Whether you’re 15 or 50, chances are you’ve heard of Pokémon GO.  Niantic Labs’ augmented reality-based app was first released in July 2016 and is now available in over 70 countries; no wonder this game is taking the world by storm.

Though Nintendo isn’t new to the mobile game scene, the 2015 release of Pokémon Shuffle Mobile never saw the success that Pokémon GO is currently having, still claiming the 12th spot on the appstore’s Top Free Apps and number one in the Top Grossing category.  Within just a month of the initial release, catching pokémon and taking over gyms has become the norm for an estimated 9.5 million people everyday.  Even with the tremendous amount of success Pokémon GO has been receiving, the game didn’t come without its flaws.

Whether you’ve been keeping up with the game or not, you’ve probably been hearing all kinds of outrageous stories on various websites, papers, and tv shows.  For example, the infamous “girl just wanted to catch some water pokémon and found a dead body instead” story.  Shayla Wiggins wandered to a nearby water source in search of a squirtle, but instead came too close for comfort with a man laying face-down in the water.

However, finding a dead body isn’t the worst of it, as some players have literally become dead bodies.  Numerous stories have emerged of players dying due to being distracted by the game. Many car accidents have occurred while pokémon-ing and driving; there are even Californian lawmakers introducing a bill to illegalize playing Pokémon GO while using a motor vehicle now.

A recent report states that while playing the game in Japan, a driver hit two pedestrians: one dead and one injured.  Another situation involves of a 19-year-old man who crashed into a school building while searching for pokémon.  Not all deaths have been due to car accidents, though, as a 20-year-old in San Francisco was shot dead on a Saturday night while searching for a pokémon.  If the recent deaths aren’t telling enough, the experiences of other players shows the risk involved in playing the game.  I’ll be honest, since the release of the game, the amount of random men pulling up to me on the side of the road asking me to “play pokémon with them” has definitely increased.

Mia Porcelli, junior, has also had similar experiences.

“This guy came up to me yelling about how he ‘could see one’ and that he wanted me to come over and capture it.  But he wasn’t even holding a phone or anything, so I just ran away,” she said.  Obviously, the lethal experiences with the game are not a commonality, but the amount of weird stories I’ve heard surrounding the game has certainly risen.

Since the release of Pokémon GO, the number of people playing in the United States has been slipping.  However, the decrease in players isn’t solely because to these horrific accidents.  Due to major glitches and overall inconveniences in the game, many have quit out of frustration.

“The servers were always crashing as I was playing,” said senior Emily Mohler. “When I wanted to play, the game wouldn’t even be usable.  I haven’t played in over a month now.”

Other frustrations involve not only constant server crashes, but there was also the famous “three step glitch.”  Within the game, you were able to find a particular pokémon through a tracking system involving “steps.”  The steps were supposed to decrease as you approach a pokémon, but how could you find that one pokémon that isn’t a pidgey without it.  After numerous complaints from disappointed fans, they took out the tracking system all together–which didn’t solve the problem.  Players everywhere were outraged, and since then, Niantic Labs has been testing a new tracking system on a select few players. The release date of this feature is still to be determined.

The many game-hindering glitches aren’t the only thing that made Pokémon GO fans upset.  The bulk of the outrage comes from the lack of communication between these fans and Niantic Labs.  After the removal of the step system altogether, players were angered when there was no way to track pokémon, especially when Niantic Labs hadn’t said anything on the matter despite the overwhelming amount of dissatisfied tweets, emails, and reviews they were receiving.  Many players were so infuriated with the lack of contact between them and the game developers that they started to demand refunds from in-game purchases and left one-star ratings on the game itself.  Despite being on top of the appstore charts, the game’s ratings plummeted to one star.  On Aug. 1, Niantic Labs finally responded with a Facebook post, addressing the problems and concerns of many.  Some thought this post was just damage control and that the game makers didn’t really care about dissatisfaction of these players; however, with recent updates, the storm seems to have blown over, the ratings rising back up to 3.5 stars.

Despite the abundance of bugs and problems that occurred within and outside of the game, Pokémon GO is still in the works of being released in all countries.  Once the whole world is playing, who knows where the game will take us?  If you haven’t played it, don’t be scared off by the defects.  It’s still early into the game’s development, and Niantic Labs still has more to come.  Be careful out there, but don’t stop exploring and capturing new pokémon.