I don't know. It is still too early to tell just yet. Also, I haven't played it.
Pokémon Go is available on the Apple store and on the Android playstore and therefore requires you to have a smartphone or tablet. If you don't have a smartphone or tablet, my friend, you cannot play Pokémon Go. Even if you have a smartphone or tablet, Pokémon Go requires you to have free space on your mobile device so you can install it. If you don't have enough free space on your mobile device, my friend, you cannot play Pokémon Go. Even if you have a smartphone or tablet with sufficient free space, Pokémon Go requires you to have an internet connection to play it. If you do not have an internet connection on your smartphone or tablet with sufficient free space to install it, my friend, you cannot play Pokémon Go. That makes three categories of people already excluded from Pokémon Go and we haven't even started actually playing it!
To play Pokémon Go, you must physically move around the real world in search of Augmented Reality Pokémon creatures scattered around with your phone as your window into the Augmented Reality (AR). We all know where this is going, right? To places some people might not be able to reach. In having to cover great distances, people without vehicles are disadvantaged and unfit people are disadvantaged furthermore. If your nearest Pokémon is 7 miles away and all you have are your three-year-old Nikes, your experience is unlikely to be as enjoyable as that of the dude driving around in his sports car, catching Dragonites and Mewtwos left, right and centre. If you're also not physically fit, covering great distances can prove to be incredibly tiring and your enjoyment of the game diminished. Some might say that Pokémon Go promotes exercise in this way but too much exercise can cause joint or heart problems, especially to people who aren't used to it. What about physically disadvantaged people? People who can't walk or even move around very much; aren't they missing out on the great craze of 2016? This is clear-as-day elitism and it is downright wrong.
The distribution of the Pokémon shows further elitism from Nintendo. I've seen people in South London complain about a lack of interesting Pokémon, whereas people in West London seem to be enjoying a wide variety of fan favourites. This could be coincidence, in fact there is a strong possibility that it is, but it's definitely not because it's elitism. What about the Gym that was placed in the ocean? Sure, some people went out on a kayak and claimed the it, but how many people can afford a kayak?! ELITISM!!! You could argue that it creates diversity in the player base and makes things more interesting, also making for fun anecdotes about kayaking to claim a Gym, but it's still elitist. What if there's a super rare Pokémon like Zapdos on top of Mount Everest? How many people will be able to go to the top of Mt Everest and claim it?
A thing I've seen come up quite a bit is people reuniting with friends they hadn't seen for a while over Pokémon Go. What about people like me who don't have any friends? Who can I reunite with over Pokémon Go? Why should I go to the park in the evening with my phone out just to watch people excitedly catch up while I'm there, by myself, trying to get that fucking Blastoise in the Leicester Square fountain but kids won't get out of my way and I don't have other nerds with me to laugh it all off and say "sorry, we need you kids out the way so we can play this kids' game ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah..."
As far as I'm aware, each player is given an amount of Pokéballs with which to catch the found creatures. This number replenishes on a daily basis but can also be supplemented by paying Nintendo for more Pokéballs via microtransactions. That is to say, you can give real-life British Pounds Sterling to Nintendo Co. Ltd for virtual Pokéballs with which to catch virtual Pokémon in a non-canon, "free"-to-play Pokémon game. Therefore, those with more spare money have a better chance at catching more and/or better Pokémon than those who do not. A lot of people have complained about servers crashing, too. I suspect this is the case on cheaper devices, further shutting out those who are not as well-off.
So I think we can all agree, as much as Nintendo would like to pretend that its latest concoction serves to unite people around the world with the love of adorable animals and their enslavement for entertainment, it's actually an elitist game for the rich, fit and popular and not for the real Pokémon fans.
[Note from author: Yes, I am being facetious.]
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