Pokémon Go |OT| As in "Go Outside"

Well fuck.

I'd seen that there must be a lot of activity in my area because of all the gyms getting claimed and fortified, and seen a lot of people I figured must be playing, but I hadn't actually bumped into anyone over the course of the week. Today, I set out on my bike and went to get some lunch and a few things from the grocery store. There's a pokestop at a mural outside one of the entrances. I grab it and see a couple teenagers walking about with their phones. I want to yell "HEY GUYS YOU HUNTING POKEMON?" but I hold my tongue. That's when I see it- a lure on a nearby stop down the street.

I put on my helmet and race the hell over there. It's just a fountain a random intersection. Roll up and there's 8 people just chilling in the shade on the grass. I ask them if they dropped the lure. There's 3 guys on bikes, one one a longboard. Shortly after the two teens I saw earlier walk on up. "Man, I knew you guys were hunting pokemon." People call out when new mons pop up to catch. We talk about the local Gym presence and rib each other about Team choice. One of the guys on a bike is new and hasn't figured eggs out yet, I help him out popping one in an incubator and give him my findings about the speeds you can ride at to hatch them. Everyone speaks up and mentions what they're trying to catch most. Everyone was incredibly good-natured. The conversation was natural and comfortable. No one had to worry if they had anything in common with the people present, because everyone here was fucking here to catch pokemon. Here on the side of the road. I say, "Holy shit," aloud, for the first time of the day.

A couple of the kids know each other, but more than half of the people there were strangers. One of the guys was pretty overweight; he mentioned that he was at least heading to two more stops before going home. The lure runs out (though it lasted longer than they expected- some mentioned that maybe it stays active longer if a new person shows up and grabs the stop?) but another one just a block or two away lights up. I don't recognize it at all, but I say I'm going and one of the other guys on a bike says he's never been but knows where it is and thinks there is a gym down that way too.

The two of us take off. I'm following him and it hits me. This is like I'm on a quest with an NPC. But he's not an NPC, he's a human fucking person, right there in front of me in reality. We get to the spot and it's the entrance to an adorable little park. We go in and I say, "Huh... I had no idea this was here." He says, "me neither." Turns out we've both lived ~5 miles away our whole lives but had never seen it. We look around and it's empty except for a couple and their two small children in the corner. I think no way it's them, so my new buddy and I speculate that somebody maybe dropped the lure to be nice and drove off. We're commiserating about my pokeball shortage in the wake of an Eevee popping up when the dad walks up to us, "You guys here for the stop? It's been giving me great stuff all day and there's lots of Pokemon since it's a park." Says he has two more lures. Says he's gonna put one down at 7 if we feel like coming back. We do. While we're there, one of the city park rangers pulls up in his SUV... pulls out his phone, collects the stop, waves at us and takes off.

New trainer friend and I ride off to hit the gym he mentioned. He's Mystic too (naturally) and it's one of the few Valor gyms in the area, and not particularly well defended. It's a lion statue. Where is there a fucking lion statue around here? Having a lot of trouble finding it, when I see the turn off into where it must be. Veer off and suddenly i'm going over a wooden drawbridge (WTF), the street is all random stones, there's a gigantic teepee to my left, a bunch of weird snake-themed art over here to my right. Where the fuck are we. Just then a dude pulls forward from deeper into the property and goes, "Hey, you guys know you're on private property right?" Oh shit. Poor guy has a lion statue that's a Gym on his weird-ass estate. He was actually pretty nice about it, haha, but he's gonna be dealing with that for awhile.

Then we spot a dude on a bike in an obvious Ketchum hat. He's trying to check it out too but is only level 4. This kid turns out to obviously have something on the autism spectrum, he's super nervous and can't really keep himself from saying things- but here he was, out on his bike, interacting with strangers. We give him some leveling advice and tell him it would mean a lot if he joins Blue when he levels up. Then we manage to find a way the gym can actually be hit from across the street, luckily, and claim it back for Mystic and each put in a Pokemon. I have a Raticate to spare higher than his, so it becomes my first Gym! Woo. Other dude says he's heading home, so we shake hands and hope to see each other again in the field. He takes off. I say aloud again, "Holy shit."

