Full disclosure: none of us at CB are yet playing Pokemon Go. I’m probably the person most likely to play it, but I have an addictive personality and I’m afraid to download the game lest I end up staying up half the night wandering around my town. It seems like everyone else is playing it though. I see my neighbors staring at their phones and stopping randomly while walking their confused dog. Everyone is posting about it on Facebook. I saw it on a friend’s phone and it was kind of incredible how they superimpose the characters. (There are also plenty of YouTube videos showing the gameplay.) So I get it somewhat. It just seems too ubiquitous and like it will suck my time. Is my reluctance to download the game evidence that I’m a Poke-hater, a contrarian or that I just can’t be bothered? More importantly, has the game reached critical mass?
It seems like every day we’re hearing stories of Pokemon hysteria, players finding dead bodies (three so far), players rescuing abandoned pets, and generally either getting into heartwarming situations or precarious and dangerous ones, all while glued to their phones looking for imaginary adorable creatures. At least people are getting outside, right? Wired has a new piece about how the tide has possibly turned against Pokemon Go:
in just over a week, Pokémon Go is showing the signs of being too big not to fail. Public opinion on the game seems to have shifted from rabid enthusiasm/bemused tolerance to rabid enthusiasm/crankiness and general scorn. At this very moment, social media is taking particular snarky glee in telling Pokémon Go to, well, get a life.
Lo, the Three Horsemen of the Trend-pocalypse:
1. Fans on the Defensive
2. Ill-advised, Self-Promotional References from Random Brands and Organizations
3. Your (Insta)Grandma Knows About It … Kinda
Pokemon Go was just released in Europe a few days ago. Wait until it starts to take over there. There are privacy concerns about the app in America and I wonder how that will play out. They don’t mess around with privacy in the EU. While augmented reality games seem like the future, the fact that the first very popular one requires people to walk around outside while staring at their phone just seems like a recipe for disaster. How long will it be until Nintendo gets hit with a class action lawsuit? Are their terms of use strong enough to withstand that? You know, the thing you scroll past which says they’re not responsible if you walk off a cliff, drive into a tree, or get hit by a car while you’re distracted by your phone. (I have no idea if it actually says that, I never read those things.)
You probably saw this already, but this sign misses the fact that Pokemon was popular as a card game back in the day too.
I found my GET OFF MY LAWN hero. pic.twitter.com/6BfDPptyx4
— Seth Pollack (@sethpo) July 18, 2016
After I wrote this I watched the Pokemon Go promotional video and it looks incredible, especially the part where you can battle your friends’ Pokemon with yours. However they do show people running through the streets to gather in Times Square. They seem to have foreseen that this would actually happen. You know who was at that Central Park Vaporeon stampede? Justin Bieber. Hardly anyone noticed him. Wait, Bieber is playing Pokemon Go. I guess that means it’s officially annoying.
photos via The Verge, MoreAliA, Nintendo YouTube Videos
Pokemon Go threatened my tellybox. As such, it is more than officially annoying. It is a threat to civilisation as we know it. My tellybox is sacrosanct.
The vote on this goes 3-1 in favour of evil in my house. Sixlet Minor is a hold-out. If he doesn’t see the error of his ways soon, I may send him to a re-education camp.
(Only joking: people can do what they like. Even if it is idiotic.)
I vote evil after watching a woman shove people out of the way on a T platform to capture a Pokemon on the tracks.
Tellybox 😊
You love that silly word of mine, dontcha?!
Yes because I’ve really never head it before. I’ve heard telly, we have the slang term here but paired with box makes me smile . I love it 😊
Gogglebox is the one Britishers usually use. But a TV show hijacked it, so now I say tellybox.
Aussie Girl, is gogglebox not used in Oz too?
Sixer, a guy friend persuaded me to download Pokemon Go yesterday. I nearly walked straight into the road as I left the office.
We have tellybox in Australia Aussie girl, but mainly only from much older generations than you or I. I hadn’t heard it for ages until Sixer mentioned it.
The other slang term used in Oz for a TV is idiot box, as in “I’m staying home tonight to watch Gogglebox on the idiot box”
Hey Becky, we have a show called goggle box which I assume is the same format that sixer is talking about. I’ve never head anyone refer to their tv/telly as a goggle box so just thought it was a name of a show. It may just be my age group (late 30’s) and where I grew up though, as Australia is vast and very multi cultural.
