Pokemon Go mob angers residents of small Sydney suburb for disturbance

Pokemon Go is the hottest game today and the fever has also hit Australians. While observers are happy that the game brought out young people from their homes into doing something more physical without dropping their devices, some residents of a small Sydney suburb are not happy at all with the Pokemon Go fad.

The anger arises from a mob – or hundreds – of Pokemon Go players converging at night on a playground in Rhodes, which is in the middle of a residential area, to hunt for Pokemons, reports Business Insider. The playground, surrounded by apartment complexes, has three overlapping Pokestops – which offers players thrice the Pokemon, thrice the items and thrice the experience points – but likely thrice the noise which sleeping residents could not stand.

Pokestops are real-life locations where players interact as they walk around, using their mobile phones, to stumble upon Pokemon and acquire items and experience points to level up. But since players are continuously making the three Pokestops into lures, wherein it is the Pokemon that comes to the player, the playground attracts young people in hordes because the overlap allows players to enjoy the benefits of lures all at once without having to move at all.

With more than 1,000 visitors at night, noise levels are up after midnight, plus gridlock, trash, smoke, drunken players, people who practically camp at the site and small entrepreneurs selling mobile phone chargers. Despite the Rhodes city council having deployed extra park rangers nightly to maintain cleanliness at the playground, many residents would rather have those players go elsewhere to play Pokemon Go.

The New York Post reports that although many parents are happy because Pokemon Go brought their kids outside, the game has several downsides as well. There are reports of injuries and thefts happening because the players are too concentrated on catching the cartoon characters bouncing on their screens.

Like many computer or online games, Pokemen Go could develop into extreme addiction like 21-year-old Michael Baker of Forest Grove Oregon who was stabbed by a stranger on the shoulder while he was playing. But after being knifed, Baker recalls, “I continued my mission to Plaid Pantry for my mission for chips and beer,” quotes Fox 12.

Admitting he risked his life for the game, Baker eventually sought medical treatment for the stab wound which required eight stitches on his shoulder. In the eyes of his fellow players, the 21-year-old is even worth congratulating for being a “savage,” which is what one of his friends posted on Baker’s Facebook page.

Parents’ nightmare over Pokemon Go are just beginning because Niantic, the developer of the game, plans to enter into sponsored location agreements with companies, according to Niantic chief John Hanke, reports Gizmodo. An Australian student did some sleuthing and revealed that one of the sponsors is fastfood chain McDonald’s which would mean kids playing Pokemon Go would also be gorging on the burgers and fries of the store blamed for rising obesity rates.

VIDEO: Discover Pokemon in the Real World with Pokemon GO!