What The Fuck Is Pokemon Go
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What The Fuck Is Pokemon Go
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Okay, what the hell is Pokémon Go and why is everyone talking about it?
It’s the latest iteration of Pokémon , a popular video game series where players capture a variety of creatures, train them, and make them do battle.
No, it’s… huh, that’s a good point. Except the games are really cute. Pokémon is non-problematic anime dogfighting.
What’s so great about this new one?
Pokemon Go a new mobile game where you walk around in real-life to catch Pokémon.
What do you mean “walk around in real-life”?
Well, it’s is an augmented reality game.
What in the hot hell is augmented reality?
Augmented reality is the alternate universe where nerds live. Basically Pokémon Go is Google Maps if you added Pokémon to it. So it takes our real-life world and adds a fictional layer to it by using your phone’s GPS. In the game, you collect Pokémon and go to “PokéStops” to pick up items that will help you capture more Pokémon.
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This is all sounding mighty familiar.
That’s because a couple years ago, Nintendo and Google teamed up for an April Fools’ stunt that added Pokémon to Google Maps, and allowed users to catch the critters.
HAHAHA GOOD JOKE NERDS BEERS ALL AROUND.
The joke was apparently so good that Nintendo and Google (well, Niantic, which is owned by Google parent company Alphabet) saw an opportunity to make an extremely addictive and extremely mediocre mobile game, designed to gouge you to pay for in-app purchases. Which, I suppose, is how all mobile games work in 2016.
—have a deep, nostalgic love for Pokémon. It’s beloved internationally, having generated more than $40 billion worldwide over the past two decades.
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Does it look as good as this trailer ?
Lol, no. The game is way simpler and way uglier.
It is actually kind of awful. For one, the app is buggy as hell and crashes often. That will get better with time, but the fundamentals of the game are also kind of boring. It’s fun seeing Pokémon in augmented reality. But the game is missing a lot of key social components, like the ability to trade Pokémon or battle your friends.
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A lot of these features are likely coming in the future. But right now, Go resembles the original Pokémon games in a lot of ways, but glitchy and less charming.
Not exactly. I have no self-restraint. There is something compulsive about the idea of catching all 151 Pokémon. That’s probably why America’s motto is “gotta catch ‘em all.”
Yesterday, I nearly got hit by a taxi on my way home while trying to catch a Rattata.
Sounds delightful. You almost died trying to catch a rat.
Yeah, basically my Pokémon collection is just a bunch of rats. I haven’t really caught much else because the game keeps crashing. But I have my rats.
Okay, Willard. Have people found Pokémon lurking in weird places?
The game has definitely taken people to weird locations: police stations , graveyards , rivers with dead bodies in them , etc.
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How come there's never been a Pokémon game for phones before?
Honestly, it’s because Nintendo is in very bad shape. In the past, they’ve made all of their game franchises—Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Pokémon, etc.—exclusive to Nintendo consoles. But their most recent, the Wii U, has sold so poorly that the company has finally started publishing games to other platforms.
Does that mean I might be able to play Ocarina of Time on my iPhone soon?
Apparently Nintendo’s stock is up 10% after the launch of Pokémon Go . So it’s likely that Nintendo will continue to bring other franchises to iPhone and Android.
So what should I do in the meantime?
Probably just embrace addictive mediocrity and download Pokémon Go .
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What Is Pokémon GO And Why Is Everyone Talking About It?
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First, my friend caught a Charmander at a supermarket. Then the flood started: Digletts on a steering wheel. Rhyhorn at the bar. Magikarp on a frying pan. They’re all Pokémon to catch, part of a new game called Pokémon GO . You’ve probably heard of it — but what is it, and why is everyone obsessed with it?
Pokémon is the portmanteau of “pocket monsters”, and an insanely popular franchise with a just as insanely long history. In Pokémon, monsters roam the lands, and your job is to find, capture and train them. Then you put them in battle against other players. Growing up, I played the heck out of the original Pokémon games on the Nintendo Game Boy, and followed those adventures through a few more generations of handheld game console. I collected the trading cards and obsessed over the (still running) TV series. Fortunately, you don’t need any previous Pokémon experience to enjoy Pokémon GO .
Pokémon GO is a free-to-play mobile app that you can download for iOS or Android . It’s free to download and start playing, but you have the option to use real money to buy in-game currency called PokéCoins . (Between $1.49 for 100 PokéCoins and up to $159.99 for 14,500.) Those PokéCoins are used to purchase Pokéballs, the in-game item you need to be able to catch Pokémon. Now you don’t have to spend real money, but that simply means you need to pay with your time and energy (which is the fun of it, anyway!).
The game works by using your phone’s GPS for your real-world location and augmented reality to bring up those cool-looking Pokémon on your screen, overlaid on top of what you see in front of you. And you — the digital you — can be customised with clothing, a faction (or “team” of players you can join) and other options, and you level up as you play.
I’ve watched my friends excitedly whip out their phones whenever we walk a couple of metres down the street, round a corner or enter a new place, in search of new Pokémon. If the timing is right, wild Pokémon leap out at you, giving you have a chance to catch them with a Pokéball. When you capture a Pokémon, it gets added to your Pokédex, a sort of Pokémon database, where you can personalise them later. And then the fun part: You can go to your local “gym” and battle your Pokémon against other trainers (also real people).
PokéStops , on the other hand, are usually predetermined landmarks that you can interact with and get items from. Some of these items will further your “ability” as a trainer, or simply draw a ton of other excited Pokémon GO players to your location. All in all, Pokémon GO gives you a lot of things to do, but one of the biggest appeals is its social aspect.
