Entertainment

There Are Places You Can't Play "Pokemon Go"

by Jordana Lipsitz

There has been a lot of stuff going on in the world lately — a huge jumble of bad, a little bit of good — but that hasn't stopped "Pokemon Go" from creating a world full of people who stare at their phone screens while walking around in a giddy search for augmented reality Pokémon. It really feels like "Pokemon Go" is taking over the entire world. But news flash, it's not, because it turns out there are some places on the four corners of the map (or sphere, whatever you want to call it) where you can't play "Pokemon Go." Shocking, right?

Now, we already knew there were some places where you probably shouldn't be on that grind to "catch 'em all." even though we all know you "gotta" — institutions like the Holocaust Museum, and while driving or riding a bicycle come to mind immediately. And maybe if you're low on data in your family plan, it would benefit you to hold off until the end of the month. Just because you can do something doesn't mean it is a particularly advantageous move to make.

But it turns out that, while, according to the official Facebook page "Pokemon Go," has been released in 34 countries — United States, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Sweden — there are still quite a few countries that don't have the game yet. This means that, if you find yourself on vacation in Canada or Japan, you won't be able to find any Jigglypuffs roaming around.

The other place where you can't get your Pokemon trainer on is places where you can't get service. So, no dice if you are searching for some rare mountain Pokémon or a water Pokémon in the open ocean but have zero bars. This almost seems like an unfair advantage to people who have great cell phone plans. If you really want to become a PokéMaster, you might have to get yourself an upgrade so the servers aren't down for you all the time.

It looks like, for now, the only way to "be the very best like no one ever was" is to never leave the safety of the countries Pokémon currently reside in and never go out of range. All camping trips in remotes are a horrible idea and flights to other countries are discouraged. Even if there are Pokémon in the country you visit, there won't be cell phone reception in the air. Good luck to you in your quests, and Pikachu help us all.

Images: Giphy (2)