Pokemon Go - The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

I know this post has nothing to do with prepping or sustainable blogging. It might have something to do with surviving this crazy world we live in but maybe not. Honestly after spending hours yesterday afternoon and well into the night harvesting honey in the heat my brain was cooked so I been keeping as cool as possible today messing around with the game.

Tomorrow I hope to do a honey post but today you guys are stuck with Pokemon. I figure when I see the thing mentioned so much and even comments about it on the blog. It is something I should look into.

So since I have this new Smart Phone I thought I would give this game everyone is talking about a try.

To be honest I would try this app out even if it wasn't so popular. My son grew up on Pokemon and together we spent a lot of time playing the game when he was a kid. I had to buy us each a Gameboy so I could catch pokemon on the road and then on the weekends when I was home we would hook em up to the N64 and battle in the arena. This Pokemon Go is a bit different but we have had a few laughs with it so far.

The Good - Well it has gotten my grown son and I out of the house and wandering around a bit remembering some old times. We took over an arena together, have captured some old favorites and explored some areas we hadn't ever thought about before. Laughed a lot and generally had a good time. It gets my son outside more too.

This game is getting many kids and older people out of the house and out  moving around.

The first few experiences with the little game are really fun. I started it up and after catching my starter Pokemon I then caught one on Mrs. PP's head (it was Pidgey I believe). I caught a Pokemon on a co-worker's desk too. Then I figured out you could turn off the "Altered Reality" setting for easier and faster gameplay. The first few levels are ridiculously fun and Poke-stops are a treat.

The Bad - As you get higher level you quickly figure out that the low level Poke-Balls are almost useless. As with most leveling games it starts getting harder and harder to make any headway and the need for more and more experience or whatever you need to level quickly out weighs the games ability to keep up.

As with most new games that become a hit quickly the company cannot seem to keep their servers on line and deal with the numbers of users. Server outages are frequent and at the most inopportune times of course.  Also there appears to be one specific course to the most powerful Pokemon and within a few days almost everyone with all kinds of time on their hands have now locked up the gyms with that particular pokemon. So far it is the water version of the Evee Pokemon evolved to the maximum.

The Ugly - About Level 10 you realize you are more than likely going to have to drop some money into the game to continue to level. The Game has set up Poke-stops at monuments, churches, parks etc. and when you are near them you can spin the screen icon (which has some history on it about the place) and get Poke-balls to catch more Pokemon, potions, and other good stuff. The problem is these Poke-Stops reset and can be used every five minutes or so giving you 50Exp each spin.

I was talking to a delivery driver for a local Sub-Shop that also happens to be a Poke-Stop. He made it to level 15 in one day spinning the Poke-Stop every five minutes....

So another words if you are one of the lucky ones that happen to live, work or whatever in or near a Pokestop... well.... You win!!!! If you don't? You suck.

This little game is designed for Urban area players only. There is no way some one stuck out in the Burbs or a rural area can ever hope to compete against free stuff and exp every five minutes. Another guy I talked with lives in an apartment next to a Post Office that is a Poke-Stop. He said he stopped playing two days ago after maxing out everything he had.

I mentioned the server issues but they are pretty bad too. Everytime you turn around the game is locked up or won't let you log in because the servers are down.

All in all it's a fun little game at first but reality quickly comes crashing in on you and I think it will weed out the kids and those with real lives in areas other than urban centers very quickly. What they should have done was spread out Poke-Stops more evenly and made them once a day visits only.

Anyway just thought I would give my readers, who I know could care less about some little game a heads up on what all the brew-ha-ha is all about. I predict it will blow over quickly so don't go investing in the company right now.

It was also a good excuse to stay inside in the AC :)


Keep Prepping Everyone...