Abu Dhabi – The main thing is to be vaccinated?

One of the great things about Abu Dhabi as a travel destination right now is that it has a vaccination rate approaching 100 percent. It is considered the number one destination for vaccination and secondary vaccination. Also, the controls and security measures are strict and one can move there very safely before Corona. But that’s about as far as the advantages go. Because the United Arab Emirates is probably one of the worst places in the world for a Pokémon player to visit.

Let’s start with the fact that taking photos of infrastructure and saving and sharing photos and videos is punishable by law. If that doesn’t matter at all when it comes to military installations, industrial facilities, and oil/natural gas facilities, it gets pretty edgy when it comes to the State Department’s list of banned facilities: airports, ports, public buildings, embassy buildings, and bridges. Accordingly, with a snapshot in the AR application, “confiscation of the recording devices, fines and imprisonment as well as deportation are threatened. A ban on leaving the country is regularly imposed for the duration of the criminal proceedings.” And anyone who takes a look at what Abu Dhabi looks like will quickly realize that there is a lot of “port” there. Its status as a capital city doesn’t exactly reduce the number of “public buildings” either.

If a person comes into your picture who takes data protection very seriously, you could face fines of up to 120,000 euros. Or a prison sentence of up to six months.

AR can be deactivated – human rights cannot

If you can somehow ignore the contradiction between the rules of the event location and the game principle of Pokémon Go, you have to ignore entire groups of people when it comes to human rights in order to follow Niantic’s offer with a clear conscience. According to the German Foreign Office, extramarital pregnancies, same-sex relationships and extramarital sexual intercourse are punishable by law. And so a raped woman is made a perpetrator in court at the same time. Queer, homosexual or transsexual persons are threatened with prosecution, since homosexual relations or “cross-dressing” are forbidden. In addition, there is the political persecution of opposition figures and the imprisonment and torture of undesirable persons.

A virtual game – with the airplane

Pay to Win? If that doesn’t mean anything to you, here’s a quick explanation: when money is paid in a game to have a decisive advantage, it’s called Pay to Win. Niantic rarely follows the principle so far. However, the events have always been a slightly different story, because it divides the players. Those who can’t afford to transport their virtual game to another location are just out of luck. With stationary events, the democratization of pleasure through the smartphone always turns into the opposite.

As a final point, a quote from Niantic should be mentioned here: “We only have one earth and therefore want to actively participate in protecting it. Currently, we’re striving for sustainability through global cleanups, protecting national parks, and promoting sustainable tourism.” Flying around the quarter of the globe to play a virtual game doesn’t quite fit into that statement.

That shouldn’t be a problem, though, because there are truly enough reasons for Pokémon Go players to save themselves that environmental burden. So just leave this favorite for the title of dumbest idea of the year and pay it no mind.