Pokémon Go Stops at the South Pole

The hit game Pokémon Go stops working at the South Pole due to its reliance on flat earth model in its game mechanics!

The crew at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station found out that the popular augmented reality game does not work where they live.

During an upcoming Non Breaking Space Show interview with Dr. Christine Corbett stationed at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station relayed the crew’s experience with Pokemon Go game:

People have tried it as an experiment to see if Pokémon would work down here down here,” said Dr. Corbett. “The problem is that the map coordinates kind of break down.”

The game mechanics connect the longitude and latitude of the world along a flat earth map of the–a map like the one you might find on a middle school wall.

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Since we know the earth is not flat and round like a blue marble, a globe is a better representation showing that longitudinal lines curve and meet at the North and South Poles.

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So, if you take one step, you walk hundreds of miles,” says Dr. Corbett.

While going great distances helps to hatch eggs, it makes finding, stopping, and catching Pokemon virtually impossible to level up or check in at PokeStop to get eggs.

And, yes, this means—in its current state—the game will not work at the North Pole as well.

About Christopher Schmitt

The Internet's Christopher Schmitt is an award winning designer, author, and speaker and one of the people behind the web conference team, Environments for Humans. He hosts the Non Breaking Space Show and curates the weekly UX Design Newsletter.

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