Pokemon Go

[Slam_Jones]

14 hours ago, Elthy said:

Somehow Pokemon Go managed to get way more fans than Ingress. Maybe because its more forgiving to beginners and can be played on your own.

Well, cute animated characters are a lot more appealing than points and shapes on a map.

Well, y'know, to the general populace at least.

[Superfluous J]

14 hours ago, Elthy said:

Somehow Pokemon Go managed to get way more fans than Ingress. Maybe because its more forgiving to beginners and can be played on your own.

I think it's because if you mention Pokemon to the general populace, they at least know it's this game where you have little monsters or something called pokey-mans. If you ask them about Ingress, they'll say they think they saw that movie, it was about dreams or something right?

[Randox]

17 hours ago, razark said:

I've come to hate the game with a bit of a passion over the past few days.

Some friends of mine live on what used to be a nice quiet cul-de-sac.  For the last several days, they've had a massive increase in traffic, cars driving down, circling, and parking in the middle of their street.  Strange people showing up, sitting on the sidewalk for a while, and leaving.  It's been quite disturbing, since there are four of our families with kids that hang out at that house on a regular basis.  I do appreciate the one person that bothered to stop and offer an explanation, however.

 

Go put your godsdamned "gym" somewhere else.

I could see that get pretty irritating. Never even thought about issues like that, where they put something a whole bunch of people need to visit in a random residential area. Yeah, that doesn't have the potential to get super creepy or irritating at all.

More concerning is that it apparently took no time at all for people to figure out the game could be used to lure potential robbery victims, victims who are assured to have a smart phone at the very least (if you play your cards right, you can probably rob yourself a car). So you know, be wary of allowing the game to lead you to isolated places and whatnot.

 

Beyond the obvious residential creep train and robbery facilitation, it seems like a neat game. Also, not to absolve anyone of well deserved blame (the above are not unforeseeable issues. Heck, the second one was pretty much covered in an episode of Numb3rs what must be almost a decade ago, and I'm sure by other shows as well), but I suppose it was inevitable that there are going to be teething issues with what is, so far as I know, the first really popular AR game (I expect some of these issues have come up with AR promotional stunts in the past as well, but I can't say I ever really paid a lot of attention to them because I don't live someplace where those have ever been run).

Anyway, might be something I check out once I get a new phone in a couple months that can probably actually play the game. Gives them time to work out some of the kinks too.

[vger]

It's a cool concept I guess, but basically a rehash of Geocaching. For all the hype, I thought this was going to be an Augmented Reality game, where you could actually see Pokemon running around the neighborhood by viewing it through the phone's camera. Very disappointed to find out this wasn't the case.

Edited July 12, 2016 by vger

[razark]

40 minutes ago, Randox said:

Never even thought about issues like that, where they put something a whole bunch of people need to visit in a random residential area.

It's not exactly a completely random residential area.

The end of the cul-de-sac has a small family cemetery.  There's a handful of Confederate veterans buried there, so there's also a historical marker.  There aren't any signs leading to it, just a small burial plot in a small town that grew up into a major suburb.  It's usually pretty quiet, but it does get busy on Halloween.  And for who knows what reason, prom night, with limos and formal wear in abundance. (Seriously, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?)

We're guessing the gym is tied to the marker, and not the cemetery itself, because that would just be odd.

[Kerbart]

All your google are belong to us now!

 

Apparently you pretty much give it root access (except for the ability to change your password) to your google account when you install it on an iPhone.

[Superfluous J]

35 minutes ago, razark said:

We're guessing the gym is tied to the marker, and not the cemetery itself, because that would just be odd.

Pokemon gyms are tied to (some) Ingress portals (They just reused the database they'd built up in Ingress), and you'd be surprised how many headstones make it in. The largest cemetery in my city has almost 300 Ingress portals in it, and I'd not be surprised to find that some if not many of them are Pokemon gyms.

[vger]

3 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

Pokemon gyms are tied to (some) Ingress portals (They just reused the database they'd built up in Ingress), and you'd be surprised how many headstones make it in. The largest cemetery in my city has almost 300 Ingress portals in it, and I'd not be surprised to find that some if not many of them are Pokemon gyms.

And now I know to put "There are no Pokemon here" on my gravestone.

[Elthy]

When i played Ingress it was agreed on to report portals on graveyards. Is something similar possible in PokemonGo?

[Camacha]

Be careful downloading the game from non-official sources. The game has been spotted packaged together with a trojan. They are very alike and the games seems to function correctly. It is probably your best bet to wait until the game becomes available officially. Getting your banking details or mailbox pillaged over Pokemon is no fun.

[Elthy]

Just use APK Mirror, those are as safe (or even better) than the Playstore.

[Camacha]

2 hours ago, Elthy said:

Just use APK Mirror, those are as safe (or even better) than the Playstore.

Why? Any third party 'store' is a risk. Even if the owners are reliable, not having visible MD5 or comparable hashes makes the distribution vulnerable to external tampering.

