We Were Right to Be Afraid of Pokémon Go

July 11, 2016

  • Our headline about the release of Pokémon GO was, “Pokémon GO Arrives, Dooming Society to Do Nothing but Play It Forever.” We knew from the start that Pokémon GO would be trouble, and we were RIGHT! (Granted, it’s crazily entertaining trouble, but trouble nonetheless!) On top of yesterday’s report that people in Missouri posed as Pokémon trainers so that they could rob people at gunpoint, there’s also the story of a teenager finding a dead body while out playing the game. (Police suspect no foul play in the latter case.) But the strangest Pokémon GO story yet is the story of an Uber driver in Beaumont, Texas who claimed to report witnessing a murder while streaming himself playing the game live on YouTube. The original video is here, but we won’t embed it directly — because it might be a big ol’ fake. According to Gizmodo, at least one police officer in Beaumont believes that YouTuber Alex Ramirez’s video, including his 911 call, is a hoax. Sargent Cody Guedry says no dead body was found at the location Ramirez claimed to have found one. In addition, Ramirez claims to have lost his job at Uber because of videos which showed him streaming in between picking up passengers. (Uber told Gizmodo he had not been terminated, but rather suspended.) Popular YouTube channels DramaAlert and Scarce both reported the story as true, with DramaAlert going so far as to start a GoFundMe page over his “unjust firing.” Whatever the case may be, both Ramirez and Nintendo are laughing all the way to the bank: Ramirez has gained over 100,000 subscribers in the past three days, and Nintendo’s stock went up 25% in one day. What do you think? Will Pokémon GO be the end of us all, or will we be able to keep ourselves together? Let us know in the comments below or @WhatsTrending on Twitter!