World religions stake out positions on Pokemon Go Pokemon’s potential for precipitating the end of civilization has been starkly highlighted as the world’s major religions begin to take up positions on the game which sees grownups wandering the planet in pursuit of non-existent entities. Time reports that Saudi clerics have taken a stand against the game, reiterating a pre- …
"So far, we haven’t heard anything from other major religions on Pokemon Go [...]"
The Church of England has encouraged its churches to welcome Pokemon Go players in any way possible. Anything to try to bolster their congregation numbers. Their thinking is reasonable - it is merely a suspension of rational thought to regard imaginary beings as real.
Now it just needs a pair of LGBT Pokemon getting married in those locations to really test their welcome.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36806795
They'll be offered tea and cake.
And eager as always to embrace the new, Dr Spacely-Trellis - the go-ahead Bishop of Bevindon in the Stretchford conurbation - has replaced his daily Worship services with a Pokémon training session and turned the Vestry into a gym. "Are we not all, in a very real sense, pokémon?" said the Bishop, yesterday.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed rumours are that a particularly rare pokémon have been sighted in lovely, sex-maniac haunted Sadcake Park.
(with apologies to Peter Simple)
I live in a part of the world where the older generation is not tech-savvy, but youngsters are.
They have noticed something weird is going on because there's now kids in the park where none used to be. And none of them is paying attention to park-stuff either, all are fixated on their mobile phone.
I digress. I can explain what the game is, but i am having trouble explaining to these folks why its so popular for kids. Hence hearing them come up with various conspiracy theories is hugely entertaining (i recommend it).
I digress again.
To the point then: the devil makes them do it! I suspect all religions will have this view in common if you just know who to talk to :P
"To the point then: the devil makes them do it! I suspect all religions will have this view in common if you just know who to talk to"
The Church of England is actively encouraging people to find Pokemon in its churches. That should be another cause for upset to the more conservative elements of the Anglican Communion.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36806795
"Fuck the druids! I want to hear the FSM's Church opinion!"
Pfft! All these modern new fangled 1st, 2nd and 3rd millenium religions! I tell you something, Charon the Ferryman is getting pretty pissed off with all the Poketards who get lost and end up drowning in the River Styx, and then when asked for payment for passage reply that they've never heard of a Pokemon call Obol before...
This whole pokemon thing sounds like the premise for a great doctor who story: get the planet hooked on some mindless thing, then use it to control their minds.
On a separate note, have you seen the prices of the accessories you can buy - they got from 79p for some balls to throw at your pokecreature to £79 for christ only knows what.
This whole pokemon thing sounds like the premise for a great doctor who story: get the planet hooked on some mindless thing, then use it to control their minds.
"Gotta catch 'em all" - I am still not sure if that means Pokemon or players.
Have you ever looked into Niantic's Ingress game? That's far more frightening when one considers what is actually being encouraged, or perhaps "tested".
Hopefully Pokemon Go will just be a short-lived fad and won't do too much harm.
"The Catholic Church, on the other hand, is taking a far more benign view of the phenomenon. According to Rome Reports, players have been merrily tracking Pokemon around the Vatican, with the little sprites spotted in the fountains at St Peter’s Square."
"and while the world is full of dangers for children, “Pokemon Go isn't one of them."
Add the usual taking the piss out of Catholic priests and the RCC's cover ups HERE____________________
Wasn't that the law of Kansas?
Also many others. Funny how the Religious Right here in the States want to implement what for all intents and purposes are laws that are the same as many in Radical Islam, but have different names.
An old fart writes:
Other than the fact that it's some sort of computer game (which gets its players killed for real) I have no idea what this Pokemon Go thing is.
The question is - do I need to know? Will my life be richer and happier by knowing? Or can I just ignore it like all those other transient phenomena like MySpace, FriendsReunited, Twatbook etc.
You probably don't need to know, no. As I understand it, you trot around with your phone, which superimposes cartoon animals over the live view; which you then capture and train to fight against other people's animals. There's gyms and collectibles and supplies and stuff; but that's the basic idea.
I plan to ignore the whole thing.
AFAIK... It is about collecting virtual things from real world locations.
If said virtual things can be sold for real money, there may be a point to hunting them down, a cost/benefit analysis would be required.
Said virtual things do provide bragging rights to those that also collect said virtual things, so if you have an e-peen that you like to wave about to fellow collectors of said things, there maybe benefits to your ego.
I cannot see any other potential advantage to fsckin around with this stuff. Oh wait... one might get to poke a dead body with a stick. And the gene pool might get a bit of cleansing as some walk into moving traffic whilst focused on a 5"x3" screen.
Joke, meh, doh, stop, go, fail?.... lol most icons seem appropriate.. I won't use one.
Anyone remember an episode called something like "The Game" in which some alien civilization was making everyone catatonic by forcing them to play a moronic game 24 hours a day? Red Dwarf had "Better Than Life" as their version of a brainwashing game/device.
Yes, I do, and if I'd read down the comments a little further then I wouldn't have replied to the post about a dozen above this one. I'd forgotten the Red Dwarf version, though. I wonder if there are other precedents? Perhaps we could, er, make a collection...
I wonder whether the people behind this Pokeyballs craze have thought out the public liability aspects. Two weekends ago (yes before it was released here) my son and I were walking along Morecambe prom and realised this game was showing Pokeyfish (or some such term) in the sea, one of which he said was too far out to access. All it needs is for a couple of kids to follow the fish onto the wrong type of mud and you have more drownings. Or try it on a storm tide........
Almost certainly true. Add to that the probability that your local criminal and paedophile communities are trying to work out how best to use this "opportunity", plus the fact that the children in many countries are just starting on a 6 week break from the usual levels of parental supervision and ...
...perhaps I'll give the News a miss until September.
I'm waiting for the MegaTen franchise to try and get in on this - then you can really wander around trying to capture the Whore of Babylon (http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Harlot). A friend asked if I was playing PG, and I said the same thing - I'd really be into a SMT version, wandering into rivers in search of demons.
He said there's already a game like that out, called 'scopolamine.'
I have not installed Pokemon Go, nor am I curious enough to try. One aspect does pique my curiousity though. My understanding is that when one starts playing both the phone's camera and GPS are switched on. I am curious whether anyone technically knowledgeable has checked whether the phone sends large amounts of data anywhere.
Given that, as far as I understand, players can be lured to "interesting" places by a third party there seem to be interesting possibilities...
Just curious...
The places one can "lure" are public attractions/landmarks like churches, shops and similar.
So there's no additional risk over existing "Come meet me by the church at midnight" comments.
The special locations with activity are all visible on the map from quite some distance, so to some extent it's a lesser risk as everyone playing the game can see that something is afoot.
Mid-20th-c guru of pop-Taoism Alan Watts, and I paraphrase: Posit God. Omni-. Boredom. The only way to amuse Yourself is to hide Your Self-consciousness, to forget that You Exist, but to allow some way for You to get whole again, amusing Yourself for an infinitesimally short time afterward by remembering the trip. That explains the Universe, and Pokemon Go is a model of it. Man loves an inaccurate model, especially if She's stacked.
I don't see how this mobile-phone organized treasure hunt is really harmful (apart from people not looking out when crossing roads, etc because they ware watching their phones). In fact, since many people say that young people and others should get out more, it fulfills one of their wishes about society today. Of course, it would be better if they didn't have their eyes glued to their phones, but its a step in what many would think was a good direction.
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