Image credit: Pokemon Wikia

The first thing I noticed after initially booting up Pokémon Go was that 70% of the landmarks near me were churches. Considering that I’m not a religious person, this has proven to be kiiiind of awkward. I am not alone in feeling this way.


Actually, a lot of Pokémon Go players are being directed to churches so that they may collect new monsters and more items within the augmented reality game. Given Pokémon’s rocky history with spiritual matters, not to mention the sheer touchiness of religion, this has turned into a strange gameplay experience:


In response to this Pokémon Go quirk, many players are taking to social media to joke about their experience with churches, and it’s a hoot. Here’s a small taste:


















Why so many churches? This is just a guess, but I’m assuming it is because they might turn out to be safer to visit than your average locale. The GPS system that the game uses is also simply marking many of the man-made landmarks near players, and, well, some players just happen to live near more churches than anything else. UPDATE 3:47 PM: Apparently many of the landmarks in Pokemon Go are imported from Ingress, Niantic’s last augmented reality game.


Regardless, guess I better brush up on the good word of Arceus, our lord and savior.