City wants Pokemon Go crowd to disappear around ferry terminal
Hundreds of players camp out, hunting monsters, as Toronto looks to game creator Niantic to move some of the nine Pokestops in the waterfront area
These gosh darn kids and their gosh darn Pokemon Go.
After a few weeks of being the most popular mobile game in recent history, Pokemon Go is now facing backlash from the city of Toronto, which is trying to mitigate the crowds playing the game at the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal.
Hundreds of people have been camped out almost 24 hours a day at the park by the terminal, hunting for virtual pocket monsters on their phone. The park and surrounding area is also the site of nine Pokestops — in-game locations where players congregate. Players have also been setting up lures — bait that attracts more virtual monsters to the stops.
The end result is a constant crowd of hundreds of players at all hours of the day and night, hoping to be the very best like no one ever before.
Matthew Cutler, spokesman for Toronto’s parks and recreation department, said the city has reached out to Niantic, the game’s developer, to move some of the stops to other parks and ease the pressure on the ferry terminal.
“We love the game. We love what it’s doing in terms of bringing people into the public realm. We’re just of the mind that there may be a better park in the city for this kind of concentration of play,” he said.
Cutler said the city has had mostly positive experiences with players, with some organizing park cleanups or talking to city staff about bringing in more recycling and trash bins. The player’s behaviour has not been a problem, he said.
“The real issue here is the bigger security and crowd management risk we have,” he said.
Niantic said in a statement they’re reviewing all requests to remove pokestops, but have received more than they’re able to handle at once.
“We’ve been overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response from the Pokemon GO community. That enthusiasm has led players to visit many real world locations, and we have received requests to remove some locations. We are moving quickly to review all such requests,” the statement said.
The company set up a link for anyone who wants to request removal of a Pokestop.
The city’s move comes after a number of other cities have dealt with the sudden influx of Pokemon Go players in public and private areas. City council in Sydney, Australia managed to get Niantic to remove one Pokestop that had been causing trouble for residents nearby. Another Pokestop, at a memorial for a baby who died, was removed at the request of his mother.
The situation has been a unique one for mobile games, according to Ryan Cash, founder of Torontobased Snowman games. Cash and his studio had a runaway hit a few years ago with a game called Alto’s Adventure, and he said he appreciates the PR headache Pokemon Go’s popularity is creating for its developers.
“It’s almost like Uber, where half their job is fighting legal battles. They’re going to have so many problems (locally),” he said.
“Obviously, they didn’t plan for that when they were making the game.”
But Cash thinks any news is good news for Pokemon, because of the love the franchise enjoys from children as well as young adults who grew up with the games.
“They have an IP (intellectual property) that tons and tons of people love, especially the people that grew up playing the original Pokemon games,” he said.
Current players aren’t happy about the news of a possible relocation.
Wen Zhuo, has spent many hours at the ferry terminal, well into the night. He said he’s made friends with other players while bonding over their shared experiences with the game.
“I like the environment. I live in Scarborough, and every morning I (used to) run. I didn’t talk to people. When I come down here, I have my buddies and we can talk,” he said.
Shirley Huang and Eric Liu, two other players, spent a few hours Tuesday night walking around the crowds at the terminal, catching Pokemon and selling phone chargers in the shape of pokeballs to other players. Both said they would be sad to see the area lose its Pokemon magic.
“It actually brings people together. The normal games that you usually have in your phone . . . encourage kids to stay indoors. This is the first game that brought people out,” Huang said.