This week we're seeing some new fear crop up around the intersection of gaming, augmented reality, and mobile devices. There's a new Pokemon game, Pokemon GO, which lets you collect 'em all in a digital real superimposed on the physical.
Yesterday came a story about one player who, seeking "a Pokémon from a natural water resource", found instead a dead human body.
Today comes a story about would-be robbers in Missouri, who apparently used the app to trap victims in isolated locations.
[P]olice believe the suspects used the phone app, which directs users to capture imaginary creatures superimposed onto the real world, to tempt players into secluded areas where they could be easily robbed. At a certain level in the game, he noted, players can congregate at local landmarks to join teams and battle.
“Using the geolocation feature,” Stringer said, “the robbers were able to anticipate the location and level of seclusion of unwitting victims.”
In a separate statement, a department spokesperson added: “you can add a beacon to a pokestop to lure more players. Apparently they were using the app to locate [people] standing around in the middle of a parking lot or whatever other location they were in.”
AR gaming fear really hasn't been a thing. Maybe Pokemon GO pushes it forward.
After all, at least one photographer managed to catch someone playing the game in front of H.R. Giger street art:
(link thanks to Ed Webb; photo by Robert Couse-Smith)
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