Pokemon GO!

[AdmiralMemo]

Are you playing? What team? Any stories to tell?

I just started today. My knowledge of Ingress portals became useful to me, as all portals are Pokestops or Gyms. I'm only Level 4, so no team yet, but I'm thinking Team Blue for both Ingress Resistance and LRR pride.

[Genghis Ares]

I work from home and live in a pretty bad neighborhood, so I haven't gone out and caught any other than the starter. I thought you'd get chances to find them in your home, but I've never had one in my circle the 7 or 8 times I've turned it on.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

I hear funny stories, and I want in.

[betsytheripper]

I started yesterday and am lvl 7 Team Valor (red). So far I've had a lot of fun and there's a PokeStop across the street from me and two gyms right at the corner. I will say, look for parks, and paths with lots of memorial benches and stuff.

I walked to the nearby park last night (~10pm) and on the way ran into a group trying to catch arcanine. Once I got to the park, there was a red team lure meet up with smores, and the park had 5 total stops. With a refresh rate of 5 minutes, several of us were just doing rounds for all our items. It was a lot of fun!

I've also by pure luck been able to catch stuff from my bed/computer chair, but I think that's just to do with the density of my area. Also, I don't use my camera (the game can't detect my camera orientation, which kind of confirms to me that my gyroscope is messed up) and it makes life easier for me. Also let's me do things like wake up, open it, and catch a cp269 ponyta from bed.

But definitely A+, 10/10, will recommend game.

[Kapol]

Finally was able to play it again today. An old friend came down to search the area, and I invited her to take a walk with me. Was a lot of fun. I feel like if this game does manage to survive the initial wave of hype, it'll be thanks to the social aspect of it. I even saw a group of 7-8 people out at like 10PM. Which considering the area I live is a huge group of people.

[AdmiralMemo]

Ingress is still going strong despite lack of any more hype, so I think this'll garner the strength. It is indeed all the social aspect.

Also, apparently, walking my neighborhood at midnight isn't the wisest thing to do... Was going to catch a legendary, but a couple of guys were eyeing me up and heckling me to the point where I just scooted off as fast as I could.

[Jamfalcon]

I work from home and live in a pretty bad neighborhood, so I haven't gone out and caught any other than the starter. I thought you'd get chances to find them in your home, but I've never had one in my circle the 7 or 8 times I've turned it on.

This is basically my fear too. I don't have a data plan, so I don't know if I'll be able to do much just on WiFi... and it's not out in Canada yet, so I'll have to wait until I visit my girlfriend south of the border in a few days to even see if my slow cheap phone can run it.

[TStodden]

I visited the mall today & found it fairly busy with Pokémon Trainers... I found 6 PokéStops & a Gym there (controlled by Team Blue).

I quickly leveled up to Lv 5 & joined Team Blue (mostly for LRR... but it was also the first color in the 1st gen of Pokémon I picked up when it initially launched). I also have a crapload of free PokéBalls (scoring 2-4 per stop like every 5 minutes or so), so I should be good for a while.

The local landmark is only a PokéStop. From what I heard from other trainers, it seems that team break down is hitting state lines (Nebraska being Team Red, South Dakota being Team Yellow & Iowa being Team Blue)... but the one PokéGym (local park) is in Team Red's control.

I'll have to check how things look when I visit my parents.

[MotorWaffle]

So many trainers at the mall by my apartment, but also two gyms and three pokestops. I'm currently level 10, team mystic.
Apparently there's an ongoing war between security (Mystic) and the Hot Topic employees (Valor) over the food court. I love the fact that I can say that sentence.

[TStodden]

Current updates... I stopped for dinner on the way to my parents (pretty much the county seat) & found MORE PokéStops & Gyms than the mall (3 Gyms, 11 Stops) in a 3 block radius.

It seems that all the ice cream statues (being the Ice Cream Capital of the World) around town have been marked as PokéStops (except the one in center of town, that's a Gym). The Gym split was 2 Mystics & 1 Valor.

My hometown (where my parents live) has more activity than I expected. 4 PokéStops (2 churches, Post Office & Library) & a Gym (City Park). Unfortunately, on my walk through town, the Gym was overtaken by Team Valor (hence the tweet for help). The pokémon left by Team Mystic weren't that great (~150 CP) & were replaced by a Snorlax (~1000 CP) & a Scyther (~550 CP). Unfortunately, I picked up a blister while traveling the 1 mile (~1.68 km) loop (hitting all the stops at least once, 2 of them twice).

If Team Valor didn't overtake the gym, I was seriously planning to train & get one of my a slot to defend.

[Ladsworld]

I live in literally the middle o nowhere so I can't play this game too much, but hopefully I'll find SOMETHING when I hed up to the city for the prerelease.
Bulbasaur master race

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

I don't know what I am doing. I cannot leave my house since I won't have a connection. So I'm at home catching the local Pokemon that walks too close. I'm a lazy version of a real hunter in this regard.

[Kapol]

I live in literally the middle o nowhere so I can't play this game too much, but hopefully I'll find SOMETHING when I hed up to the city for the prerelease.
Bulbasaur master race

Same here. Though I'm lucky that I'm just down the road from a triple stop... though using 2 of them means trespassing on church grounds. It also has a gym though! One that I'm vastly underleveled to try to take.