These days you can’t read the news without seeing headlines about Pokémon GO . If you scroll through Twitter or Facebook, you’ll come across what appear to be normal pictures — of a grocery store, someone’s fridge, or even a mother giving birth — and can expect to find a Pokémon in it. Even my group chats with my friends regularly light up with talk of which gyms and PokéStops are nearby.
Everyone loves Pokémon GO , despite how playing it can be a drain on battery and mobile data . Curious about why exactly it appealed to people, I posed the question on Facebook and Twitter, and got a hodgepodge of answers. It started with the obvious:
@superLEE7 Pokemon. That's pretty much it.
On Facebook, Stephanie admitted that it was more than the draw of Pokémon themselves:
“To catch ’em all! Duh. ” But to answer your question: nostalgia. And everyone else was talking about it, so a pinch of peer pressure.
Andrew likes the idea of catching Pokémon in real life.
It’s the closest thing we have to a real life Pokémon experience. A lot of people are playing for the nostalgia, but Pokémon was always a cool idea.
Angelo and these Twitter users, on the other hand, found some immense real life value from playing Pokémon GO :
The completionist “gotta catch ’em all” is a pull for me definitely. The integration with real-life locations is giving me a reason to get up and walk/run to places nearby that I otherwise would never have seen. I’ve definitely gotten more cardio the past two days than I have the last three months combined. Also, the social aspect: I’m running into a bunch of other Pokémon trainers out in the real world, and it’s an easy way to strike up conversation with strangers. The sheer number of people that are engrossed in finding Pokémon in the real world (and walking around) is amazing.
@superLEE7 Meeting other trainers, unexpectedly. I had blast today meeting tons of other trainers of all ages comparing experiences.
@superLEE7 it's the walking around. Very good motivation, plus draws me to places I might not have gone.
Meanwhile, some people just enjoy seeing others talking about it:
@superLEE7 I've never liked pokemon, but I know a little about it. Don't play go, but like seeing the tweets.
The consensus here is that not only is the game fun, especially for people who grew up being involved with the franchise in some way, but it’s a great way for people to get out, explore places they never would have and meet new people. And because the people you meet are also playing Pokémon GO , the game instantly provides common ground (just trying to catch that Pikachu) for you to easily bond with fellow trainers, or maybe forge incredible new friendships. Even people who aren’t playing the game are benefiting: “I have friends taking their kids out to go catch Pokémon,” a friend told me.
Used a lure at the local park and cars pulled up and stopped, people came out from their houses and all met at the PokeStop. It's so crazy.
This isn’t the only game like this, of course. The company behind Pokémon GO , Niantic, made another popular ARG several years ago called Ingress , which has many of the same benefits and offers the same social aspect. It obviously doesn’t have the popularity of a brand like Pokémon behind it, but we’ve mentioned how those social features can make all the difference in a real-world game before.
Part of the beauty of Pokémon GO is how easy it is to play. You just need an iPhone or Android phone, and have a strong Wi-Fi connection or mobile data available. If you don’t have an unlimited data plan, you should definitely consider playing or doing heavy data usage only in areas with available Wi-Fi . The game has been reported to take up between two megabytes to eight megabytes of data per hour, depending on what you’re doing. Otherwise, there are ways to reduce and conserve as much of your data as possible for Pokémon GO .
Additionally, Pokémon GO can really suck your phone battery. While the game has its own “battery saver” mode, you should take other battery-saving measures into your own hands . For one thing, you can lower the brightness of your phone’s screen. If you have Bluetooth turned on, turn that off. If you know you’re going to run your battery juice dry regardless, consider having an external battery pack.
And if you’ve just started playing Pokémon GO and aren’t sure what to do, check out this in-depth guide from our friends at Kotaku.
Pokémon GO is a game, and a fun one, but the nature of it brings strangers together in places that they never would have visited otherwise. I mean, it’s pretty amazing to me that my friends can gather around a garbage can on the street, intently peering at their phones, and draw a crowd of more passers-by who also immediately pull out their phones to check, too.
I would have never imagined that chasing Pokemons can be so much fun and at the same time beneficial from a fitness perspective.
I use ActivityTracker for tracking my daily activity and the results were stunning when i checked the steps taken and the calories burnt.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/step-counter-pedometer-by/id993667592
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Go to the App Store. Pokémon GO is available on the iPhone and Android. From the home screen of your phone, swipe your finger to the right and type "App Store" (or "Play Store", on an Android) into the search bar that appears. Tap the App Store icon to open the App Store.
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Search for the Pokémon GO app. Tap on the Search button at the bottom of the screen and type "Pokémon GO" into the search bar. Tap Search to see a list of results pop up.
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Download the Pokémon GO app. Find the Pokémon GO app in the results. Tap the GET button at the top-right corner of the results bar. You may be prompted to enter your Apple ID password. After doing this, you should see the app begin to download.
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Open the Pokémon GO app. Press the home screen button and tap on the new Pokémon GO icon that will have appeared.
If you don't see the app on your home screen, swipe left until you see the Spotlight search bar appear where you can type "Pokémon GO" in and tap on the app that appears.
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Allow Pokémon GO to access your location. Giving the app access to your location will allow you to make full use of the game's features.
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Enter your date of birth. When you have done this, hit Submit .
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Sign up for a Pokémon GO account. You can do this one of two ways:
Sign up using Gmail . If you have a Gmail account, you can choose this option to link your account to the game, allowing you to share data between the two accounts. Signing up with Gmail currently seems to be more stable than using the Pokémon Trainer Club.
Sign up for the Pokémon Trainer Club. This is a feature on Pokémon.com that seeks to create a dedicated community of Pokémon players who can communicate, battle, and trade Pokémon with one another. If you're interested in joining this community, this is a good option to choose. [1]
X
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