From Twister’s ‘sex in a box’ to Pokémon Go’s new reality – how games define the times

When real life seems so dark, it's no wonder people welcome the chance to add a little magic. But games have been with us for thousands of years - and the crazes of different eras tell us more than you would expect

It's Saturday night and I'm standing in a crowded bar talking to a man dressed as a Poki(C)mon. This isn't a Tinder date gone wrong; rather, I'm on a Poki(C)mon Go pub crawl. These are now "a thing", attracting hundreds, sometimes thousands, of participants. They're just one of the many weird symptoms of Poki(C)fever: a mania currently afflicting large swaths of society.

If you're yet to be infected then you may be somewhat sick of the incessant Poki(C)mon headlines and hokey Poki(C)jokes. You may well feel an urge to stab (or at the very least poki(C)) yourself in the eye when you come across yet another Poki(C)manteau. Please don't. Rather, I urge you to join me in an annotated-reality game called "Poki(C)mon Go: the Quest for Sociohistorical Perspective". Traverse paragraphs and collect points as you uncover the millennia of meaning behind the recent madness! Ready? Let's go.

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