Pokémon Go has had some startling attention lately. Pokémon Go is a game developed by Niantic Labs that people can download on their phone where the trainer, that’s you, goes out and catches wild virtual animals and battle with other trainers in what are called Pokémon Gyms, which are littered throughout the world. Once the trainer reaches level five they join one of three teams, Valor, Instinct, and Mystic. You can challenge a rival gym if you’re close to it in the real world. Poke stops are found at land marks or other locations and act as stations for resupplying trainers with items such as Poke balls, eggs, potions, and etc… Capturing Pokémon has become more physical and less complex, in previous games, trainers would send out their Pokémon to weaken the other Pokémon for capture, now trainers must walk in real time outside in order to encounter wild Pokémon, once a trainer spots a wild Pokémon, they have to flick a poke ball at the Pokémon and add it’s data to the pokedex. The Pokedex is a device used to catalog Pokémon people have come across. Certain Pokémon can only be caught in select locations but trainers can instead hatch them from eggs.
No one is safe from criticism, including Pokémon Go. Pokémon Go requires a G.P.S. to track the trainer, and because of this questions have been raised concerning users privacy. Iran banned the app in their country, becoming the first country to ban Pokémon Go, citing privacy concerns. People can rest assured that they are more than safe, if they don’t want people trespassing on private property they can call Niantic to make it so that no Pokémon spawn on their property. Coronado has made it so that no Pokémon spawn on campus. The game features constant safety reminders so as to keep people from getting hurt, warning against trespassing on private property and playing Pokémon Go while driving. Japan had their first death related to Pokémon Go when a man playing the app while driving fatally struck a seventy year old woman, injuring her spine and killing her. In Taiwan a rare Pokémon called Snorlax (the Pokémon featured) was in the city of Taipei resulting in hundreds of people stampeding through the city, many people where either trampled or run over. However the game is broken in some areas, with game breaking glitches ranging from the trainers model staying in one place while the one in real life is moving to Pokémon disappearing during capture, all of such problems are stated to be fixed in future updates. There have also been plenty of car accidents because of the app. Coronado history teacher Mr. Kane says, Keep your head up.
Pokémon Go is a free to play downloadable game with some micro transactions. Pokémon Go currently has more downloads than Candy Crush in the google play and apple app store and has a 4.4 star rating. Coming someday soon Pokémon Go will update to include a buddy Pokémon system where a Pokémon selected by a trainer can walk around with the trainer, when the trainer has traveled a certain distance the Pokémon will reward them with a leveling item specific to the buddy Pokémon, this update is set to release later this year.