The TV show Gogglebox is named after gogglebox, the Britisher slang term for a TV. I think idiot box has the same intent behind it! I thought I had made up tellybox as I’ve never heard anyone else say it, but of course they may well have independently or I may have heard it some time in the past.
My grandfather used to say both gogglebox and tellybox and my grandmother would tell him to speak American.
Definetely annoying. And dangerous.
I can think of so many things that can go wrong.. and juts to name 2: paedophiles and car accidents.
Yes I could see that but we can’t live our lives inside because of bad people and accidents.
It’s dangerous because of the privacy breaches. It blows my mind that people don’t seem to have an issue with an app that is allowed to see and store photos of your house’s interior, your yard, your place of employment.
That alone is terrifying to me. I’m also really surprised that people are just opening themselves up to be hacked.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/11/pokemon-go-is-a-hacker-s-dream.html
I’m on it and I love taking my kids out of the house and chasing fairies.
My husband, my friends, my co-workers and I are all playing and it is a blast. No doubt the thrill will wear off quickly, but we’re getting plenty of laughs in the meantime.
I love it so far. It’s sorta lame, but it’s given me a little bit more motivation to get out of the office on my lunch break and take a little walk around the area, whereas normally I’d eat my sad lunch at my desk and not see the light of day until quittin time.
My kids grew up playing Pokemon (both the card game and on their Nintendo hand-helds). We’ve all downloaded the app and have been having the best time going all over town catching Pokemon!
Last week we walked 10 miles in a single day at one of the local parks having fun. We played in the river, talked, laughed and had a great time.
I see nothing wrong with this app!
After trying to get motivated to exercise since, well, forever, I have walked 75 kilometers in the last 10 days playing Pokemon Go. In July. In Florida. I get up at 5:45 am so I can go out and walk. It’s crazy. I can’t wait for winter – by then I’ll be able to pick up the pace and go even further every day!
Just like anything else- it’s only a problem if you don’t have common sense.
I’m going to have to say anything that gets people out and walking isn’t THAT bad. And if it takes Pokemon to do that – who cares? People are being active, they’re being more social, and they’re getting fresh air. It’s not a case of needing to be looking at the screen at all times or anything, so there’s that too.
I have so many people complaining about it on my newsfeed. I don’t play it, but the complainers annoy me a hell of a lot more than the people playing it. These are typically (from my experience anyway) the kind of people who make post after post after post about sports, or politics. They flood peoples’ newsfeeds just as frequently – but as soon as it’s something they don’t care about they lose their ever loving sh**.
The exercise thing is real. My secretary says she added 22 miles of walking in the two weeks she has been playing Pokemon Go. Although her Neko Atsume cats are suffering from neglect.
Hahaha… I spent a shameless couple of months playing Neko Atsume. I forgot all about it until now, so add me to the tally of fake-cat-neglect.
I loved Neko Atsume! I eventually got all of the cats, and then…that was it. They need a phase 2 of the game.
Neko Atsume has added more cats.
This is pretty much what I was going to say. I don’t play it and have no plans to start (and I never played the original Pokémon either, so maybe it’s just general lack of interest on my part) but what’s wrong with something that gets people out of the house and exploring and having fun?
Okay, if they’re so into it that they’re endangering their lives / trespassing / etc, that’s bad. I heard on the news that the Holocaust museum had to tweet out a request that people stop hunting for Pokémon there, and that’s so shocking. Players shouldn’t let the game overrule their common sense or their basic sense of respect and decency, but otherwise, relax everyone. It’s a game. No sense getting all frothy-angry about it.
That’s exactly it – some people are just jerks, and they’re going to be jerks with or without the game. Places like the Holocaust museum and things like that… I feel like it wouldn’t have been a bad idea for the app creators to have put a block on it in that area.
I concur. Even though I can think of about a gazillion better and more interesting things to do outside, that doesn’t mean everyone has to pick one of them and not Pokemon Go just because I am a moany old fart shaking her fist at the sky of modernity. And anything has its small share of twits who can’t obey the simple rules of common sense.
(But the threat to my tellybox is REAL, folks.)
I mean, right now it’s hella humid outside in little old rural Nova Scotia. I spend my day in a nice climate controlled office (thank god for the computer and server overlords) and I go home and immediately feel ragey because of the heat/humidity combo. If I’m outside I feel like I’m melting, at least until the sun starts to set, and then I’m being assaulted by the mosquito and ‘noseeum’ population. Pokemon sure as hell isn’t going to be what gets me outside. The dog is about the only living thing that’s able to ‘talk’ me into it at this point, and even then I’ve developed a bit of a grudge towards her based on the insane level of bug bites I have received in the line of dog-mom duty.
