A world gone mad. Man shot dead while playing Pokémon Go in San Francisco

Augmented reality seems like a potentially wonderful thing, and I personally find the whole Pokémon Go phenomena to be very interesting from a sociological viewpoint. This game has brought augmented reality to the masses, and in my city I've seen masses of young people (and a few older ones) engaged in this game. In a not dissimilar fashion to those staring at their phones, the game appears to take a large portion of one's focus, to the detriment of an awareness of the larger world around you.

It should come as no surprise that this headline pops up.

www.theguardian.com...

A 20-year-old man has been shot dead while playing Pokémon Go at a tourist spot on San Francisco’s waterfront, authorities have said.

Calvin Riley was shot on Saturday night by an unknown assailant at Aquatic Park near Ghirardelli Square, the US Park police said.

A family friend, John Kirby, told local station KGO-TV that Riley and a friend were playing Pokémon Go when Riley was shot.

“From what we know there was no confrontation. There was nothing said back and forth. It was just senseless, just came up and shot in the back and ran away for nothing,” he said.

Senseless indeed.

It’s unclear whether the attack had anything to do with Pokémon Go, which has become a national sensation this summer as legions of fans visit real-world landmarks in order to find and trap cartoon creatures.

But the game’s popularity has created unintended consequences in everyday life. Property owners complain of players trespassing or damaging their grounds and scores of players have been injured or robbed as they stare at their phones in search of digital monsters.

Meanwhile in Taiwan.

www.theguardian.com...

Pokémon Go was only released in Taiwan on Saturday – but hundreds of eager players have already been fined for playing the game on their phones while driving.

According to the National Police Agency, 349 fines have been doled out since Saturday. Most of those fines went to people playing the game on motorcycles.

And the list goes on;

www.sfgate.com...

indianexpress.com...

As these augmented realities become more familiar to everyday people, there will be more and more bizarre incidents. Like 'death by selfie', I expect this to be a new and untapped source of Darwin Awards.

a reply to: cuckooold

Is this a Pokémon Go issue or a random psycho nutjob issue? Part of the article seems to stray towards blaming the game instead of a short-tempered asshole with a gun. If someone's already decided they can take a life for nothing, Pokemon becomes kinda meaningless in the killing.

Further afield, is it Pokémon Go that causes trespassing or is it a minority of players who aren't respecting people's property? Some of those will be oblivious to property laws at the best of times lol.

Incidentally, Ghirardelli Square looks beautiful like a mix of America and Mediterranean culture. Looks like the type of place where witnesses and CCTV would be active 24/7.

a reply to: Kandinsky

Hey Kandinsky, not sure about those propagating the violence, perhaps random psychos, but those playing the game seem to present an easy target, with too much on their focus on their phone, and not enough on the potentially dangerous world around them.

Like this famous video illustrates, it's easy to miss the obvious.

a reply to: cuckooold

Not a lot of 'street smarts' with some people and especially if they're out at night and not being alert. Is there a stat for how many have wandered into traffic? That's got to be a thing.

I'm still more interested in how someone can be murdered in the streets and the killer walks away.

There was a short series of shootings in the Liverpool area. Guys shot at with no rhyme or reason and luckily no deaths. The guy was caught iirc.

seems like gang initiation. gotta kill someone to join kind of thing.

originally posted by: cuckooold
a reply to: Kandinsky

Hey Kandinsky, not sure about those propagating the violence, perhaps random psychos, but those playing the game seem to present an easy target, with too much on their focus on their phone, and not enough on the potentially dangerous world around them.

Like this famous video illustrates, it's easy to miss the obvious.

i got 16 passes, and yes, i saw the Gorilla..

originally posted by: SaturnFX
seems like gang initiation. gotta kill someone to join kind of thing.

Or initiation for a Christian warrior to terminate the host body containing all those little virtual world demons.

Pokemon is 'pocket mon(ster)' so a crazy religious guy could be wiping out assumed possessed humans, according to what their handler has ordered them to do.

It wouldn't surprise me if gang type wars start breaking out over the game, to have control of the gyms / territory.

I joined it to see what it was about and certainly it can be very addictive, I was hooked for about a week and went out hunting with my 26yr old son, quite fun and enjoyed the time together !

