While the Pokemon Go game's cartoon characters have also helped U.S. police improve strained community relations and even arrest wanted suspects, the game’s craze is blamed for several robberies of distracted mobile phone players.
By getting players off the couch and walking outside to play, the app is upending the world of gaming. The game was created by mobile game developer Niantic for Nintendo Co Ltd. Virtual Pokemon characters that appear to pop up at office spaces, restaurants, museums and other places are sought to be found out by players who continue to stare at their phone screens. Including capturing the Pokemon characters with a flick of a finger on their phone screen, players score points in various ways in the game. Nintendo shares surged nearly 25 percent on Monday as the game became the most downloaded free app on Apple's app store.
The game is also facing a backlash less than a week after launching in the United States. More than 7 million gamers have been drawn to hunt virtual Pokemon.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has asked to be removed from the game, a museum spokesman said while hallowed places including Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, D.C. have urged players to stay away.
Players have been targeted by criminals across the United States as they have often been drawn down dark alleys and into dangerous neighborhoods in search of the imaginary creatures.
Police said that on Tuesday night an armed suspect robbed university students holding their smartphones out to play Pokemon Go in College Park, Maryland. Two men were reportedly robbed and carjacked by a gunman while they were playing a playing the game in a park late on Sunday in Antelope, California. Police said that a group playing the game after midnight on Monday on the streets of Boca Raton, Florida was thrown fireworks from an SUV. However no injuries were reported. A dead body was found by a a 19-year-old woman in Wyoming who set out to catch a Pokemon by the Big Wind River on Friday.
A rash of car accidents in the United States has been blamed on the game. While Auburn New York police said that a car struck a tree while its driver was playing the game while driving, according to reports from Texas A&M University police, an illegally parked car whose driver had exited to catch a Pokemon was struck from behind.
From helping catch elusive suspects to burnishing officers' public image at a time of strained ties between law enforcement and communities throughout the United States, the police have been aided by the Pokemon characters.
An officer on patrol jumped in to join people playing the game on the street in Fall River, Massachusetts on Sunday. Users on Twitter liked a picture of the police more than 4,000 times when it was captured and posted on Twitter.
"They were able to talk about a common subject and it broke all barriers between them," Detective Nelson Sousa told local television station WPRI.
Authorities said that a man sought by police for crimes including attempted murder was caught by two gamers playing in a Fullerton, California park on Tuesday.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
By getting players off the couch and walking outside to play, the app is upending the world of gaming. The game was created by mobile game developer Niantic for Nintendo Co Ltd. Virtual Pokemon characters that appear to pop up at office spaces, restaurants, museums and other places are sought to be found out by players who continue to stare at their phone screens. Including capturing the Pokemon characters with a flick of a finger on their phone screen, players score points in various ways in the game. Nintendo shares surged nearly 25 percent on Monday as the game became the most downloaded free app on Apple's app store.
The game is also facing a backlash less than a week after launching in the United States. More than 7 million gamers have been drawn to hunt virtual Pokemon.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has asked to be removed from the game, a museum spokesman said while hallowed places including Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, D.C. have urged players to stay away.
Players have been targeted by criminals across the United States as they have often been drawn down dark alleys and into dangerous neighborhoods in search of the imaginary creatures.
Police said that on Tuesday night an armed suspect robbed university students holding their smartphones out to play Pokemon Go in College Park, Maryland. Two men were reportedly robbed and carjacked by a gunman while they were playing a playing the game in a park late on Sunday in Antelope, California. Police said that a group playing the game after midnight on Monday on the streets of Boca Raton, Florida was thrown fireworks from an SUV. However no injuries were reported. A dead body was found by a a 19-year-old woman in Wyoming who set out to catch a Pokemon by the Big Wind River on Friday.
A rash of car accidents in the United States has been blamed on the game. While Auburn New York police said that a car struck a tree while its driver was playing the game while driving, according to reports from Texas A&M University police, an illegally parked car whose driver had exited to catch a Pokemon was struck from behind.
From helping catch elusive suspects to burnishing officers' public image at a time of strained ties between law enforcement and communities throughout the United States, the police have been aided by the Pokemon characters.
An officer on patrol jumped in to join people playing the game on the street in Fall River, Massachusetts on Sunday. Users on Twitter liked a picture of the police more than 4,000 times when it was captured and posted on Twitter.
"They were able to talk about a common subject and it broke all barriers between them," Detective Nelson Sousa told local television station WPRI.
Authorities said that a man sought by police for crimes including attempted murder was caught by two gamers playing in a Fullerton, California park on Tuesday.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
