Home › Forums › Open Discussion › Can Pokemon Go back indoors?
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August 7, 2016 at 6:52 pm #853647
fersonParticipantI walk regularly through Lincoln Park from home near High Point, but I guess I’ve been out of town a lot lately. I just had my first encounter with the Pokemon Go obsession and its apparent takeover of public outdoor spaces. Of the hundred-plus people we encountered as we just walked the waterfront from the north end to the pool (where we turned around and exited in frustration) maybe 5 or 6 were not holding devices and roving in search of whatever you search for in that game. I play pick-up ultimate on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings, and I found myself wondering what the public and park’s response would be if we moved our game into the middle of a public park otherwise busy with people trying to enjoy… the park. While I feel sure we’d get many complaints and probably be told to take our game back to its regular playing field, I think we’d be less injurious to the atmosphere of the park, given that there are usually only about seven players to a side.
Apart from the creepiness of being in a beautiful park surrounded by people looking down at screens, I wonder about damage to the park. At one point we saw two men dash off the path into the woods and start scrambling up the hill through the underbrush, phones in hand. Does this explain the new but now well-worn trail we had recently passed, a little ways north of the pool, running from the graveled waterfront path straight up (no switchbacks) as far as we could see. This looks like it will be an erosion nightmare when the rainy season starts, and a significant park maintenance and management issue for the near future.
I am wondering if others have experienced negative effects of commercial gaming companies co-opting public parks as gameboards, i.e. Pokemon Go. If we are going to toss the sanctity of park space so easily, I’d rather see it used for plying non-profit interests, pushing campaign flyers on passersby, courting initiative signatures, that sort of thing. Yuck, right?
August 9, 2016 at 7:46 am #853834
JoBParticipanti don’t have a clue what they are looking at on those screens..
but i am reasonably sure that the great outdoors and those who go there to appreciate it aren’t part of the “game”.August 9, 2016 at 9:22 am #853851
West Seattle since 1979ParticipantI’m not really sure what the problem is, other than the possible erosion issue. As long as they’re not bothering the other park users, why can’t they enjoy the park however they please, whether it’s looking at a screen or looking at the park?
August 9, 2016 at 3:46 pm #853895
JoBParticipantthey do bother other park users… i walk slowly and have been nearly run over by players who are focused on their phone. not the lady walking in front of them
August 11, 2016 at 2:16 pm #854128
West Seattle since 1979ParticipantJoB, I agree that’s bad. Sorry that happened to you!
Hopefully the people who are not watching where they’re going (and I suspect it’s not all of the Pokemon Go players) will learn how to look out for others on their path, instead of just looking at their screen all the time.
It is possible to play this game without looking at the screen every second–I’ve done it, though I’m not as intense about it as some so maybe not the best example.
September 5, 2016 at 8:52 am #856775
Venus7ParticipantI agree that Pokemon Go is a disruption to the ecosystem at Lincoln Park. The shaded area alongside the pathway was a quiet area with healthy grass growth – and among the only 2 places where one can find shade – is now found loaded with borgs staring at their devices, having no idea that they are taking away a meditative, peaceful area – the park – a break from the IT world we are surrounded and consumed by 24/7. The grass is stomped/sat on and gone, as is the Buddhist Monk who loved to sit and meditate there, and the tranquil serenity of Lincoln Park, where the wildlife and ecosystem were protected, just isn’t.
It isn’t possible for the human brain to attend to the complexities of that game, their devices, AND all the other people, creatures, and goings on around them. I have seen whales breaching, eagles flying, other events, completely missed by PG players. They are NOT outside enjoying the park, they don’t even see, smell, experience it. They are playing a game that is making a company and its shareholders LOTS of money. Children and parents are playing that game, pretending that that is quality family time. I have heard young children telling their parents that the parents had promised the child the parents would only play for 10 minutes, then they would play with their children. “Come on, Dad, let’s walk on the logs now.”
When we have a park as beautiful as Lincoln Park, it is our charge to protect it and all the creatures in it. I propose “Pokemon NO” zones – that all city, regional, state, and national parks need to take this on, and stop welcoming this phenomenon into the parks. The parks are there to preserve, not degrade, our beautiful earth, to help us remember we live and are a part of its interwoven ecosystem, to cherish and experience it when we are there. If Pokemon Go leads people to them, ok. If you enter, however, you MUST turn it off. No internet service. No Pokemon. No. Simply.
September 5, 2016 at 11:03 am #856777
TanDLParticipantWell, I see children running out of the wading pool and stomping down grasses in the area. I see volleyball and badminton players run out of their play “zones” and stomp on plants. I see people sprawled out on blankets depriving the grass beneath them of vital nutrients. I see beachgoers go off paths to pick up driftwood and form them into un-natural shapes and shelters. I see people at picnics chase balls and children into native plant areas. I propose we put high fences around all but specially designated pathways so that no one will be able to touch or see any plants or trees up close. That should increase the beauty of the park.
Clearly I’m being snarky, although I would seriously advocate for a complaint free zone. C’mon, it’s a public park. Let ALL the people who pay taxes to support maintenance of the park enjoy it as they will, so long as they are on foot and not obviously ripping up the landscape. It’s fall and the grasses will naturally grow back with winter rains. There are thousands more people in West Seattle now. Expecting the same degree of quiet in the park as we had it 10 years ago just isn’t going to happen. Gotta’ move way out of the city for that.
So jump on board… download the free version of the game and have fun with it. You don’t have to spend money to play and it’s not just for THAT generation that you so love to complain about. Oh and by the way… all you older folks, have you forgotten about the complaining that was done about your generation when you were young? I haven’t. I enjoy the park and enjoy watching people play Pokémon or whatever else they want. Look for joy in the park. It’s all around you! Just sayin’…
September 5, 2016 at 12:40 pm #856791
JanSParticipantthis sounds vaguely like “Get off my lawn” :-\
September 5, 2016 at 1:33 pm #856797
R0b0ParticipantI have a pokemon on my street and to me it’s kind of amusing to see the occasional person find it. Players in more crowded spaces unaware of their surroundings can be pretty annoying though.
Right now the pax con is going on so there is a huge uptick in people playing that will decrease after pax. And keep in mind that the lifecycle of these games is pretty short so most will move on to the next new shiny thing pretty soon.
September 5, 2016 at 9:49 pm #856867
Junction JoeParticipantIt is hard to go anywhere these days without seeing most everyone staring at the screens of their smart phones with no interactions with humans. I plan on writing a book and will include the Pokémon Go thing in one of the chapters. The book will be titled,
“Steve Jobs, a National Treasure and How he F’d up an Entire Generation.”
September 6, 2016 at 3:33 pm #856914
datamuseParticipantOh, yes. Heaven knows that back in the day, it was different:
September 6, 2016 at 4:17 pm #856917
newnativeParticipantI don’t even know what Steve Jobs has to do with the latest Pokemon Go! game, or making people hooked on their cellphones. And yeah, anyone riding a bus will see people with their faces in something, book, Nook, paper, cellphone.
September 6, 2016 at 5:16 pm #856927
Junction JoeParticipantYes, those black and white newspapers can certainly be addicting. I think I even saw some old men who looked like that running around Lincoln Park with their heads buried in their newspapers while running over unsuspecting strangers.
September 7, 2016 at 8:12 am #856976
JoBParticipanti confess.. i used to walk and read..
unfortunately my balance and peripheral vision aren’t what they once were and i now find a bench
that is.. if some idiot isn’t standing on it looking for a pokeman:( -
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