Pokémon Go and the rails.

[infobleep]

Nobody was writing about military exclusion areas, but specifically about railway track in areas with sufficient population to be interesting to Niantic. However OpenStreetMap already has UK military exclusion areas marked as well as other sensitive sites such as AWE.

OpenStreetMap includes the current layout of Reading station including the location of Boots on the new overbridge. If this level of detail is available to an open source project then I still don't see the problem for companies with the resources of Google and Nintendo to make the active railway 'out of bounds' for Pokémon but to place the 'hot spots' in or near station buildings.

OK. I've not looked at Open Street Map for some time. I only mentioned millitery because they are also not safe at times. You can't focus on one area of safety. It needs to cover all safety issues within reason. Otherwise what's the point? It's OK they didn't die on the railway. They got hit by some millitery bullets. Oh that's OK then. No its not, they still died.

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--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Please don't use OSM as the font of all accuracy. To do this properly requires data surveyed to the accuracy that is available in commercial products that use surveying grade equipment. I say that as someone who worked with mapping data for 11 years and as a contributer to OSM. In the UK that means OS MasterMap which is generally accurate to 1:1250. I would also not consider smartphone GPS to be accurate (in my last job my smartphone GPS put me in the Solent despite the office being about 500m inland) meaning the buffer around features would be large.

I quite agree.

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[Bayum]

Just wondering when posters are going to apologise for their rudeness when they've been shown they're wrong by others...

 

[rebmcr]

Just wondering when posters are going to apologise for their rudeness when they've been shown they're wrong by others...

Ha! I think you misinterpret the kind of person who likes to visit this forum!

 

[cjmillsnun]

People should take responsibility for themselves (and, where applicable, their kids). End of.

Agreed.

 

[coppercapped]

Ha! I think you misinterpret the kind of person who likes to visit this forum!

Super!

So here goes...I apologise for suggesting a possible solution to the perceived problem of some Pokémon Go players being tempted to trespass on a live railway in the search for Pokémon characters. In an ideal world people would follow the rules and take care of their own safety - as this is an ideal world I agree, there is no need to change anything.

Anyway, in half a year Pokémon Go will be history and we'll all wonder what the fuss was about.

(And I am fully aware of the limits of accuracy of OpenStreetMap and the size of the circle of error in commercial GPS systems. Darwin rules...OK!)

 

[headshot119]

Super!

So here goes...I apologise for suggesting a possible solution to the perceived problem of some Pokémon Go players being tempted to trespass on a live railway in the search for Pokémon characters. In an ideal world people would follow the rules and take care of their own safety - as this is an ideal world I agree, there is no need to change anything.

Anyway, in half a year Pokémon Go will be history and we'll all wonder what the fuss was about.

(And I am fully aware of the limits of accuracy of OpenStreetMap and the size of the circle of error in commercial GPS systems. Darwin rules...OK!)

As someone who plays Pokémon Go, and has an interest in trains I thought I'd give a bit of input.

Network Rail and the TOCs have jumped on the bandwagon with the launch of the game in my opinion, rightly so to warn people about the wider dangers of railway trespass, not just in relation to playing the game.

The way the game works very few Pokémon actually spawn in places you can't get at them, if they pop up on your screen then you are in range of them, so it's not like you'd trespass because one was there, you'd have to do the trespassing first to realise one was there.

I also think you underestimate the following this game has got, people like me who played Pokémon Red (Blue & Yellow) on the Gameboy back in 1999 are having a good time of a game we could only have imagined back then. People who didn't grow up with Pokémon now have a chance to get in on a game using some real modern technology.

I can almost guarantee there'll be content delivery into the game for the next couple of years.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Exactly what have you been told by Parliment that you can't do that has eroded your civil liberties (being told not to do something that causes harm/ unnecessary inconvenience to others doesn't count)?

The right to go about my business in private without being spied on from all corners (i.e. mass surveillance in the interests of public safety), the right to conduct my business in private without the snooper's charter, the fear of going to court for exercising my dissent to something, that I have to use political correctness instead of saying what I want, the fact that I can't use domestic 100W light bulbs inside my house (rough service excepted) or a vacuum cleaner above 1200Watts (EU meddling) etc etc...

 

[TheKnightWho]

Super!

So here goes...I apologise for suggesting a possible solution to the perceived problem of some Pokémon Go players being tempted to trespass on a live railway in the search for Pokémon characters. In an ideal world people would follow the rules and take care of their own safety - as this is an ideal world I agree, there is no need to change anything.

Anyway, in half a year Pokémon Go will be history and we'll all wonder what the fuss was about.

(And I am fully aware of the limits of accuracy of OpenStreetMap and the size of the circle of error in commercial GPS systems. Darwin rules...OK!)

Yet you are still failing to understand that your perceived problem is premised on something which simply isn't the case.

 

[talltim]

I had a quick peek at Heathrow on the Pokemon map https://pokevision.com before it went offline. There were no Pokemon spawning within the airfield, although there were some along the northern border where the terminals are ( I think) only a small sample, but I think there may be some sort of blocking overlay for large prohibited sites, either that of there are no phones active in that area.
What does annoy me is that the Platform 5a PokéStop at Sheffield station is actually on platform 6a/7...

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Originally Posted by coppercapped
... considering Nintendo's share price practically doubled it should easily be affordable..

I wouldn't drag Nintendo into this, their share price dropped and levelled when people realised they don't actually have much to do with Pokémon Go.

In any case, the share price doubling would not make any company any more money; it would be the investors who already held shares who would profit - and then only if they sold them while the price was above what they paid for them.

