Pokemon Go is a phenomenon. If you live in a city, look around you at any given moment and you’ll probably see someone playing the game, walking from street to street in the desperate hope of catching something other than a Rattata or stopping at various places of interest that award with them with Pokeballs, eggs, items and the like.
However, not only is the game super addictive, but it’s also had a notable impact on the lives of its players for. Here are 5 ways in which it has achieved this:
1. It’s improving players’ mental health
The main hook of Pokemon Go is that it forces you to physically venture outside in order to capture these little critters, with many of them located in bustling cities. As such, the game is actually having a hugely positive impact on the mental health of many players, with those who suffer from an anxiety disorder and/or depression suddenly finding themselves imbued with purpose when it comes to embracing the great outdoors.
#PokemonGO is going to do wonders for my mental health, providing me with purpose and reason to go outside at last.
— Drew Dale (@drwdal) July 6, 2016
Taking away the fear of going outside for those suffering with mental health issues and replacing it with excitement for catching new Pokemon is a big deal, and an unlikely side-effect of Pokemon Go’s massive success.
2. It’s helping restaurants attract customers
If players want to attract more Pokemon to a specific area then they can place a lure in the location, which inevitably leads to other players swarming the region in order to take advantage of the increased amount of pocket monsters. Restaurant owners are therefore using this feature to their advantage, placing lures outside of their establishments in order to generate more foot traffic.
From outside the restaurant where we ate dinner tonight. There was a Pokestop next door with lure constantly active. pic.twitter.com/cfQ05yIdl8
— Steve Lubitz (@WickedGood) July 11, 2016
It’s an impressive business tactic, with many coffee shops now actively using Pokemon Go in order to attract people into their building and purchase goods while they simultaneously throw Pokeballs at a Pidgey’s head.
3. It’s helping armed robbers
One unfortunate group of people who are taking advantage of Pokemon Go are armed robbers. As previously mentioned, lures help people attract Pokemon to a specific area and, in turn, attract other Pokemon trainers, too. As such, criminals are reportedly using the app to stage armed robberies, stealing the smartphones of unsuspecting Pokemon Go players as they venture to an area heavily populated by the creatures.
According to the O’Fallon Missouri Police Department, authorities arrested four men suspected of Armed Robbery days after the game had been released, with the men concealing a handgun and allegedly using lures in order to get Pokemon Go players to turn up to a specific location, with them being robbed after doing so.
4. It’s making it difficult for police to spot drug deals
Certain Pokemon are nocturnal, meaning that Pokemon Go players will be forced to venture outside of their home at night if they wish to catch them. However, this therefore leads to an increase in suspicious activity, with groups of people loitering around Pokestops and the like in the evening or early hours of the morning. As such, many have pointed out how playing Pokemon Go can often look a lot like an orchestrated drug deal.
Also See: Why Pokemon Go’s Popularity Won’t Last For Long
One Redditor spoke of his own experience with Pokemon Go, revealing how he and two other Pokemon Go trainers had been questioned by police while playing the game. User SlothofDoom wrote:
Ok, reportingb in. Couldn’t sleep so I downloaded the game and took a 3am walk. There is a little park a few blocks from me that had like three pokestops and a gym, so I wandered over there to see what the game could offer. Picked up an Evee outside my house and a couple of trash pokes on the way to the park.
So I get there and wander around a little checking out the stops and rustling around in the tall grass, then decide to go a few blocks away to see a couple more stops when I hear from the darkness a “Yo, my man!”
Turning I see two sketchy looking dudes sitting on a bench in the dark. I must have walked right past them without noticing them Great. One of them waves “My man, check over by the blue truck over there we got an onyx earlier.”
So I wander over by the truck and sure enough there’s a fucking onyx there. Awesome. So I end up chatting with the guys for a bit, told em where I got my evee, they convinced me to join red team when I hit level five so we could “lock shit down” in the neighbourhood.
Then the cop shows up.
Yeah, so it turns out two twentysomething black dudes and a forty year old white guy chilling in the park at 3am looks strange. It took a bit of talking to convince the cop we weren’t doing a drug deal, and a bit longer to explain the game. Then the cop downloaded the fucking game on his phone and asked us how to get started.
Go red team.
“Go red team” indeed.
5. It’s unearthing dead bodies
Perhaps we’re being a little OTT here – only one dead body has been unearthed by a Pokemon Go player thus far, but the game’s only been on the Google Play and App Store for a little over a week. We imagine many corpses will have been found by the time it celebrates its year anniversary.
The dead body was found by 19-year-old Shayla Wiggins, who was on the hunt for a water-based Pokemon in Riverton, Wyoming. Shayla spotted the body near a bridge, with police later confirming it was a man who had drowned in shallow water. No foul play was suspected in the death.