[ZooNamedGames]

On July 8, 2016 at 7:46 PM, cantab said:

I decline to play "free to play" games. Maybe there are a few good ones, maybe Pokemon Go is decent, but they are overshadowed by the many money-grubbing pay-to-win types that have utterly corrupted mobile gaming and now threaten PC and even console. I feel the only way I can take a stand is a complete boycott of the business model where-ever it appears.

Your nothing but a lowly Gibus! 

Now thats a F2P reference.

Either way, I just got the game and I have run into an immediate issue. I can't do jack since it requires me to physically move which isn't exactly an possible with a homebody like myself. The longest walk I take is from my bedroom to the bathroom!

At least in Pokemon Silver/Diamond I could sit on the toilet and play but now I can't, I'm locked down. So for people like me it's absolutely wasted (which is ironic since I feel like the target age group). 

So there's my opinion on it for the time being.

If anyone wants to create a team for KSP, count me in.

Edited July 12, 2016 by ZooNamedGames

[razark]

I think they should have put in some more time in culling out locations before release.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/12/technology/pokemon-go-holocaust-arlington/index.html

Spoiler

Players of Pokemon Go are finding critters everywhere, including some places that are considered to be hallowed ground and inappropriate for gaming.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Arlington National Cemetery, both in Washington, DC area, have both issued appeals for players to avoid hunting Pokemon on their sites.

"Playing Pokemon Go in a memorial dedicated to the victims of Nazism is extremely inappropriate," said Andy Hollinger, director of communications at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. in a statement sent to CNNMoney.

"We are attempting to have the Museum removed from the game," the statement said.

Arlington, the burial ground for the nation's war dead, tweeted out a somber request: "We do not consider playing 'Pokemon Go' to be appropriate decorum on the grounds of ANC. We ask all visitors to refrain from such activity."

...

 

[vger]

1 hour ago, razark said:

I think they should have put in some more time in culling out locations before release.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/12/technology/pokemon-go-holocaust-arlington/index.html

  Reveal hidden contents

Players of Pokemon Go are finding critters everywhere, including some places that are considered to be hallowed ground and inappropriate for gaming.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Arlington National Cemetery, both in Washington, DC area, have both issued appeals for players to avoid hunting Pokemon on their sites.

"Playing Pokemon Go in a memorial dedicated to the victims of Nazism is extremely inappropriate," said Andy Hollinger, director of communications at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. in a statement sent to CNNMoney.

"We are attempting to have the Museum removed from the game," the statement said.

Arlington, the burial ground for the nation's war dead, tweeted out a somber request: "We do not consider playing 'Pokemon Go' to be appropriate decorum on the grounds of ANC. We ask all visitors to refrain from such activity."

...

 

Can't wait till somebody chases one into Area 51.

[KerbMav]

I guess after the first hysteria has ebbed away, they will start limiting most spawns to areas of paying customers - like malls, fast food joints etc. ;p

[Nuke]

still waiting for someone to walk in front of a bus while trying to catch a pikachu.

Edited July 13, 2016 by Nuke

[RainDreamer]

Apparently NASA JPL is a pokemon gym, according to some article I read recently, and tweets from an intern there:

 

[RizzoTheRat]

On ‎12‎/‎07‎/‎2016 at 3:48 AM, 5thHorseman said:

Pokemon gyms are tied to (some) Ingress portals (They just reused the database they'd built up in Ingress), and you'd be surprised how many headstones make it in. The largest cemetery in my city has almost 300 Ingress portals in it, and I'd not be surprised to find that some if not many of them are Pokemon gyms.

Is Pokémon from the same company as Ingress then?  I didn't realise that.  Installed Ingress years ago, remembered it a few months later and hacked a portal, and then promptly forgot about it.

I prefer running away from Zombies but annoyingly Zombies Run! had changed to a subscription service so I've given up on that too.

 

[razark]

3 hours ago, RainDreamer said:

Apparently NASA JPL is a pokemon gym, according to some article I read recently, and tweets from an intern there:

That's JSC, not JPL.

[RainDreamer]

2 minutes ago, razark said:

That's JSC, not JPL.

Yeah, I messed it up. The JPL is a gym according to the articles (just google why astronauts can't play pokemon go in space), but the tweets are images from JSC.

[cantab]

On 11/07/2016 at 6:46 AM, KerbMav said:

Heard that some twitch streamers got banned because "it is not gaming content"?

Source? If it's a Twitch ban, I'd hope they get reversed because that's clearly untrue. On the other hand GPS spoofing may well get you banned from Pokemon Go.

[RainDreamer]

5 hours ago, KerbMav said:

I guess after the first hysteria has ebbed away, they will start limiting most spawns to areas of paying customers - like malls, fast food joints etc. ;p

Well, as a marketer, my brother figured that eventually they may have a program where they will release legendary pokemon at paid areas, like opening of a new mall or something, to lure a ton of people in. Even if people know that it is a marketing trick they will just still going there to "catch them all".

[Camacha]

Normally these things are way overplayed by the media, but it surprises me I have seen two people wandering about that could not have been doing much else than playing this game. If you do not know what this game is about, I can image people getting suspicious about people loitering, then walking a short distance with more fervour and suddenly slowing down again.

[Tex_NL]