A company only gets money from shares when they are issued. Any profits or losses on the share price after that point lie with the investors.

 

[jon0844]

I am not sure the game has that much life in it. Possibly a year or two, but then something else will come along.

That's not to say that another game working on the same principle with AR won't come, but people will get tired of this after a while - especially when it will begin to direct you to retailers (e.g. McDonald's) and want even more money from you.

That said, I'm stunned people still spend vast sums of money on in app purchases on really simple, repetitive, games. Obviously it's because it triggers the same feelings as when gambling, but thus far no Government has sought to regulate things.

 

[Orange Box]

Of course rather than going into a panic and the usual outrage you could actually use the game as something positive..

https://www.c2c-online.co.uk/about-us/latest-news-press-releases/one-day-go-rover-ticket-special/

From above posts you'd have expected this to stop the job for the entire day.

 

[coppercapped]

Yet you are still failing to understand that your perceived problem is premised on something which simply isn't the case.

Is that so?

(My post was an apology. Hint: it includes the word 'apology'!)

 

[infobleep]

Of course rather than going into a panic and the usual outrage you could actually use the game as something positive..

https://www.c2c-online.co.uk/about-us/latest-news-press-releases/one-day-go-rover-ticket-special/

From above posts you'd have expected this to stop the job for the entire day.

I think that's a good idea to promote the railway. Sometimes we need to embrace change and things that come along.

I don't play games myself. Perhaps I'm missing out but I have lots of other things I enjoy doing I don't have the time.

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[Baggypants]

So what we can say for certain is that posters on RailUKForums have as much clue about Pokemon Go as the person who chooses the photographs for rail related news stories.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

On Saturday some kids knackered up my journey through tresspassing at Cheltenham Spa, this will be to do with this Pokemon thing. I didn't understand what the fuss was about in the late 90's about it and I don't understand it now and yet I'm in my late 20's.

 

[headshot119]

On Saturday some kids knackered up my journey through tresspassing at Cheltenham Spa, this will be to do with this Pokemon thing. I didn't understand what the fuss was about in the late 90's about it and I don't understand it now and yet I'm in my late 20's.

But you don't actually know if it was anything to do with Pokemon Go. Trespass has been going on for years. :roll:

 

[TheKnightWho]

On Saturday some kids knackered up my journey through tresspassing at Cheltenham Spa, this will be to do with this Pokemon thing. I didn't understand what the fuss was about in the late 90's about it and I don't understand it now and yet I'm in my late 20's.

All trespassing must now be Pokemon Go?

 

[NorthernSpirit]

All trespassing must now be Pokemon Go?

Well if its under 18 that are involved with walking around on the railway line its likely that it may be down to Pokemon Go.

 

[Domh245]

Well if its under 18 that are involved with walking around on the railway line its likely that it may be down to Pokemon Go.

And equally likely that they were just killing time/looking for a lost ball/etc

 

[J-2739]

Well if its under 18 that are involved with walking around on the railway line its likely that it may be down to Pokemon Go.

What makes you think that under 18 are the only ones who play Pokémon Go?

 

[IanD]

Well if its under 18 that are involved with walking around on the railway line its likely that it may be down to Pokemon Go.

What was my excuse when I was under 18? Hardly any computers back then let alone any technology you'd want to be lugging around with you. We just wanted to get a look at the trains.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Yup, no computers or mobile phones. Got one's kicks bunking around depots and sidings collecting numbers - especially of scrap lines

Can't think what all the fuss is about ....:roll:

 

[NorthernSpirit]

What makes you think that under 18 are the only ones who play Pokémon Go?

Its who its targeted at - a new audiance, those who are 27 and over will remember the first time it came out and will probably think back to when they were young.

Anyway lets get back on topic as I feel I've dragged it off topic.

 

[TheKnightWho]

Well if its under 18 that are involved with walking around on the railway line its likely that it may be down to Pokemon Go.

Except if you read the thread and knew about Pokemon Go you'd realise that that makes no sense.

 

[tsr]

And equally likely that they were just killing time/looking for a lost ball/etc

Yeah, but it gives me a new excuse for the announcements, so I'm not complaining...

 

[cjmillsnun]

Well if its under 18 that are involved with walking around on the railway line its likely that it may be down to Pokemon Go.

Under 18s have been trespassing for years.

 

[broadgage]

Overheard paramedics using a new to me medical term, "poked" meaning "in need of medical attention as a result of injury sustained by playing pokemon go"

A youth was seen to walk into a lamp post whilst viewing a smartphone and suffered concussion and a head wound. They were said to be "poked"

A person who cycled into a drainage ditch was also said to be "poked"

 

[talltim]

I walked into a lamppost as a kid and all I was doing was talking to my dad. Mind you I'm British so I said 'sorry' to it straight away...

 

[NSE]

Mind you, SWT were very generous with their offer of two Jinx in one day. Both snapped up at SWT stations thank you very much. The Poke Stops at Waterloo station were also particularly generous with the old great balls. So I'm gonna have to hang out at railway stations more often!

In all seriousness though, its a freaking game. If people are gonna act like d*cks and try and catch stuff by climbing over fences and jumping on to lines then that's not the game manufacturers fault. You can see 'around you' on the game, so even if a Pokemon was to crop up on Platform 1 at Clapham Junction, you could be safely outside the station on the Platform 17 side and still catch it. No different to games such as GTA. Majority of people know its a game, but if some people are going to interpret it literally and shoot random people, well thats hardly Rockstars fault.

As it goes, I'm loving Pokemon Go.