On July 6, Niantic released the newest gaming craze: Pokémon GO. Players or "Trainers" use their phone to capture wild Pokémon that could be living anywhere from inside your office building to the lake down the road. The game uses the Google Maps API to overlay Pokémon onto your town's map.
Players try to "catch 'em all" by traveling far and wide, stopping at monuments and important locations that are tagged as Pokéstops. All of this sounds great to any gamer, but there are many things stopping me from downloading it.
1. It uses a lot of data. I know some people have unlimited data, but for those of us who don't, it's just not worth it. I'm already pretty wary about how much data I use with other apps, and Pokémon GO uses location services and augmented reality, which are bound to use up my internet for the month.
2. It drains your battery like crazy. When I watched a video about tips for playing Pokémon GO, one of their suggestions was to invest in a portable battery pack so that you're not alone in the woods without a phone to figure out how to get home. Personally, I don't think this should be a concern that a video game warrants. I would rather not need to charge my phone constantly, especially if I need it for an emergency, which is the purpose of phones after all.
3. While players say that the game forces them to be outside, many aren't actually enjoying outside. Yes, I know they're getting fresh air and some exercise, but being glued to their phones isn't much of an improvement from being indoors.
“I fear the day when the technology overlaps with our humanity. The world will only have a generation of idiots.”
– Albert Einstein
4. Within only one week of the game's launch in the U.S., there have been several news articles about players getting robbed by people who wait at Pokéstops, people playing the game in inappropriate places and traffic accidents from those paying too much attention to Pokémon and not enough to their surroundings. While each of these situations depends on the individual user, I would rather not migrate to random places on a map because a game told me to.
5. From what I've heard, right now, the servers crash incessantly. I'd rather wait until many of the bugs are sorted out and I can have a better user experience. Half of the jokes about Pokémon GO on the Internet are about the server issues that keep happening. I'm sure they'll fix all the issues soon, but is it worth playing right now and getting angry?
Maybe I'm the only one, but I'm not planning to download Pokémon GO anytime soon. I don't want to be another zombie putting myself in dangerous situations. I don't want to be another face in the crowd chasing a virtual creature for imaginary points. I may never be a "Trainer," but I really don't care.
