“I deleted the game on my phone four days ago,” says Mahmoud Aref, 23. “I feel like my life is empty now,” says Aref about the withdrawal he is experiencing after two weeks of intensely playing Pokémon Go and then finally deciding to delete it once and for all after it “cursed” his life.

“I deleted the game on my phone four days ago,” says Mahmoud Aref, 23. “I feel like my life is empty now,” says Aref about the withdrawal he is experiencing after two weeks of intensely playing Pokémon Go and then finally deciding to delete it once and for all after it “cursed” his life.

In the beginning, Aref was not very enthusiastic about the game. “I am not that into what goes viral,” he says, “but overnight I found that all my friends became captive to the screens of their mobile phones, moving in streets as if isolated from others on streets. I just downloaded the game, and it dragged me with it,” he says.

Launched by Nintendo, the game offers a new perspective into reality and space. One month ago, the streets were depressed and gloomy and they used to repulse any form of life and movement, except for cafés. Within only a week or ten days, however, they turned into a gaming space. The city transformed into details in an expansive strategy to capture imaginary creatures, as if their hypothetical world had been the actual world, while the real world had been part of its larger context. The game is just an approximation of what the world would be like with Pokémons —the camera is the rabbit hole in ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Nonetheless, the hole does not take one to Wonderland, but repositions and extends the game in real life.

Unlike other electronic games, this one does not isolate mind or inhibit movement; it is actually the opposite. To catch a Pokémon, one should move in all directions and places to the point that some players have forgotten the rules of the real world. Two young men crossed the border between Canada and the US to catch a Pokémon, and banners were hung in some police stations demanding citizens not to approach to catch Pokémons.

Just as social networking sites created new social conditions in human relations, Pokémon Go, in a short period of time, created relations and dynamic interactions aimed at hunting monsters, developing them and promoting from one level to another.

This game however confused some people and made them jump immediately into the conclusion of conspiracy theories, despite its impossibility and exaggeration. “Unfortunately, I downloaded the game, and caught a lot of Pokémons around the Presidential Palace in Masr Gididah neighborhood,” says Bassem Ahmad, 29. “I live nearby and I doubt that it is a coincidence.”

Bassem says he was able to identify the enormity of others who lurk, spy and earn money in one fell swoop. A Cabinet statement supports his theory where the Prime Ministry has decided to look into the game, and Al-Azhar has issued a fatwa forbidding it because it is a waste of time.

The Pokémon animated series was itself accused of the same conspiracy by religious people when it aired in the mid-1990s where fatwas were issued to prevent it because it promoted the Theory of Evolution since the series’ creatures evolve, grow larger and gain more features when exposed to a group of stones.

“Anything new is turned into a conspiracy,” says Thurayya Eid, 25, mocking these fatwas and accusations. “To them, any game is a conspiracy. Candy Crush is a conspiracy, and if we use the prayer application, they will turn it into a conspiracy. Pokémon Go is more than just a game. I now walk over four kilometers everyday just to catch Pokémons and have seen places I would have never seen otherwise, even though they are next to my house.”

This is how the city transforms into a great hunting opportunity. Nevertheless, the complete immersion in the game and total separation from reality have led to real disasters. Many car accidents and players falling off dangerous edges in the US have been reported. As for Egypt, players are still on the brink of danger. “Cars almost hit me more than once because of Pokémons,” says Thurayya.