PHeller wrote: Someone on reddit: "PokemonGo has done more to fight childhood obesity in a week than Michele Obama has done in 8 years." I'm not sure a bunch of kids and/or adults walking around lazily to get a Pokemon is a big step forward in youth activity, unless some of the Pokemon are quite remote, which I'm sure brings up safety issues.
If the alternative is the bunch of kids or adults not walking around at all, it's helping. Walking is activity, especially if you do it for a while.
My 13 year old son has been playing this game since Friday when I told him it had finally come out. He was so excited about it last night as we drove and walked around in downtown Plymouth,MA which according to him was an awesome area for finding the Pokémon. I found it funny that we were in my Japanese Delica chasing around imaginary characters from a Japanese game company. I assume once it's available in Japan some other father will be doing the same thing in his very own Delica. I don't understand the allure, but I predicted to my kids way back a few months ago that once this game comes out someone will die stupidly while playing this game.
It is an interesting concept for a game, and I am not against it getting people outside, but staring at a screen is still not the best idea if you ask me. My son saw several other people(mostly adults) while walking about in the waterfront area playing the game. He assumed everyone staring at their phone was playing, and he was almost always right once we got closer to them. He's pretty good at spotting Pokémon Go people it seems. His phone doesn't appear to allow him to see the actual characters using the camera, but maybe my old Motorola Droid Ultra will work. Just not sure the AT&T sim card in his phone will work in the older Motorola Verizon phone.
Chris
Keith Tanner wrote: If the alternative is the bunch of kids or adults not walking around at all, it's helping. Walking is activity, especially if you do it for a while.
Exactly.
Threads like this remind me that nothing seems to piss people off like the fact that someone, somewhere, might actually be having fun.
PHeller wrote: Someone on reddit: "PokemonGo has done more to fight childhood obesity in a week than Michele Obama has done in 8 years." I'm not sure a bunch of kids and/or adults walking around lazily to get a Pokemon is a big step forward in youth activity, unless some of the Pokemon are quite remote, which I'm sure brings up safety issues.
While I agree with the general sentiment of your post, that still does not make the original statement untrue.
I've got a question about game dynamics:
Are you looking "down" at your phone on the map until you're close to the Pokemon?
If anything, could they change it so once you get within say, 1000ft, you've gotta hold your phone up and use it scan your surroundings?
Better yet, what if they had pictures of landmarks where the Pokemon is located, so you as you get closer your looking around rather than looking down.
Furious_E wrote:PHeller wrote: Someone on reddit: "PokemonGo has done more to fight childhood obesity in a week than Michele Obama has done in 8 years." I'm not sure a bunch of kids and/or adults walking around lazily to get a Pokemon is a big step forward in youth activity, unless some of the Pokemon are quite remote, which I'm sure brings up safety issues.While I agree with the general sentiment of your post, that still does not make the original statement untrue.
Geez. Okay dad, you're right. I'm off your lawn. 
Hey, it's bringing augmented reality to the mainstream - and fast. I'm all for that.
Took me a moment to clue in to why there were gangs of roaming teenagers downtown the other night. They all looked like they were having fun.
JG Pasterjak wrote:Keith Tanner wrote: If the alternative is the bunch of kids or adults not walking around at all, it's helping. Walking is activity, especially if you do it for a while.Exactly. Threads like this remind me that nothing seems to piss people off like the fact that someone, somewhere, might actually be having fun.
Sitting eating my lunch here at work today, out of 8 other people in the break room, 6 of them were playing Pokémon Go. Walking around the office I've heard more conversations about it than actual work-related topics, and my Facebook feed is full of posts about it. It's nuts.
I have no interest in it- I have a bit of an aversion to it since my brother was at PRIME age for being addicted to it when Pokémon first came out- but everyone else seems to be enjoying it, so as long as nobody is too busy looking at their phone and walks in front of my car/scooter, I'm fine with it.
Looks like the app itself has more glaring security problems than the in-universe power stations:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/11/pushy_pokemon_go_criticized/
I admit, I think I called JG a dork for bringing this up today. In my defense, he is a dork. But he's my favorite dork. Wait, you know what I mean.
If people are having fun and no one is being hurt, then who am I to complain.
Pokemon away!!
JG Pasterjak wrote:Furious_E wrote:Geez. Okay dad, you're right. I'm off your lawn.PHeller wrote: Someone on reddit: "PokemonGo has done more to fight childhood obesity in a week than Michele Obama has done in 8 years." I'm not sure a bunch of kids and/or adults walking around lazily to get a Pokemon is a big step forward in youth activity, unless some of the Pokemon are quite remote, which I'm sure brings up safety issues.While I agree with the general sentiment of your post, that still does not make the original statement untrue.
Don't mind me, I'm just bitter that I didn't hang onto that holographic Charizard if Pokemon is going to make a come back 
My work is a PokeStop and my Gym I train people out of is a PokeGym.
Fueled by Caffeine wrote: There's a hells angels club house in aus that is a poke stop.
I'll bet there is....
Somebody always finds a way to ruin a good thing:
http://fox13now.com/2016/07/10/robbery-suspects-used-pokemon-go-to-target-victims-near-st-louis-police-say/
I'm just glad Chuck Tingle is, shall we say, on top of things?
