I want to publicly thank everyone who continues to help me in game and outside of the game. Even if you don’t play Pokemon Go. To everyone reading this, you have helped me in a way. Times are tough, we will make do. Naming people would be unfair since I would forget someone unintentionally. Just know that you are. *Grin*

UPDATE: As of 3/21, New Jersey has banned all gatherings of any size and no unnecessary travel. Unless you are lucky enough to be in walking distance of a Pokestop, that part of the game is unattainable. Other states are in a similar situation. It’s time Niantic realizes this and flexes the game. Considering most of us are low on Pokeballs or berries or both, in order to keep the play in some sort of balance, we should now also have an allowance given to us for logging in. At least let us have some semblance of the game be still going.

Raid Hour was just cancelled for tomorrow, March 18. Sad, but a good call. Now, Niantic needs to follow up…

First, postpone all events until further notice. From what I understand, the “A Drive to Investigate” tasks were considered doable by solo players. How was this determined? Was this for players in a city where players can get to Pokestops and spawns easily? I know if I was in place, I have never seen a Pokemon spawn at my house, even with an Incence. So is it easy for everyone? (UPDATE: The Incense works, but the problem is that I only got a handful of the correct type Pokemon each day for the research. Getting 5 fire in 60 minutes when I need 25 isn’t cutting it.) The next two weeks, we were to have Legendary Raids. If Raid Night is cancelled, so should these raids. Give us a full fair chance when COVID-19 is fully gone. (UPDATE: Now that all gatherings are cancelled, raids would be considered gatherings. Along with the fact that I would have to travel to get to a gym…)

Daily field research is also major concern. If I have to Shelter in Place, I have zero access to a Pokestop, much like many others who do not live in a downtown. My solution would be a temporary private Pokestop in place where players are/live. I admit, I have seen this idea other places, so it’s not my own, but I will advocate for it. At least we would have a chance to continue daily field research without interruption or unfairness based on where we live. Make the research based on spinning only. As I said, I have never seen a spawn at my house ever. (UPDATE: Yes, the Incense works, but not as well as I would have hoped). If it’s based on catching, keep it simple and make every private Pokestop a private spawn site too. Again, I have never seen a spawn at my house, even with incense (UPDATE: Prior to the COVID-19 “super incense”). It would not be fair to me to base research on something I cannot obtain if I was to shelter in place.

A bunch of freezes: The Shadowy Threat Quest gets frozen in place. Everyone gets at least 2 full weeks more to catch Entei. Gyms get frozen too… at midnight everyone gets kicked out and then no one gets to get in. If we are to Shelter in Place, how can get fairly get to the gyms? If the Pokemon is in the gym, it gets credit to gold badge, so that would not be fair since there is no chance to knock it out. Once everything is back to normal, restore the Pokemon to the gyms and fight on. Freeze Raids too. Obvious reasons why.

Unprecedented times call for solutions which are unprecedented. I don’t like shutting most of the game down, but it is necessary at this point.

Special edition of the blog today. I believe that everyone has been affected by the COVID-19. I won’t go into it, not my purpose, but there is something that is not as center focus. A lot of people are being isolated for one reason or another. Loneliness does set in for all of us. Face it, humans are social creatures with our family and friends. I have met some great people through Pokemon Go (and other hobbies/interests I do). Being away from people does hurt. At least I still get to go to work, but many don’t have this due to self-quarantine or mandatory non-movement. Not just the elderly get lonely (which is how many of these ideas are framed). I recently heard from someone I haven’t heard from who plays Pokemon Go and I felt great hearing from him.

So go ahead and call, text, e-mail, or otherwise talk to someone you haven’t for a while. Just check in… never know how you’ll make someone’s day!

This will be an ongoing entry, where these are things that I may see that at first seem to need help, but they have worked themselves out before I make a blog entry. Maybe I was in a dry spell when I thought of these things, or I had a perception about something needing a fix (remember, perception is reality, even if it is not 100% true), or maybe some kinks were truly worked out.