What I noticed one night while out is how territorial one becomes about having control of your local gym (it's where you put your Pokemon to battle others, there are three teams, yellow, blue and red and you join one at a certain level), which are often in community areas and local parks.

My son and I are team yellow and he had won a gym in a local park and we were checking on it, then a car full of young people arrived from a different team to try to take over the gym from team blue, let's just say it got very uncomfortable my son said come on let's go and we quickly left as we were on foot.

Whilst it's a lot of fun I can see how it can create gangs and potentially turf wars !

a reply to: Rapha

I agree they are demons I'm gonna kill one later.
They are leading people to their doom! they must be stopped!.

originally posted by: TheKnightofDoom
I agree they are demons I'm gonna kill one later.
They are leading people to their doom! they must be stopped!.

Lol.

All a terrorist would have to do now, is hack in, put a very rare creature at a gym, wait for everyone to rush there and then boom; they let off a real explosive.

I think the game is dumb, my gf tinkers with it (never played) but it is Yet "another" thing that the "thugs" have to ruin.....We know who is doing it.

a reply to: cuckooold

Smart phones and social media have caused society to have less face-to-face communication causing people to be more caustic and extreme than they might be in real life. Now some genius invented a game to further isolate us from reality and make us totally unaware of our surroundings. This technology has caused distracted drivers to lose their lives. Now games are becoming dangerous to play. It seems like were heading down a path where technology has removed us from our surrounding reality, and in some cases has endangered and caused us to lose our lives.

If I had to venture a guess, I would say this had nothing to do with the game, except that it was a distraction for the victim.
The shooter was either a random nut job, or as another poster suggested, possibly a gang initiation killing.

originally posted by: iTruthSeeker
I think the game is dumb, my gf tinkers with it (never played) but it is Yet "another" thing that the "thugs" have to ruin.....We know who is doing it.

Ooh I love riddles; no hints now.

Let's see, is it those awful left-handed people?

a reply to: cuckooold

probably just co-incidence the guy was playing pokeman-go... same with the guy who was held up in a london park whilst playing the game by someone with a gun who stole the guys phone.

Property owners complain of players trespassing or damaging their grounds and scores of players have been injured or robbed as they stare at their phones in search of digital monsters.

Who goes on a treasure hunt wth no treasure at the end?

Thats the most amazing thing to me. Anyone remember the cash prizes buried somewhere and clues in the media to where they are buried?

At the end of that rainbow there was a horde of cash.

How about the soda pop challenge to find the bottle cap that said you won a hundred thousand dollars? I remember shopping in the supermarket and coming upon an isle littered with dozens of bottle caps from people popping them off soda bottles to find the prize.

Now aways people get shot, mugged and robbed for nuthin..?

originally posted by: Kandinsky
Further afield, is it Pokémon Go that causes trespassing or is it a minority of players who aren't respecting people's property? Some of those will be oblivious to property laws at the best of times lol.

I've worked enough food service/retail/customer service in my life to know that using the phrase "minority of players" would be a gross understatement. With how little respect many people have for anything, I'm sure the "minority of players" are the ones respecting property lines. :

This was a thread about Zimmerman punching someone.
What just happened.

a reply to: cuckooold

In other words, this had absolutely nothing to do with Poke-go. Great story!

originally posted by: WeRpeons
a reply to: cuckooold

Smart phones and social media have caused society to have less face-to-face communication causing people to be more caustic and extreme than they might be in real life. Now some genius invented a game to further isolate us from reality and make us totally unaware of our surroundings. This technology has caused distracted drivers to lose their lives. Now games are becoming dangerous to play. It seems like were heading down a path where technology has removed us from our surrounding reality, and in some cases has endangered and caused us to lose our lives.

I've met more people face-to-face while playing Pokemon Go with my kids in the last two weeks than I had in the previous 6 months (or maybe a year). I walked down the street with a neighbor looking for Dratini. We didn't find it, but we had a good talk. At the local park, there are always groups of people running back and forth, shouting out to one another about the location of this pokemon or that one. For example, some little kid will shout, "It's Gyrados! Over here!" and everyone will go running in that direction, across the field. The little kids get so excited, it's fun to watch.

I also saw a group of teenage boys on Team Mystic literally running from pokestop to pokestop, practically in formation. What a great way to get exercise. And no, you don't have to look at your screen while you're running.

The game is surprisingly social.