Pokemon GO

If this were not the Speaking Of... Blog I would have used a flashy headline for this story - like "Pokemon GO Home" or something similar - but it's not.  The traditional structure of the headlines here are to address the subject being discussed, hence the headline for this piece, which is "Speaking of. . . Pokemon GO" which I have to admit is pretty basic.

News that is Not about Pokemon GO

As shocking as this may be to you, and in spite of the plethora of headlines that appears to indicate otherwise, over the course of the past two weeks there have been newsworthy events related to video games and gaming that did NOT involve Nintendo's Pokemon GO.

We totally understand how you might have formed the idea that all games news was Pokemon GO related news considering the wide range of headlines that suggest that over the past two weeks. To illustrate that point, check out this randomly selected list of headlines (and their sources) appearing in newspapers, on TV, in news magazines, and of course, on news websites:

Headline examples of the former include

• Hillary Clinton Gets in On 'Pokémon Go' (US News)
• Indiana Animal Shelter Enlists Help of Pokemon Go Players to Walk Dogs (ABC TV News)
• Jeremy Corbyn learns to play Pokemon Go (BBC News)
• Pokemon Go: Pikachu pops up on Downing Street (BBC News)
• Pokémon Go players scavenge across Toronto ahead of game's official release in Canada (CBC News)
• T-Mobile Exempting 'Pokemon Go' Data on Network, Sparking Concerns About Access (ABC TV News)
• The Westboro Baptist Church Is Getting Owned In Pokémon Go (The Atlas)

In addition to those examples of what can only be thought of as “good” news, there were also a hell of a lot of headlines covering very obviously negative - or “bad” - stories offering a less-than-positive take on the Pokemon GO phenomenon, including:

While headline examples of the latter include

• 2 California men fall off edge of ocean bluff while playing 'Pokemon Go' (LA Times)
• I got caught cheating through Pokémon Go (New York Post)
• In a toilet, at a funeral and at the birth of their child: The strangest places fans of Pokemon Go have tried to catch them all (Daily Mail)
• Law Enforcement Reminds Pokémon Go Players 'It's Only a Game,' as Stories Spread of Related Crimes (People Magazine)
• Man hits tree and crashes car while playing Pokemon Go (Washington Post)
• Pokémon Go: armed robbers use mobile game to lure players into trap (The Guardian)
• Teenager Finds Dead Body While Playing Pokemon Go (KCWY TV News)

You may have noticed that we intentionally restricted our examples to seven - which is equal to the number of good examples above -- though you may be interested to learn that there were actually a LOT more examples of bad news than there were good respecting the game.

Real News that was NOT about Pokemon GO includes

While all of this was going on - and various news agencies and their reporters all over the country and world were covering what Pokemon GO brought to the world, a lot of OTHER newsworthy events were ALSO taking place.

Just for fits-and-shiggles I've put together a selection of headlines for other newsworthy events that do not relate to Pokemon GO that also took place during the same period in time - figuring that you might like to know what you missed while your preferred news reporting agency put its efforts into covering the Pokemon GO related events and stories.

So below, for your pleasure and in some cases entertainment, we offer you real news events and headlines that were NOT about Pokemon GO:

• After Dallas, RNC Organizers Eye Ohio's Open-Carry Laws Warily (DN News)
• Courts cut online access to criminal cases (Boston Globe)
• Chick-fil-A’s Cow Appreciation Day: But What About Chickens? (Huffington Post)
• PS4 mods update, LAST Bethesda DLC release date, Nuka-World news (Express)
• Poll Finds Voters in Both Parties Unhappy With Their Candidates (New York Times)
• Snowden accuses US of ‘threatening behavior’ (MSNBC)
• Sorry, retirees, don’t expect a hike in your 2017 Social Security check (Miami Herald)

Now granted, most of the stories listed above could not possibly be of interest to more than a handful of readers/viewers, not like the massive importance of Pokemon GO...

Okay Jim, turn off the Sarcasm Generator, I think we've made our point.

The real question here is not "why did so many otherwise reputable news agencies devote so much time, energy, and money to reporting on the many Pokemon GO stories?" but what about serving the public interest?

Even when stories had to be creatively adjusted to provide proper circumstances for an amusing headline or ten, what's the deal here?

Pokemon GO may be a very important game - at least to investors and crew at Nintendo, The Pokemon Company, Game Freak, and Niantic Studios, that's beyond doubt.

I think that if we try hard enough, we can even make a case that the fresh shot - no the massive injection - of cash into Nintendo's bank accounts could even result in a trickle-down effect on the local economy in Redmond, Washington - home base for Nintendo of America...

Heck if we are really looking to stretch credulity, that same case might be made for the local economy in communities around Seattle's Northgate Mall, the Tacoma Mall in Tacoma, Washington, and even downtown New York City, since all of those locations happen to be Pokémon Centers!

If you aren't aware of it, Pokémon Centers are not just locations in games -- they are also real-world shops that double as tourism destinations for PokeFans that serve as combination Store and PokeShrine |where all things Pokémon are magnified 10,000%.

Wait... Technically I should remove New York City off of that list, as its Pokémon Center officially closed a few years ago, having been replaced by a Super PokéStore, but still, let me have that one, okay?

The point here is not how much money the game is generating, but rather that while Pokémon is a great game - heck I play it myself and I am very close to having a complete Pokédex including the Legendary 'Mons in Pokémon X.  But it is STILL just a game.

The real question in my mind is, why does it take something like Donald Trump being declared Republican Candidate for President to distract our attention from the antics of Pokémon GO?

It shouldn't.

Pokémon GO should have been like any other craze or phenomenon - it should have received its officially allotted 15 minutes of fame and then it should have nicely faded into the background.

The only reason I can see for that not having happened is because editors all over the world have been using it in the same way that private companies are jumping on the GO band wagon to capitalize on its name recognition - well that and using the idiotic behavior of its player base - as filler and even headline content because why? Because it is easy, that's why.

So here is my plea to editors all over the world:  Don't be easy.

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