Kudos to the managers for the reduction from the old Looming in the Shadows Giovanni quest to the new A Professor’s Work is Never Done Giovanni quest. Stage 2 of the original Looming in the Shadows was much too long: Spin a Pokestop 5 Days in a Row was not too bad. Purify 15 Shadow Pokemon was difficult, especially the first time around. We did not know when this first came out that we would have to save them up and purify them all at once was a pain. Trying to find at least 15 Rocket Grunts was very time consuming. I say at least since sometimes the Shadow Pokemon are very hard to catch and run away. (Granted, now that we know about this, it is easier since I know I kept all the Shadow Pokemon from every Grunt battle and we need to battle at least 18 more to finish the quest and even after that I battle every Grunt I see for the badge and experience and I like to defeat the Go Leaders multiple times in a month if they have a particular Pokemon I want – Sierra for Beldum in February is an example). Win 5 Raids is not too bad for me. Wednesday Night Raids covers most of these and I pick up a raid or two on weekends. However, I can see in more rural areas that could be more difficult. I hope that such players have found a place for them.

The A Professor’s Work is Never Done’s Stage 2 is now Spin a Pokestop 3 Days in a row, which is much less of a burden. That is a good thing. Purify 5 Shadow Pokemon is so much better. Even though every player who has played were aware of the 15 Shadow Pokemon requirement from the prior month, this is a relief. At least there is much less of a requirement. This also frees up 10 spaces in our Pokemon Storage, which is valuable. Any freed space is good. That and the lesser Stardust cost is valuable. Even with the cheapest to purify Pokemon, that is a 10,000 Stardust savings. The 5 raids is still the same. Still, this is a lot less difficult, and is a great improvement.

With the new “Feed Your Buddy” System in order to get the hearts needed to improve our buddy’s bonding with us on the road to Best Buddy. I know that the idea of the game is to catch Pokemon and we need Pokeballs to do that. Most of them come from the Pokestops and the Gifts. I was concerned that with the need to feed my buddy 3 times during the day, that I would eventually run a berry deficit. I can’t always feed my buddy at the right time to save a berry or two to fill my buddy up to 3 berries fed. Most weekdays I spend 9 berries for the feedings. The least is 5. I have noticed that I have not run out of berries yet, but the concern is still there. Hopefully the gifts/pokestops will continue to sometimes emphasize berries, or at least give a good mix. EDIT 5/18/2020: At least so far with the Play at Home emphasis, berries have been at less of a premium. Keeping the berries as less of a premium will be a key.

At least finding Giovanni seems to be better. I don’t want finding Giovanni being easy and always the first time or even on the first day of chasing after Giovanni every time. I remember in December finding 11 decoys before finally finding and defeating Giovanni. I know one of my local friends had the same number when I contacted her to say that Giovanni was real in a certain spot. It was getting deflating not finding Giovanni after 11 times. I later talked with someone who said he went through 20 decoys in November before finding Giovanni. I was thinking of a soft cap at about a dozen to make sure that the next one Giovanni hiding spot would be a real Giovanni. Of course, I have places that I can find Giovanni and many decoys. This should be scaled according to where someone lives/plays. I personally have not had as hard a time in January or February, so I am happy with this. EDIT 5/18/2020: March was also pretty good. I was able to get to Giovanni before the COVID closings, so I am OK there. I was for the April extension and the “vacation” until September. I await the reset of that part of the game and hope that once Giovanni comes back he will be a challenge, but not a drag.

One things I was concerned about when I originally started this was that there would be more and more “make x friends” in future quest lines. I was still stinging from the new player quest lines where there were a few of these “researches”. I remember this being a pain since I connected to Facebook and the game added so many of my friends and others who I knew who were already playing. I did not know of the “friends lists” resources out there and I really did not raid at the time when I started. I was trying to figure the game out on my own and then do the social aspects. At least now I have a lot more people I play with, but many I already have as account friends. Let’s just keep it this way.