In an ideal world, I’d just be at the beach at all non-office times. Sadly, the nefarious (not even kidding, she made the Dursley’s from Harry Potter seem pleasant ) woman known as my great grandmother happened to pass along a tendency for migraines and pale, easy to burn Scottish skin, which popped up with a vengeance in my case. So I mean, the outside and I don’t really get along all that well. But I’d still find a million other things to do before I played pokemon.
I’m generally ok with weather and insects don’t seem to like me. But I have about a month in late spring/early summer in which whatever pollen is about KILLS me with hay fever. Nothing, least of all Pokemon Go, gets me outside in that time!
So I’m at the International AIDS Society conference right now, and we had a session about using technology to get young people to get tested and treatment for HIV. We suggested that someone (UNICEF, UNAIDS, etc) work with the makers of the game to put a pokemon gym in front of clinics /test and treat centers for youth awareness …
these things make us crazy sometimes, but we have to find a way to use them for good as well 🙂
People have been playing it at ***Auschwitz***. People are idiots.
Just watch some idiot try to climb into the lion or other wild animal pen at the zoo. Or walk over a cliff at the Grand Canyon. It will happen people are already so wrapped up in this game they are walking into walls
Well then that is the natural selection process at its finest!
Two dudes already fell off a 90+ ft. cliff. So I agree with Secret Squirrel, if you’re going to do that because of a game maybe your genes should be removed from the pool.
/sorta sarcasm
I think it has it’s pros and cons. It’s good that it’s getting people out and about but it comes with hazards. I find it amusing and harmless seeing families, groups, randoms all at our botanical gardens last week. They all seem to conjugated together which was lovely to Observe.
From a public health perspective, I think it’s awesome. People who normally wouldn’t get up and take a walk are doing so. Physical activity in the natural world is alway a good thing!
From a public safety perspective, I find it troubling that the app has no way to safeguard you from walking into traffic or violence. I think a simple disclaimer would help.
The opening screen contains a message to be aware of your surroundings.
It has one when the game is loading. Some people just can’t be helped. You don’t have to stare at your phone like a zombie while you hunt them. You can also click on the pokemon when it pops up on your map and then find a safe place to move to catch it without blocking anyone or walking into anything. I play it and I haven’t had a single accident. Nor have I seen anyone playing it dangerously. Out of the millions playing most are playing safely.
I was immediately annoyed by it because EVERYONE was talking about it, and I have no interest. But it does sound like it has some good points – exercise, family time, something for kids to do.
Like all things though, the idiots ruin it with their lack of common sense or decency.
It’s already been old and annoying the day it came out. I’m not playing it since I’m not 10 and got sh*t to do.
You read that on a meme on Facebook right?
It’s the sh*t I do instead of: drinking in a bar, drinking at all, watching sports on TV, going to sports events, playing golf, having a fantasy football team, playing other video games, going to movies, fishing, rebuilding a muscle car, scrapbooking, taking a nap, talking about GoT, taking pictures of my food, being judgemental on the internet… everybody has sh*t to do and free time to do as they please. This game is no different than any other form of entertainment.
Annoying because the fans are so defensive. If I see one more post about how it’s curing obesity and social isolation, I will vomit. Protesting too much: skill level expert.
Sending them all blind looking at that little screen all day every day without a break, but at least they will be slimmer and more sociable whilst going blind.
It won’t cure obesity because this Pokemon Go craze won’t last another month. People are very quick to move on to the next bigger and better thing. This game got popular fast, but as soon as you see parents and grandparents joining in, the younger ones don’t want any part of it anymore (exactly what happened to Facebook lol). I do see new apps being made as “exercise apps” to get people walking while playing some sort of game, but this is dangerous. People are always looking down at their phones anyways, now it’s gotten worse !
Fans of anything can get too defensive and annoying. Marvel, the new Ghostbusters movie, Beyonce, Play Station, RuPaul’s Drag Race… these are all perfectly good things that have been tarnished for me by their disgusting fanbases.
I used to bother with those people, but now I discovered how easy ignoring things in the internet is. If I’m getting annoyed by what I’m reading, I close the window. Voila. Problem solved. In my experience, about a 3% of the people I meet in the internet are someone I’d like to have a discussion with (and I’m not exaggerating with the number). So I just discuss with that 3% and let the other 97% be. Unless they are using social media to vomit their bigotry and call it free speech, I can’t be bothered.