I start heading back toward my local mall, which is a gold mine of gyms and stops, and notice the Ikea nearby is now a red Gym. I dismantle it easily and install a Psyduck of my own- though as I sit here typing this now, it has already been taken back. That IKEA belong to Mystic, goddamn it.

I get to the mall and walk in. I'm in the food court. I pull open my phone and notice I'm standing almost directly on top of another lure. I see what the stop is and it's this fruit-themed sculpture in the food court (there are three right there that are all stops, yay). But nobody's really gathered around it. I'm wondering who dropped the lure if there's nobody here. Then I just start to kind of look around at the people eating. And it's fucking everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I counted 24 people in that food court playing the game before I had to just stop counting people and get on with my day. Then I realize, this lure wasn't like the other- where it was sort of dropped in the middle of nowhere and people flocked to it. This one, somebody just popped it because there are a ton of people here sitting down to eat and playing anyway. So cool.

I walk through the mall and grab some stops, but now I can't help myself and I'm just keeping my eyes and ears open. Bare minutes pass before I hear something or other as I pass people sitting down or they criss-cross me going the other direction.
"...just another Zubat..."
"..got my ponyta!"
"This way, there's two spots that I know of..."

Completely surreal. I head outside to where I knew there were a bunch of fortified gyms and stops, and then I start getting server issues for the first time- it's like being snapped out of a dream. I look at the clock and I've been out for 6 fucking hours. "Holy shit," I say aloud again, involuntarily.

Back home to recharge and I was able to log back in. I'm heading back over to that park in 20 minutes. I feel like bringing snacks just in case.

This is some wild shit.
Cool write-up.
Today has been a day well wasted. Looking forward to the proper EU release.
 
The app has to be on the entire time and can't be in the background, it must be the main thing running. Otherwise it doesn't record.

Quoting for emphasis. Turn on Battery Saver in the Settings when you do this. You'll have to do it every time you get logged out because of a server crash.
 
Caught on the first throw, and around the same area I found a male Nidoran.

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Also evolved Rattata, and now I'm one Paras Candy short of a Parasect...wait that didn't sound right.
 
My wife usually isn't that into gaming but she loves this.

We've spent the past couple days scoping out places around the valley and catching Pokemon.

This game is way way way more fun than I expected it to be.

Never have I seen so many people and couples out playing a game.
 
Also, almost universally everyone I spoke to mentioned that if it wasn't so freaking hot out, they'd have been out at this all day (like I was).

Pokemon hunting is sweaty work, lol
 
Of course right after my post the servers are down for the first time for me today, fml.

The app has to be on the entire time and can't be in the background, it must be the main thing running. Otherwise it doesn't record.

Good to know, I still feel like it's incorrect though.
 
My neighborhood is a very thick tree area with ponds and the such. Many trails. And what do I get in my neighborhood with incense? Nothing. Apparently there is no nearby Pokemon.
 
Servers are this games primary flaw to be honest, it's garbage when I take a gym but I don't get it because the opponents health won't go below 1.
 
Also, almost universally everyone I spoke to mentioned that if it wasn't so freaking hot out, they'd have been out at this all day (like I was).

Pokemon hunting is sweaty work, lol
It's horrific outside.

Maybe it's a good thing the servers are down for me. :P
 
This game could be something incredible with some changes. Put in the turn-based battles from the main series for the gyms, allow people to just battle each other phone-to-phone, dramatically increase rural spawn rate (like, fifty times more would not even be in the wrong ballpark), and possibly make catching Pokemon slightly more strategic - look to Pokemon ranger perhaps and have "assists" from Pokemon you own or something.
 
So I was walking over to the gym in the park next to my house, and noticed it was taken by Team Instinct (my team), while it was red when I started walking, so it was taken very recently. When I got there, nobody was around, but I dropped my Golbat off and together my Golbat and his Venomoth now make up a poison gym, and the first yellow gym I've seen in my area.

When I got home, I noticed not too far from the gym the same Venomoth guy had set down an incense thing to attract Pokemon. I could have easily walked there when I was at the gym, but I wasn't really sure if I could make it in time from home.

