Pokemon Go has some troubling locations marked as landmarks on mobile game

POKEMON GO has taken the world by storm, but in the process, the seemingly innocent game is invading people’s lives.

THE runaway success of smartphone game Pokemon Go has led to an unintended problem as homes and businesses become besieged by gamers.

As part of the Pokémon Gojourney, players are required to visit Pokéstops and PokéGyms to collect valuable items and battle other opponents.

The game uses smartphone GPS to create an in-game map, placing these fictional locations within the physical world.

These locations were designed to be well-known landmarks that could be easily distinguished by players, although we are quickly discovering things aren’t running as smoothly as first planned.

The concept of making players physically gather at location is great until the “landmark” is the Hells Angels headquarters for New Zealand’s Whanganui chapter.

Another dubious location of a Pokéstop is artwork on Kellet Street in Sydney’s Kings Cross, which is the back entrance to the methadone clinic.

Sending players to the headquarters of a real-life Team Rocket or a methadone clinic is bad enough, but the game is also wreaking havoc on residential areas.

Just ask Massachusetts resident Boon Sheridan who learnt his home — an old renovated church, built during the 19th century — was featured as a PokéGym.

“I thought that can’t be right,” he toldThe Atlantic.

After downloading the game and seeing his house was landmarked, he went to bed.

The next day, he gazed out his kitchen window to see a collection of strangers gathered on the sidewalk in front of his home.

“Have you ever seen people standing near each other, but it’s clear they’re not with each other? That was exactly what was happening,” he said.

Mr Sheridan watched as about 40 more strangers gathered in front of his residence that day alone.

Despite his abode being labelled a virtual neighbourhood landmark without his consent or knowledge, Mr Sheridan handled the extra attention like a boss.

These cats figured it out, the bench in the park across the street is close enough to be ‘in’ the gym. pic.twitter.com/HAlVp84cd6

— Boon Sheridan (@boonerang) July 9, 2016

I'm working on a sign for the front, something like "Train well, play with honor, leave as friends" or something equally cornball.

— Boon Sheridan (@boonerang) July 9, 2016

Can’t wait to talk to my neighbors about it. “So, all these people pulling up at all hours? We don’t know them… and we can’t stop it."

— Boon Sheridan (@boonerang) July 10, 2016

Woohoo! I met the owner of my gym. Nice guy. pic.twitter.com/uujdC3JYbA

— Boon Sheridan (@boonerang) July 10, 2016

Despite being interested in the attention, the issue does raise a question of how someone’s home was able to become a landmark for a PokéGym.

It is obvious that Pokémon Go is a maps application with a gaming layer, but it is unclear where the geographical data is coming from — the game has no mention of the mapping data source.

As the game’s producer Niantic Labs was responsible for another augmented-reality mobile app called Ingress, it is possible Pokémon Go’s maps could have been lifted directly from its database.

Alternatively, as Niantic Labs was spun out of Google mid-last year, it is also possible the geographic data is being supplied from Google’s own mapping team.

The latter seems unlikely as Mr Sheridan pointed out his home hasn’t been a Church for more than 40 years.

It opens up new avenues of rights and privacy. Clearly someone used an ancient (40+ year old ) database to still consider this a church.

— Boon Sheridan (@boonerang) July 10, 2016

While making the most of the opportunity, Mr Sheridan finds it strange that there is no option to opt out of having your house landmarked as a gym.

Interesting to note Niantic’s support page says nothing about disputing/removing locations. Ditto the TOS. pic.twitter.com/nUuUAuL2m0

— Boon Sheridan (@boonerang) July 10, 2016

Will Niantic eventually offer controls to the locations with a Gym or PokéStop? Could ‘Do Not Disturb’ hours be set? That could be useful.

— Boon Sheridan (@boonerang) July 10, 2016

All in all, Mr Sheridan admits to being left a little confused by the whole ordeal.

“I’m not sure I can say it’s right or wrong, but it makes me feel really squishy. All these people — there’s the potential for some of these locations to be flooded with strangers overnight,” he said.

“Are we cool with this? No releases were signed. Was this database managed? Was anything done to negotiate the shift in context that was going to happen?”

While the locations of PokeGyms might be causing some trouble, some people think we are lucky to be a country that has the app.

An Australian expat has been sacked by a property development company in Singapore, after posing a rant complaining the app was not available in his country.

Sonny Truyen took to Facebook to voice his outrage over the fact the app was only available in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United States

“You can’t f*****g catch Pokemon in this piece of f*****g s*** country,” he wrote on Facebook over the weekend.

The post caused a heated exchange with another local woman, who told Mr Truyen to get out the county.

Screenshots of the post were show to his employer 99.co and Mr Truyen’s employment contract was terminated.

“Sonny, an SEO specialist, has only started consulting for us for a week before the incident happened,” read a statement on the company’s website.

“We are a proud Singaporean company and do not condone such language or behaviour, hence we have since terminated his engagement once the incident came to light.

“I apologise on behalf of 99.co, we pride ourselves to be a principled company that celebrates values like diversity and equality.

“We take responsibility for the public behaviour of any employee or consultant affiliated with us as a reflection of the company.”