Pokemon Go

For all your general chit chat, caching or not.
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Now_To_Morrow
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Re: Pokemon Go

Post by Now_To_Morrow » 23 December 15 7:03 am

No. I think I worded that wrong - I'm not waiting to lose territory. Just watching NSW slowly turn lilac and expecting it won't be long before out here loses its golden hue. And I'm researching the areas history and gathering many containers.

Ingress scared me off territory claiming and holding. I just like stirring. And, honestly, yellow-gold is a more natural colour for Australia. :griffin :griffin :griffin

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Happy Chappies
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Re: Pokemon Go

Post by Happy Chappies » 07 July 16 2:01 pm

Well, it's officially out - and glitchy as hell :shock:

Actually, for a 24 hr old game it's ok - Just a bit of freezing at random intervals and an overloaded server.

Not sure I'll get into it though.... Bit of fun to walk around and find random Pokemon around (ended up having to take the kids/dog out late last night to pick up some - So it's already good at giving the kids motivation to exercise!), which I kind of enjoyed. And they have something called 'Pokestops' which are clearly points of interest they've plucked out of Ingress (complete with photos) where you can collect items.

The gym battles I'm not so sure about. Just tried one. Clumsy interface (for me anyway) and a bit unsatisfying. I can imagine these quickly becoming dominated by particular individuals and teams which makes winning a gym, or even trying to train (if you end up on an unpopular team) very difficult. And there's no option (at least yet) of finding a nearby player and challenging them, or fighting your friends, etc. Thankfully we have one in the park behind us so at least we won't always have to be travelling a long way to re-win it, train at it, etc.

Also disappointingly, if your device doesn't have a gyro, the AR feature doesn't work. So you won't get the fun little buzz of a magikarp lying on your front doorstep, etc.

So I might keep it as a 'there's no caches around here, not even a munzee, so let's see what pokemon there are' kind of game. And I'm sure my kids will enjoy it more and use it while they're stuck with Dad when he's caching.

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ziggiau
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Re: Pokemon Go

Post by ziggiau » 07 July 16 2:52 pm

I didn't have a successful outing with it yesterday (phone crashed each time I tried to grab a pokemon, ipad tethered to phone was way way out), but I did get Mr14 to have a go on his ipad mini while driving and he had better results. I couldn't buy into Ingress (mostly because it required mobile data) and only because I have a kid who is a Pokemon expert will I try to preserve with it.

Some of the PGO field testers in the forums could probably give some further advice.

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Happy Chappies
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Re: Pokemon Go

Post by Happy Chappies » 07 July 16 4:29 pm

Really saw the value when I saw my (traditionally lazy) younger nephew on social media talking about it and saying "Guess I'm going to be going out a lot more" and then his mum coming online this morning saying "What's this Pokemon Go? Is that why you took the dog for a walk??!"

:lol:

It is good in that regard that, unlike geocaching, the same territory can still yield results in the form of items, new Pokemon, etc.

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Zalgariath
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Re: Pokemon Go

Post by Zalgariath » 07 July 16 8:01 pm

It's been rush out with known bugs still unaddressed, but for a release labelled v0.29 it is pretty good. Ingress took over a year before it hit version 1.0. The concept is great and I'm sure it will improve over time.

Could be an AWESOME distraction for younger players while the umm... grown ups... hunt for boxes under rocks :P

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Happy Chappies
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Re: Pokemon Go

Post by Happy Chappies » 08 July 16 3:59 pm

The more I look into it and play with ithelp my kids get used to it, it definitely rewards 'getting out there'. You can really only level up your Pokemon if you go out and find more - which involves walking (unless you've got a rooted/jailbroken phone and the know-how). And some 'eggs' require walking up to 10km to open (Yes, I tried seeing if driving the car would count, but it would seem not!)

Even paying cash doesn't really accelerate your progress that much.

Son joined me in walking the dog this morning. First time ever!

MavEtJu
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Re: Pokemon Go

Post by MavEtJu » 08 July 16 10:38 pm

Happy Chappies wrote:(Yes, I tried seeing if driving the car would count, but it would seem not!)
Going by train also doesn't do it.

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Now_To_Morrow
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Re: Pokemon Go

Post by Now_To_Morrow » 09 July 16 12:57 am

MavEtJu wrote:
Happy Chappies wrote:(Yes, I tried seeing if driving the car would count, but it would seem not!)
Going by train also doesn't do it.
My daughter is a bit of a gamer and quite a huge Pokemon fan for many years now so she is going hard at it. She says it's also like a step counter not just GPS for calculating distance traveled.
Last edited by Now_To_Morrow on 13 July 16 10:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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spatialriq
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Re: Pokemon Go

Post by spatialriq » 11 July 16 3:07 pm

Looks like it's taking off bigtime;

"Despite only being available in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the US, Pokémon Go has gained so much popularity it will soon boast more daily users than Twitter."

http://www.news.com.au/technology/home- ... 616ab3c2a1

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Happy Chappies
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Re: Pokemon Go

Post by Happy Chappies » 11 July 16 3:16 pm

spatialriq wrote:Looks like it's taking off bigtime;

"Despite only being available in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the US, Pokémon Go has gained so much popularity it will soon boast more daily users than Twitter."

http://www.news.com.au/technology/home- ... 616ab3c2a1
Well, growing at this rate perhaps.... But I think the game will attract a lot of new players, get them excited for a week or two, and then they'll lose interest... (hmm.. sound like any other gps-game we all know?? :shock: ) - Especially if it keeps crashing and bugging with the current frequency.

Just came back from a city meeting and had a play on the way in, and spotted a few others engaged in distinctive 'swipe' actions that gave them away. It clearly hasn't developed any of the cacher-etiquette about approaching fellow players and striking up conversation. Just too mainstream perhaps?

Laighside Legends
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Re: Pokemon Go

Post by Laighside Legends » 11 July 16 4:00 pm

It's like the entire history of caching has been squashed into one week... In fact the only thing I haven't seen with pokemon yet is someone getting airlifted off a cliff face - do the pokemons happen in terrain 5 locations?

About half of Facebook at the moment seems to be about pokemon to...

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Yurt
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Re: Pokemon Go

Post by Yurt » 11 July 16 9:03 pm

Yes it's all over the news. My s-i-l who always dissed geocaching is busy trumpeting its benefits on FB. She always trumpets whatever is currently trendy and then drops it when the next thing comes along.

If it gets kids outdoors it's good but will it last? Mine are too old to care about it now.

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Happy Chappies
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Re: Pokemon Go

Post by Happy Chappies » 11 July 16 11:34 pm

I'm not looking forward to the inevitable upcoming conversation along the lines of:

"Oh, so that's geocaching is it? Sounds like a variation on Pokemon go...." :stabby

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SamCarter
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Re: Pokemon Go

Post by SamCarter » 12 July 16 1:11 am

Happy Chappies wrote:I'm not looking forward to the inevitable upcoming conversation along the lines of:

"Oh, so that's geocaching is it? Sounds like a variation on Pokemon go...." :stabby
Yeah, but with real Tupperware* instead of virtual pixels

* By which I mean Sistemas, ammo cans, and repurposed mint tins.

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Yurt
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Re: Pokemon Go

Post by Yurt » 12 July 16 10:24 am

From what I can see it looks like it gets kids away from staring at devices indoors and gets them outdoors - staring at devices.

The real world sucks, apparently.

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