It is the latest craze to sweep through the hearts of millions, and you’re either with it or against it. “Pokémon Go”, the latest in gaming from Niantic and the Pokémon Company, uses your smart phone or device to entice users to get up, get out, and go roam the world around them in real time finding and capturing tiny creatures from the original hit series from the late 90’s early 2000’s. The vast majority of users are in the age range from 15 to 35, which makes sense seeing as how that involves the millennials that grew up addicted to the show and playing card game dreaming about one day becoming the greatest Pokémon trainer of all time, even better than Ash Ketchum himself.

I did not watch nor did I play Pokémon as a child, I was more of the Dragonball Z, Gundam Wing fan myself, but I remember the hold it had on some of my best friends as they emptied their wallets, or parent’s wallets rather, in order to “catch them all”. There were many an after school afternoon wasted at the local comic book store watching kids literally fight over packs that could contain a “foil” or “holo” card, or allowing other people to pick out a pack of cards because they had already “pulled 2 foiled cards” earlier that day. That was the extent of the danger you faced back in the day, maybe you got in a fight at the comic book store or skipped school, but that was the extreme. The new Pokémon game however, has shown to be much more dangerous for its participants than the original card game or Gameboy days. It seems like all I have heard on the news or read online is about people getting attacked, or injured while playing the game. As you can see, it is not just one part of the country that is experiencing these issues and it’s not only nationwide, but worldwide as well. The Pokémon Company has issued a statement primarily focusing on reminding people to pay attention to their surroundings and not lose their environmental awareness when playing the game and added this warning to the beginning of the game while it’s loading:

But it doesn’t seem to be helping. More and more you see stories about pedophiles roaming around “Pokémon gyms”, people not paying attention to where they are and ending up lost, or in the wrong neighborhood, people getting robbed, and so on. It is beginning to be a social network for hooligans to find their victims.

My curiosity peaked one night while at a friend’s house. We were watching the news when we saw a report of a man who had walked right into traffic trying to catch a Pokémon. I can only imagine the rarity, or lack of, of that Pokémon. I had to know what it was all about, so I downloaded the game and went out into the night searching for these elusive creatures. In no time, I had come across my first Pokémon, it was in the middle of a busy intersection. It was about 11pm so there was little to no traffic, I quickly captured him and went on my way, only to find my next Pokémon in the middle of yet another busy intersection almost like it couldn’t figure out how to conquer crossing the road. From there I decided to return home. The midnight hour had proven to be quite the dangerous time for my first outing as a rookie trainer. The next day I captured many different rats, butterflies, squirrels, birds, snakes, and worms all over the map. To my surprise most of them were standing at intersections like mindless avatars trying to figure out how to cross. Then things got interesting. I started getting Pokémon popping up on private property, which in the South you do not mess with, down long dark hidden trails, in strip club parking lots, inside of bars, on top of buildings and houses, and the weirdest of all inside of Walmart. I sucked up my pride and figured I would allow these “animals” to live their lives outside of my Poke-balls. But it made me wonder, what about the kids that aren’t paying attention or don’t know any better? They willingly walk into these troubled places looking for harmless cartoon creatures and then are caught up in a “wrong place wrong time” situation.

On top of the game literally being the best way to pull off muggings and other acts of violence, or get yourself lost or injured, it’s really not that fun. Sure it has its positives, like the fact that it is getting people up off the couch while playing games and forcing them to be active by walking around the real world searching for fake animals that lure them into dangers places, but it is very monotonous. Walk over here, catch a Pokémon. Run over here, catch a Pokémon. Go to a gym, get beat up by some stranger who then takes all your money, your smart phone, and now has all your Pokémon.

I am not saying that if you handle and use the game responsibly that it can’t be very fun and worthwhile to the users, I am saying that if you are going to play the game you need to be responsible enough to play with a group of people or at least know where you are and who around you at all times. And for God sake, don’t walk into the middle of the road to catch a Rattata whose CP level is only 43. Have some self-respect.