Pokemon Go

[Brock Beauchamp]

Alright, who's playing?

 

I finally broke down and started playing Saturday night and haven't stopped playing since that time, really.

 

I'm level 9, should be level 10 by the end of the day.

 

And my legs are very, very tired. I've almost hatched a 10km egg I incubated this morning.

[Mike Sixel]

Heh....all I know is I wish I had moved cash to the investment account last week, and bought options like I was thinking about.....

 

I admit, I am almost tempted to play. I try to walk every day anyway.

[Vanimal46]

I'm confused as to what made Pokemon cool again? The last time I even thought about Pokemon has to be 10-15 years ago playing Pokemon Red on the Gameboy Color. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

I'm confused as to what made Pokemon cool again? The last time I even thought about Pokemon has to be 10-15 years ago playing Pokemon Red on the Gameboy Color. 

It's from the developers who created Ingress.

 

The premise is that you walk around and there are checkpoints and places to fight other Pokemon at local monuments (that can range from a playground to a special sign to almost anything). Once within physical proximity of that checkpoint, you can interact with it.

 

That part is a lot like Ingress... What separates Pokemon Go is while you're wandering around between checkpoints, you stumble upon (or track) wild Pokemon roaming the area. You capture them, add them to your library, and use them for fighting at the checkpoints.

 

Obviously, the game encourages exercise. I've already logged 17,000 steps on the day (though I woke up at 4:30am and walked out the door to start Pokewhoring at 4:45am).

 

And no, I didn't wake up that early just to play Pokemon. My wife had to be up early and she doesn't wake up unless I get up. So I got up.

[Vanimal46]

Couple of questions that will make me decide whether or not I want to jump in on this game:

- Does the app kill your battery as you're out walking around finding Pokemon?

- Is the game similar to the Gameboy games where you're searching for characters, battle to win the characters, then challenge your friends to battles?

EDIT: You already kind of answered the 2nd question. 

[Vanimal46]

 

It's from the developers who created Ingress.

 

The premise is that you walk around and there are checkpoints and places to fight other Pokemon at local monuments (that can range from a playground to a special sign to almost anything). Once within physical proximity of that checkpoint, you can interact with it.

 

That part is a lot like Ingress... What separates Pokemon Go is while you're wandering around between checkpoints, you stumble upon (or track) wild Pokemon roaming the area. You capture them, add them to your library, and use them for fighting at the checkpoints.

 

Obviously, the game encourages exercise. I've already logged 17,000 steps on the day (though I woke up at 4:30am and walked out the door to start Pokewhoring at 4:45am).

 

And no, I didn't wake up that early just to play Pokemon. My wife had to be up early and she doesn't wake up unless I get up. So I got up.

Interesting. I mean it sounds intriguing where I may want to play. Does the game give you any insight when you're walking around on where the Pokemon are hiding? Like say you're at an intersection in DT Minneapolis. Would it give a notification saying "Hey bro, Charzard's hiding somewhere in a 3 block radius of you." 

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

Couple of questions that will make me decide whether or not I want to jump in on this game:

- Does the app kill your battery as you're out walking around finding Pokemon?

- Is the game similar to the Gameboy games where you're searching for characters, battle to win the characters, then challenge your friends to battles?

EDIT: You already kind of answered the 2nd question. 

Yeah, it's hard on your battery. There's a battery saver mode that helps a bit. When the phone is upside down (in a pocket or held normally in hand while walking), it powers down the display.

 

But it's still hard on the battery because it's running a lot of processes to track location, ping servers, display graphics, etc.

 

You don't really fight your friends in this game, as it's better for your friends to play cooperatively. For example, you and your friends are Blue team. You would go out and pursue gyms held by Red or Yellow teams and defeat them together. If you're all different teams, it doesn't encourage playing together, as you'd often be directly competing for the same stuff (and this game, like Ingress, is all about alliances... 1-2 people often can't take a gym... But 3-4 can).

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

Interesting. I mean it sounds intriguing where I may want to play. Does the game give you any insight when you're walking around on where the Pokemon are hiding? Like say you're at an intersection in DT Minneapolis. Would it give a notification saying "Hey bro, Charzard's hiding somewhere in a 3 block radius of you." 

Kind of... It has "footprints". Three footprints is far away, two is closer, one is very close, and zero is "you're on top of the Pokemon".

 

But the footprints aren't directional. You can use other Pokemon as reference (is the Pokemon you're tracking moving up or down the "Nearby" list) but it's not like the game will lead you directly to the Pokemon you're pursuing.

 

Also, the game is SUPER buggy right now. The servers are overloaded... But given the financial might of Nintendo and the know-how of the developer (Ingress is basically the same game, only more primitive), I expect the bugs to be sorted out within weeks, if not days.

[Brock Beauchamp]

While I was typing, a Pokemon invaded my house.

 

[Vanimal46]

I'll probably have to jump on this game. Like Mike, I try to get a walk around the neighborhood every day after work. May have to call back home to see if mom saved my Pokemon cards from back in the day... 

[Brock Beauchamp]

I just finished walking off that 10km egg I started incubating this morning. I'm drenched in sweat.

 

Maybe humid, sticky 90 degree days are not the time to do such a thing.

