Pokemon GO! Pokemon GO! GO Pokemon, GO!!!

[ISiddiqui]

To be honest, you shouldn't be playing it while biking either. The same issues arise as when driving, maybe a bit less. Not playing on the train is unfortunate, but at this point it's more collateral damage - Heck, I could never play it on the train, because my train goes above 15 mph.

[cuervo72]

It's also a change that will be sure to piss off a lot of kids, who can't drive but play in the car as passengers.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

It's also a change that will be sure to piss off a lot of kids, who can't drive but play in the car as passengers.

Well over half my captures are in the car, but not while driving, so yeah they can pretty much go screw themselves on that one.

Watching their seemingly inevitable crash & burn just gets to be more and more enjoyable.

They might even climb past Konami on the shithead asshole devs platform before they're done.

[cuervo72]

We were in Ocean City, MD last weekend and rode the tram a couple of times. Caught tons of stuff. Had this been in effect for those rides...well. Son was getting annoyed enough walking around the pier not finding spawns that were supposedly there (I don't know if it was the game or an app locating them).

And yeah, if a company pisses him off (EA a good example)? DEAD.

[dubb93]

If my wife and I can't play as the passenger in the car then the game is basically dead to us. Noticed yesterday that we drove from one side of the town to the other and we didn't see a single Pokemon spawn. It was odd since we generally will catch 5-10 Pokemon on that same trip consistently. We assumed it was one of the weird quirks we see from time to time and it was a server error or something. If that is the new normal then I guess they killed this game.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by dubb93

If my wife and I can't play as the passenger in the car then the game is basically dead to us. Noticed yesterday that we drove from one side of the town to the other and we didn't see a single Pokemon spawn. It was odd since we generally will catch 5-10 Pokemon on that same trip consistently. We assumed it was one of the weird quirks we see from time to time and it was a server error or something. If that is the new normal then I guess they killed this game.

Our biggest spawn hotspot was noticeably silent when we pulled into the shopping center last night, this could explain it apparently.

[Julio Riddols]

I think the only thing I don't like about the update is that it is maybe twice as hard to catch pokemon in general. If the game is making 10 million dollars a day, there's no need to try and increase the amount of money people pour into purchasing pokeballs, etc. FWIW I still haven't spent a dime on the game and I just hit level 22, but I think its a bad move overall for the game when they should be doing everything they can to keep their user base at max levels right now.

I did step on the scale last night and see my weight below 180 for the first time in over a decade, so that is the main reason I play the game at this point. It's working really well as a fitness incentive.

[ISiddiqui]

Yeah, it is much more difficult to catch Pokemon, but I find with most, if I use a Razz Berry and Great Ball, I can do so. So in some instances it has increased strategy, but when you have a 35 CP Spearow, maybe they shouldn't be able to break out of a Pokeball at all?

Though, on the point of making money... the incredible levels they have made (it's more like $1.6 mil a day, but still a lot) was due to the insane rush of initial players. That is naturally going to die down as people catch most of the Pokemon. I have a feeling that not everyone is into gym battles. So the question does become how are you going to keep making money? Power users will spend on the game, but also new players won't know how easy it was to catch early on and may be more inclined to spend on Pokeballs.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

This is very different from a game like Skyrim, where sales 12 months after release actually matter. It's a dinky mobile app: all it needs to do is sell well for a couple weeks - then it's a huge success. We all then move onto the next thing.

I think you underestimate the time and effort put into developing 'dinky mobile apps' - Pokemon Go is undoutably a HUGE undertaking, it has maps across the world populating gyms and such all being monitored and updated in real-time with multi-million users, I expect the infrastructure in terms of developers and support is quite vast ... as is its income, I expect it'll remain popular for a sustained period of time so long as they're responsible with its marketing and development (which I expect they will be).

If you doubt this look at other mobile games which have had sustained shelf-lives - they tend to exist and evolve over a multi-year period, sometimes with later revisions/versions coming out (such as FMM's yearly update) and sometimes through internal updating of apps (most commonly for freemium products).

PS - Personal bets for its evolution are player vs player trading and fighting in due course ...

