Pokémon Go plays on at RNC, but lawmakers have concerns
Protesters are prohibited. The general public is not allowed in. Only delegates, event staffers and the news media can get inside.
But the restrictions on attending the Republican National Convention in Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena this week do not apply to the digital creatures that populate the popular virtual world called Pokémon Go.
“Haha yes, it appears that Pokemon Go is active,” Alee Lockman, a spokeswoman for the RNC, confirmed in an email. “Apparently the Q is a gym? :)”
The digital game, which utilizes GPS mapping technology and is played on smart phones, has taken the country by storm since its launch earlier this month.
Developed by Niantic Labs in partnership with Nintendo, the game features more than a hundred Pokémon characters, such as Pikachu, Charizard and the elusive Mew and Mewtwo. Players use a virtual map to “capture” the characters in various locations, both indoors and outdoors. Almost overnight, the game has had crowds of users congregating on city streets, in parks, at train stations – just about anywhere.
And now they’ve invaded the RNC.
Yahoo! News reported a week ago that the main convention stage in Quicken Loans Arena is a “Pokémon gym.” Comedian Trevor Noah made a statement by playing the game at the convention. And many others have taken a break from politics to play it, too.
Among members of the New York delegation to the Republican National Convention, however, the game has yet to catch on.
“I’m vaguely aware of it,” said state Senate Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco. “I could probably get my grandson to explain it to you better than I could.”
“I’ve heard about it,” said Rep. Peter King, who hadn’t seen anyone playing Pokémon Go in Cleveland. “I don’t understand it. I know people are walking into walls or walking into buses and everything else.”
Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano said he hadn’t tried the game or seen it played at the RNC, either. But he noted that it has attracted a lot of interest back home, and that local park officials were being trained to monitor the clusters of players it attracts.
“Our concern obviously is looking at your phone while walking and walking into obstacles or other people,” Mangano said.
In Assemblyman Ronald Castorina’s district in Staten Island, there were even complaints from constituents about users wandering through a local cemetery.
“There were certain graves that were marked and picked for extra revival points, and they also had a Pokémon gym in the mausoleum area,” Castorina said. “I had a few mourners that were there that were disturbed by people.”
Soon after the free game was first available to download, Democratic Assemblyman Felix Ortiz made headlines for saying that the state Legislature should scrutinize the activity, with at least one report suggesting the downstate lawmaker might consider legislation to regulate it.
In response, some Republican lawmakers were quick to criticize Ortiz for his call for regulations on the activity.
“That’s the difference between the Republicans and the Democrats,” DeFrancisco said. “Republicans like innovation and new potential for business activity and excitement. Democrats want to regulate.”
Ortiz told City & State that his primary goal is that people who are driving a car refrain from playing the game. Niantic Labs should do more to make users aware of the risks, he added, a point he made in a recent letter to the company. He has yet to hear back.
In the meantime, the assemblyman has tried his hand at the game. “I finally just played Pokémon with my grandchildren, so we went to the park, and it’s a very interesting, fun game as long as people know how to be cautious and to be safe,” he said. “My granddaughters and I, we walked about five miles looking for the Pokémon.”
Ortiz said the game could be a nice diversion at next week’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, too.
“This is fun,” he said. “People get entertained like this. I hope they can get a lot of points by catching the Pokémon at the DNC.”