Let's Talk Pokemon Go

My son is HYPED for Sun/Moon this winter. He knows little of Go. We don't really watch tv at home but he has seen the commercials at his grandmother's. I know less than he does.

From what I can tell it's a mobile device game. Seems like you go to physical locations to then be able to capture a pokemon. I have a poor opinion on mobile games as for the most part they seem like they're asking for a steady stream of purchases and upgrades. My son doesn't have a phone, but he does have a kindle fire.

What does Go mean to us and why look at it over Sun/Moon?

I just heard about this from a coworker when I got in to work. Downloaded. It's not a real Pokemon game in the sense of Sun/Moon. I wouldn't pass up a real Pokemon game for it, but it could probably be entertaining while you wait for the real game to come out.

The thrill of the hunt is there. My son DL'd it first thing and roamed the house catching them on his iPod, which crashed the app three times. Now, apparently, his life is miserable until he can upgrade to an iPhone 5.

I found this guy in the front parking lot of my office building.

My wife and I have been playing this a bunch the last four days. My legs are sore. I walked 18km this weekend.

I liked Ingress but there wasn't really anything to do between portals. You'd look at the map and make your way to the next portal to play the game. Pokemon Go turns most those portals into Pokestops where you get stuff or Gyms, so the moving portal-to-portal is still there. BUT the inclusion of Pokemon to catch when you're just walking around makes all the difference. You can play when there aren't any Pokestops around just by walking around and catching Pokemon. We've ran into a bunch of other players around our neighborhood, which is pretty cool.

Once you hit level five you can start using the Gyms. Realistically though you're still going to have to do a ton of catching and evolving to use Gyms effectively, so if walking around catching imaginary critters doesn't appeal to you then steer clear. Gym battles are currently the "endgame". You can take down opposing teams' Gyms, train at friendly Gyms, and so on. There are some good articles out there to read all about how Gyms work. You'll still spend a ton of time walking around catching Pokemon though.

Niantic is having a bunch of server issues that are pretty frustrating, but the game is huge. I have full-grown adult coworkers that haven't played a video game in two decades catching Pokemon on their lunch break. Neighborhood kids are out in full force. The Minnesota state capitol grounds are crawling with Pokemon players wearing anything from Zubaz to suits on my lunch break.

Besides the server issues and being unsure of the shelf life, the only knock against it I have is that you probably need to live in an area with accessible Pokestops for it to be fun. You'll run out of Pokeballs and have nothing to do without Pokestops to replenish at. You can use the Ingress Intel Map to see the Ingress portal density in your area and use that as a pretty good guideline of how easy it'll be to find Pokestops and Gyms.

If they can sort out the issues, this game could be a phenomenon. I've seen people EVERYWHERE playing it, usually while me and the kids are playing too.

We are only level 5, nowhere near taking on a gym.

It's pretty amazing in terms of concept...making Pokemon an actual real life activity.

This app seems cool as hell, but I swear to christ, if one more grown ass adult walks into me because they're catching Pokemon I'm gonna slap the ever loving shit out of them. Shit's getting ridiculous. As if walking around New York wasn't bad enough already...

I feel like this game should win some kind of Nobel prize for games, just for the exercise that it's encouraging. I guess the 7.5 billion in additional stock value is kind of a prize for Nintendo. We have strangers walking into our cul de sac, one guy with two phones sheepishly explaining that one was his wife's. It's like Nintendo created a virtual front porch. Sooner or later the cool and pretty kids will show up, like they did in silicon valley, and ruin everything.

This game appears to have caught on...

www.similarweb.com/blog/pokemon-go

Almost everyone in my office is playing this...

I tried it on my walk to the post office, which happened to be a Pokestop. I don't really see the point. If it's just the collecting, then it's definitely not for me.

I live in a rural area, so there's literally no stops around me. Also means that I basically have to drive everywhere, so catching opportunities are minimal. I take a bus into Boston for work, and I tried running the app on the 10 minute walk from my office to the bus to go home, and didn't get a single chance to catch anything. I tried again later when I'd stopped at the store, and the servers were down.

I don't think my location and lifestyle are compatible with this game. I guess I could take walks at lunch or something, but catching random Pokemon for no particular reason isn't appealing to me. The "throw the balls at them" mechanic kind of sucks a lot, and I never really played the games, so there's no nostalgia factor either. At least it was free!

If anyone can hook me up with a hack that hides a Pokémon in my pants, I'd be much obliged

Disgustipater wrote: I tried it on my walk to the post office, which happened to be a Pokestop. I don't really see the point. If it's just the collecting, then it's definitely not for me.

It's not just collecting. You fight over Gyms/defend them which is where the real game/end game is.

jay718 wrote: but I swear to christ, if one more grown ass adult walks into me because they're catching Pokemon I'm gonna slap the ever loving shit out of them. Shit's getting ridiculous. As if walking around New York wasn't bad enough already...

You could say the same thing about regular texting.

I've been playing this, mainly when I'm out walking the dog or checking the aisles of K-Mart while I'm buying light bulbs. All my neighborhood has are crap pokemon though. The most interesting thing I've caught is a Drowzee. Can't wait to evolve my Eevee into something cool. At least there's a little park around the corner from my house that has a pokestop so I can hit that up once a day.

We've been talking a lot about Pokemon at work, so that's fun at least.