Would have been kind of cool to meet Venomoth dude. His username had 1991 in it, so I assume he was one year younger than me, so I wouldn't be some weirdo if I talked with him. Although I'm super shy, so I'd probably chicken out from walking there.

I should also note I absolutely hate walking, and this stupid game is getting me to walk around.
 
This game could be something incredible with some changes. Put in the turn-based battles from the main series for the gyms, allow people to just battle each other phone-to-phone, dramatically increase rural spawn rate (like, fifty times more would not even be in the wrong ballpark), and possibly make catching Pokemon slightly more strategic - look to Pokemon ranger perhaps and have "assists" from Pokemon you own or something.

I agree with this. The game feels super janky now but the AR aspects feel very inspired. Curious to see where it goes from here.
 
Looking past the horrible 1hp bug and the servers... I think they have a really solid base to create a gaming phenomenon here. But they need to fix this in weeks, not months.
 
How is it "showing up" in your house? I feel like I exhausted all the pokemon in/around my house and yard the first day of playing. Do more generate? Do you leave the app open as you cruise around the house?

I still can barely grasp how the game works, it doesn't explain shit haha

Just randomly appeared. I turned on the app and there it was.
 
I wonder when we'll get first stats on downloads on this. It's gone over 1 million on Android (official ones, obviously). I'd suspect it's a multiple of that on iOS - we can't be long off a milestone that's worth announcing.

And when you consider numbers like that - I do have sympathy for those running the infrastructure. You can always plan to make things scalable, but until you have what, 2 to 4 million (complete guess) people accessing it, you're not going to have been able to test for every eventuality rather than just going "well of course it'd be big".
 
Yep, seriously. I specifically went walking in the countryside, past a lake, through some huge woods, to the ruins of a 16th century chapel that was built on a 4th century Roman temple, looking for Pokemon. In over two hours of walking I found a single rattata in the woods, and the most I had were three "nearby" Pokemon.

I was excited for this game because I work in the countryside, surveying across the UK for protected wildlife and environments. Instead I'm being encouraged to visit towns and urban neighbourhoods. Really not happy that they've taken this route... It's completely the wrong way around. Don't get me wrong, towns can still be filled with Pokemon that fit, but natural environments should be equally heaving at the very least, and with different types of Pokemon.

This.

Makes me not want to buy the game since I live in the countryside.
 
My neighborhood is a very thick tree area with ponds and the such. Many trials. And what do I get in my neighborhood with incense? Nothing. Apparently there is no nearby Pokemon.

It's genuinely sickening me. I loved this game for the first couple of days but exploring natural environments today and seeing the contrast is making me see this game for what it is: a cash grab aimed squarely at urban areas. You're not supposed to explore to catch things, you're supposed to spend money in the cash store on lures and incense, sit your ass down at a Pokestop, and wait for literally everything to come to you. People are catching fully evolved Pokemon liked Blastoises and Nidokings in random towns. There's no rhyme or reason to locations that Pokemon can be found. Exploring remote areas like the trailers advertised will get you absolutely nothing, while spending money on in-app purchases and staying in your urban centre will see people completing their Pokedex in less than a week without travelling anywhere.

This. Is. Such. A. Letdown.
 
How do you use eggs?

Go the Pokeball Menu, select Pokemon, and look in the top right of the screen - there's a tag that says Eggs. Select it, and it shows the Eggs you have. Click on one, and it should show the available Incubators you have - everyone starts with one automatically. Any Egg in an Incubator will progress towards hatching for each step you take - the norm is about 5k in distance travelled.
 
Most depressing thing I just heard - driving is the best time to catch Pokémon.

It turns out the soft ban makes it so that you don't get steps counted while you're driving...

But you can still find Pokémon. That's incredibly dangerous.
 
Most depressing thing I just heard - driving is the best time to catch Pokémon.

It turns out the soft ban makes it so that you don't get steps counted while you're driving...

But you can still find Pokémon. That's incredibly dangerous.

