Second day of playing Pokémon Go and I’m already addicted. For those who do not know what it is, the popular Nintendo Game has now been released as an App on Apple’s AppStore as well as on GooglePlay. It is a virtual reality game where the aim is to catch as many Pokémon as possible.
But here’s what’s great about it: using your GSP signal and location, one is able to physically move about and find Pokémon. The producers’ aim was to get people to be more active, as well as delve into a world of virtual reality where they may let their imaginations wander and toy with the idea that perhaps real Pokémons are living amongst us.
The game has taken the world by storm and has appeared a great success in America, where it was released only a couple of days ago. There have already been articles showing how children are becoming more active due to the game. Instead of sitting on their bums all day long infront of a laptop, they are outside exploring their surroundings and catching Pokémons. Because of the GPS tag, one is able to look around oneself and find where the Pokémon are hiding, as well as their distance from you. You’re drawn into the web of the game and without even knowing it, you’ve walked 5km and you’re in the middle of the woods.
This has apparently already happened to one unlucky girl, who was playing Pokémon and stumbled across, quite literally, a dead body. I guess you can have a lot of surprises when playing this game, and not always good ones.
But whenever a new craze becomes popular, surely we become slightly suspicious. Of course it’s a fun, addictive game, but what hides in the T&C’s that we are unaware of? Firstly, the producers are able to easily access one’s common wareabouts, because of the Geotag, as well as how long one spends there, how often one visits, how we got there as well as people who we went there with. If one uses the Augmented Reality tool (this connects to your camera and you can see the pokémon in front of you), the app is able to track your own real surroundings, and build up an online profile about you. Ontop of all of this, if logged onto your Google account, it could also potentially view all your emails, as well as send spam to contacts. This is extremely worrying, especially as the game’s popularity is likely to attract hackers, which puts one’s own personal safety at risk.
Despite having positives, one might have to remember to always do a bit of investigating before committing oneself to an app. Although a lot of fun, it is wise to take precautions, especially when your safety is at stake.
Words by Mélissa Chan-Cheape