I walked over a mile today around the 'block.' I saw a total of about 7 Pokémon. 2 Eevees and then the normal 'everywhere' Pokémon. I don't mind walking around. But not finding anything for so much walking is kind of disheartening. Especially since I need about 5 more Eevees to evolve one, and I want to get all of the Eeveelutions... which are randomized. It doesn't help the stops are set up in a way that walking between them (about a quarter mile) is significantly better than going over a wide area.

All that said, I think the thing I like most about this game is that it's gotten a ton of people talking about Pokémon. I'm happy to see that. I grew up on the games more than any other series. And while Go isn't really like 'actual' Pokémon, the fact people are getting excited about the series and it's making a largely positive difference on all sorts of people makes me happy. I'm still interested in seeing how long it lasts. But I do hope that it'll last a long time.

[TStodden]

I found out that the one town I mentioned earliest is a virtual warzone for the game when going through the town... at least 10 Gyms & 20 Stops noted, but the highest density is a 2-block radius from the town's center (1 Gym + 10 Stops). There's probably more to be found if I scan the map on a different route through town.

Back at home, I found a Gym + 3 Stops in close proximity that's downtown... but that's 1 mile away from me (town's a bit stretched along the highway).

The only probably I'm having is with inventory... with 200+ PokéBalls to burn through.

[Avistew]

I'm playing too. I'm team red, wouldn't have cared what they were called or stood for, it had to be red

My phone broke down the day after Pokemon Go came out, so I had to wait until my replacement phone got here and I just got it. I'm behind but having fun. My husband is in the hospital and I have to make the trip every day to take care of the dogs back home (none of my friends are willing to, thanks friends >.>) so I've been getting some steps and meeting a lot of low level pokemon. Since they're different species in the two areas, I have some variety.

I'm saving up on them to level them all up when I've got an experience doubling item. So far I have less than 100 pokemon overall (with about ten each of a bunch of common ones) so I'm not running out of space yet.

Not a huge amount of pokestops or gyms around where I live, but I like walking, so once Seamus is out of the hospital and I resume my regular walks, I should be able to hatch an egg a day and get tons of items and XP from the pokestops.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

I'm out of Pokeballs. There are not any Pokestops on the map around my house. I don't know if there are any stops nearer to me in a 4 miles radius.

I realise that this game puts you into a position for me of; do I buy a bus ticket to the next Pokestop or buy Pokeballs? I could walk the 4 miles, but that's... not fun?

[AdmiralMemo]

Walk 4 miles, catch Pokemon on the way, breed your eggs... Could be fun...

But yeah, I know that feeling and it sucks.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

I have no Pokeballs to use.
I have no eggs.

It would just be a 4 mile walk for Pokeballs.

[Avistew]

I'm out of Pokeballs. There are not any Pokestops on the map around my house. I don't know if there are any stops nearer to me in a 4 miles radius.

I realise that this game puts you into a position for me of; do I buy a bus ticket to the next Pokestop or buy Pokeballs? I could walk the 4 miles, but that's... not fun?

Once you have eggs in incubators, walking 4 miles is rewarding though. But yeah, I see that. I had the same problem with Ingress. Now I've moved and there is one in the next block, so it's not a very long walk for me.

[Master Gunner]

So I tried it out today since it seems to be the "in" thing. Turns out my desk at work is about 3 feet from a pokestop, which appears to be handy.

Today was the most people I've seen in the square in front of city hall outside of New Year's or the annual car show, so that's a thing. Two pokestops in the square itself, plus another and a gym across the street seems to make it a popular spot (they appeared to be lured for most of the day).

I considered actually trying to get out and "play" the game over lunch - but that requires walking past the pokestop-laden pub patio right outside my office, which is a challenge in and of itself.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

Thursday I have half an hour after work to kill before my bus leaves. I will go exploit the populated area then. Or maybe when I step into work tomorrow...

[Kapol]

So I went on a Pokewalk with a bunch of people recently. Which ended with me and another guy just kind of splitting from the group. There were 7 Pokestops down a single street section, all of which were lured up. So we spent the entire time walking back and forth. Within about an hour and a half, I gained 4 levels. I think I also caught about as many Pokémon as I have throughout my entire time playing. And that's not even close to all the ones I saw and stopped caring about. I'm not sure if that's good or really sad.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

Both?

It's great that it encourages people to go outside, and effectively have hours of fun for free (in the city).

But it is frustrating that some of us have to go to a lot more of an effort to get the similar experience as others who are playing.

It's resurrecting emotions in me about the trading card game when I was young. It was supported wonderfully in England, but in Wales, it was not. I would have had to travel 70 miles to the nearest tournament. I suffered from travel sickness and so that trip never appealed. I also had no one to practice with or bounce ideas with, so I would have likely turned up, lost quickly and be disappointed.

You really want to enjoy a product to the fullest, but because you live in an area where fewer people live, you are getting a subpar experience. If anything, Pokemon GO should be more awesome in the countryside. But no, it's very much urban exploration. Pokemon GO: Unova.

[Lord Chrusher]

I have been suckered in. My main complaint is how quickly it chews through battery.

[Avistew]

Mu husband was in the hospital for the past week and I played Pokémon Go as one of many ways to pass time. There were PokéStops that were accessible from inside his room, and they were always lured. I didn't understand why at first.

Then I learned that there is a whole movement of people luring PokéStop near hospitals so that kids who are in the hospital can still catch Pokémon. This is awesome.