I use public transportation to get to work...I get literally over 100 encounters on a day's commute

Edit: I should add that I get virtually no encounters if we get on the freeway
 
This game could be something incredible with some changes. Put in the turn-based battles from the main series for the gyms, allow people to just battle each other phone-to-phone, dramatically increase rural spawn rate (like, fifty times more would not even be in the wrong ballpark), and possibly make catching Pokemon slightly more strategic - look to Pokemon ranger perhaps and have "assists" from Pokemon you own or something.

the battles would've been great if they just had a single extra move on there, like a one time use status effect or buff move. that would IMO give the game the minimum viable battle system. at its current state, it's too simple and the battles may as well have autocompleted
 
It's genuinely sickening me. I loved this game for the first couple of days but exploring natural environments today and seeing the contrast is making me see this game for what it is: a cash grab aimed squarely at urban areas. You're not supposed to explore to catch things, you're supposed to spend money in the cash store on lures and incense, sit your ass down at a Pokestop, and wait for literally everything to come to you. People are catching fully evolved Pokemon liked Blastoises and Nidokings in random towns. There's no rhyme or reason to locations that Pokemon can be found. Exploring remote areas like the trailers advertised will get you absolutely nothing, while spending money on in-app purchases and staying in your urban centre will see people completing their Pokedex in less than a week without travelling anywhere.

This. Is. Such. A. Letdown.
My experience is...the complete opposite.

I went walking for 2 hours today, literally all over the place, and found a ton of Pokemon. For the most part, in my general area, the Pokemon commonly repeat, but as I branched out I found very different ones (like a patch of Vulpix spawns only at an old church).
On occasion, and very rarely, I'll find a fully evolved Pokemon, but they're hard as fuck to catch and take multiple tries. I also had a friend at the beach, who said he was getting primarily nothing but water Pokemon. So it's not true that Pokemon don't change based upon the areas you venture to, because they do.

And do I use incense sometimes? Sure, but it's not that big of a deal since you get 3 for $.99.
 
Thos pokemon go pictures in military bases made me think how Pokemon is already 20 years old, so of course some people in the military have the right age for this.
 
the battles would've been great if they just had a single extra move on there, like a one time use status effect or buff move. that would IMO give the game the minimum viable battle system. at its current state, it's too simple and the battles may as well have autocompleted

I'd like the original battle system, to be honest, none of this real-time nonsense, but I guess in an AR setting, real-time is probably the future...

If they do expand the battle system, though, we need a way to choose our Pokemon's movesets.
 
My experience is...the complete opposite.

I went walking for 2 hours today, literally all over the place, and found a ton of Pokemon. For the most part, in my general area, the Pokemon commonly repeat, but as I branched out I found very different ones (like a patch of Vulpix spawns only at an old church).
On occasion, and very rarely, I'll find a fully evolved Pokemon, but they're hard as fuck to catch and take multiple tries. I also had a friend at the beach, who said he was getting primarily nothing but water Pokemon. So it's not true that Pokemon don't change based upon the areas you venture to, because they do.

And do I use incense sometimes? Sure, but it's not that big of a deal since you get 3 for $.99.

Huh? How are you getting 3 for 99 cents?
 
I use public transportation to get to work...I get literally over 100 encounters on a day's commute

Edit: I should add that I get virtually no encounters if we get on the freeway

I also use public transportation. A rail system and at some point (in Ingress I guess) people tagged a whole bunch of the stops as spots so I get a ton of items to and from work. Sometimes I have enough time to get a pokemon. I don't have many encounters but I get all that I can. Got 5 on the way in to work one morning and none on the way back
 
I was hoping this would be a "walk around my yard and catch a few Pokemon" game and it's more like a "drive around creation and creep into people's yards" game.
 
My experience is...the complete opposite.

I went walking for 2 hours today, literally all over the place, and found a ton of Pokemon. For the most part, in my general area, the Pokemon commonly repeat, but as I branched out I found very different ones (like a patch of Vulpix spawns only at an old church).
On occasion, and very rarely, I'll find a fully evolved Pokemon, but they're hard as fuck to catch and take multiple tries. I also had a friend at the beach, who said he was getting primarily nothing but water Pokemon. So it's not true that Pokemon don't change based upon the areas you venture to, because they do.

And do I use incense sometimes? Sure, but it's not that big of a deal since you get 3 for $.99.

