“The main attraction of Pokémon GO is that it gives people tremendous interactivity: the ability to combine their environment with additional reality outside the computer or a smartphone. At the same time, this phenomenon has pros as well as cons,” Vladimir Statut, the CEO of Neyromatiks, told Sputnik.
“This app interactivity deprives people of the 'joy' of sitting all day in front of the TV and makes users visit new places while catching Pocket Monsters and capturing training camps,” explains Vladimir Statut. “But here appears a huge concern. The urban life of the megalopolis is mostly adapted to make our lives easy in terms of technology. However, when a breakout game comes out, there cannot be one hundred per cent guarantee of citizens’ security in the technological world.”
Especially in some places (churches, museums, and memorial places) it is inappropriate and violates moral standards. From the standpoint of ethics and security, some kind of regulatory framework for the game must be accepted, as even Sberbank RF is ready to sell health insurance to Pokémon GO players.
The game has caused enough injuries already: one guy ended up in a pond while trying to catch a Pocket Monster, while two others fell off a cliff during their imaginary hunt. The internet is full of videos in which mobs run up and down the streets and through office corridors in search of Pokemons. How long will this Pokemon epidemic last? And will there ever be age restrictions?
“Even now, it is more than clear that this game is not just a one day fad,” Vladimir Statut told Sputnik. “After all, according to users’ application forms, Pokemon GO overtook all other websites, including pornography.”
“Nintendo shares rose in price by 70 percent, attesting to the seriousness of the phenomenon and underscoring that Pokémon GO is here to stay. However, whether it has a positive or negative effect depends on the individual. For some, it provides great help in communicating with people, while for others it offers help in developing the imagination. Despite all the negative facts about the game, digital reality is our future,” maintains Vladimir Statut.
Examples include the provision of users’ personal data to third parties as well as their locations, and cases where Pokemon hunts have led people into secret areas. But for now it is only a hypothesis. It is a common known fact that most people are gamblers by nature. So in what way will this gambling be used?
“People’s attention is unidirectional. With a smartphone in our hands, we lose not only control over a situation, but our orientation in space as well. I assume that Nintendo as a company should bear some social responsibility by warning its users about certain areas being dangerous,” the Head of the Institute of Practical Psychology and Psychoanalysis Yuri Ozerov informed Sputnik.
In general, most games are helpful. Through games, children learn and get to know the world around him. It is no longer a secret that cybersport is now an official sport, meaning that games can be cultivated but placed in a safe atmosphere.
“I am quite glad to see several pedestrian tunnels which have been arranged as mazes, as people are compelled to pay attention, looking away from their smartphones. In such instances we see the infrastructure of modern cities beginning to support the situation,” states Yuri Ozerov.
However society reacts in the long-run, Pokemon GO has become a global sensation and it will prove difficult to replace its impact on modern life.
