Warnings for Pokémon masters

author: rachel jay | contributor

Credit: Abby via Flickr

Pokemon Go has become more popular than Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat combined.

Have you ever seen 100 people all crowded together on their phones all in the same place? How about in a park where only a few people frequent it on a daily basis? If you haven’t heard by now, the interactive game Pokémon Go is sweeping the nation, and has become a world-wide phenomenon. Bringing back fond childhood memories as well as combining a fun interactive experience, Pokémon Go has become more popular than Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat combined.

For those of you who don’t know what it is, Pokémon Go is an interactive app that lets you be a Pokémon trainer in the real world. Using an interactive map, Pokémon trainers walk around trying to catch wild Pokémon. These creatures can be found by walking around your neighborhood, and each Pokémon caught helps gain experience points so that you continue to level up and catch higher-level Pokémon. In addition to catching these cute little creatures, you can also hatch “eggs” that contain rare Pokémon, and take part in gym battles for your trainer team. (There are three teams to choose from: Instinct (Yellow Team), Mystic (Blue Team), and Valor (Red Team). One aspect of the game is called a “lure.” This is a location where another experienced Pokémon trainer has set up a lure for wild Pokémon. In other words, it is a hotspot for trainers to gather by in order to catch many Pokémon in a short amount of time as the creatures appear more frequently. As any good Pokémon trainer could tell you, a lure is awesome. Pokémon show up left right and center, and all you have to do is catch them; however, a lure can be a crazy place. Many, if not hundreds of people could show up at a lure, making it a very dangerous place to be.

As Pokémon Go has gained its hype, there are many different aspects of the game that have been called into question. One example is trespassing. Pokémon Go uses an interactive map that uses satellite data, but it does not show boundaries or buildings. Since the game came out there have been many instances in which avid trainers have wandered onto private property to catch a wild Pokémon, resulting in disturbances, police involvement, and dangerous situations. Lures also cause dangerous situations. When a lure is set up, it will only last for a short amount of time. Many people will flock to the location of the lure, and with that many people around someone is bound to get hurt. While safety is the least of many trainers’ concerns, there have been several updates to the game that include safety updates. These updates include warnings to not trespass, as well as driving warnings, so you cannot play Pokémon go while driving.

Although the game has been out for a few months, it has already swept the world and is the most downloaded app on the iTunes and Google play store. It seems that everyone enjoys playing such a fun game. But the next question to ask is, “Will the game stay this popular forever?” While there is no way of telling the future, the hype that this game has caused will eventually die down due to a non-progressing game system that caps your trainer level at 40, and a maximum pokédex (index of Pokémon) at 250. There have been rumours that Niantic (the makers of the game) will be releasing the second generation of Pokémon in the fall of 2016, but until that happens, millions of people will just have to enjoy the many features that the game has right now.

For all of you who are obsessed with Pokémon Go right now, remember to stay safe, and keep in a safe area at all times; for those of you who are sick of hearing about Pokémon, stay patient; and for those of you who have no idea what any of this is, why not download the app?