It’s annoying. You could barely get people of their mobiles to have a conversation before now they are getting up the table to go chase an invisible creature. There will no doubt be accidents kids aren’t looking where they are going. I’ve heard the little creatures have been seen on nudist beaches and brothels. It isn’t safe and I don’t think that was thought through. It is good in one way kids who never left the house now do but it’s hard to get them inside now.
Indeed. There’ll be a movie about this and the ridiculous situations people could find themselves in. The possibilities are endless.
One Pokemon in Australia was located in the yard of a known bikie gang lair.
P.s. I am not saying all bikies are bad guys, but it wasn’t a good area and people were warned off by others living in the street.
Why didn’t the app creators respect certain places and not put the creatures there? like, people’s homes, churches (or maybe that’s a good thing – gets people to church!), or the auschwitz? It seems amusing but it just seems a recipe for disaster with people already getting into accidents just texting on their phones. that said, I’m going to try this, b/c I want to see what the madness is about. Maybe it will replace my celebitchy addiction and get me off my butt and that’s not a bad thing!
It doesn’t get people to church, lol. There’s a church at the end of my alley that’s a “gym,” and all it’s done is draw a few teen boys, who hang out near the side entrance pretty quietly every day and don’t seem to interact with each other. I don’t think attending services on Sunday is even on their radars.
It took us an extra 30 minutes to get home last night because we had to stop on the way to get out and load up on stuff so it’s definitely dangerous for an addictive personality to play. But I’m only hurting myself with all this extra walking around and staring at my phone.
It’s one of those things that doesn’t interest me at all and I don’t want to understand but feel I must or I’ll be in the dark ages. My dental hygienist tried to explain to me how you capture the creatures and she balled it up so bad I am more confused than ever. Therefore my verdict is get off my lawn.
My grandson was explaining it to me. He would look for Pokee Stops (to get Pokee balls) and Pokemon as I drove him to soccer practice and home from work (he doesn’t have a car). Too complicated for me. I’m just too old for it I guess. I like simple games. But, it has gotten families out together rather than sitting in the house all day.
They’ve been circling my apartment building the last week or so. It was mega creepy at first and now, I’ve got a semi-blind drive that I have to inch out of. I’m going to probably tap one of the dummies with my bumper on accident and get sued for their stupidity. I’m team get off my lawn as well.
I’ve always loved Pokémon. People who don’t play it don’t understand. When you do play, you can just strike up a conversation with anyone you see playing & you feel this kinship. It actually makes you get out of the house. Maybe this all sounds dumb, but ask yourself what else in recent memory has brought so many people together? I know it sounds silly, but it has helped me with my depression. I love it.
I’m sure that’s statement applies to most things but sure lets pretend only Pokemon does this
Well if it helps her with her depression, that’s good. That’s not really something to poo poo IMO. Would you rather Julie be depressed? Of course, there’s other things you can do, but if it works for her, why not?
It has helped a lot with my depression and anxiety. I actually strike up convos with random strangers. I haven’t talked this much with my best friend in a long time. And of course it’s nice to go out for a walk and not feel anxiety.
People always talk about the stigma of mental illness. Well, this comment section has people who are annoyed by people saying this game is helping them with their mental illnesses. It’s disgusting and disheartening.
Everyone has their dumb thing they love and are obsessed with which others think they need to “get a life” instead of care about. For some people it’s sports (which I can’t stand), for some people it’s Pokemon GO (which I play), for other people it’s something else.
Instead of being rude and telling people to “get a life” because what they like is different from what you like, I think everyone should accept the fact that other people like different things than you and just get over it and not demean other people (like by calling them 10 year olds, ahem the person above) for liking something you don’t.
Really good point about sports and the rampant obsession around teams/games/etc. Why should that be socially acceptable and not this?
Nah, shhhhh, let the negativity flow. after all, stupid/insensitive people are doing stupid/insensitive things and everyone knows that Pokemon Go is the first thing to ever enable THAT sort of behavior!
My 9yr old and I have had some fun walking around our village catching a few Pokemon and Pokeballs. Its nice to play with little kids…..playing it by myself? Rather a coffee and a good book tbh.
I am an almost 43yo fat lady, I never played the card game and I have never seen the show.
