Are you actively playing Pokemon Go?

I'm Canadian.

Went to a food festival today and there were tons of people also playing it. It's really easy to tell without even asking, haha.

How rare are the starting Pokemon in this game? I happened to find a Squirtle outside City Hall as my second pokemon caught and, as someone who played most of the games, this seems like really amazing luck but is it actually nothing special?

I played it for a day and decided it sucks. I just wish it had proper battles and MP.

Oh well.

I've enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. I walk 2.5 miles to go to work, and then back again, but find few Pokemon on that route. Thus, as I've enjoyed the game I find more incentive to go around routes where there are some for a couple hours and catch them. After a few hours, I find I have walked as much as I would to go to work and back and barely noticed. For that reason, I highly recommend this game to others (despite the moderately crappy servers). Also, yesterday I went to my University's campus on a Saturday and witnesses hundreds of people and made a handful of friends whom I've never had the pleasure to talk with where we'd randomly walk around, catch Pokemon and farm lures. It was a great deal of fun. If you're looking for a social activity in a larger city, Pokemon Go is a fantastic recommendation for those looking to meet other, great nerdy individuals. Have fun!

It was only a matter of time: The Guardian: Pokémon Go used by armed robbers to lure players into trap.

I've had the urge to give it a shot, but it's too damn hot here. Waiting for it to not be oven-temperature before I go out. Right now if I sit on my patio for 10 minutes I start to sweat, it's nuts.

I think it's an awesome concept, and it seems like it has really caught on. That said, I don't see it being a sustainable thing for too long. I think if they could find a way to add more things to do in the game, and a few more hooks to keep people going it could be around for a while. My first thougts were of rewards for walking "x" amounts of steps.

I'm in the "Team Canada" poll option where I can't even downloading the thing.

I drove into town and walked around for 2 hours grabbing various rats, flying rats, and bugs. For science. It's, uh... interesting? I can spout about how simple and shallow it is all I want, but seeing an unknown Pokemon pop up on the radar still makes me want to hunt it down. Now if only I could tell which direction the damn thing's in...

I'm currently back home in the country. The radar states there's a single Pokemon within range, a Ghastly about 100m from me. I wonder if there's an easy way to figure out which direction...

I cant stand phone games that have to be connected to the internet.

@mikelemmer: Use how many bird tracks are under the Pokemon you are tracking to tell which direction to go. More tracks = wrong direction, 1 track = near near near near.

I have it installed and look at it pretty often. But I wouldn't say I am playing it because I don't think its a game.

It's dumb and not really Pokemon but it's fun when I go for a walk or go to the store.

I played it for about 10 minutes. It seems really stupid. I honestly don't understand why it is taking over reddit and whatever the way it is.

Not out in UK :( Interested to check t out though.

@sergio:

Same issue, I just went with "pokemyballs952" after going through my usual names.

@takayamasama: I know, but that still involves wandering around in a 50m+ circle.

My wife wanted to go and take over a gym today before dinner so we went for a walk through the nearby park and out the other side to where the gym was located. To be clear, this is a massive park that stretches for miles at the center of a city's worth of townhomes. On the way she caught a Psyduck and I caught a Pinsir, the first of each one that we had ever seen, and oddly seeing different ones at the same time which is not a thing the game normally does.

When we finally made it to the gym we made sure to synchronize our attacks. Even though I'm fairly certain there's no actual mechanical benefit to doing it that way, it was a nice touch seeing my wife's buff Flareon going to town while my shitty Pidgeot and Raticate ineffectually flailed away at the defending Pokemon. I ended up burning through half my stockpile of revives and potions but after about 3 assaults we finally took it down. I posted up my Pinsir to defend and my wife threw in a Raticate and we spent some time there going through training to level up the gym.

After we had been there for a while, I saw a car pull up to the driveway of the building where the gym was located. The guy inside just sat there for a moment before driving out the other side. I noticed he had his phone in hand as he left and when I took another glance at the gym, I realized he was on the same team as us and had just deposited a Fearow there to defend as well.

Of course by the time we got home and finished dinner, the gym had been taken back and my Pinsir was back in my inventory with 1 HP. Still, it was a silly cool way to spend the evening. It may not be the most mechanically engaging game out there, but no game in recent memory has pushed me to connect with my community in the way that Pokemon GO has, and if people can't see the merit in that, well. We discovered that there are a ton of weirdly painted fire hydrants in our town center. Woo!

@starvinggamer: My girlfriend who isn't into video games has been obsessed with this game too. It helps that there is a gym just outside our apartment and a Pokestop that is accessible without leaving our living room. If you're going into this game expecting Pokemon in the real world you will be sorely disappointed. I've been treating it as Ingress with a Pokemon theme and haven't been disappointed with my experience except for the game crashing right when my first egg hatched.

I have no interest myself but it's fun to read about all the hype it gets.

@haz: I am in Iceland, if you have an Android phone you can just get the APK for the game. It seems to work here even if my Google play account is Icelandic and Iceland not part of the release.

I don't care at all about Pokemon but I think location-based games are a hoot so I'll probably stick around with this for a while. Been having some server issues, though.

It's neat, but it's not really my thing. When I'm out, I'm doing stuff that I don't like being interrupted for.

I wasn't going to play it but while on vacation my friends got me into it. It's pretty fun but my favorite part is seeing all the other people in my town walking around like zombies trying to catch Pokemon.

No Windows Phone version ☹

I gotta say I know fuck all about this game despite it apparently being one of the biggest things yet this year and that makes me feel so so old...

It's not a 'great' game, but it scratches the location based gaming i loved in Ingress, but without a lot of the bullshit.

