Pokemon GO

Pokemon in the Park

KluwesLeave a comment

I was sitting on my balcony in the warm summer sun reading a book when I heard music coming from down the street. Often times there are little free concerts or festivals of sorts in my town. I sat there for a minute trying to figure out what kind of music it was when I heard the firs few chords of the original Pokemon Theme Song. I immediately got up, put on my shoes, and took the two minute walk to “downtown” to see who was playing.

As I got closer, people were milling around both young and old staring at their phones. I saw a big sign that said “Pokemon in the Park” sponsored by the Senior Center. What I thought was live music turned out to be a DJ with a bunch of speakers set up in the middle of the park who mixed Pokemon noises with top 40 hits. After every song he would announce what kind of Pokemon were near by.  There were food trucks, vendors, some arts and crafts, a full on festival in my book. I’m not sure why the senior center put it on because there wasn’t a senior in sight but it looked like everyone was having a great time. Even though I wasn’t playing Pokemon Go, it was fun to listen to the music and see the booths. And you know, “Dangerous Woman” with expertly placed squirrel noises sprinkled in…not as bad as you’d think

Tomorrow the library is putting on a Pokewalk where a group walks around town finding different Pokemon together.  Are there any Pokemon Go related events popping up around you?

 

Pokemon Go: From Mobile back to Handheld

Kluwes1 Comment

Pokemon Go

In the month since Pokemon GO launched I’ve gone through a whole slew of emotions. At first I was super excited just like every one else. There were Pokemon that needed catching everywhere. It was fun to take pictures of Pokemon with the AR on and it was really cool to see where the closest Pokestops and Gyms were.

After the initial wonder wore off, I understood the basic rules of the game and how to progress. I ended up walking around my town and going places I had never been before. I also started to notice how many people were playing this particular game. People were out in droves near gyms and popular Pokestops  around the neighborhood capturing the creatures and chatting with each other.

Then came the hording. Flocks of pidgeys were captured and whole herds of evees were placed into my backpack. The alpha of the herd was fed the weaker members. Survival of the fittest at its finest. I made a career change from Pokemon trainer to Pokemon exterminator. Lately, I’ve been opening the game less and less. I feel like I’ve experienced everything it has to offer and I had a great time doing it.

Two years ago I bought Pokemon Alpha Sapphire on the day of its release. I never got the chance to play the original on the Gameboy Advance and I was all about seeing that generation of Pokemon in 3d. I put a couple of hours into the game before I set it down and never picked it back up again. I’m not sure why this was, I spent a good amount of time playing Y with a bunch of friends in college. However, as my interest decline in Go I had the urge to pick Alpha Sapphire back up again.

Here’s where I have to applaud Niantic and the Pokemon Company. They’ve created a game with enough features to stir up nostalgia but not enough to overshadow the fun of the handheld games. If anything it was the lack of some features that made me pick up my 3DS and sink sometime into Alpha Sapphire. I’m 4 badges in and still playing.  Now that I’ve gotten back into the 3DS game I’ve started to think I just might buy Sun or Moon in November. You got me back Pokemon and I never would have guessed it would be from a mobile game.

Pokemon Go: Keep Out

Kluwes1 Comment

private-property

Like many, I’ve spent the last couple weeks living out my childhood dream of setting out and collecting Pokemon for real. The hunt has brought me to places I’ve never been, I’ve met some people I otherwise wouldn’t have, and I’ve stopped in the middle of a sidewalk or a store more times than I can count.

Pokemon Go hit and it hit hard. Almost every store, restaurant, or bar in my neighborhood has some sort of deal for Pokemon Go players. Every night there are people young and old wandering the streets with their eyes glued to their phone. From my apartment I hear the yells and cheers of people who have finally found the little critter they’ve been searching for, usually right under my bed room window at 3am…while I don’t really mind, it seems like more than a few people do.

I’ve slowly seen more and more “Private Property: No Trespassing” signs pop up around town. There are three right around my apartment. There are a few more around more of the popular Pokestops as well. The majority  I’ve seen in the residential part of town on people’s front yards,I guess not everyone wants hordes of people standing around their house or business in the middle of the night. Even where there aren’t signs posted I’ve seen a few people jup fences and even one wandering around a construction sites.

Just because we’re playing a game doesn’t mean we should wander around places we aren’t welcome. Especially other people’s yards, you would think this would be common sense but apparently it’s a problem around here. While there are Pokemon everywhere, maybe we as players shouldn’t be going everywhere.

 

 

 

Pokemon Go: Adventures on Nature Island

KluwesLeave a comment

20160707_135251

I didn’t even know Pokemon Go was still coming out until I opened my Feedley a few days ago and saw all these posts about it. I immediately opened up my phone and downloaded the app, caught a squirtle 10 feet in front of me and continued on my day. I was on vacation all of  last week and this particular day we decided to go walking in a county park.

For the most part it was a frustrating  experience full of crashes and server messages. Until we walked to Nature Island. Now I don’t know about you, but to me Nature Island sounds like a prime Pokemon location. It almost sounds like a location from one of the games and besides being a beautiful hiking trail it was close enough to a cell tower that I could actually get to playing.

Playing I felt like my childhood dreams somewhat came true. I was walking around in the world searching for Pokemon and throwing pokeballs at them. My girlfriend found this all very amusing when I would stop and say “Hold on I got to get this one!” Her Snapchat story for the day was full of me yelling about Tangelas and Snorlaxes. There were also several unclaimed gyms, not being level 5 I couldn’t do anything about this though.

I only got to play the one day as I was visiting family and didn’t want to be staring at my phone the rest of vacation. So I closed out of it, put my phone back in my pocket and enjoyed the rest of my time.

When I got home I realized just how popular this game had become in such a short time. I also discovered there are about 20 pokestations a mile or less in any direction from my apartment and 4 gyms. As a result, my little town is crawling with people day and night looking at their phones and walking around. It’s great to see so many people interacting with one another and coming together because of Pokemon and a silly mobile game. I can’t wait to join them and hunt for more pokemon.

I was able to catch 4 pokemon on Nature Island before I lost reception.

pokemon rataIMG_2016-07-07-13402009IMG_2016-07-07-13393430

IMG_2016-07-07-13383518