It may only be a week old, but Pokémon Go seems to be a bonafide phenomenon. And with epic popularity and lots of people having tons of fun, there’s always the dark side. The unforeseen consequences. The unfortunate side-effects.
Pokémon Go has its downsides, too. They include discovering bodies and catching Pokemon in some pretty somber places. The game has racked up a pretty impressive list of weirdo things happening around it in a short time, ranging from the unfortunate to the disturbing, many of which were (mostly) impossible to predict. Here are top 10 sad and strange ways Pokémon Go has gone bad.
Exercise. Not normally associated with video games, millions of people playing Pokémon Go are finding they have to go outside to do it. The fun part of the idea — finding Pokémon in the real world — is also the most tiring, because you actually have to go hunt those Pokémon. It’s even worse in rural areas, where Pokéstops, or real-world locations that give in-game items, are few and far between, sometimes requiring players to travel miles to find one. On top of that, Pokémon eggs are gathered in game and require walking to hatch, some as much as 10 kilometers in distance. And there’s no cheating: the game is smart enough to know when you’re moving at the speed of a car or a train. On the upside, you’re basically training for that 5K you keep putting off.
That’s what happened to Pokémon Go players in O’Fallon, Missouri. Over the first weekend after the game’s release, a lot of people found themselves playing at night; the time of day affects which Pokémon you might find, and with fewer people playing, developer Niantic’s overtaxed servers seem to run a lot better. But some clever crooks used the nighttime draw of Pokémon to their advantage. According to police, using Pokémon Go, suspects watched for other players to use “lures” at Pokéstops in secluded locations late at night, and then robbed them. Police arrested four suspects, including a juvenile, but lesson learned: Be careful when you Pokémon alone at night.
The thing about Pokémon Go is the cute little creatures within it come from a variety of biomes, and so if you search for them in a park, you’ll find different ones than if you search in a desert, or near a body of water. So the game might draw you to places off the beaten path in order to find new PokéPrey, like it did 19-year-old Shayla Wiggins in rural Wyoming. Looking to grab a water Pokémon from near the Big Wind River, she stumbled on something else: a man’s body. Police say they believe the death to be accidental. Staying in populated areas when looking for Pokémon is probably a good idea.
https://twitter.com/WBCSaysRepent/status/752940717681487874
The purveyors of generalized bigoted terribleness who find a home at the Westboro Baptist Church aren’t exactly subtle, so when they discovered that the Pokémon gym at their church had been overtaken by a Clefairy by the name of LoveIsLove, they did what they do best: created bigoted, kind of stupid propaganda. To rage at the happiness of gay people, Pokémon-style, they chose Jigglypuff, another pink, generally balloon-like Pokémon, for some reason. Anyway, cool as Pokémon Go has been in getting people outside, walking around and meeting other players, it’s good to remember that there are still awful people in the world, and they apparently have some idea what a Jigglypuff is.
Look, just because you can play Pokémon Go just about anywhere doesn’t mean you should play Pokemon Go just about anywhere. That includes the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, which is asking people to stop playing the game there, because, you know, it is disrespectful as hell. Like many other landmarks in many other cities, the Holocaust Museum has a Pokéstop associated with it. Unlike many other landmarks in many other cities, there are actually three Pokéstops at the museum, associated with different parts of it — so people are actually going inside to play, which is a little messed up.
It is also not the first time developer Niantic has run into similar troubles. Pokémon Go sources all of its location data from the Niantic’s last game, Ingress, and Ingress got much of its info from using Google Maps to find spots where people gather. Spots like memorials in Europe that used to be Nazi concentration camps. Niantic removed those spots for Ingress, so it’ll probably do the same for the Holocaust Museum and Pokémon Go. Eventually.
More than one image and story has popped up on social media in the last few days from employees who claim their bosses are none too happy about their Pokémon-hunting at work. Some people have gotten warnings against wasting all their time running around their offices, catching whatever Pokémon would be boring enough to hang out in offices (maybe Klefki?). Others, like Australian gamer Sonny Truyen, who lives in Singapore, were enraged by the game’s poor performance (although technically it doesn’t work in Singapore for anyone, but hey, we’re pretty frustrated in the States too). Truyen expressed his disapproval for Singapore’s Pokémon-free nature on Facebook, and by loudly and combatively disparaging the country, got himself fired by his company. Don’t play Pokémon Go at work, but if you do, remember to do breathing exercises to keep your server woes-induced rage in check, and stay Poké-incognito.
Pokémon Go is surprisingly social — despite the fact that everyone playing is mostly staring at their own phone and trying to catch creatures invisible to anyone who’s not also staring at their phone, it has players meeting each other at real-world Pokéstops all over the country. And it seems a lot of people are making a connection with one another, but then losing one another in the hustle to run off and catch more of ’em all. As the Chicago Tribune reports, Craigslist is inundated with “missed connection” ads from all over the country. Pokémon Go is both the facilitator and the destroyer of potential love connections.
It’s fun when Pokémon Go locations like Pokéstops and gyms are local businesses where people congregate. Coffee shops, restaurants, book stores, churches — these places benefit from the increased attention and social presence created by the game. On the other hand, it is not so great if the place where a Pokéstop or a gym lands is your front yard. Boon Sheridan is living in this potential Pokémon hell, with people stopping in front of his house (a former church, some 40 years ago) to play the game at all hours. Sounds innocuous enough, but if you lived there, having people awkwardly stopping by your house could be troubling, especially if you didn’t know about it. On the other hand, for people of color, awkwardly stopping in front of houses to play the game could potentially be dangerous.
Diglett pops up in some awkward places… #PokemonGO pic.twitter.com/cVAlUY394A
— Mark Joseph Leathers (@Mark_Leathers) July 9, 2016
Yes, Pokémon porn is a thing. Don’t pretend you hadn’t guessed. But with the release of Pokémon Go, searches for pocket monsters doing naughty things has rising pretty significantly, according to porn website Pornhub. And it seems especially true that Pokémon porn is corrupting young adult men: Pornhub says 18- to 24-year-olds are 336 percent more likely to look up Pokémon porn than any other group, and men are 62 percent more likely to search for Pokémon porn than women. At the same time, another trend seems to be forming: Pokémon Go nude photos are being shared online and between people. What’s in store for the future of our nation with young people’s understanding of sex is so totally warped by cute cartoon creatures?
Is there a Chicken Little Pokémon? If there is, you’ll likely find it at Vox, where a compelling case is made for Pokémon Go being a sign of the times of capitalism getting bad for everyone. The gist is this: used to be, when people borrowed money from banks to start businesses, they invested in actual things that produced jobs. The digital economy Pokémon Go represents doesn’t really make anything (you’re only buying virtual stuff like Pokéballs and lures with your hard-earned cash, should you choose to pay money into the free-to-play game), and it doesn’t create a lot of jobs. Becoming the very best might be great for you and our Pokémon-addled brain, but maybe it’s bad for the country. Bummer.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.
Apple's next cheaper iPhone could get a brand-new processor while keeping its most stubborn display compromise. Digital Chat Station tips the iPhone 18e for a 2027 release with a 2nm A20 chip and a 6.12-inch OLED screen still limited to 60Hz.
The rumored camera setup includes a single 48MP rear camera and a possible 24MP selfie camera. There's new hardware to consider, but buyers hoping Apple would extend that upgrade generosity to smoother scrolling could be disappointed.