pulled from the app store, we’ll have to get a divorce. In laughing together at the thought of this we also acknowledge the huge impact this game has had on our lives as a couple. It connects us as we live over 1,000 miles away from each other for more than 250 days a year. The only presents my husband ever gives me are the gifts in PokemonGo, the regional postcards with happy and colorful digital stickers. Our virtual long-distance dates are remote raid battles. We text each other screenshots of newly acquired shiny Pokemon like we share our daily Wordle scores.

We are best friends in both the game and life. Here’s hoping for another 6 years of couple-enhanced gaming!

I had just one account for quite some time, but as soon as I realized the advantages of having multiple players on each of the teams I might have taken it a bit too far. When I would sit in Starbucks with 6 old iPhones tapping away to fight a virtual creature I'd get strange looks or references to the grandpa in Japan who had rigged a scooter to hold his dozens of devices to play.

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