So, I've been playing Pokemon Go for a couple of weeks now whenever I'm at the beach, and it's a fun game to play with friends. But... if a person has his or her face glued to the phone while walking and playing, they're not doing it right, and they deserve to get yelled at if they bump into you.. or have a deafening fog horn blasted at them.
There's a vibrate feature that lets players know when a Pokemon pops up, so people should be able to walk normally with their heads up and their phone in their hand. There's also a radar system that shows how far or near a Pokemon is to the player, but still, you're supposed to just glance at it and move on, not stare at it while walking.
I read some posts, though, that some people will knock into the person and cause their phone to drop and break. I don't know if they are joking, but I think that behavior is also kinda wrong. Like the saying "two wrongs don't make a right". Sorry, I'm not trying to sound like an afterschool Barney special, but this just reminds me of something that happened a few years ago in MK:
I was walking behind woman #1, and I heard her say to someone like, "oh look, she's about to run into me." I look up and see woman #2 texting while walking briskly toward the exit. #1 keeps walking forward and rams her shoulder into #2 while shouting "pay attention!". #2 drops her phone, but while picking it up she shouts back "(something something) my mom was just in a car wreck, you [bleeping bleep]," and she runs out of the exit.
Well, I don't know the exact details, but it looked like to me she was just in panic mode while texting to other people about her family emergency and trying to get somewhere asap. I'm bringing this up because I don't think we should automatically assume people are playing games on their phone and cause them physical damage because they stepped into our personal space. Just stay calm, share the sidewalk, and speak up if someone is acting dumb.. but don't hurt them. That just makes things worse.
TL;DR
I think a simple "excuse me, please" or "hey, look out" would suffice instead of causing physical pain or damage to someone on their phone. Yes, I agree that people should never walk while playing phone games and/or texting, but sometimes people get distracted by something at the wrong moment. Just say something loud enough to wake them up and get them out of your way. That's all.
