Pokemon GO

Was running in the park yesterday and saw dozens and dozens of people wandering around with their faces down in their phones playing this. It was ridiculous. One guy was taking up a whole path and walking towards me. I had to yell "Heads up, Pikachu" to keep him from colliding with me. I don't even get my own reference.

 

I don't think it is entirely random because I have heard that the creators chose historical or noteworthy spots to have these fake things. If they can select certain places, they can make a point of it to avoid other places. If they can't, they shouldn't risk the chance of sending a bunch of oblivious Millennials to hunt fake things in a cemetery or museum.

 

We have a 40-something old guy that works here running around here constantly saying that he found Pokémon here and there, and all this nonsense. Getting really annoying.
He also hasn't been laid since Roosevelt was in office......THE FIRST ONE.

 

Are you suggesting the Holocaust Museum round up and detain these creatures?

 

How do you know they were playing it . . . as opposed to the run-of-the-mill face-in-your-phone person walking down the street.

 

Actually had this thought, that maybe I was just more aware of it because I had just read about the game. Regardless, they need to get out of my way. I'll never beat those Kenyans if I have to stop for those Pokemorons every time.

 

Most of the locations were crowdsourced from a previous game called Ingress, which was developed by Niantic, the company that teamed with Nintendo for Pokemon Go. That's why you get a lot of historic places as well of a lot of just places that are locally interesting (memorial statues, local art, etc.). They also intentionally chose to use a lot of churches for gyms because the parking lots can be accessed by the public. Some churches are even beginning to use them to reach out to players, providing water and even charging stations. Interestingly, Westboro Baptist does have a gym. It's controlled by a Clefairy named LoveIsLove. And if there is justice in the world, that will never change.

 

I understand the Vatican is also a gym and the Pope is already at level 70.

 

I'm not a Pokemon guy. What's the significance of a "gym"?

 

Take this from someone who has played for about 3 days and has friends way geekier than her (well, about this anyway) who have filled her in:

This is my understanding. They draw the locations from popular locations on Google. The more people that are at these "Pokestops", the more popular they get within the game and the more Pokemon you can "collect" at these spots.

Cemeteries are apparently an interesting draw because they attract different kinds of Pokemon (some sort of ghost, apparently. I haven't gone wandering around a cemetery yet looking for Pokemon.) Also, there are "day" Pokemon and "night" Pokemon, so that's why there are so many people (presumably without full-time jobs) out and about at night playing.

I drove past the biggest cemetery in my town last night and saw 10 people clustered out there, along with a cop with his full lights going. Didn't look like there was trouble, so I wonder if the players and the cops were battling in a gym or something.

You go around "collecting" these Pokemon. You level them up by doing certain things within the app, and then you go to these "gyms" to train and fight them against other people's Pokemon. Gyms near me include churches, comic book stores and a few places on a college campus. Oh, and the parking lot at my place of work, where we really need to put exterior cameras just for the laughs.

 

Apparently a gym popped up in my office today; the snowflakes I work with were ga-ga with excitement.

 

‘Pokemon Go’ players fall off 90-foot ocean bluff

One of them fell to the beach, about 80 to 90 feet, and the other man fell about 50 feet down the cliff, Encinitas fire Battalion Chief Robbie Ford said. Both were taken to a trauma center with unspecified injuries.