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| I don’t want to be a wet blanket about Pokémon Go ... | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| A s with the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, in which one encounters something new and then cannot escape it, Pokémon Go has seemingly come from nowhere and is now everywhere. | A s with the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, in which one encounters something new and then cannot escape it, Pokémon Go has seemingly come from nowhere and is now everywhere. |
| Pokémon No. I’ve felt great cynicism towards adults clutching phones and waving their arms about outside disused public lavatories or my garden. It used to be that going round the houses looking for something was just shorthand for when you lose your glasses, not an actual way to spend an evening. | Pokémon No. I’ve felt great cynicism towards adults clutching phones and waving their arms about outside disused public lavatories or my garden. It used to be that going round the houses looking for something was just shorthand for when you lose your glasses, not an actual way to spend an evening. |
| Quick game precis, because when I told my boss there was a Pokémon in her office she said: “I haven’t seen it. Who put it there?” Pokémon Go is an augmented reality game. It uses GPS to place Pokémon in various locations. When you’re in range of a Pokémon (“those weird dinosaur things?”), then pointing the phone camera at the spot means the critter appears on screen. You then have to catch it. Hence the waving around of phones. | Quick game precis, because when I told my boss there was a Pokémon in her office she said: “I haven’t seen it. Who put it there?” Pokémon Go is an augmented reality game. It uses GPS to place Pokémon in various locations. When you’re in range of a Pokémon (“those weird dinosaur things?”), then pointing the phone camera at the spot means the critter appears on screen. You then have to catch it. Hence the waving around of phones. |
| The locations of Pokémon change and the ones you collect can battle. There are also PokéStops. Think of these as the Pokémon version of the 24-hour garage you visit to stock up on cigarettes and booze at 3am. | The locations of Pokémon change and the ones you collect can battle. There are also PokéStops. Think of these as the Pokémon version of the 24-hour garage you visit to stock up on cigarettes and booze at 3am. |
| I should be a sitting duck for the Pokémon Company, the game’s maker (a third of it is owned by Nintendo, shares in which have risen more than 100% since the game’s release). I was at school in the 00s during peak Pokémon popularity. Cards were swapped in the playground. We watched the cartoon version on the TV. There was even Digimon, which was a crap competitor to Pokémon. (We were, as kids are wont to be, very mean towards Digimon. Digimon was Sindy. Digimon was the tick on your trainers going in the wrong direction.) But, reader, I am not a natural anime nerd or collector and I grew out of gaming. As Pokémon faded, I forgot it ever existed. Then, boom: 2016 and the spinning red and white ball is lobbed back into public consciousness. | I should be a sitting duck for the Pokémon Company, the game’s maker (a third of it is owned by Nintendo, shares in which have risen more than 100% since the game’s release). I was at school in the 00s during peak Pokémon popularity. Cards were swapped in the playground. We watched the cartoon version on the TV. There was even Digimon, which was a crap competitor to Pokémon. (We were, as kids are wont to be, very mean towards Digimon. Digimon was Sindy. Digimon was the tick on your trainers going in the wrong direction.) But, reader, I am not a natural anime nerd or collector and I grew out of gaming. As Pokémon faded, I forgot it ever existed. Then, boom: 2016 and the spinning red and white ball is lobbed back into public consciousness. |
| Dismissive attitudes towards the game, including mine, are partly down to the fact we disparage that which we don’t understand. But players with the spatial awareness of a rucksack wearer on the underground haven’t helped. I’ve also been aghast at developer Niantic’s myopia. It seems obvious that certain locations should have been excluded from gameplay. Both the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia have had to (overly politely, in my view) ask gamers to desist. It seems obvious, too, that people would use the game for unscrupulous means. Kids have been robbed. People beaten up. On Thursday, the first Pokémon Go death was reported in Guatemala: an 18-year-old shot dead playing the game. Initial reports suggested the app tipped off the killer about the teen’s location. | Dismissive attitudes towards the game, including mine, are partly down to the fact we disparage that which we don’t understand. But players with the spatial awareness of a rucksack wearer on the underground haven’t helped. I’ve also been aghast at developer Niantic’s myopia. It seems obvious that certain locations should have been excluded from gameplay. Both the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia have had to (overly politely, in my view) ask gamers to desist. It seems obvious, too, that people would use the game for unscrupulous means. Kids have been robbed. People beaten up. On Thursday, the first Pokémon Go death was reported in Guatemala: an 18-year-old shot dead playing the game. Initial reports suggested the app tipped off the killer about the teen’s location. |
