One year ago today, I had never played Pokemon Go. I’ve had some fun, but you all taught me so much…

1 Comment

1. 

   just-regular-I-guess 3 years ago

   This website and /r/TheSilphRoad have really helped me understand a lot more about the game than you can find by just playing it. Things like friendships and XP, remote raid battles, PVP IVs (Go Team Tank!) and the nuances of raiding are not obvious to a causal player who wasn’t here in 2016.

   I downloaded the game because my kids were bored. The only time I’ve ever played a Pokemon anything was back when I borrowed my much younger sister’s Gameboy on a flight after she fell asleep. That’s how I learned who Squirtle was some 25 years ago.

   I have a lot of free time waiting for stuff at work, so I can pop out my phone and grab a few pokemon (my office is in the middle of 4 stops). I also experience horrific GPS drift at work, so I’d guess at least 50% of my steps are drift. Although the game did get me into walking more. I have a nice little stroll that gets me 15 minutes from home, then I loop back. Although I’ve added to this to increase my health.

   All that said, I think I fell into the game at a pretty bad time. I don’t know any IRL players, except a second account I created on an old phone for my kids. You all got some great enhancements during the pandemic, which were just the status quo for me starting a year ago. But much of that has been clawed back, especially remote raids.

   It’s a 7 year old game, and it’s been fun, but I can understand the
   community’s distaste for the creator of it, and that’s coming from a guy who built a PC to play Battlefield 2 on launch day.