Pokémon Go players are still dealing with threats while out in the wild

You don’t usually expect to run into trouble, let alone receive threats, for playing video games. Pokémon Go players, however, are reporting facing instances of intimidation when out hunting in the wild, sparking a discussion on the game’s safety.

In a Reddit post dated Nov. 26, a player named u/haelous shared an experience where they were out in a park looking to catch a Mareep and were threatened by a lady out of nowhere. “I don’t know if this lady thought I was staking out her house or something, but she asked me if I ‘needed police’ and then told me to ‘get out of here,’” they said, before asking whether the community still faces such weird situations. 

The post attracted comments from several other Pokémon Go players who have had similar experiences in parks and other public places. 

One player wrote about the time when their brother was accused of “filming children at the park” and had to deal with the cops because of it. “It was community day. My brother showed the cops his Journal and Pokémon collection to prove he was just playing Pokémon Go lol,” they wrote and led to a number of players reiterating why they don’t visit children’s parks for their PoGo sessions. 

Another player shared a hilarious, yet scary experience from when Pokémon Go was newly released, and with us facing similar situations seven years after its launch, it begs an important question, are people still not aware of it? 

In 2023, it’s strange that innocent players are having to face the police for using public space to complete in-game missions and there’s no true solution.

Another Reddit post on Nov. 25 highlighted an incident where a player’s sibling was threatened by a PoGo player—an old lady—for trying to take over a Gym. The lady allegedly threatened to “make Sib’s in-game life hard by kicking them out of every Gym in the future” if they didn’t back off from capturing Gyms. 

So it isn’t just misunderstood police reports, but also bullying that haunts Pokémon Go players out in public. Interestingly, none of these infuriating incidents seem to affect the game’s popularity, with players urging victims to not care about it because everyone has the right to public spaces.

For harassment cases, however, affected players should consider reporting it to Niantic, as, despite all the complaints we have against the devs, it’s known for being strict against any form of bullying.