Catching Pokémon For The First Time

PokémonGo is the first time I’ve played any Pokémon game.

Sure, I gamed as a kid, but my NES was too old-school and my money was going to other things when the game first came out. I knew about the show, but it wasn’t targeted at me.

Anyone who knows me, knows I’m not an early adapter. I just re-bought Viva Pinata and prayed that my Win10 computer could play the Windows Vista version of the game.

But, everyone I knew seemed to be playing it. I figured, if nothing else, I’d play for 3-4 weeks like I do most casual games and then move on with my life. Trying it when it was new meant I might get more opportunities than after everyone’s level 100 and I have no prayer of fighting stuff in the…um, gyms?

Plus, it would give me an excuse to get up and walk around. I mean, coder by day, writer by night? 80% of my waking hours are in front of computers, and my commute and smart phone are the only reason that number’s so low.

Top 5 Reasons I’m loving it:

•  It’s a great gamification of walking – you actually have to walk Kilometers (according to your GPS, not fitbit) to hatch eggs
• I’m taking MORE walks around my community lake, which I already love–and getting more pictures of the lake
• It showed me a walking trail 2 blocks from my office, that I never knew about
• It’s encouraging my friends to hang out in groups and walk
• I reached my 30 minutes of walking a day goal 6/7 days last week, for the first time in ages

Top 5 Things that Weren’t Obvious:

• You SPIN the Pokéstop signs to get items–tapping them just gets you a loadModule error
• You SLIDE your finger up, to toss the Pokéball, release when you get close, and aim for the center of the circles as they shrink. Not releasing your finger cancels the toss (like if it moves)
• Different neighborhoods have different Pokémon. My lake gets Fish and Ducks.
• Friendly gyms might have open slots for you to drop off a Pokémon, if so, select the gym, then look in the lower left, if there’s an icon, you can staff your gym!
• Speaking of gyms, if you leave a Pokémon there, you earn coins every 21 hrs– and you can collect right away! [So, you can capture a gym with friends, then let the low level players hop in, grab coins, and then battle them out]

Top 5 Annoying Things About Pokémon:

• When the servers go down
• When you spin the Pokéstop before it loads, get no items, and it won’t let you spin again
• Hatching a 5k Pidgey with <50 CP. (CP= combat power. Higher level ones are easily over 1,000)
• The app only works when it’s the active app on your phone — yes ‘battery saver mode’ exists — but all that does is turn off the screen when you put it in your pocket, with the game still active and running*. Checking FB? Turning off your screen? Nope.
• When the Pokémon keeps breaking free of your Pokéballs, then runs away.

 Are you playing?

P.S.