[Mike Sixel]

mid-70s, no humidity here.....just sayin'

[ashbury]

You kids get your Pokemon reboot, us older folk get the Star Trek reboot. I'm fine with this arrangement. Thank you for improving my cultural literacy however - I now have something new to talk to my 30-year-old son about.

[Craig Arko]

Hope none of you gets shot.

[Squirrel]

I think I'll pass on this. Besides ... I have a wedding to go to.

 

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160711/downtown/pokemon-go-meetup-at-bean-interests-20k-chicago-users

[Craig Arko]

First thing that came to mind when I heard of this.

 

[Brock Beauchamp]

This game is great exercise. I took yesterday off and walked 12.5 miles. I've logged 3.5 miles this morning already.

 

The dog doesn't understand what brought on this glorious life change but she's a fan.

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

Hope none of you gets shot.

The game is pretty amazing. I live near Victory Memorial Drive in Minneapolis, one of the hotspots of the region (lots of landmarks to turn into checkpoints, mainly the memorial markers that line the parkway). The past several evenings, there are have been hundreds, if not thousands, of people strolling the parkway.

 

I've seen quite the eclectic group playing this game. You have your typical white hipsters - the hallmark of Ingress - but I've seen 50-somethings playing the game, little kids, and being in north Minneapolis and all, lots of people of color.

 

And we all talk to each other.

 

"Hey, there's a Pidgeotte spawn over by that mailbox!"

 

"Stop crushing my gym, man!"

 

"Don't go down that block. Nothing good ever spawns down there."

 

It's awesome.

 

Kare11 did a bit on it... All that footage (and the image) are from Victory Memorial.

 

http://www.kare11.com/entertainment/this-is-why-people-wont-shut-up-about-pokemon-go/268966609

[Squirrel]

Not to stray from the Pokémon Go topic, but have any if you done geocaching?

[Vanimal46]

No to geocaching, but Pokemon Go is pretty much the same thing... 

I tried Pokemon Go yesterday while out on a walk. I can see why the game is addicting. Not sure if I'm going to continue playing the game for long. 

[Craig Arko]

 

Not to stray from the Pokémon Go topic, but have any if you done geocaching?

I have, about 8-10 years ago when it was still a little difficult.

[twinsnorth49]

 

 

[Craig Arko]

Now we're cookin'.

 

[DaveW]

Gave the game a try, living in NYC means there is like a million "locations" and gyms within a few minutes walk, tried to "battle" at a gym and got my ass kicked (in the game)

This game is weird.

[Vanimal46]

 

Gave the game a try, living in NYC means there is like a million "locations" and gyms within a few minutes walk, tried to "battle" at a gym and got my ass kicked (in the game)

This game is weird.

Yeah I just started the game 2 days ago. Like most freemium games I feel like I'm already way behind, and thus will never have a strong enough team to compete... Same thing happened in Clash of Clans and others in the past. I also very rarely spend money for an app, and I'm sure if you really want to be good at the game, you're going to have to fork over some dough. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

You don't need to spend money to be competitive... The money is more for accelerating your leveling than it is an "instant win".

 

And really, level only matters at gyms... And I'm still struggling to keep a gym running more than 3-4 hours and I'm about 200 XP from level 16.

 

Again, the game is all about cooperation. A group of 4-5 level 12 players can take down a gym stacked by 3-4 higher level players. The game is built so it's easy to take down, hard to build. That's what keeps lower level players interested.

 

Say you're level 10 and approach a pretty full gym from another team. Your highest Pokemon is around 600 CP but the gym has the following:

 

500 CP

700 CP

800 CP

900 CP

 

You're allowed to use SIX Pokemon to crush that gym. Now, you'll never get all the way through that 900 CP "king of the gym" but if you use your six Pokemon to whittle away (and win) against the 500 & 700 CP Pokemon a few times, you'll decrease that gym's reptutation until only this remains:

 

800 CP

900 CP

 

And you'll get experience for doing it though gyms aren't the best place for experience. Catching and evolving is where you gain the most XP.

 

Again, it's easy to tear down in this game, very hard to build.

[GCTF]

Kids and their vidya games. smh

[Seauville]

Living in a downtown area like I do makes this game MUCH more enjoyable (Downtown St. Paul for me). So many places to go and re-stock. Also, if you actually slow down and look around at the things you're walking to, this game really gets you out to see some really cool parts of cities that you probably have never seen before (art I had never seen before, for example). Also helps that I was super into Pokemon in my elementary & middle school years (12 or so years ago now, wow).

[Mike Sixel]

My youngest actually joined us on a walk the other day, so he could get more Pokeman (that and it was my wife's bday....). So, for me, it is a plus so far.

 

I think it is a move by the electrical companies to get us to have to charge our phones more.......

[SweetOne69]

I enjoy the game but I uninstalled it for 3 reasons:

 

First, I live out of town and there are no pokestops around.  So I could only stock up on supplies during breaks at work.

 

Second, in my experience when I walked around at home to catch pokemon and hatch eggs, the game would lock up as soon as I left a wifi zone and when on 4G.  That was bad enough, but when I closed out and tried to re-open the app the login would fail and I wouldn't be able to get back in until I was back on wifi.

 

Third, I would like to go to a "friendly" gym to learn and practice battles.  But in all the friendly gyms in my area, the lowest creature's combat power is always double mine so the battle is over in 2 seconds.