It’s been an interesting few months since Pokémon GO launched. After a huge opening few weeks, some players started to stray, but there are still quite a few Pokémon trainers out in the wild. According to the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, there may be a few too many trainers acting a little bit too wild. Niantic, and other developers, will need to get a permit from the city before they can use Milwaukee County park locations in games such as Pokémon GO.
The permit idea comes after the local park district was unable to hold Niantic financially responsible for damage caused to parks — specifically Lake Park in this instance — after the influx of players over the summer. County officials were upset that they were never asked about before Pokéstops and gyms were added in the various parks throughout the county (though they curiously never complained about Ingress portals…), and since they have no way to recoup the costs for damage to the parks directly from Niantic, county taxpayers would be stuck paying for “thousands of dollars” in damages.
Neighbors of Lake Park took photos and recorded videos of empty beer cans, trash piles, trampled turf and overflowing toilets. There were also complaints of late-night activity, traffic congestion and unauthorized vendors.
This isn’t the first trouble that Niantic has seen due to the popularity of Pokémon GO. While this case likely won’t result in any lawsuits against the company, it could potentially create an angry population of Pokémon trainers in southeastern Wisconsin.
What do you think about requiring a permit from the developer before allowing public locations to be used in an augmented reality game? Is this a good idea? Or does it unnecessarily punish developers by giving them additional hurdles to clear before launching their game or app? Tell us what you think in the comment section below or on Google+, Facebook, or Twitter.
[button link=”http://www.wisn.com/article/pokemon-go-creators-need-permit-for-milwaukee-county-parks/8681521″ icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: WISN[/button]
