Cultural attractions react to Pokemon Go phenomena

Caught up in the Pokemon Go phenomena, cultural attractions, public spaces, parks and even cemeteries are reacting to the players visiting their locations in pursuit of pokémon and virtual prizes.

The Sydney Opera House is inviting Australian Pokemon lovers to play the game at the iconic venue for two hours on Monday (18th July), with the event’s organisers also set to throw a Pokemon Go party.

The event’s Facebook page states that the organisers will pay to lure Pokemon to the landmark venue between middaay and 2pm.

So far more than 500 people have committed to attending the Pokemon Go party at the Opera House, while nearly 1,000 have said they are interested to join the fun.

However, the Opera House stress that the event is not being held in association with Pokemon Go developer Niantic Labs (The Pokemon Company). Usually, places pay to become sponsored Pokemon Go locations, but this is not the case in the event sponsored by the Sydney Opera House.

Meanwhile, not all locations are thrilled with having visitors playing Pokemon Go.

In the USA, the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Arlington Cemetery in Virginia are asking people to stop playing the Pokemon Go during their visits.

Arlington Cemetery issued a tweet stating “We do not consider playing ‘Pokemon Go’ to be appropriate decorum on the grounds of ANC. We ask all visitors to refrain from such activity.”

The Holocaust Museum also issued a similar statement: “Playing Pokémon Go in a memorial dedicated to the victim of Nazism is extremely inappropriate.”

In Europe, a player went in search of a pokémon at the Auschwitz Memorial, leading memorial staff to contact Niantic Labs to ask for it to be removed.

A memorial spokesperson told The New York Times “allowing such games to be active on the site of Auschwitz Memorial is disrespectful to the memory of the victims of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp on many levels.”

Launched on 6th July in North America, the smartphone game, which uses augmented reality to send players in to public places to capture virtual Pokémon, has, as of today, topped 15 million downloads on Apple's App Store and Google Play, according to estimates from research firm SensorTower. 

Pokémon Go is based on the sure of the player’s device camera, so that when they look at their smartphone, they see a Pokémon character superimposed over a real-world object, a feature known as augmented reality.

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