More as I find things that are fixed. Thank you to the managers for listening.

Here, I would like to share a little bit more about me and my Pokemon experiences.

I live in Northwest New Jersey. I live in a rural suburban neighborhood of all houses. There are a couple commercial plots that have been there as long as I remember, but they are not retail or anything that would lend itself to Pokemon activities. A couple of the streets in my neighborhood were until recently dirt roads. I have 4 stops and a gym in my area, but none of them are really easy to get to. Two of the stops are at the end of a street I live on are on a main through street. One stop and the gym are on a through highway. The other stop is across the through highway. Problem is, there are no sidewalks in my area, so walking is relatively dangerous. So I have to drive places to play the game.

Fortunately, I have found a park where I am familiar that has two different sub-parks where I can walk around and find plenty of stops and gyms so I can play often. I tend to play on weekends and days off from work. However, it is far enough away that going to the park on weekdays is prohibitive, especially after work. It gets dark early in the winter, and even in the summer, there is not always enough time to go out. Besides, it is not on my way home from work and is a bit of a distance away. Any other alternative places, some with sidewalks, are just as far and are generally smaller areas and have less stops/gyms. Great if you live close or drive past on the commute. That and with commitments at home, night play is not always easy. I can get out once a week at night, so I usually do Wednesday Night Raids, but that is about all I can commit to. Wednesday Night Raids are at a local mall, which has its own challenges.

The main reason I started this is that I read a few places that said that there should be more help for rural players, but no solutions. I am not the most rural of players. People in the Prairies (not in cities) have it rougher than I do as far as being rural, but at least I have an better grip than many players since where I live is by no means urban. I have no sidewalks. I live in a neighborhood of houses and no retail or good places to Pokemon that is easily walked to. I have to drive around to get to a place where there are multiple pokestops and gyms nearby. At least this is a start.

More on these subjects (and a lot more) in future posts!

The name says it all. We can battle remotely with others for the various training badges and the “Win 3 Great League Battles against another Trainer” in the various Giovanni quests. This requires a 3 Heart (Ultra) friendship as a reward for getting to that level and makes the game a bit easier. Why can’t we trade remotely?

I have 9 Lucky Friends as of when I wrote this. I have not actually seen any of them in 2020. At least 3 or 4 of them I have not seen in over 6 months. One of them is a friend from a different hobby that I have not yet met, but I have as a Facebook friend who plays. I have no idea if I will ever meet her in person. I also have a bunch of players from various places I have never personally met from the other hobby. possibly other games, and players who are local, but I only met once or twice and have not seen again. What is the point of having Lucky Friends we never see in person to trade with? That and remember the big push to make a 10,000 KM trade? A lot of people made friends with people 1/2 around the world in order to get eggs to be able to get those trades going.I don’t think most of those people will ever meet. Let’s at least make it so that we can trade with them when we get to a higher level of friendship, especially if the powers that be want the 10,000 KM trade again.

February’s Community Day was not the greatest. Thankfully, a Pokemon that would have qualified under the guidelines of Community Day won in Rhyperior.

The selection of Pokemon who contenders for this month’s Community Day were well… not that good if you ask around. They each have their warts. I’ll go through them alphabetically.

• Dratini: Although I would have liked to have Dratini since I missed the original Community Day and my Dragon medal is silver (the only one that is silver, mind you), there were those who were dead set against Dratini since it was a Community Day in the past. I can understand both sides of this one. I also don’t have a shiny Dratini and would have liked one as well. However, the longer term players would not have wanted a repeat. I can appreciate that at least.
• Machamp: This is the one I was working on as the announcement was made, and I was most interested in this. Besides, the shiny looks like “The Incredible Hulk” if you look at it. That was also its biggest wart, that the shiny was already out. It seems like a lot of players want the Community Day Pokemon to be a new Shiny…
• Rhyhorn: The Shiny was not released, so this was good. This is a more common Pokemon though (at least in my experience: I have 6 Rhyperiors and traded at least 1 more) and needs a Sinnoh Stone to evolve. I understand in the past there was another Sinnoh Stone based 2nd evolution and the game gave out Sinnoh Stones with a simple hurdle. Still, this makes it less than ideal overall
• Vulpix: The Shiny was not released, so this was good. However, this is a common Pokemon in 7K eggs, was part of the Red Lunar New Year event (so it was fresh in people’s minds) with increased 7K egg chances and found more often in the wild (which made it even more dime a dozen, and would not have otherwise qualified for Community Day. This only has one evolution (50 Candy) Every other Community Day has been double evolution (125 Candy).

