Detroit Lions offensive lineman Larry Warford doesn’t want to catch them all.
Warford is one of the first notable sports figures to publicly decry Pokemon Go, one of the most successful mobile games of all time.
For those somehow out of the loop, it’s a location-based game where “trainers” can catch Pokemon at random spots, visit centers at public landmarks and challenge gyms held by other users.
For Warford, this sort of game seems like mind control after his recent experience in Arizona. The Detroit Free Press’ Carlos Monarrez captured Warford’s explanation:
“I’ll tell you why I stopped playing it,” he said Monday. “I was walking down Mill Avenue in Tempe, Ariz., pretty much on (Arizona State’s) campus. … I was walking down and literally everyone that was on their cell phone walking down that same street was playing Pokemon Go. I was looking at their screens and it was about 30, 40 people walking down Mill (Avenue).
“It was a bunch of people playing it and I was like, ‘I don’t like this.’ I deleted it because I was like, ‘This is some mind-control stuff.’ I don’t like it.”
Warford has every right to react the way he did, not when a simple Google search brings up plenty examples of public stampedes as people all race to catch a rare Pokemon that popped up randomly on the map.
Then again, folks will likely be on their phones one way or another these days. For folks like Warford who find themselves wary of the app, it’s important to know the positive sides of the equation, such as the social nature of the game and the fact it encourages users to get out and be active when they might otherwise not.
It’s a balancing act, much like Pokemon Go itself. Warford seems to have caught an extreme end of the spectrum, but he might change his mind if he gets an all-encompassing look at the game.