| Then there are general privacy concerns that tech consumers, with the onset of the sharing economy and the internet of things, are increasingly aware of. In Germany, a private case is threatened against Niantic over third-party information sharing. Cut to Theresa May crossing out “snooper’s charter” on her to-do list. Scribbling in “mandatory Pokémon Go”. | Then there are general privacy concerns that tech consumers, with the onset of the sharing economy and the internet of things, are increasingly aware of. In Germany, a private case is threatened against Niantic over third-party information sharing. Cut to Theresa May crossing out “snooper’s charter” on her to-do list. Scribbling in “mandatory Pokémon Go”. |
| It is cool to point your camera at a space and see something pop up on the screen that isn’t there | It is cool to point your camera at a space and see something pop up on the screen that isn’t there |
| But wait, what’s this? Reports that Pokémon Go users have found the game has a positive effect on their mental health, encouraging them to get out and about? The part of me that melts into Munch’s The Scream every time tried-and-tested mental health services are cut wants to call bullshit on this. But another part of me thinks: great. Whatever helps people. | But wait, what’s this? Reports that Pokémon Go users have found the game has a positive effect on their mental health, encouraging them to get out and about? The part of me that melts into Munch’s The Scream every time tried-and-tested mental health services are cut wants to call bullshit on this. But another part of me thinks: great. Whatever helps people. |
| And wait again. What’s this? Reports that Pokémon Go users have found the game has a positive effect on physical health. A scientist, presumably from the University of Gillian McKeith, goes too far in suggesting the game might be the solution to childhood obesity but, of course, people walking for many miles is going to improve physical fitness. Players are being quoted in articles saying things like: “Man, I hadn’t got up from the couch since ’84. I have a drone bring me pizza. But yesterday I walked seven miles!” | And wait again. What’s this? Reports that Pokémon Go users have found the game has a positive effect on physical health. A scientist, presumably from the University of Gillian McKeith, goes too far in suggesting the game might be the solution to childhood obesity but, of course, people walking for many miles is going to improve physical fitness. Players are being quoted in articles saying things like: “Man, I hadn’t got up from the couch since ’84. I have a drone bring me pizza. But yesterday I walked seven miles!” |
| And it is cool to point your camera at a space and see something pop up on the screen that isn’t there; the potential for augmented reality is genuinely thrilling. I must admit, too, that in the current political climate I have been grateful for the silliness of Pokémon Go news stories. | And it is cool to point your camera at a space and see something pop up on the screen that isn’t there; the potential for augmented reality is genuinely thrilling. I must admit, too, that in the current political climate I have been grateful for the silliness of Pokémon Go news stories. |
| Next iterations of the game must do better on privacy and security settings (though you can’t legislate for people’s stupidity) and it really shouldn’t be hard to demarcate no-go areas. Whether or not Pokémon Go’s popularity will last is a moot point, but it has yet to be released in many markets, including its home of Japan. Can I really argue that more daily users than Twitter and Tinder are wrong? Pokémon, Go on then. For a bit at least. | Next iterations of the game must do better on privacy and security settings (though you can’t legislate for people’s stupidity) and it really shouldn’t be hard to demarcate no-go areas. Whether or not Pokémon Go’s popularity will last is a moot point, but it has yet to be released in many markets, including its home of Japan. Can I really argue that more daily users than Twitter and Tinder are wrong? Pokémon, Go on then. For a bit at least. |