NEWS

'Pokemon Go' event a magnet for Indy gamers

Crystal Duan
crystal.duan@indystar.com
William Goforth and Josh Hembree search their maps during a Indy Pokémon Go meetup and fundraiser at the White River State Park on July 23, 2016.

Jake Waddell’s love of Pokemon didn’t just inspire three of his tattoos. It gave him a newfound love of event planning.

That’s all thanks to the success of the Indy "Pokemon Go" meetup that Waddell organized Saturday at White River State Park in Downtown Indianapolis.

More than 5,000 fans, many of whom sported Pokemon shirts, hats, backpacks — or even dressed up as characters from the 1990s show — attended the event, which lasted from noon to 10 p.m. They were seen glued to their cellphone screens playing "Pokemon Go,” the GPS-based, augmented-reality smartphone game that draws players to locations to "catch" Pokemon characters.

Waddell, 23, said he coordinated the event in less than three weeks. He’s been so busy planning the event with the help of Indy Pop Con, Sprint and other Indianapolis sponsors that he's barely had time to play the game himself.

When "Pokemon Go" came out in the U.S. earlier this month, the longtime Pokemon fan was excited to create a Facebook event to have friends gather in the park to play. Soon, it was shared all over Facebook, and its popularity shocked even Waddell.

“The app has not been out long, and this is what it’s created,” Waddell said, gesturing at the people clustering on the Downtown Canal. “It’s a phenomenon sweeping the country.”

Waddell, a telecommunications technician, said the success of the event even has him thinking about a new career in public relations.

“It’s nice to see something in the news that’s good for once,” Waddell said. “The fact that it’s been able to bring the community together like this is really great.”

Shawn Smith, marketing director of Indy Pop Con, approached Waddell after the number of Facebook RSVPs climbed into the thousands. He and Waddell teamed up to get insurance, park permits, damage deposits and a slew of other things to make the “PokeCon” official.

Vendors such as Sprint, which sold power packs, and Domino's, which sold pizza by the slice, helped to keep the "Pokemon Go" players energized. A GoFundMe site Waddell set up covered all event costs, which were in the $3,000 to $4,000 range, Smith said. A portion of proceeds from vendors' sales and leftover funds raised by fans will go to Extra Life, a nonprofit helping Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health.

“It’s a game that’s allowed me to go out and meet new people,” Waddell said. “It’s absolutely amazing watching all of this come to fruition."

David and Amber Cunningham ran a face painting booth, where Amber cosplayed as anime character Sailor Moon, but with Pokeballs. She smiled at children as they came up to have their arms and legs decorated with Pokemon characters Pikachu, Squirtle, Eevee, Jigglypuff and others.

“I was in elementary school when the show came out,” she recalled. “And when I heard about it on Facebook, I was like, 'David, hey, we should go to this.'”

Jake Atwood, 20, also heard about the event through social media. He walked through the park a week ago while playing the game.

The denser the population, the more “rare” Pokemon characters will pop up for players to try to catch. At Saturday's event, Atwood found an influx of rare Pokemon he didn't see at the park before.

“The more people in an area, the more rare Pokemon show up,” he said.

Kaitlyn Harwood, 23, and Michael Ashburn, 24, cosplayed as Jesse and James from the Pokemon TV show. They said the event so far had a lot of Pidgeys (a common type of Pokemon, instead of more rare types of Pokemon), but they’re excited it happened nonetheless.

“I played the original Game Boy games,” Ashburn said. “If we could, though, we’d be on Team Rocket.”

Call IndyStar reporter Crystal Duan at (317) 444-6154. Follow her on Twitter: @duancrys.

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