[Julio Riddols]

I think the key to keeping users is adding pvp, trading, and more generations of pokemon. Put more out there to do, more to catch, maybe change the pokestops occasionally to take people to new places. Add some other things besides gyms, like "beauty contests" and stuff like that. Expanded move lists, the ability to find/win HMs and use them to teach pokemon new moves.. Basically, try to bring all the aspects of the handheld game to the real world. Do that and people will never run out of shit to do.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

Do that and people will never run out of shit to do.

Unless you've made it increasingly difficult for them to play (or want to play) at all before you get to that point.

[Julio Riddols]

Yeah, theyve already taken one step in the wrong direction on that front. They need to work back the other way or its going to be a short lived fad and no more popular than Ingress.

[chinaski]

Got this guy last night. By far, almost by 2x, my best wild one yet.

[chinaski]

Originally Posted by chinaski

Got this guy last night. By far, almost by 2x, my best wild one yet.

Hes a lvl24 with only a 35 IV, but ill take it!

[ISiddiqui]

NICE... I haven't gotten a Snorlax yet... but I do have a 10k egg, so I'm hoping..

[JonInMiddleGA]

Snorlax is by far the most common gym-topper around here. (Not saying they're common, just that they're the dominant gym guardian)

[ISiddiqui]

Yeah, I've seen a lot of Snorlax on top of gyms as well. Though in the last week, I have seen a lot more Eevee evolves (Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon) as well as Dragonite on top of gyms.

[Warhammer]

My best so far is a 98% IV Flareon with Fire Blast. Only issue is my trainer level of 19. I have another high IV Jolteon as well. The issue I will be running into is how to farm Stardust. Guess I will need to figure out how to set up a gym run.

[Abe Sargent]

I like Clefable in the gym guard mode. It's hard ot type out like others. it has strong HP,it's hard to get eh super effective attacks on it, and those that can get it are often vulnerable to its psychic attacks -mine has zen headbutt and psychic.

[Toddzilla]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

Just cracked level 20 and I haven't even gone 50k yet. The good news is I've refilled my bag so that its full. The bad news is, nothing seems to spawn around me anymore. I've caught 12 monsters in 2 days, and all but one has been a rat or pidge. I sent my wife a picture yesterday that showed 5 nearby slots were rats, 4 were pidges. It looked like they were playing tic tac toe.

Same thing has happened to me - I walked the neighborhood a few times and got NOTHING.

[Toddzilla]

dola - what are these "3rd party tracking apps" they speak of?

[wustin]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

I think the key to keeping users is adding pvp, trading, and more generations of pokemon. Put more out there to do, more to catch, maybe change the pokestops occasionally to take people to new places. Add some other things besides gyms, like "beauty contests" and stuff like that. Expanded move lists, the ability to find/win HMs and use them to teach pokemon new moves.. Basically, try to bring all the aspects of the handheld game to the real world. Do that and people will never run out of shit to do.

The first generation is very iconic and nostalgic. Adding in the newer generations could potentially wane retention.

What they should (and are doing as it seems) is making the current batch of pokemon available harder to get outside of the common pokes like Pidgey and Rattata.

[Neon_Chaos]

Southeast Asia just joined in on the fun over the weekend. Hoorah!

[Subby]

grrr very jealous about the snorlax gets.

I went on a walk around DC during lunch - mostly around the WH/Treasury/Lafayette Square. There are a ton of stops and I filled my bag, but even with a couple of lures out there seemed to be WAY less pokemons spawning. And the escape rate is ridiculous.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Subby

grrr very jealous about the snorlax gets.

I went on a walk around DC during lunch - mostly around the WH/Treasury/Lafayette Square. There are a ton of stops and I filled my bag, but even with a couple of lures out there seemed to be WAY less pokemons spawning. And the escape rate is ridiculous.

TOTALLY anecdotal, but a short trip out tonight I went something like 8 for 8 with zero escapes. Including my 3 highest ever capture in the wild. No berries, just regular pokeballs. It felt very much like the difficulty had been rolled back to normal.

