Enjoy game, but don’t go crazy over Pokemon GO

Few can dispute that PokeMon GO, the downloadable mobile app game of search and destroy, has jettisoned into an international gaming sensation.

Pokemania has soared to amazing heights in the Mahoning Valley, the nation and most of our interconnected world. The app, based on the popular 1990s game and introduced one month ago, has been downloaded more than 100 million times, exceeding the venerable Twitter and Facebook.

Tony DeAscentis, CEO of Ving, a communications-platform company at the Youngstown Business Incubator, succinctly summarized the phenom when speaking from Atlanta recently: “People are playing it here. People are playing it in New York. People are playing it in Youngstown. People are playing it everywhere. It’s crazy – crazy fun.”

One nugget of advice to the growing hordes of Pokemon – or pocket monster – hunters: Enjoy your game, but don’t go too crazy.

RULES TO PLAY BY

Toward that end, let us offer up a few additional game rules. First, play safely. Because Pokemon GO requires physical contact with the outside world to win, the hazards of a real-world playing field cannot be overlooked.

Countless injuries have been reported from trips, falls and collisions among gamers paying too much attention to their screens while giving too little focus to their surroundings.

Pokemon GO enthusiasts also must play responsibly and respectfully. The app is no license for lawbreaking, as many have done through trespassing on private property or loitering on public property at all hours of the night.

Pokemon GO players must also understand the importance of good old-fashioned decorum. There are proper and improper places to get your Pokemon on. For example, silly monster games should not play out in churches, cemeteries and hallowed memorial grounds. The app has received deserved criticism for leading players to such austere landmarks as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum and Arlington National Cemetery.

All of which is not to say that the game is devoid of any merits. Above all else, it is encouraging a generation of young (and some not-so-young) players to finally step outside, exercise and physically explore their communities. Visitors to Boardman Park and Courthouse Square Park in Warren have increased markedly in recent weeks, thanks to roving Pokemon explorers.

The game also has been in the bull’s-eye of real-world heroics. In Cincinnati, four Pokemon hunters helped to save the lives of two people who had overdosed. In Massachusetts, a quick-witted player alerted firefighters of a blaze at a nail salon, likely saving the structure from ruins.

Given the game’s many positives, we will not be stick-in-the-muds by discouraging its play. But we will, however double down on our call for responsible, respectable and safe playing. Doing so will help prevent virtual-world scavenger hunts from ending up in real-world hospitals and jails.