The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a holy place in Singapore, and the oldest Catholic Church in the Serangoon region for Teochew people who migrated from China. It’s also a super popular spot for Pokemon Go players, much to the church’s dismay.
Pokemon Go was famous for causing all kinds of traffic nightmares in suburbs and public places, and even though the game’s popularity is a fraction from its heyday, Pokemon Go trainers are still causing problems in places of holy worship.
Singapore’s Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the latest spot to ask for divine intervention, with AsiaOne reporting that the church has erected a sign on its outer gates very kindly asking that people stop throwing Poke balls at a statue of the Blessed Mother.
“The total area in front of the statue of Mary, the Blessed Mother of Catholics, is a prayer space … appreciate that you DO NOT use the space for your POKEMON games,” the sign reads.”
Australians have plenty of memories from excess Pokemon Go traffic, from the steps of the Opera House filled with people sitting down, to the suburb of Rhodes being completely trampled to the point where trainers were blocking cars from moving. Singapore’s no different, with police having to increase patrols to combat a flood of players congregating around popular spots. The trash left behind at one park resulted in councils having to clean up 70 bags a night, forcing the installation of new bins “because of this Pokemon thing”.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/08/a-requiem-for-rhodes-australias-strangest-pokemon-go-spot/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/07/pokemon-go-rhodes-410×231.jpg” title=”A Requiem For Rhodes, Australia’s Strangest Pokemon GO Spot” excerpt=”Rhodes is over. Rhodes as we now know it, is over. We’ve been hearing multiple reports that the Pokestops at Rhodes have been changed. It’s no longer what it once was. But last Thursday, we visited this hive of villainy. We experienced peak Rhodes. This is what we saw. This is a requiem for Rhodes, Australia’s strangest Pokemon GO spot.”]
Pokemon Go is still kicking along, much better than the recently launched Harry Potter: Wizards Unite AR game. The game still crops up from time to time, usually because people forget how to behave or for Niantic’s bizarre naming convention for Pokemon levels.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/02/pokmon-youtubers-mistakenly-banned-for-child-abuse/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/sylr3o4lxl6lzigqr49c.jpg” title=”Pokémon YouTubers Mistakenly Banned For Child Abuse” excerpt=”A trio of popular Pokemon YouTubers were among the accounts wrongly banned by Google over the weekend for being involved in “activity that sexualises minors”.”]
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