New beaches all appear on a Google Maps competitor, but these beaches don’t exist. And it’s because of Pokémon Go players.
Pokémon Go was one of the biggest mobile games a few years back. Everyone was out to catch these fictional creatures themselves in the real world. But there are a fair number of people still playing the game. Even some real diehard fans.
Once in a while, the app adds new Pokémon to the game that players can catch. But recently a Pokémon has been added that people do go to great lengths to catch. It’s so bad that people are even making fake beaches on a Google Maps competitor to catch the fictional monster.
Pokémon Go makes beaches on Google Maps competitor
On April 22, the new Pokémon Wiglett was added to Pokémon Go, but there is something special about this Pokémon. Wiglett is based on a type of sand worm, which you find in places like beaches. And so in Pokémon Go, that is the only place you can catch the fictional monster, but that is not convenient for everyone.
If you live in parts of the world where you don’t have beaches, Kansas for example, it’s much harder to catch Wiglett. But players have found a solution to this. They have started adding beaches on a Google Maps competitor used by Pokémon Go. This is done in random locations where there are no beaches at all.
Pokémon Go is using Google Maps competitor OpenStreetMaps for their maps in the game. People found this out and went to work. Players have added multiple beaches on OpenStreetMaps in the form of Pokéballs so they can spawn Wiglett nearby.
It’s a harmless tweak, but considerably irritating for those who keep track of the OpenStreetMaps map. OpenStreetMaps is an app whose goal is to make maps free. Anyone who signs up to collaborate with the app can customize the maps, which is how Pokémon Go players made the beaches. In addition to Pokémon Go, companies such as Snapchat, Facebook, Apple and Amazon also use OpenStreetMaps.
Not the first time
On the Pokémon Go subreddit, players are using an online tool to find beaches so they know where Wiglett spawns. But when they all came across beaches on the Google Maps competitor in places where there are no beaches at all, people were confused for a while.
But this is not the first time non-existent locations have been added on OpenStreetMaps. When Pokémon Go first came out, people did the same thing, also to catch Pokémon that you couldn’t find everywhere. Several people were banned for this then, and chances are it will end up the same way this time.
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Fortunately, we do have a lot of beach locations in the Netherlands, so if you want to catch Wiglett you just need to download Pokémon Go. So you fortunately don’t have to make beaches on the Google Maps competitor.