Blake Hall
On February 27th, 1996, America fell in love with the first Pokémon games. Since then, Pokémon has gone on to become the second best-selling game franchise in the world.
Twenty years later, a new mobile app called Pokémon Go is taking the world by storm. Just for some perspective, on July 8th (2 days after its release), Pokémon Go was downloaded on 5.16% of Android phones. That’s more than the popular dating app, Tinder. Pokémon Go is predicted to overtake Twitter in app usage and already is used more minutes per day than Snapchat and Instagram. As the data shows, this augmented-reality game is being enjoyed by Pokémon fans everywhere.
Well… almost everywhere. Soon after downloading the game, military members on installations across the United States realized that there were no wild Pokémon anywhere to be found. These users went to Reddit to voice their frustrations:
There is no official report, but it is speculated online that this was implemented to avoid attracting unwanted visitors to military bases.
On the other hand, PokéStops and Gyms (both of which attract users) have been reported on multiple bases, so that seems to invalidate this theory.
Luckily, one way that users can find Pokémon is by using an incense to attract them. These items, however, take a while to earn or need to be bought with real money.
While some go straight to criticizing the game developers Niantic …
Others hope that with more awareness change will come.
It seems that unless Niantic wants to miss out on its military fan base, it’ll need to update its policy soon. However, the question remains: Is Pokémon Go a safety concern for military bases? There are already reports of users not paying attention while crossing the street and robberies taking advantage of users visiting PokeStops.
On a more positive note, Pokémon Go is also credited with bringing people together and encouraging players to exercise since they can’t play the game at home.
Pokémon Go is still very new and continues to skyrocket in popularity, so it will take some time to work out all the glitches and concerns. When the time comes, should Pokémon be allowed onto military bases? Let us know what you think in the comments!