Pokémon Go, the game that’s shocked the world seems to have divided the people and critics alike. On the one side of the schism, the majority perhaps, we hear about a wonderful piece of entertaining technology that gets people out of the house, off the couch, and at the same time introduces them to them to something that will likely become a mainstay in their daily lives: augmented reality.

In the other corner Pokémon Go detractors have said the game represents what’s wrong with the late stages of capitalism, that it further impinges on our privacy, or that it’s a “Government Surveillance Psyop Conspiracy”. Critics less disposed to thinking in terms of conspiracies have merely said the game is an exercise in control and futility, with one Facebook user comparing the phenomenon to some of the drones with phones episodes in the superb tech-nightmare show, Black Mirror.

“What the hell is wrong with people?”

At the same time it seems there are just some places where one shouldn’t be hunting monsters with a smartphone.

The above rhetorical question was made by a Twitter user after it came to light that Pokémon Go characters had turned up at Auschwitz. The museum has since asked Niantic Labs Inc., the developer of the game, to not include Auschwitz as a possible location.

An Auschwitz museum spokesman, Pawel Sawicki, told AFP, “We find this kind of activity inappropriate. It’s here that hundreds of thousands of people suffered: Jews, Poles, Roma, Russians and individuals from other nations.”

Following the same thread of disrespect, after the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Arlington National Cemetery became a ‘Pokéstop’ – a designated place where players can grab items needed for the game – the instance was called “extremely inappropriate” by Andrew Hollinger, the communications director for the museum.

A 37 year-old player who had been hunting at the museum responded to the ire of Hollinger, telling The National Post, “It’s not like we came here to play. But gotta catch ’em all.”

It seems so.

In sickness and in health

If playing the game in places that honor the deceased is seen as an act of impropriety, similarly catching Pokemon where people might actually be fighting for their life has been said to have been another gaming faux pas. A Dutch hospital this week pleaded with players not to enter the hospital looking for augmented reality game characters. This happened after players were seen wandering around rooms and halls containing the sick.

“Since yesterday (Monday this week) we’ve noticed young people walking around the building with mobile phones into places they’re not supposed to be,” Academic Medical Centre (AMC) spokeswoman Loes Magnin told AFP. AMC has asked that Pikachu not turn up in the hospital among a bunch of tissues.

Pokémon … GO!

Comportment of Pokémon Go players has also come into question regarding the deluge of people turning up in residential neighborhoods and rankling the locals. In an Australian suburb of Sydney, Rhodes, a Pokémon “hotspot” with a “constant flow of monsters”, thousands of people have been hunting each night.

“There is a massive level of noise after midnight, uncontrollable traffic, excessive rubbish, smokers, drunk people, people who are ‘camping’ in the site, and even people peddling mobile phone chargers,” a resident told Buzzfeed. According to the article residents in the area took arms against the swelling sea of hunters by throwing eggs and water-bombs at them from their balconies.

A park in Rhodes

In the U.K. players were reported to be amassing on a place some of them were too young to be: a sex shop. A shop assistant told the Metro, “There are people coming in talking about it. I didn’t know what they were talking about, as I’m not really into games.”

In another instance of game characters in the wrong location the U.S. Marines Tweeted, “Get off the firing line, Pikachu! That’s a safety violation!” after the buggy-eyed fellow appeared in-between two soldiers about to take aim at a row of steel targets.

You get the picture, Pikachu et al. are persona non grata in certain places.

Pokémon… Stay!

But for some business owners the spectacle of hordes of hunters surrounding your place of work is very much welcome. The Financial Times just reported that Niantic intends to allow advertisers buy “sponsored locations.” Niantic CEO John Hanke explained this will consist of advertisers paying them, “to be locations within the virtual game board — the premise being that it is an inducement that drives foot traffic.” Restaurants, fast food chains, stores, bars, etc, will pay on a cost per visit basis and the business will make the payment once a visit has been confirmed by the app.

It seems one of the game’s first customers buying sponsored locations is a pretty big one: the fast food magnate McDonald’s. Gizmodo reports that a Reddit user claims to have found the McDonald’s logo in Pokémon Go’s code. “Based off what I’ve found it looks like they’re going to hold a promo with McDonald’s which’ll turn them into all gyms,” the Redditer told Gizmodo.

Shooting fish in a barrel

Already businesses where monsters inhabit or appear close to have seen a massive shift in customer numbers. One pizza restaurant in Long Island City, Queens, said that after purchasing an in-game power up which increased the number of Pokémon appearing in and outside the location profits went up by as much as 75 percent.

It’s reported that the game, with only a limited global release so far, already has around 21 million active users, becoming the U.S.’s biggest mobile game in history and set to crush its nearest competitor Candy Crush. Whether Pokémon Go’s success will have any kind of longevity remains to be seen, but as a fad it’s a head-spinning wonder, even if you do think it’s a fairly ridiculous thing in itself.

In terms of business, there’s always the matter of saturation. If everyone’s store or restaurant is full to the hilt with Pokémon it’s doubtful the lure will be very luring. And if businesses contend with each other by filling the place full of monsters there’s always the chance of overabundance, undermining the thrill of the hunt. Shooting fish in a barrel has never been much fun.

Photo credit: Andrew Stroehlein via Twitter; Alstonkwan via Instagram; US Marines via Twitter; Sadie Hernandez via Flickr