Since the release of Niantic’s hit mobile phone game, Pokemon Go, thousands upon thousands of people of all ages have downloaded and began their own person Pokemon journeys in their very own backyards.
If you haven’t heard about this new cultural phenomena, the premise of this game is to navigate the real world, collect items at specific public places (dubbed as “Pokestops”), train and evolve the Pokemon you catch and level up by gaining experience in the game. Essentially, the game forces the player to leave the stereotypical setting (a dark basement or a bedroom) and walk outside to encounter Pokemon that the game generates through tracking your GPS and using your camera feature on your phone.
Many people have raved about the fact that the game has made people who normally stay indoors to play games go outside and experience the real world. Local businesses that have become Pokestops are asking players to contribute to their city/town’s economy by making a purchase before claiming the items from the Pokestop. Users have cited that this game has helped with their social anxiety and depression due to the person-to-person interaction that the game can bring. There are many, many great social consequences that have come from Pokemon Go, and I can’t deny that.
However, there are some issues that I do have with the game, and, before you decide to automatically ruin your opinion of me, I think you should listen to what I have to say.
1. Pokemon Go intends to bring about more person-to-person interactions, but there are more cases in which I’ve seen quite the opposite.
While the purpose of this game is to unify the people who play it, there are often times in which I see people who play this game in a head-space that I like to call “together alone.” This is the most unique social situation that our modern times have brought to us. In the age of technology, there are very few moments in which we aren’t connected to our mobile devices – people who play this game “together” are often not paying attention to each other while doing so. Yes, it is true that some people play this game and truly use it for its social qualities. But, there are many times where I see people dully staring into their phones while furiously swiping to catch an Eevee while not exchanging a word.
2. The game heavily relies on your phone's battery, GPS and data package.
As we all well know, our mobile phones don’t hold a good charge if they’re more than a year old and our data packages are worth more than gold. As Pokemon Go is a game that relies entirely on an extended battery life and a constant connection to the internet (to access servers and track the user’s location), this application tends to drain our batteries and our bank accounts. The game’s intense usage of the phone’s internal systems sucks the battery faster than Facebook, and due to the fact that you must travel in order to play the game, you can’t stay connected to wifi hotspots for very long unless you camp in your local coffee shop and pay per Pidgey you catch.
3. The game introduces a form of social segregation.
If you haven’t seen the memes on the Internet, there are three teams in the Pokemon Go world: Team Valor, Team Mystic and Team Instinct separate players based on qualities that they most align with. While this isn’t intended to be a method of social segregation, it has brought out genuine arguments amongst players that belong to different teams. In a time of constant division among our society, the concept of a game that furthers this separation doesn’t sit well with me – I thought the point of Pokemon Go was to play with friends and have fun, not to bicker to over why one group of players is superior to another.
While some of the memes are all in good fun, there are some that are actually offensive and very inappropriate for people to be sharing on the Internet. Here are some examples.
Last I checked, making fun of people with mental or physical disabilities and people who are victims of domestic violence wasn't all that funny.
4. The game plays you for your money.
The way that this (and most other games, in fact) game operates is on the premise of “leveling up.” Without leveling up, you cannot try to take over local gyms, earn experience points, unlock certain items and perks in the game or catch certain Pokemon in the game. After a certain point in Pokemon Go, merely playing the game isn’t enough to get you to increase your level. Experience point thresholds increase substantially, and the Pokemon you catch aren’t able to efficiently get you to higher levels. However, like most mobile phone games, there are packages that you can pay for to help ease your progress into the higher levels, which is just a straight ploy for money.
After reading this, you might be thinking that I grew up very uninterested in the Pokemon culture. However, if you’d ask any of my childhood friends or family members, you would know that the fact is quite the opposite. In fact, I loved Pokemon so much, I dressed up as Pikachu for Halloween. Here’s a photo to prove it:
Yes, I truly do love Pokemon. And, I am not leaving the benefits and positives of Pokemon Go unmentioned. While Pokemon Go is a great way to integrate gaming into modern society, I still think that there are some drawbacks to playing the game that should be considered before you begin to (or continue to) play the game.
