This Week in Pokémon Go News

[inkstone]

Good morning, fellow trainers! Thanks for spreading the word about the community! We've been in business for less than 4 days and we're at ~100 members/subscribers! Not bad for a community I started on a whim. Let's keep things awesome and cool, and if you have any concerns or suggestions, feel free to hit me up via PM.

Anyway, here are some game-related highlights from the past week…

• Pokémon Go launched in Hong Kong! A big, warm welcome to the City of Life!

• Nintendo stock prices plummeted as investors belatedly realized the company doesn't actually make Pokémon Go. Awkward. (source)

• The Pokémon Go Plus accessory has been delayed until September. Were any of you planning on getting this? Not being a tech nerd myself, I'm curious! (source)

• In addition to revealing the Team Leaders, the SDCC PokeGo panel teased the future of the game. Forthcoming features include trading, PokeStop customizations, and potential healing centers. They're also planning to fix the three-step tracking bug (thank goodness!) and to address gym poaching. And given the fact that they unveiled Blanche, Candela & Spark, it sounds like we'll be interacting with our team leaders via the game at some point in the future as well. (source)

Any other PokeGo bits of news from your neck of the woods?

Comments

[lilacsigil]

I finally found exactly where the only gym is in my town! It's winter here so I don't want to go walking around the muddy banks of the creek, so it took a while to pinpoint it to a sculpture on the Rail Trail, near the creek down a steep hill. Not very accessible, especially at this time of year, but fortunately you can also access it from a seat at the top of the hill.

[st_aurafina]

I HATCHED A PONYTA. It's so pretty. *sighs happily*

[inkstone]

I hatched a Ponyta last week or so and I was pretty enamored with it too! It's so pretty!!

[havocthecat]

I don't even know how you'd gym poach. How do you do that? Or is that when someone wins a gym and you slide a Pokemon in while they're healing up to toss their Pokemon in. Because some asshole from Team Instinct does that all the time. (Team Instinct are not assholes. Some asshole is on Team Instinct.)

[inkstone]

Yeah, that's what gym poaching means. The opportunistic stealing of a gym that you put no work into winning. It occasionally happens by accident, but there are some where it's definitely intentional. Due to the fight animation, you can always tell when a gym is under attack and some watching will tell you whether someone is training it up or fighting it.

[sky_queen3]

But September's a lifetime away. :'( (At least that explains why EB Games knew nothing when I asked the other day about it.)

[untonuggan]

Well my Twitter feed exploded with links to articles about Pokemon themed sex toys (NSFW, obvsly). I...do not think that is my thing, but maybe as art deco? Except spendy art deco.

[inkstone]

It was inevitable.

[untonuggan]

am only surprised it took this long

[yuuago]

I'm totally looking forward to the tracking bug getting fixed. It would be so helpful.

Also, healing centres would be so useful. ...Though with my luck, locally it'd probably be in a hard-to-access area, but. Still. xD It's a good idea. I'm always forgetting to actually use my revives/potions.

More team leader interaction sounds great to me, too, though I'm curious as to how/what form that might take.

Aaaand on a personal frivolous note, I finally have a Seel, and I'm very happy about it. <3

[inkstone]

It's terrible because I realized that some players have never known what the game was like when the tracker actually worked!

I've heard rumors that the PokeStops at hospitals will be converted to healing centers. Whether those rumors become reality is another thing entirely, of course.

As for leader interaction, I think we need some Ingress players to tell us. I heard there were missions or something in that game.

...I really need to go near water. I am lacking in water 'mon!

[yuuago]

Ahhh yeah, I wasn't able to play when it was still working. xD So I'm super eager for it to be fixed. Maybe I'll find some of those jigglypuffs that keep appearing... nearby SOMEWHERE, I don't know where.

I've heard rumors that the PokeStops at hospitals will be converted to healing centers. Whether those rumors become reality is another thing entirely, of course.


Hmmm, interesting. We'll have to see how that turns out. Could be true. Or... not. Like rumours tend to be. xD

From a story-logic point of view, it'd make sense to have those locations turned into health centres. But I think it's more likely that stops/gyms in rl-locations designated for emergency services would be moved/removed entirely.

[serpentine]

I know that there's already one hospital system in Pittsburgh that has asked for Pokemon stops and gyms at their hospitals to be removed from the game because they're worried about patient confidentiality and visitors in places they shouldn't be.

[moxieweed]

Awww I can't wait to interact with Candela!

It would also be fun to have a rival we get to battle sometimes. Maybe we can battle our team leader or the other one's...

And ughhh please an end to gym poaching! I spent ages taking down an Instinct gym the other day and right as I was about to put my vaporeon in there, a Mystic stole it out from under me. It only took a minute to get it back but it was really annoying since they made me work that bit harder for it.

[inkstone]

Yeah, the ability to poach is the main reason why I always choose the pokemon I'm going to leave as a defender beforehand & don't include it on that final round of battles. So I can drop it into place without having to take time to heal it first.

[moxieweed]

/replies to all the comments late

That's a good strategy! Usually I want to put my strongest pokemon in the gym but I also need that one to take down the gym too haha... I guess that just means I need more strong pokemon!

[inkstone]

Yeah, I never put my strongest mon in a gym unless I'm sure I won't be fighting any other gyms that day. (It's competitive where I live so it's virtually impossible to hold a gym for longer than a day.)

[monanotlisa]

Nintendo stock prices plummeted as investors belatedly realized the company doesn't actually make Pokémon Go. Awkward.

INDEED.