The hour-long “Poke Tour” walk embarked on its first trip Saturday afternoon in front of District Hall in South Boston. The group of about 10 chattered away excitedly about the teams they were on and the Pokemon they hope to catch on the tour.
“We all have grown up, have our jobs, but what Pokemon Go touches is that wish that we could have gone out there in the real world and caught Pokemon,” said Sagger Khraishi, founder of the Poke Tour. He first came up with the idea in London while working as a game developer and UI/UX designer.
Khraishi moved his startup from the UK to Boston after the price of working with tour buses in London became too high, he said.
Adam Wallek, a coordinator for the Poke Tour, quickly joined with Khraishi to collaborate and create content for a Boston-based tour. With a background in business development and marketing, Wallek said, he agreed that the new app encourages some groups of people to relive their youth through the game.
“Anything that takes you out of your 9-to-5 office to go out or away to unwind is a must,” Wallek said. “I like how Pokemon Go also takes you outside and has you interacting with strangers, not just co-worker or clients.”
According to the duo, Boston, a city with over 500 PokeStops, was the ideal place to lead Pokemon Go players as they hatch eggs and catch Pokemon while visiting historical sites and tourist destinations.
At the beginning of the tour, the guides handed out screen-printed shirts and maps of historical sites that marked PokeStops containing rare Pokemon, which stretched from North Station to South Station. The Poke Tour map was created from information gathered by Niantic Inc.’s video game Ingress as well as Reddit posts of sightings.
At one point on the tour, the group posed next to three seals at the New England Aquarium as they swiped to catch Sealeo Pokemon on their phones. The participants captured several Magikarps, Psyducks and Dratinis along the harbor.
Tour-goer Nicholas Eden-Walker, 39, of Jamaica Plain, said he downloaded the app after seeing it on the news and uses it as incentive to go outdoors.
“If people could get incentives to go on a detour, that could alleviate traffic,” Eden-Walker said.
He said he believes playing Pokemon Go “has the power to change behaviors.”
Alexander Pei, a sophomore in the Boston University College of Engineering, started the Facebook group “Pokemon Go BU” in June, and it has now garnered 182 members.
“I created the group for players to connect on the BU campus, and to also post about rare sightings of Pokemon and strategies around the BU campus,” Pei said. “When I first started playing, I made an effort to walk around a lot more.”
It proved to not only be a good source of exercise, but also exploration, according to Pei.
“From my week of playing Pokemon Go when it was first released, I explored Boston more than my whole first year at BU,” Pei said.
The game has continued to push players to expand their comfort zones in more ways than exercise.
Wallek noted that Pokemon Go prompted him to take more photos around Boston. He said he started an Instagram account to post pictures he took of Pokemon sightings in various locations, and expressed his hope that the game’s photography capabilities will improve in the future.
“Our goal is to create a unique customer experience which leverages AR gaming,” Wallek said.
The Poke Tour group has plans to form future tour groups into their respective battle teams and to reach out to more college students.
Khraishi said he hopes the tours will “eventually becomes a platform to connect small businesses with tourists and locals looking for a revamped experience of their city.”
