Evaluating the Accuracy and Neutrality of Wikipedia’s Pokemon Go Page

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Wikipedia’s page on Pokemon Go is missing crucial information and wholly lacks neutrality on the topic. This could lead a reader to not completely understand the release and reception of the game, leading to a misunderstanding of the public opinion of Pokemon Go.

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One of the major issues of the page itself is that some of the information on the wikipedia page is outdated. In the section titled Pokemon Go Plus ,  the page read that Pokemon Go Plus is “set for release in the United Kingdom and North America on September 16, 2016” (Wikipedia Contributors 2016). The article suggests that the release has not happened yet, which shows on its own that it is outdated. Also, the release itself had many issues regarding the distribution of Pokemon Go Plus ( Brian Crecente Polygon).Pokemon Go Plus was supposed to be released to the public by multiple large retailers, however, on the release date only had a limited releases at the Nintendo store. The outcome of this lack of distribution was the immediate reselling of the product on online websites for prices much higher than the retail price ( Brian Crecente 2016). This alone could create controversy on the topic. Despite this, there was a lack of discussion of the issue on the Talk page of the Pokemon Go wikipedia page.

A second point of controversy regarding Pokemon Go are the technical issues surrounding the release and expansion of the game. While there were undeniable technical issues throughout the release and distribution of Pokemon Go and Pokemon Go Plus, inflammatory words and terms such as “plagued”, “ useless” , and “frequent server outages” to describe the issues surrounding the game (Wikipedia Contributors 2016). This exaggerates the issues surrounding the game, leading people to believe that the game was received more negatively than positively. Indeed, the cause of any server issues were caused by the massive strain on the servers caused by the overwhelming number of players.

One of the saving graces of the wikipedia page is the  complete coverage of sources on the page. There is only one instance in which a note does not have a citation attached to it (Wikipedia Contributors 2016). This ensures that any questionable comment can be backtracked and reviewed as to the worthiness of the comment. After further review, many of the two hundred and fifty eight (Wikipedia Contributors 2016) sources are trustworthy sources, including many from scholarly articles and published journals. This allows the reader to believe much more of the wikipedia page, allowing them to receive a complete picture of Pokemon Go.

While there are issues surrounding a lack of information surround certain topics on the page, as well as bias in the words describing controversial issues, the page itself is well cited and a useful reference regarding Pokemon Go.

Bibliography

Wikipedia contributors, "Pokémon Go," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pok%C3%A9mon_Go&oldid=739925897 (accessed September 19, 2016).

Crecente, Brian. “Tips for Finding a Pokemon Go Plus Today.” Polygon. Polygon.com (19 September 2016).