When someone talked about Pokémon, they used to refer to the trading cards or the television show. Now, everyone is trying to “catch them all” on their smartphones. They are doing so with the new app created by Niantic, called Pokémon Go. "Pokémon have been discovered on planet Earth!" It is a player's duty to step outside and catch Pokémon in their area so they can train and use them for battle. The game uses GPS and the map that appears on the phone screen is of the player’s surrounding area. Blue dots on the screen are Pokéspots, which are hot spots where the person's customized avatar can find specialty items that help catch, heal, train, and battle your virtual creatures. When your smartphone vibrates, it is letting the player know that a Pokémon is in approximately a 50ft radius from the person. When the creature pops up on the screen, the phone's camera turns on to show you the Pokémon as if it was actually in front of the player in real time.
Recommended for you
With every new game, system, movie, and toy, there are some positive and negative things about it. Listed below are some pros and cons from various people, both game players and non game players.
Pros
-Bringing back 90's kids' childhoods
-It gets people off their couches and makes them more active
-People are socializing more with others
-Friendly competition between teams. (Mystic [Blue], Valor [Red], and Instinct [Yellow]).
-Currently over 7.5 million downloads of the app
-Good reviews on the app store
- Free to play compared to buying trading cards
Cons
-People are willing to risk their safety to catch rare Pokémon
For example, Fox News reported that a woman illegally parked her car on the Texas A&M campus and got out to catch a Pokémon when her car was struck by another vehicle. Another incident reported on Time.com, is about a teenager in Pittsburgh who was hit by a car when trying to cross a main highway during rush hour to catch a Pokémon
-Valuable time is wasted and people are procrastinating their daily duties
-People aren't focused on the task at hand
Example: People are now playing Pokémon Go instead of completing their duties at work.
-Ads on Craigslist to hire coaches for $20 an hour which are making people spend unnecessary money
-Players can spend real money to buy Pokécoins to buy new Pokéballs, lucky eggs, or incense.
-There have been increased public disturbances. People now walk into places of business just to catch Pokémon and then leave. Signs in restaurants are now being put up like the one below:
- Harmful people have figured out how to hack the game and lure others to a spot on the game map where there seems to be rare c'mon, but instead, that innocent person is robbed
-Massive amounts of cellular data used
- Car services now drive players to Pokémon spots which will burn even bigger holes in their pockets
-Not all smart devices can connect to the game (i.e. intel processors, old generation iPods, etc)
Whether you are an avid player of the game or not, just remember that it is only a game thats popularity will eventually die down over time, just like Candy Crush and Farmville did. Your safety and life isn't work a catch. Have fun and be smart about how you catch em'!
