A coworker of mine created an Australian-based account and runs the game with no problems.
Regarding the game itself:
- One coworker came to the office today, told everyone about this game and how he spent four hours driving and walking around with his friend, hunting Pokémon.
- Another coworker grabs the game, leaves the office for a moment, and returns shortly afterwards, proudly telling us that he caught a Pokémon while being on the toilet.
- By the end of the day, another coworker and even my boss grabbed the app and started hunting. And my boss actually walked over to one of them and said "Hey, there's a rare -some Pokémon- around here, drop the papers and come along and catch it."
- It turns out that around the entry to our company's office, there's one of these arenas. And another department has three players who took it over, but my boss and our buddies kicked them out and went to their office, mocking them and basically declaring war.
- ...and I sit there all day, do my work, not owning a smartphone (yet) and not being able to hunt.
I
do believe that the attention paid to the phone while running this game might turn out badly sometimes. The newspaper made a report about the game (even though it's not offically) and stated that in a very busy shopping area in Vienna, there's an arena practically on the middle of the street. But I have to admit that combining a game with physical workout like this sounds really great, as the constant walking and movement, combined with the joy of a collecting game, might really help some chubby gamers lose a kilo or two.
Might, but not necessarily.
Since I do not own a smartphone, I can't even try it for myself. But half the office is practically "kindly bullying" me into getting a phone and catching some Pokémon, so we can keep that other department away from
our arena.