Notes

On July 16th, 2016, a company named Niantic released an augmented-reality based game called Pokemon GO. This game gives people an opportunity to capture mystical creatures called “Pokemon” in the real world bringing back the Pokemon trend. It has created a craze all over the world. But video game addiction isn’t a new thing, right? We’ve all seen video game addictions in the past. They aren’t harmful. The very fact that we’re talking about banning this game, gives credibility to the fact that it’s getting more serious than it should. It takes the addiction to the next level. People go beyond limits to chase their desired Pokemon.The risks this augmented reality game exposes are physical risks to actual life and limb. While in the throes of the Pokémon Go hunt, players have crashed cars while driving, gotten hit by cars while crossing the street, and been robbed because they weren’t paying attention to their surroundings. Players have even fallen off cliffs without noticing until it was too late. Just days after its release, Pokémon Go’s real-world gameplay has been linked to armed robberies as criminals have used the game to locate and lure intended targets. Just 4 days after the release, on July 20, 2016, it was reported that an 18-year-old boy in Chiquimula, Guatemala was shot and killed while playing the game in the late evening hours. West Midlands Police referred to someone being "offered sexual favours" but provided no further detail. There have been 79 bicycle and car accidents linked to playing the game in Japan since its release there on July 22, according to police figures cited by the Japan Times.

There have been so many accidents and crimes related to the game that the words have almost been associated with it. There were 290 police incidents - including robberies, thefts, assaults and driving offences - which involved the app in England and Wales last month. When the app leads to this much of damage, we really need to rethink the safety of it. It has received lot of criticism all over the world. The addiction of this game has lead to serious issues. Really, is this game so important? The 9/11 Memorial and the Holocaust Memorial Museum had to ask people to stop playing the game in their vicinity because, apparently, it wasn’t obvious to players that doing so was entirely inappropriate. “I think people just need to realize this is a game,” Sgt. Rich Eaton of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department told the Los Angeles Times, after two men hopped over a fence and fell off a cliff trying to collect characters. “It’s not worth your life. No game is worth your life.”