prettyarbitrary:

dark-haired-hamlet:

There’s a very old graveyard next to my uncle’s house that happens to have (apparently rare?) Pokémon. As caretaker of the lot, which has a LOT of cool texas history associated with it, he doesn’t see a ton of people come visit because it’s out in the middle of nowhere.

But recently, there’s been truckloads of college kids, teens, families, and grandparents all coming by to catch Pokémon. Some just pass through, but many accept his offer of a Coke and a lawn chair to sit and talk for a while. Once pokémon have been successfully acquired, he starts to tell them the cool history of the area, and the visitors are fascinated.

People have sent him emails and called him later, asking for more details and doing their own research on the battles fought there and the people who died. There’s now a Facebook page about it? It’s a thing-catch pokémon but more importantly ask the caretaker about Texas blood feuds.

And like, you see so much negativity about how games distract and people are mindless drones because of them. But a video game brought dozens and dozens of people to my uncle’s plot and gave him an audience of interested listeners who are taking that knowledge back to their own communities and spreading the word to come visit.

Like, y’all. This is honestly the coolest thing.

The possibility of this kind of thing being on offer is the first thing that’s made me really want to play the game.