# Could Pokemon Go be fixed so people don't follow it into restricted areas? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 14, 2016, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-pokemon-go-be-fixed-so-people-dont-follow-it-into-restricted-areas/759908 "2016-07-14T17:03:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-pokemon-go-be-fixed-so-people-dont-follow-it-into-restricted-areas/759908/21 "2016-07-15T21:24:43Z")
Though I wouldn’t call Ingress ‘lame’. It’s actually a pretty good game - I’d imagine that some would prefer it to Pokemon Go. And it expanded to iOS last year I believe. ---
**Author:** ![ebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@ebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ebb)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-pokemon-go-be-fixed-so-people-dont-follow-it-into-restricted-areas/759908/22 "2016-07-15T21:30:57Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > I had been wanting to play Ingress as I had heard good things, but it has always been Android only. Ingress was released on iOS in July of 2014. As to relative popularity, at an event three years after the launch of Ingress, Niantic announced that 14,000,000 people had downloaded the app. Pokemon GO had 15,000,000 downloads within a week of launch. It’s definitely the Nintendo intellectual property that has made this game take off. It’s also a pretty solid game foundation, since Niantic has had five years to work out the whole technical and gameplay sides. Admittedly their servers were overloaded at the start, but I expect they’ll work that out quickly. I’ve played both games, and they’re fun in different ways. They make use of the same underlying database of points of interest (called Portals in Ingress and either Pokestops or Gyms in Pokemon GO). But Ingress is a game about capturing and controlling territory for your team, while Pokemon GO is much more about building up your personal collection of monsters. Pokemon GO has a random element that Ingress completely lacks, where you can find and capture a pokemon at any random location. With Ingress there’s nothing to do except at the portal points – the rest of the map is just filler. Since most of the game is server based, it will be relatively easy for Niantic to add features to Pokemon GO, like the ability to have players have direct duels with each other. Given this, I expect that the participation level will last much longer than a typical fad. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-pokemon-go-be-fixed-so-people-dont-follow-it-into-restricted-areas/759908/23 "2016-07-16T18:26:14Z")
The part I don’t understand, is if the points of interest (whatever they are) are placed according to where there’s high volumes of cell-phone traffic, then how did inaccessible locations like military bases and treacherous islands get on the list to begin with? ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-pokemon-go-be-fixed-so-people-dont-follow-it-into-restricted-areas/759908/24 "2016-07-16T19:10:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The part I don’t understand, is if the points of interest (whatever they are) are placed according to where there’s high volumes of cell-phone traffic, then how did inaccessible locations like military bases and treacherous islands get on the list to begin with? Pokemon spawn sites are placed at Ingress XM spawn sites, which are probably based on cell phone traffic. These don’t seem to be an issue for being inaccessible. The problem is with Pokestops and Gyms, which are placed at Ingress portal locations. Ingress portal locations are placed by hand, based on suggestions by Ingress players over the years. So if there’s a Pokestop on an inaccessible island or something, it’s because at some point some Ingress player went there, took a picture and got the GPS location and submitted it to Niantic, and someone at Niantic approved the location as an Ingress portal. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-pokemon-go-be-fixed-so-people-dont-follow-it-into-restricted-areas/759908/25 "2016-07-16T19:39:16Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I mean that if the game was exactly the same, but rather than Pokemon, you were wandering around capturing some other creatures that Niantic’s creative team made up, it wouldn’t be nearly as popular, and would probably be considered kind of silly. > > Basically what I’m saying is that it’s the popularity and strength of the Pokemon brand and world that make the game popular, not the actual game itself, absent the Nintendo intellectual property. > > It’s a fine game, don’t get me wrong. But it’s the combination of the game combined with Nintendo’s IP that conjoin to make it so popular, not anything inherent in the game itself, absent the Pokemon stuff. It’s the Pokemon stuff that make the game popular, not the other way around; Nintendo’s contribution is arguably more important for the game’s success than any other single element. Totally. In fact there has been a similar game for ages, which even includes maintenance for the collected animals (feeding, cleaning, entertaining). Mobbles. You can go look it up now. Had anyone else heard of it before? ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-pokemon-go-be-fixed-so-people-dont-follow-it-into-restricted-areas/759908/26 "2016-07-16T19:40:52Z")
> [@ebb](#): > > Ingress was released on iOS in July of 2014. :smack: Shows you how much I’ve been paying attention. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-pokemon-go-be-fixed-so-people-dont-follow-it-into-restricted-areas/759908/27 "2016-07-16T20:00:27Z")
OK, I thought I understood, but maybe I didn’t. I thought that a Pokestop was a Pokemon spawn site. If not, then what is it? ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-pokemon-go-be-fixed-so-people-dont-follow-it-into-restricted-areas/759908/28 "2016-07-16T20:04:28Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, I thought I understood, but maybe I didn’t. I thought that a Pokestop was a Pokemon spawn site. If not, then what is it? Pokestops are points where you have to go to restock on consumable items: Pokeballs, Potions, Revives, etc. They’re generally located at monuments, statues, parks, churches, community centers, playgrounds, and anywhere else that an Ingress player decided to submit a portal. Typically in playing you walk between Pokestops, capturing Pokemon along the way, and restock your items when you pass a stop. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-pokemon-go-be-fixed-so-people-dont-follow-it-into-restricted-areas/759908/29 "2016-07-16T20:12:32Z")
So, any two Pokestops are interchangeable, then? So why would anyone need to trespass to reach a Pokestop, when they could just go to some other, more public, one instead? I mean, I can understand (though not condone) jumping a fence to get to somewhere that has the only Charizard in your metropolitan area. But jumping a fence just so you don’t have to bother swinging by a park a mile down the road? ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-pokemon-go-be-fixed-so-people-dont-follow-it-into-restricted-areas/759908/30 "2016-07-16T20:20:59Z")
There’s no difference between Pokestops and no reason to want to get to one over the other, no. The problem is probably with Gyms. Gyms are also located on Ingress portals, although there aren’t nearly as many of them as Pokestops. Gyms can be captured and defended, and you get significant in-game rewards for capturing and holding on to them. So, if there is a Gym on a remote island or somewhere else similarly hard to reach, there’s a lot of incentive to capture it and hold it. Hard to reach Gyms are even more valuable than easy to reach ones, because it’ll be that much harder for someone else to take it away. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-pokemon-go-be-fixed-so-people-dont-follow-it-into-restricted-areas/759908/31 "2016-07-21T04:37:40Z")
> [@AndrewL](#): > > The problem is with Pokestops and Gyms, which are placed at Ingress portal locations. Ingress portal locations are placed by hand, based on suggestions by Ingress players over the years. So if there’s a Pokestop on an inaccessible island or something, it’s because at some point some Ingress player went there, took a picture and got the GPS location and submitted it to Niantic, and someone at Niantic approved the location as an Ingress portal. Yes and no. Ingress pre-populated their map with data from the Historical Markers Database ([hmdb.org](http://hmdb.org)), and then accepted submissions from players to add to the list. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-pokemon-go-be-fixed-so-people-dont-follow-it-into-restricted-areas/759908.md?page=1)