I don't have a phone that works with it, so I'll have to wait for now. It seems ok (since a good deal of the people i know irl are playing it).

I might jump in when it's available on Android N, but for now I'm locked out because I'm too cool and have too new of an OS.

Hitting Pokemon go over the weekend and it's crazy to see how many people are playing the game. The really cool thing is that it's easy to tell when someone is playing. I'm curious to hear what the Bombcast will say after their largely negative reaction. Maybe a change of heart ?

Didn't see this popularity coming. Played Ingress for a couple months. Enjoying this for what it is: something else to do on my dog walks besides listen to a podcast. It'll be really nice for the fall and winter when my town has less tourists around.

I'm not enjoying the servers getting thrashed, while other players are already far ahead. Niantic had better get Papa Google on the phone and spin up some server farms, and if they were wise, they'd have versus battle and trading in the TO DO basket right away, right now, before they lose the initiative on this ridiculous free attention they're getting.

So, I'm old enough to tell kids with disposable time to get off my lawn, but I guess I'm still hoping to loiter on the lawn myself.

I actively do not own a mobile device (phone, tablet, etc). Therefore, I am not actively playing Pokemon GO.

It's super interesting to compare experiences. A lot of people near my work have been sharing rides to locations. I don't know how it all works in the background but the way it brings you to certain places is really neat. The concept draws me, I like to see what might be. The fact that it's a Pokemon game is inconsequential but as it expands that will be fleshed out. Right now I just think it's awesome that a Pokemon game is the most popular phone app in America.

Just bought a new phone (which I needed for reasons beyond this) and downloaded it. I'm running into a LOT of technical issues, and since my new phone doesn't have a gyro in it, I can't do the AR stuff, which is a bit of a bummer. I caught a Zubat by my dumpster though, and found a damn Diglett in my bedroom. Behind my complex is a church, and the statue of the Virgin Mary there is a landmark that I can turn into a Pokestop. I was also stopped by a cop while exiting a grocery store, I was looking for a Charmander and he noticed and we just talked about Pokemon.

This is a fucking weird game, man.

You know, right about now, I really wish I had invested in Nintendo stocks prior to this release.

I took my 3ds to the park, does that count?

Team Red, though I wonder how long I'll survive considering it loves putting the pokemons in the middle of roads. But hey, I never thought I'd be playing a game like this. I didn't play any of the previous Pokemon games in my whole 30+ years on this Earth and I wasn't going to start now. What got me interested was the AR stuff, which I'd love to see more applications of in the future. Downloaded it, and have pretty much been doing it in the background of my day-to-day activities since launch.

I live in a fairly small town so this is a bit crazier for me than it would be for others, but I just noticed someone used a lure near main street, and since that's only a block away I figured I'd just walk down and see what those do. When I got there, there was easily 30 full grown adults yammering on about catching Dugtrios and shit. One, who I'm pretty sure was drunk, stumbled up and said "what're you catchin'?"

This is a fucking weird game, maaaaan.

I would be if it was out here. Dammit, Apple/Nintendo!

Me and my friends have been loving this game so far. We keep getting together to take over gyms locally and going for late night walks through our neighborhoods to take advantage of the distinct lack of cars and lag. Gyms have given me the most trouble with the absurd prevalance of the '1hp' bug and occasionally just getting locked out of a gym entirely. Still, the capturing and leveling aspects are entertaining and the ridiculous amount of team pride we've had adds to the fun. There's nothing quite like taking a gym only to have the person whom you took it from show up five minutes later to contest your hold.

All in all, I can't wait till they sort out the more fun-ruining bugs.

@btstreleckis: I love that you named the snakes Shkreli.

It's pretty awesome, I wish it had normal turn based battles and local MP so I could fight the people I find at the stops but oh well. Red Vs Blue is very real in my town right now, red must be crushed I will become the best trainer in this small town!

No, I simply don't have the time these days, so I have hired a professional Pokémon trainer

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/sks/5679211258.html

I would love to, but my Windows Phone doesn't support it and it turns out my iPad mini doesn't have GPS :(

@dewar: Can I ask why you have a Windows phone? Not being a jerk but it's like being on RC Cola side in the Great Cola Wars that ravaged much of middle America in the early 1980's.

@haz: @strife777: Heads up fellow Canadians, its really easy to get the game even though it isn't out here yet. On iOS you can just make a US Apple ID and download it like that, took me maybe 5 minutes. Android is supposed to be even easier.

Where is the "I have a Windows Phone" option?

I'm vacationing in Arizona at the moment (I know a couple people here) and personally, the social aspect really came to light for me last night when I was out with an old college friend. Super pop culture-savvy guy a little younger than me that plays it, as does his girlfriend. At the end of dinner, our waitress asked if any of us played it, and when we said yes, she flipped out in joy and informed us that multiple corners on or near the street we were on had spots that acted as landmarks in the game. My friend then brings up that this area was only the second time in the country where a Mewtwo was caught. Sure enough, we leave the restaurant, we go down to one of these corners, and we see other people catching Pokemon.

A good amount of my friends on Facebook have been posting about it.

Even with its many flaws this game got my brother and I (Both well into our 20's) out exploring the woods we frequented 10+ years ago. Fucking Pokemon.

ProTip? The further we ventured into the woods the fewer Pokemon we saw. I'm guessing the gps on our phones could no longer properly track/ place us? I don't know...

@kryptickiller: Yeah if the GPS loses you wild Pokemon won't spawn. I live near a military base that has so many dang Pokestops, but because bases have weird rules with GPS and overhead stuff, random 'Mons won't spawn there, which is a bummer. Still not a bad spot to go on a Pokestop refuel or use a lure, but kinda a bummer I can't wander into something wild.