I hope my experience changes. So far I've explored two towns (London and Canterbury) and three rural areas. Like, properly rural. Not sub-urban like most people assume is rural. Nothing to be seen but fields and woodland. I can only find Pokemon in towns and sub-urban areas. If I go off the roads and into the wilderness, it all dries up.

And yes, in Canterbury I find water Pokemon along the river, but I mean there really should be rarer Pokemon in rural locations. Instead there are almost none. The "variety" is strictly within towns.
 
Well fuck.

I'd seen that there must be a lot of activity in my area because of all the gyms getting claimed and fortified, and seen a lot of people I figured must be playing, but I hadn't actually bumped into anyone over the course of the week. Today, I set out on my bike and went to get some lunch and a few things from the grocery store. There's a pokestop at a mural outside one of the entrances. I grab it and see a couple teenagers walking about with their phones. I want to yell "HEY GUYS YOU HUNTING POKEMON?" but I hold my tongue. That's when I see it- a lure on a nearby stop down the street.

I put on my helmet and race the hell over there. It's just a fountain a random intersection. Roll up and there's 8 people just chilling in the shade on the grass. I ask them if they dropped the lure. There's 3 guys on bikes, one one a longboard. Shortly after the two teens I saw earlier walk on up. "Man, I knew you guys were hunting pokemon." People call out when new mons pop up to catch. We talk about the local Gym presence and rib each other about Team choice. One of the guys on a bike is new and hasn't figured eggs out yet, I help him out popping one in an incubator and give him my findings about the speeds you can ride at to hatch them. Everyone speaks up and mentions what they're trying to catch most. Everyone was incredibly good-natured. The conversation was natural and comfortable. No one had to worry if they had anything in common with the people present, because everyone here was fucking here to catch pokemon. Here on the side of the road. I say, "Holy shit," aloud, for the first time of the day.

A couple of the kids know each other, but more than half of the people there were strangers. One of the guys was pretty overweight; he mentioned that he was at least heading to two more stops before going home. The lure runs out (though it lasted longer than they expected- some mentioned that maybe it stays active longer if a new person shows up and grabs the stop?) but another one just a block or two away lights up. I don't recognize it at all, but I say I'm going and one of the other guys on a bike says he's never been but knows where it is and thinks there is a gym down that way too.

The two of us take off. I'm following him and it hits me. This is like I'm on a quest with an NPC. But he's not an NPC, he's a human fucking person, right there in front of me in reality. We get to the spot and it's the entrance to an adorable little park. We go in and I say, "Huh... I had no idea this was here." He says, "me neither." Turns out we've both lived ~5 miles away our whole lives but had never seen it. We look around and it's empty except for a couple and their two small children in the corner. I think no way it's them, so my new buddy and I speculate that somebody maybe dropped the lure to be nice and drove off. We're commiserating about my pokeball shortage in the wake of an Eevee popping up when the dad walks up to us, "You guys here for the stop? It's been giving me great stuff all day and there's lots of Pokemon since it's a park." Says he has two more lures. Says he's gonna put one down at 7 if we feel like coming back. We do. While we're there, one of the city park rangers pulls up in his SUV... pulls out his phone, collects the stop, waves at us and takes off.

New trainer friend and I ride off to hit the gym he mentioned. He's Mystic too (naturally) and it's one of the few Valor gyms in the area, and not particularly well defended. It's a lion statue. Where is there a fucking lion statue around here? Having a lot of trouble finding it, when I see the turn off into where it must be. Veer off and suddenly i'm going over a wooden drawbridge (WTF), the street is all random stones, there's a gigantic teepee to my left, a bunch of weird snake-themed art over here to my right. Where the fuck are we. Just then a dude pulls forward from deeper into the property and goes, "Hey, you guys know you're on private property right?" Oh shit. Poor guy has a lion statue that's a Gym on his weird-ass estate. He was actually pretty nice about it, haha, but he's gonna be dealing with that for awhile.