[Abe Sargent]

We went for a walk last night for 90 minutes at a pier in Fairhope, just off Mobile, on the Mobile Bay, and ther were like hundreds of folks, lures on all of the stops, around 20 stops and 2 gyms, and I caught tons of pokies and a ton I didn't have:

Ponyta
Machop
Voltorb
Magnemite
Dratini
Geodude
Seaking
Poliwhirl



And I missed on a Omyte.

I also got great pokies I need more of, like another Machop, Cubone, Growlithe, Kadabra, Gastly and Rhyhorn. Oh and a Drowsee as well.


And most of those are on teh top of my CP page, or at the top of an unevolved list for me like a Machop at 446, a Potya at 664, and 804 for the Seaking. I caught a 456 Squirtle. Stuff like that. In one night of 90 minutes at a pier.

I have levlel 17, and my hightest CS pokies right now, that I did not add to their power with candies and dust, are 931 Flareon, and that's it.
My top are two 1000 Pokies, two 8900s, and two 800s and three 700s and just 1 600. So many high level and new pokemon baby


Totally ancedotal, obviously, but that was the single most valuable excursion I made. And I hatcehd a beautiful, now 1064 Scyther, that started at 886.

[Izulde]

The high escape/low spawn has definitely been a thing here. The other day I dropped a lure. 2 Pokemon showed up in that half hour. It was fucking ridiculous.

[Subby]

Big update just rolled out and they are testing a new beta of Nearby...sounds very promising!

Niantic Is Testing A New 'Nearby' System For Pokemon Go [UPDATES]

[Easy Mac]

There are 28 pokestops within a 5 minute walk of me. This is my updated nearby list.

[MacroGuru]

Caught a Pinser and Sandshrew last night right by the house, they are not normally there.

The game is faster now and I am catching pokeys like I was in the past.

And I hatched my 2nd Lapras last night.

[Julio Riddols]

Nearly a quarter of the way to finally having a legit "home grown" gyarados on a Magikarp with perfect IV's... Wish I could hatch about 10 Magikarps right about now.

[Subby]

Yes, yes I briefly held the White House. I can now retire.

[Julio Riddols]

The Exeggutive branch!

[Neon_Chaos]

Game has been out a week in Southeast Asia, finally hit level 21. All the wonderful CP pokemon are now showing up. It's just a fun game in the inner city.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

Southeast Asia just joined in on the fun over the weekend. Hoorah!

Yes, saw some FB posts from my friends. I may be in SE Asia for work sometime this year, it'll be cool catching some (... using hotel wi-fi of course!).

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by chinaski

Got this guy last night. By far, almost by 2x, my best wild one yet.

Wow, my highest so far is <350.

[Edward64]

Been reading about pokemons and have found some references that Eevees are "rarer"? I catch them all the time, do you?

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Been reading about pokemons and have found some references that Eevees are "rarer"? I catch them all the time, do you?

Having travelled quite a bit, there are some areas they are non-existent, and other areas they are seen frequently. I have evolved about 6 Eevees because they are common in my neighborhood. When I was on the road this week, I may have seen 6, and 3 of those were at a single rest area yesterday.

[Edward64]

Rats, Bats, Weedles, Caterpies are prob the most common at my place.

[Julio Riddols]

I see so many Eevee's here it boggles my mind. I think I have evolved about 30 so far. I have an army of them.

[chinaski]

Finally got around to evolving my 99 IV/598cp eevee, ended up with this guy (using the Rainer name trick) ...

[Warhammer]

Had a pretty neat time this morning. Went to the next town over with my son, to check out what was there. When we got to the town, there were two stops that were lured next to a gym. We went over, and there were 4 kids 10-13 or so. They immediately asked what team we were on. We said red, and they breathed a sigh of relief. They were trying to level up a gym so they could all get the gym rewards. A girl and her boyfriend drove up and started trying to take the gym. The kids were trying to defend the gym and asked us to help. We spent the next 20 minutes defending the gym and trying to level it, until the two in the car drove off.