Keith Tanner wrote:DrBoost wrote: Do geocaching instead. It actually works your brain.How is it any different if you're using a GPS? If all you have is paper maps and a compass and you need to plot an overland route (ie, orienteering), I can see it.
I taught my kids about long and lat and map reading while geocaching. Then there's multi-caches where you decipher riddles and clues to find the next (and the next, and the next) clue on your way to the final destination. Then there's travel bugs that you track around the world. As part of home schooling you then learn something about that state or county while you track it.
Or, you walk around a park looking at your phone as fake characters pop up on your screen?
In reply to Wall-e:
I want the old graphing calculator game of "drug wars" to be adapted to this format.
DrBoost wrote:Keith Tanner wrote:I taught my kids about long and lat and map reading while geocaching. Then there's multi-caches where you decipher riddles and clues to find the next (and the next, and the next) clue on your way to the final destination. Then there's travel bugs that you track around the world. As part of home schooling you then learn something about that state or county while you track it. Or, you walk around a park looking at your phone as fake characters pop up on your screen?DrBoost wrote: Do geocaching instead. It actually works your brain.How is it any different if you're using a GPS? If all you have is paper maps and a compass and you need to plot an overland route (ie, orienteering), I can see it.
So it wasn't the geocaching working your kids brains, it was the activities you built around it. Geocaching itself is just "find a set location on the earth using these numbers". Like I said, do it with a paper map and a compass and you've got a legit activity, but normally it's just the easiest possible version of orienteering.
I'll bet, with the same amount of effort, you could do the same with Pokemon Go. For example, what kind of tree did we just find in the park? What's the history of this monument? Plus there's the aforementioned social aspect, as all the players tend to converge at the same areas.
Keith Tanner wrote:DrBoost wrote:So it wasn't the geocaching working your kids brains, it was the activities you built around it. Geocaching itself is just "find a set location on the earth using these numbers". Like I said, do it with a paper map and a compass and you've got a legit activity, but normally it's just the easiest possible version of orienteering. I'll bet, with the same amount of effort, you could do the same with Pokemon Go. For example, what kind of tree did we just find in the park? What's the history of this monument? Plus there's the aforementioned social aspect, as all the players tend to converge at the same areas.Keith Tanner wrote:I taught my kids about long and lat and map reading while geocaching. Then there's multi-caches where you decipher riddles and clues to find the next (and the next, and the next) clue on your way to the final destination. Then there's travel bugs that you track around the world. As part of home schooling you then learn something about that state or county while you track it. Or, you walk around a park looking at your phone as fake characters pop up on your screen?DrBoost wrote: Do geocaching instead. It actually works your brain.How is it any different if you're using a GPS? If all you have is paper maps and a compass and you need to plot an overland route (ie, orienteering), I can see it.
I see your point. I guess I just reject fads and pop culture for the most part. And as a grown man, I can't imagine ever telling someone I'm into Pokemon.
Just what the world needs, as if people don't already spend enough time wandering around staring at their phones.
Glad you guys are having fun. Try to watch where you are going. The injury counts are climbing.
This is the first "app/mobile game" I actually find interesting. I downloaded it this morning, and the augmented reality aspect is neat. It's almost unsettling how well the real world meshes with this. I was surprised that the mural on the barber shop at the end of my block was a pokestop. So is the fountain in front of my office. Both are appropriately labeled.
So for those of us (including me) that don't know better...
I am gathering that there is a phone app based game that when you move around town your phone screen shows you some sort of images and "prizes/score" for finding those images. Seems the images are GPS based.
This may explain last night. My wife and I had dinner in the front window seat of Alladin's in Oberlin, OH on the campus of Oberlin College. This is located overlooking the main intersection of this college town. My wife commented on a group of 4 young college students (all boys) walking across the crosswalk but all 4 of them overly focused on their handset screen. We jokingly commented that they were likely texting to each other. Later, a group of 4 girls went past the window in similar fashion though not as intensely as the boys. We got a couple laughs out of those stereo types. We realized that we do no spend much time around the 18-ish crowd and especially not when they are in packs and in their own environment (not their parents house.) We summurized it that its a new world out there.
Now I see that they were likely playing Pokiman.
My theory is that Pokemon are actually the Thetans Scientologist believe in, and they are using this "game" (advanced technology) to get others to help them capture the Thetans. It's not a very good theory.
If you haven't played with augmented reality before, it's pretty cool if done well. There's a mass transit app for Chicago that overlays the direction to various bus stops and will also draw a line down the sidewalk for you to follow once you tell it where you want to go. Think of it as a heads up display for navigation of a strange city.
I've also got a stargazing app that tells you what you have the phone pointed at, makes it really easy to identify things.
I haven't actually tried the Pokemon app, but I like the fact it's bringing this into the mainstream. It'll spur development of more applications. Imagine being able to point your phone at a cliff and have it show you all the various sedimentary layers, or an architecture rundown of every building in the middle of Chicago, or (far more likely to happen and a little spooky) aim your phone at a house and have the Zillow info hovering over it. The big apps will be ones that leverage existing databases such as Zillow or mass transit.
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