Then we spot a dude on a bike in an obvious Ketchum hat. He's trying to check it out too but is only level 4. This kid turns out to obviously have something on the autism spectrum, he's super nervous and can't really keep himself from saying things- but here he was, out on his bike, interacting with strangers. We give him some leveling advice and tell him it would mean a lot if he joins Blue when he levels up. Then we manage to find a way the gym can actually be hit from across the street, luckily, and claim it back for Mystic and each put in a Pokemon. I have a Raticate to spare higher than his, so it becomes my first Gym! Woo. Other dude says he's heading home, so we shake hands and hope to see each other again in the field. He takes off. I say aloud again, "Holy shit."

I start heading back toward my local mall, which is a gold mine of gyms and stops, and notice the Ikea nearby is now a red Gym. I dismantle it easily and install a Psyduck of my own- though as I sit here typing this now, it has already been taken back. That IKEA belong to Mystic, goddamn it.

I get to the mall and walk in. I'm in the food court. I pull open my phone and notice I'm standing almost directly on top of another lure. I see what the stop is and it's this fruit-themed sculpture in the food court (there are three right there that are all stops, yay). But nobody's really gathered around it. I'm wondering who dropped the lure if there's nobody here. Then I just start to kind of look around at the people eating. And it's fucking everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I counted 24 people in that food court playing the game before I had to just stop counting people and get on with my day. Then I realize, this lure wasn't like the other- where it was sort of dropped in the middle of nowhere and people flocked to it. This one, somebody just popped it because there are a ton of people here sitting down to eat and playing anyway. So cool.

I walk through the mall and grab some stops, but now I can't help myself and I'm just keeping my eyes and ears open. Bare minutes pass before I hear something or other as I pass people sitting down or they criss-cross me going the other direction.
"...just another Zubat..."
"..got my ponyta!"
"This way, there's two spots that I know of..."

Completely surreal. I head outside to where I knew there were a bunch of fortified gyms and stops, and then I start getting server issues for the first time- it's like being snapped out of a dream. I look at the clock and I've been out for 6 fucking hours. "Holy shit," I say aloud again, involuntarily.

Back home to recharge and I was able to log back in. I'm heading back over to that park in 20 minutes. I feel like bringing snacks just in case.

This is some wild shit.

This is either the best game of all time or the biggest PR stunt I've ever seen.
 
I also use public transportation. A rail system and at some point (in Ingress I guess) people tagged a whole bunch of the stops as spots so I get a ton of items to and from work. Sometimes I have enough time to get a pokemon. I don't have many encounters but I get all that I can. Got 5 on the way in to work one morning and none on the way back

My bag is constantly full due to all the pokestops

Given that you are moving pretty fast, you do have to decide whether you want to focus on stops or Pokémon. It is pretty hard to consistently focus on both
 
I hope my experience changes. So far I've explored two towns (London and Canterbury) and three rural areas. Like, properly rural. Not sub-urban like most people assume is rural. Nothing to be seen but fields and woodland. I can only find Pokemon in towns and sub-urban areas. If I go off the roads and into the wilderness, it all dries up.

And yes, in Canterbury I find water Pokemon along the river, but I mean there really should be rarer Pokemon in rural locations. Instead there are almost none. The "variety" is strictly within towns.

Not really surprised us Brits are getting screwed over, it's par for the course
 
Not really surprised us Brits are getting screwed over, it's par for the course

I don't think its a UK thing, I've heard the same story from rurally-living Americans. This here games is for them purdy city boys who ain't don't know the meaning of cousin marriage.
 
Yep. I expected bug Pokemon in my local forest, but instead there was nothing. The "nearby" radar thingy was just blank.
 
My bag is constantly full due to all the pokestops

Given that you are moving pretty fast, you do have to decide whether you want to focus on stops or Pokémon. It is pretty hard to consistently focus on both

Definitely. I'm planning to focus on stops so I can gather items since I can actually get some pokemon from my office building
 
So I just got back from my usual neighborhood walk with this. As neat as it is, I don't think it's for me. One, it killed the whole relaxing feel of the walk for me. Two, the neighbors were looking at me like I was a nuts or like I was taking pictures of thier property. Now I have to hope I don't show up on the neighborhood watch list or something. lol

I turned off the AR because of this, solves a lot of those problems lol.
 
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