This Week in Pokémon Go News

[inkstone]

Happy Friday, trainers!

It's been a slow week in PokeGo news but here are a couple items of note:

• PokeGo has launched in 5 new territories: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macau, Macedonia, and Serbia. Welcome!

• The Go Plus is back in stock. (US only) Get them while you still can! The resellers have been brutal.

• The Dutch government is taking Niantic to court because they feel that the game is endangering its protected beaches. (source) However, some digging into the situation has revealed some similarities to incidents here in the U.S. That is to say: the relevant authorities enjoyed the increased foot traffic brought on by the game (and the money those players happily pumped into the local restaurants & shops) but increased foot traffic means increased trash and the like. Suddenly, the game becomes an issue. We'll see what happens!

What's been going on in your neck of the woods?

Comments

[recessional]

I could say snide things about football, cult-like behaviour, in-group identifiers and stuff, but let's just skip it. *sigh*

Just, you know. If I had the cognitive energy I could have done so much POINTED POINTING OUT of like exactly the same people who were posting concern-troll thinkpieces about ~*people never being outside*~ and ~*people not talking to each other and meeting strangers*~ who then, the moment that people started doing this because of the game, were posting thundering denouncements and demands in some cases LITERALLY that the kids get off their lawn. Or in this case ARE USING THEIR PARKS TOO MUCH. Or whatever. (And if you ask them they're like "well I didn't mean like THAT - " and it's like aaaaaugh *tears hair*.)

But I don't have the cognitive energy. Sigh.

[soc_puppet]

Meanwhile you have my dad, who is wondering how to get people to explore our yard, and Socchan, can you think of a way to use the game to let people know they're welcome? Because I think it's a really great backyard with lots of stuff to explore! I wonder how he would feel after the first twenty visitors or so.

(That said, we do have a legit attraction in our front yard in the form of a Little Free Library Of Note (shaped like an important local historical building), so. I'm just saying, if there's someone in Johnson County, Iowa who can make this happen for us, I would make them Poke-berries.)

[recessional]

Bless him.

[soc_puppet]

In fairness, we do have a pretty cool yard. We've got a small artificial pond, things my dad calls "pocket prairies" (that are half conservation and half an excuse not to mow those areas), and fruit trees we basically ignore. We have two pear trees and three apple trees, and none of us is interested in canning or making pies at home. Plus, late summer we're usually overrun with tomatoes. Someone take away all this produce!

[inkstone]

I'd take all of your produce! That sounds fabulous!!

[soc_puppet]

Please do! The only problem is getting it off the branch :P

[recessional]

That does sound awesome, and to be clear, my bless-him was totally sincere. *g!* I have NO PROBLEM with people who were like "but people! outside!" and are HAPPY about the game doing that; I also have no real problem with people who are JUST annoyed that suddenly these teenagers are crawling around everywhere.

It's the hypocrites who've been whining for years about how millennials are "ruined" because they never go outside or wander free and explore, and . . . . are now bitching that there's all these millennials all over the place, wandering free and exploring. I want to shake them and demand what, did they think all the kids would go to NARNIA to be outside or something? You can't have it both ways!

[soc_puppet]

Ha, yeah, I did kinda read that in a "Bless his poor, potentially ignorant heart" kind of way ^^a I ♥ you, Dad, and am 100% down with your idea especially if it lands me a Pokestop in my front yard, I just don't want you to regret it later.

LOL, precisely! The reality of more traffic is that it is more traffic. And while a few extra trash cans here and there might mean a slight increase in maintenance budget, I can't imagine that installing donation boxes in public parks and so forth would cost much of anything. And, from my experience, Millenials are very dedicated to giving back and supporting the community (when they can). Heck, signs asking folks to pick up after themselves and help keep the parks (etc) clean would probably go over incredibly well! How fun and cool would it be to organize a Pokemon GO themed park cleanup, with a pizza-or-whatever party after including nonstop lures?

There's so much potential here, and people are missing it due to frickin' whining over getting what they asked for.