The kids then mentioned how the McDonald's would spawn rare Pokemon every 30 minutes, so we went there. At this point, it started to rain a bit. So my son and I decided to try and get as many pokestops we could. After 5 minutes, my son looked to the west and saw a downpour cresting the treeline. We made a dash back to the gym, which was a gazebo, to get some cover from the rain. The 4 kids came back on their bikes with exports of some nice Pokemon to the north. We waited for the rain to stop and started the hunt. Another heavy band of showers came and we raced to the next gazebo for cover. We heard some thunder, so I checked the radar map, and it looked like a fair sized storm cell was heading our way. We went back to the car and prepared to leave.

I checked the poke map before leaving and saw two gyms with only one Pokemon each in it. I then drove and parked by each gym while my son and I took them down. As soon as we were going to cash out, the girl and her boyfriend were back taking our gyms! Thankfully, the first gym was too strong for them to take, but we made another circle of the other two gyms and quickly claimed our 3 gyms before we headed for the house.

While it probably does not make for a great read, my 11 year old had a blast. He was talking about how cool it was to defend the gyms, and have to battle the guys in the bad white car for the gyms. Regardless of how long this game lasts, it has already given both of my kids some great memories and stories. They love relating how I was unable to catch the Snorlax and Lapras they caught. How we spent an hour leveling up my older son at a gym by trading it back and forth, etc.

[Julio Riddols]

Damn chinaski, what level are you on now, 30 or so?

I'm almost to 24, but this grind is getting longer on the higher levels, haha.

Got a beach trip coming this week, excited to spend some time building sand castles and maybe catching some pokemon not native to my area.. I'm certainly having no luck with eggs though, my last 10k egg hatched an Eevee, probably not even in the top 15 strongest Eevee's I have. I fell into a 5 second depression over it.

I love hearing the stories about parents and their kids hunting pokemon here at the hotel.. It's one of the few things that really seems to bridge a gap between parents and their kids and makes for legit fun for all involved. I think in that way this is one of the best games ever created, because the era we are living in seems to have taken that away for the most part. I hope that the staying power is there and that it continues for as long as possible because of that. The world can use some bonding as fractured as it is.

[Maple Leafs]

My daughter and I have been playing, with her character on my phone. We're almost up to level 20. It's been fun. I even know the names of a few Pokemon now. Good times.

So I don't say this to be negative, but... after the first few weeks, what's the point of this game? As best I can tell, nothing really changes as the game goes on. We keep seeing the same pokemon over and over -- sure, they're higher CP now, but 90% of the time it's the same five types. Unlike most RPGs, you don't get better loot or enemies as you go, and the XP stays the same so levelling slows to a crawl.

Am I missing something? Is this supposed to stay fun for more than a month?

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

Am I missing something? Is this supposed to stay fun for more than a month?

It's the same as any game. Why replay Civilization 50 times? Why play any MOBA more than once?

I play it as a reason to get out. I walked about 17 miles last week while traveling for work. Why did I walk that far? There were places to explore and Pokemon to catch. If I have something to keep my mind off of things, I enjoy walks. PokeGo fills that void for me.

It is also good for me to get my couch potato of a younger son off the couch and out doing something.

I also enjoy spending the time with my kids.

[chinaski]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

Damn chinaski, what level are you on now, 30 or so?

Around half way thru 27! The grind is getting real now tho, i dont see hitting 28 any time soon.

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by chinaski

Around half way thru 27! The grind is getting real now tho, i dont see hitting 28 any time soon.

I am just about to hit level 23. It came out in the Philippines < 2 weeks ago. The fact that I'm in a spot inundated with perpetually lured pokestops helps.

I think I'm taking a step back, as the grind is getting a bit insane.

[Honolulu_Blue]

'We don't feel safe': Metro Detroit couple sues Pokémon Go

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

'We don't feel safe': Metro Detroit couple sues Pokémon Go

Get off my lawn? I'd be curious to see if they play the game too. I think places like the Holocaust Museum and the cemetery probably have a case. Regular homeowners who are suing for a piece of the profits? Not so much.

[chesapeake]

There's no indication in the story that a gym or pokestop is on their "property" in the game, so I doubt they have a leg to stand on. Unless they can show that pokemon are consistently spawning on their property on the map, thus encouraging players to encroach. I'd be curious to see if a good lawyer could make a winning case out of that.