The Holocaust Museum in Washington has to apply to stop people playing Pokemon Go inside

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Pokemon Go (opens in new tab) is a ridiculous amount of fun but it’s just common sense that there are places that you don’t go to play games. The Holocaust Museum in Washington is one of those places. Unfortunately, the memorial has no less than three Pokestops for gamers to collect Pokemon items, and is desperately trying to have these removed. 

“Playing the game is not appropriate in the museum, which is a memorial to the victims of Nazism,” Andrew Hollinger, the museum’s communications director, tells the Washington Post (opens in new tab). “We are trying to find out if we can get the museum excluded from the game.” It seems astonishing that devs Niantic didn’t exclude such museums from the game in the first place, but it took the majority of its content from previous game Ingress (opens in new tab) and this obviously included more sensitive locations. While Ingress didn’t have many players, Pokemon Go is another story. 

As we reported regarding the man whose house is a Pokemon Gym (opens in new tab), this immediate ‘gamification’ of a real world location has serious consequences and the Holocaust Museum is trying to get rid of the Pokestops. Unfortunately, this is no mean feat, and requires the filling in of forms. “PokéStops and Gyms in Pokemon Go are found at publicly accessible places such as historical markers, public art installations, museums and monuments,” The Pokémon Company tells Eurogamer (opens in new tab). “If you want to report inappropriate locations or content, please submit a ticket on the Pokémon GO Support (opens in new tab)website”. 

“We invite any authorised person to contact us about the inclusion of their premises in Pokémon GO through our support website. We will take relevant steps at that point based on the nature of the inquiry”. This means that of course the Holocaust Museum can apply to be taken off the Pokestop list, but it seems incredible that this is the procedure it has to go through. As it rolls out across the world (opens in new tab), this unfortunately won’t be the last time we hear about a situation like this. 

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