Pokémon Go Good or Bad? You Decide
Pokémon Go ‘Pokémon Pocket Monsters’ began its series of games in 1996 franchised to Nintendo. This ever popular series of games has seen players flock to order new releases every time a new game is released and has a massive following.
The launch of Pokémon Go launched 6th July 2016 has however caused some controversy as to how safe it is to play with both positive and negative press.
This game is mobile phone based and allows players to capture, battle and train virtual Pokémon that appear throughout the real world. The phone based app uses the phones GPS system and the phone’s camera. You then wander around walking towards the Pokémon that appear on your phone screen and then throw your ‘Pokeballs’ at them to catch them. The camera on your phone makes these little cartoon monsters appear as if they are really in your location.
There has been positive press in that gamers who sit around in-doors are now taking to the streets both exercising and socialising in the real world. Speaking to a friend he said his son sits in-doors on-line and playing games for hours every day, on the UK launch of the game he went out and he played and walked for 10 miles!! Groups of school friends are meeting up and going off out together to play, socialising, getting fresh air and getting exercise. I met with a group of friends for a picnic in the park at the weekend and there were kids everywhere running round with their phones, groups on bikes and the park was buzzing!
The negatives are really down to the dangers and not being aware of your surroundings, having said that how many times do we, see people walking around texting, or with headphones on bumping into people or walking in-front of traffic!!
When you switch on the game the first thing it says is ‘Remember to be alert at all times. Stay aware of your surroundings’, but there have been reports of people being robbed, crashing their cars, having accidents or even being killed!
So what of the game? Well having built a website for my young son all about Pokémon, Beyblades and other mid 90’s kid’s stuff I am familiar with all 151 Pokémon, sad I know but it’s true! So I was at a BBQ and a couple of small kids were catching Pokémon in a nice safe environment and they caught a ‘Jigglypuff’ now I’m jealous as I think this is the funniest Pokémon so I decide to give it a go!
Downloading was easy and getting to grips with a couple of tips from the kids I soon had a ‘Squirtle’, ‘Charmeleon’ and a ‘Weedle’ and then it crashed! I tried it again on the way home and after catching a ‘Zubat’ it crashed again! I thought I would try it again the following day in Covent Garden and now it was getting good, still no ‘Jigglypuff’ (My Ultimate Pokémon), but all manner of Pokémon and then it froze yet again.
That’s it! Since then I can’t get passed the load screen so I can’t play the game, how frustrating this must be for young players, is it the sheer number of people freezing the servers that can’t cope or the reported DDOS hacker attack that has been reported crashing the servers.
What do I do now, if I reinstall then I lose all the Pokémon I have caught and have to start again! I am sure this is getting so annoying for kids as they tell me it is freezing all the time!
The summer holidays are just about to begin, the kids are raring to go (it’s not just kids) and it’s time to ask mum and dad for more data allowance as this months has already run out!!!
All I can say is make your own decision if its good or bad, but ‘Remember to be alert at all times. Stay aware of your surroundings’, be careful and have fun 🙂
