“Team Stufful: Building a Community of Pokémon Go Fans in Querétaro”

Team Stufful is a group of fans Pokémon Go. It was formed in Querétaro a year ago, given the need to generate a community around this augmented reality video game that has gained great popularity in recent years.

Pokémon GO is a free mobile video game that is based on the Japanese franchise of the same name that conquered the world in the 90s. With the application, the user can become a pokemon trainer to look for characters from the saga that are hidden in real places in the city, and once captured, you can train and fight with them.

This experience has led to the organization of fan groups such as Team Stufful who meet to keep each other company on expeditions, watch each other’s backs and collect pokemons.

Niantic, Mobile video game developer company encourages the creation of these communities with gifts for the most notorious groups on platforms such as Discord and Telegram. Because Team Stufful se It is mainly found on WhatsApp, the company has not turned to see them yet, but that does not mean that they are not present in Querétaro and that they are looking for that recognition.

Generally they meet in commercial squares of the city or in Jardín Zenea to catch pokemonsand usually go through different parts of the Historic Center until returning to the starting point.

“When the game tells us that there is going to be a special event or that a different Pokémon is going to come out, that day we get together in the Zenea Garden or in Plaza La Victoria”, affirms Amairani Cárdenas, co-creator of the collective.

Among their main activities, he explains, is accompanying each other on the pokemon “hunt” or supporting those who have any questions about the game (either leveling up or completing challenges), but mainly what motivates them is building a community.

“We formed Team Stufful because there wasn’t really a community in Querétaro [de Pokémon Go] to which you said ‘I belong and I come to play with more people’, but we came alone and it was dangerous because you come with your cell phone, you cross the street, they see you with the phone and they can take it from you. So that’s really what motivated us to create a large community, to support each other, take care of each other and more than anything, play and meet people who understand your same language, who don’t see you ugly”, share.

His main means of communication is a WhatsApp group with 240 participants, in which they organize walks, solve doubts and mainly keep each other company.

“It really is a group that is active all day, although we do close the group at night because there are those who are nocturnal and we have learned to respect the schedules,” said Ceo Soto, Amairani’s husband and also a member of the team.

Team Stufful has defined rules of coexistence, and they are governed by the values ​​of respect, honesty, love, friendship and tolerance. In addition, they pronounce themselves as a zone of zero tolerance for harassment of all kinds: “If we see that someone approaches us and tells us: ‘hey this boy, this girl, she is harassing me, I feel uncomfortable, uncomfortable’, we take letters in the matter and talk to the person. Sometimes if both want to, they confront the situation to be able to make a decision, but we have had people who we say: you know what? You can’t be here, your values ​​are not the same as ours, you can keep playing, but not with us anymore.” Cárdenas emphasizes.

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Founded on the philosophy of “We are not acquaintances, nor colleagues, we are already a family”, Team Stufful It has become a safe zone for all its members. They try to be a highly inclusive space, in which they also seek to meet in pet-friendly spaces for those members who attend with service animals.

The active members assert that this community has allowed them to freely enjoy their hobby without feeling singled out, in addition to making new friends.

For more information about the collective and its upcoming expeditions, see on social networks (@Team_Stufful).