For the unfamiliar, the game uses your phone’s camera to project creatures called Pokémon onto the world around you.

The more the player wanders around in public with a phone held in front of them, the higher the chance of spotting rare varieties of Pokémon.

The player then attempts to capture the creatures for later use in PG-rated cock-fight battles against other players.

Think of it as trading cards but enhanced with GPS, sensor-driven cameras and augmented reality. Are you still with me, older folks?

The game has won some praise for getting people off the couch and out into the sunshine, which can’t be a bad thing given how childhoods are increasingly spent indoors and sedentary.

But have things gotten so out of hand that the only way to tear people away from technology is a new form of technology?

Overly-enthusiastic players have also whipped out their phones and started hunting for Pokémon in the most inappropriate places.

Graveyards, war memorials and even Holocaust museums have been forced to put up signs that ask visitors to refrain from going on virtual safari.

Perhaps these ‘casual’ mobile game players have been afflicted by the same temporary sociopathic episodes that afflict ‘hardcore’ gamers on Xbox and Playstation.

Get a good shot off in the online war game ‘Call of Duty’ and your opponent is likely to hit you with every insult under the sun via in-game chat. The same phenomenon could be causing Pokémon players to forget that you normally shouldn’t climb over real-life graves to find pixelated prizes.

Then there’s the safety issue, as stories emerge of people walking in front of cars or off embankments while playing.

Nintendo, the company that owns Pokémon, is no stranger to hurting people on a mass scale.

When Nintendo released the Wii video game console, people fell over trying to balance on its fitness footpad accessory, or injured pets and housemates by flinging the motion controller around.

Perhaps the most worry thing is, like in real life, the game teaches you that there are many shortcuts if you have cash to spend.