A talented crocheter and Pokemon GO trainer left hand-made plushies of classic Pokemon at PokeStops as a gift to the next trainer to find them. Unsuspecting Pokemon GO players may have walked over to a PokeStop to drop a lure and catch Pokemon, only to find an actual physical Pokemon with a little note explaining that it's free to take and part of a scavenger hunt. A lot of work goes into making those crochet figures, but the maker chose to make a fun game out of giving them away to the community, asking others to email the address on the note attached to the plushie to confirm the doll was found.
Pokemon GO encourages players to walk around and explore, placing PokeStops in parks and other landmarks that players can spin to earn items like berries, stickers, and gifts. They can also place lures in order to catch Pokemon, making PokeStops areas where many people are likely to walk by and find the surprise. Pokemon GO has a large community that has grown since its launch in 2016. Though the app experienced fewer downloads in 2022 than the previous year, Pokemon GO averaged nearly 80 million monthly players.
Reddit user page113's wife is one of those players, and she spent hours upon hours crocheting three of her chosen Pokemon. The amigurumi crochet pattern she used was based on a fox, which she customized to create a Pikachu, Snorlax, and Eevee. Once they were complete, page113 took them around town and put messages out on a local discord hinting to the community where to find them. The Pokemon fan also posted on Reddit and proudly let everyone know that the plushies had been found quickly. Some commenters, intrigued by the idea, suggested the concept could go a step further by including an airtag or something on the plushies that could track where they go and ask players to move them from PokeStop to PokeStop.
These sorts of grassroots Pokemon community events bring people together through their shared love of Pokemon and, of course, cute plushies. Pokemon GO's innovations with augmented reality are amazing but making the physical world the game world is what made the community so tight-knit and magnanimous enough to share their work and love for the fandom like this. One of the commenters added that it was just lovely and that it inspired them to embrace the community of local people around them who play Pokemon GO.
There are all kinds of Pokemon GO subreddits and Discord Channels where players can meet other fans and work together. Players can symbiotically take advantage of the community as well by getting more friends and the added stardust from gifts.
Pokemon GO is available to play on mobile.
