Video games are representing a huge part of the entertainment industry today, especially after the technological evolution we have witnessed in the few past years which resulted in the appearance of new concepts of video games such as virtual reality video games or augmented reality video games such as Pokémon GO. But after its launch, Pokémon GO started representing
a threat to the player’s life and their surroundings. So what is revolutionary about this game? And how does it affect multiple sides of player’s life?
On July 6th, 2016, Pokémon GO was launched. The game was downloaded by a huge number of smartphone users. The unique feature about the game was the augmented reality technology which allows players in virtual maps to interact with their surroundings in the real world. The main objective of the game is to hunt down all the Pokémons around the map which is in the real world the player’s environment. With such criteria, the player is forced to move from one place to another searching for Pokémons, trying to catch, train and evolve them. In other words, wandering many places in order to reach the game’s main objective. Thus, causing many dangers that can affect user’s life in many different ways.
One of the biggest dangers a player can face during the gameplay is getting hurt or injured. “Players reported falling over pot holes, twisting ankles, and even walking into lampposts and other obstacles as they spent their time engrossed in their phones without paying full attention to their surroundings.”(Loffhagen, 2017). According to Loffhagen, many types of injuries occurred to the players which is caused by the lack of attention while playing the game. When the player is looking at the real world through the application, the phone won’t show him the way or warn him about dangers and obstacles in his surroundings. Thus, at any moment, the player can walk into a wall, a tree, other people or pot holes. In some cases, players can get hit by cars or hurt others in case that they are the driver, which is more dangerous.
“From this, they estimated that a total of 113,993 incidents had been reported where drivers and pedestrians had been distracted by the game.” (Borland, 2016). As Borland indicates, many accident accrued during the launch period of Pokémon GO that is mainly caused by players getting distracted by the game. Which also increases the chances of getting seriously injured or in some cases getting killed. Even though the game shows a pop-up message “Don’t Pokémon GO and drive” when detecting that the player is moving at high speed compared to walking, the message gets ignored and the player continues his deadly adventure. One just needs to imagine the amount of physical damage a moving 2 Tons of metal mass, at high speed and out of control, can cause especially if it is in a highly populated area.
In a more advanced level of the game, players need to go to specific locations in order to take over Gyms and increase their experience level. Not only once, but every time they need to check in into that place in order to defend their position. Thus, they can easily be tracked and their movement pattern can be easily noticed. And that’s where criminals take the chance to rob and steal phone, computers, money or any other valuable object. “Many people live in neighborhoods where it’s not safe to wander around with a cell phone in hand because of robberies.” (Connolly, 2016). What Connolly is trying to explain that wandering alone in dangerous or unknown areas may have you get robbed by some criminals who, obviously, are also tracking rare Pokémons and Gyms in order for them to know where players can be there. It is highly recommended, if a Pokémon or a Gym exist in an unpopulated area such as a forest or a ghost town, to go there and explore the place in group.
Other than that, the game can be a time wasting activity if the player goes for a far distance and spends time on the way just to catch a Pokémon and add it to his collection. A twelve years old boy can forget to do his homework just because he wanted to go downtown and get that item all of his friends have been talking about all day.
From another aspect, Pokémon GO consumes a lot of battery power in short time as a result of using mobile data, GPS and camera in order to produce augmented reality image. One should take care while exploring an unfamiliar area alone. If the phone battery dies when the player is in the middle of nowhere and has no other way to call for help or assistance to leave the place. Also, mobile phone today became one of the necessities in professional life. Thus, running out of charge while you’re outside accomplishing some missions then you can’t find a way to update your boss with reports would cause you undesired problems or may get you fired.
From digital security aspect, since Pokémon GO is no yet released in many countries, fans around the world tend to download the game as an unofficial version which can be harmful and full of Trojans which hackers can use later to steal their personal information and even their money if they have their bank account synchronized with their phone. Even with blocking untrusted websites, popular websites can’t be stopped from posting their content.
However, many people, including the game developers of course, see that Pokémon GO has made many players to replace the normal monotone indoor game style with a new concept which motivates them to go outside and play in group face to face with other players. Not just that, sometimes, the game requires the user to walk for two kilometers in order to unlock a Pokémon. Even if he/she used a vehicle, the distance travelled won’t be counted. This can be seen as a health benefit for the player. Many people that have overweighting problems can be motivated to go outside and practice sports activities while playing the game. But having thsese motivational activities on one side and a lot of dangers on the other side wouldn’t solve any problem or have an added value comparing to other games. Seeing players get hurt while running behind the “Gonna Catch’em All” dream is not so convincing. So such game is representing a huge danger on our lives and governors should think about limiting the playtime or banning the use of such game.
References
Connolly D. (2016). The Dangers of Pokemon GO. Gamerant. Retrieved from: https://gamerant.com/pokemon-go-dangers/
Lauffhagen, M. (2017). The Worst Real World Dangers of Playing Pokémon GO. Screen Rant. Retrieved from: http://screenrant.com/pokemon-go-dangers/?view=all
Borland S. (2016). Don't Pokemon Go and drive! More than 110,000 road accidents in the US were caused by the game in just 10 days. Daily Mail. Retrieved from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3793050/Don-tPokemon-drive-110-000-road-accidents-caused-game-just-10-days.html