PICK-A-BLUE
EXCLUSIVE Councillor tells gaming giant to get ‘maniacs’ off his grass
A GOLD Coast councillor wants one of the world’s biggest gaming giants to Pokemon Go-away.
Hermann Vorster has written to Nintendo pleading with the company to remove a Robina park from its worldwide phenomenon Pokemon Go, because “maniacs” keep trampling grass and wrecking a nature strip.
Game buffs have been driving to Lake Lomandra Park in Olympus Dve to “capture” fictional characters in the smartphone game.
Cr Vorster says some have been parking vehicles illegally and have killed trees and other vegetation. “While it is wonderful to see Poke-mania raging on like a flame burst from a level 32 Charizard, the latest incarnation of Pokemon does not come without its social costs,” Cr Vorster wrote.
A GOLD Coast Councillor is taking on one of world’s biggest gaming giants because Pokemon “maniacs” keep trampling grass and wrecking a nature strip.
Hermann Vorster, who admits to being a Pokemon “maniac’’, has written to Nintendo in Japan asking it remove a Robina park from its worldwide phenomon, Pokemon Go.
Game buffs have been driving to Lake Lomandra Park in Olympus Dr to “capture” fictional characters in the VR smartphone game.
Players go to public locations and use their phone to search for the creatures, including the famous electric mouse Pikachu, with the device vibrating as they appear.
Cr Vorster says some have been parking vehicles illegally and have killed trees and other vegetation, causing $14,000 damage.
The park is one of thousands of locations worldwide where the characters congregate and give players points. While Pokemon Go was at its height two years ago, 5 million people play it daily across the world.
“While it is wonderful to see Poke-mania raging on like a flame burst from a level 32 Charizard, the latest incarnation of Pokemon does not come without its social costs,” Cr Vorster wrote in his letter to Nintendo.
“A Pokemon Go location has induced a significant amount of unlawful parking on a road reserve which appears to have compacted soil to the point nearby where very beautiful trees have now failed and died. I love trees as much as any Trevenant, so I secured $14,000 to replace the trees, rehabilitate the soil and install yellow lines along the road but this seems to be all for nought as the poke maniacs persist.”
Cr Vorster has asked Nintendo to help lobby the game’s original developer, Niantic, to relocate the Pokemon to a “safer location” such as Varsity Lakes’ Frascott Park.
“I would love Frascott Park to become an epicentre of the Pokemon Go universe and would welcome an opportunity to work with Nintendo to promote it.”
It is not the first time Cr Vorster has had issues with Pokemon fans. In 2016 he blasted players for game-themed graffiti through Varsity Lakes.
Pokemon the video game was created in 1996. It focuses on trainers capturing and training “pocket monsters” to battle each other.