I have been focusing on better food choices since February 23rd of this year, and have been looking for a way to make myself exercise, something I am not fond of at all. I read about the app last weekend, downloaded it, and have beaten my move goal everyday since, sometimes doubling it. The app is a load of fun, and it makes me WANT to get out and walk, even in the Texas heat.
It is incredibly social, lots of fun, and is getting me to move. As such, I consider it a godsend!
Good for you! Well done and keep it up 🙂
Bahaha, I’m facebook friends with the fellow who wrote the sign and it’s been so amusing watching it go viral and all the reactions.
Tell your friend we love him. That sign was and is amazing
One of my teens is really into it and I think it’s sweet, it takes me back to about five years ago when both my kids were in the throes of a Pokemon obsession. He and his friends have been having a blast…while my other son says “Pokemon NO.”
So while I get how people with a familiarity with Pokemon would love it, it’s weird to me that adults who have no prior familiarity with it are suddenly all over it. It seems like some people just have to jump on any bandwagon.
A TV comedian here said the other day, “It’s not fair! How can I have been too old for Pokemon TWICE in one lifetime?” Made me laugh!
I haven’t completed my rare cats on Neko Atsume, now comes Pokemon Go. I’ll probably download it and see how far I go. I like to try all these digital trends.
YOU MEAN STUPID PEOPLE DIDN’T EXIST BEFORE POKÉMON GO HAPPENED?! no. I won’t hear such nonsense!
I like it, I’m 35, and I know full well to A) look both ways before crossing anything where cars go and B) I’m not about to chase anything (I could end this here) somewhere i shouldn’t be. It’s harmless fun, unless you don’t possess an ounce of basic, common sense.
I was always a Pokemon fan, so I love it. I find it’s the cranky people telling everyone to get a life that are the ones who really need to chill. As long as you are smart about your playing, it’s a fun way to exercise with friends.
Our joke conspiracy theory is that it’s really to hasten the spread of Zika by sending everyone outside during the summer.
I do play and think it’s harmless fun if you use your common sense. Go Team Instinct! It’ll die out soon enough, yesterday was the first day that I didn’t level up so maybe it’s the beginning of the end for me. The plethora of rattatas and doduos are bummin me out.
The last guy I heard complaining about this “stupid game” and how “obsessed people are with it” was the guy with the Star Trek figurines on his work desk.
I hear you, Celebitchy. I’m addicted to my solitaire app (which I’m playing on my IPad while on my lunch break). It’s gotten so bad that while I was out running this past weekend, I saw a sign posted outside a company building saying “Private property. No Pokemon Go”
As a massive Pokemon nerd who has played all games since Red and Blue, I am not at all excited by this. It’s so silly and first generation pokemon are so ugly and basic. There’s nothing exciting about this other than having your pokemon superimposed on the real world. And the whole point of video games for me is ESCAPING the real world. The earth I live in is boring. The actual world of pokemon is much more fun.
As someone who plays pokemon competitively, this is completely lacking of the depth and complexity the battle system actually offers. So eh, I pass on this. Can’t wait for Sun & Moon to hit the shelves in November tho.
It actually wasn’t Times Square but 59th & 5th by Central Park. And after that video went viral, I went there the next night and everyone was chiiiiiillll. Some doofus tried to call out a rare Pokemon name to get the herd going again, but it didn’t work. I think as New Yorkers + Pokemon trainers, we all saw that video and decided that we needed to CTFO.
However, I do want to say that as someone who has social anxiety / depression, this game has made me find the adventurous part of me again.
Yeah, sure, it’s annoying when people are walking down the street (especially here) when they stop randomly (guilty of this) to battle/catch Pokemon. But the instant gratification of doing so is so worth it. In the last week, I’ve walked a minimum of 6 miles a day. It’s a huge bonding experience w/ friend and even strangers. I’ve met some really cool folks hunting for Pokemon, or battling at gyms. Everyone is friendly and looks out for each other. We all greet each other with “Be Safe!” and “Happy Hunting!”. I’d say overall it’s very positive.
I went to the bay front park in my city yesterday, and did not encounter even ONE person (out of at least 200) without a phone in front of their face. Even sitting in groups of say, 50, none speaking to each other or interacting, all staring at their phones. While riding bicycles, rollerblading, skateboarding, and one driving a Vespa for goodness’ sake! None watching where they were going.
I’ve seen people crossing roads looking at the phone, not looking away from the phone once. I can see the good of getting people out and moving, but they need to be aware of their surroundings and stop obliviously playing the game. /End rant (for now)