So yes, they all had warts. Some more than others. Then came the announcement of the voting. I was thinking it would be a straight vote. One vote per account, the most fair to everyone. Nope, this was a spin a Pokestop to get a ballot. OK, but it was already filled with a certain Pokemon. So you have a 1 in 4 chance to get a particular Pokemon. If it was not what you want, through it out and try again at the next Pokestop. We were told that in areas where there are less Pokestops, the vote would change every so often if you got rid of it. I do not know, since I went to an area that had a bunch of Pokestops. Still, what if they were more of a certain ballot than others. and it was the one you did not want and the one you really wanted was the least? So if out of 10 Pokestops, you only found 1 of the one you wanted most, 4 of the one you wanted least, and 5 of the ones you were OK with, but really did not want to vote for? How fair is that, especially if someone else founded the same 10, but the 4 that you want least is the one that the other person wanted most? Also, what if in your area it snowed and you were not able to get out? Snow removal work is not as quick on weekends. Or even worse, icing… which is even more dangerous. How fair would that have been that someone had no vote for reasons that were beyond their control? What if before the vote was announced, you made plans to go out and do something else with non-player friends or had a family obligation that would have not allowed for you to play and vote? Next time, the vote should be when someone logs in for the first time of the day, they get a ballot and one vote per player. At least then there’s no bias and everyone gets a fair vote and a fair say in the matter.

In the end, I was somewhat fortunate that one of the Pokemon I was happy with winning got the nod in the end. I was definitely on “Team ABV” – ANYBODY But Vulpix. I truly believed that Vulpix should never have been considered in the first place. I understand that some voted Vulpix for this very reason. I was genuinely concerned that Vulpix would win since all I saw on my social media feeds were pro-Vulpix people.

Since Rhyhorn won, there now is the problem of handing out the Sinnoh Stones. I was hoping that there would be a simple solution, just hand them out or do something very simple like spin a Pokestop and get one. When I heard it was via the PvP System, I was disappointed. I admit it, I don’t like PvP, so to shove PvP down our throats for Sinnoh Stones is not a good thing to me. Hopefully, the 25 fights that it takes to get the max Sinnoh Stones goes smooth and isn’t as difficult as I think it might be. I am just glad that the PvP isn’t like Team Rocket Go fighting where it costs Revives and Potions to heal your Pokemon back up and only participation counts towards Sinnoh Stones. I am glad I saved up from the Sinnoh Stone event. This could have been MUCH worse. Still, I would have liked not to do PvP, but maybe I am in the minority. It wasn’t as bad as I thought as I did it. Still… I don’t enjoy PvP. My solution… hand 3 out every hour. So if you play all three hours, you get all the Sinnoh Stones, plus the bonus 1 to make the same 10 that was handed out for PvP. Reward players for playing and catching Rhyhorns… or at least playing the game.

Community Day has its own set of timing issues, hence the 3A post.

I would like a lot more advanced notice of Community Days. The managers of Pokemon Go should know when Community Days will be each month. I know parts of my schedule is made months in advance. We know the schedule for all sorts of live ticketed entertainment events, friends and family events, club events, school events, educational events, televised live events, and other important social events months in advance. In one of my hobby groups, we all know that Memorial Day Saturday there is a meet and great social event in Upstate New York and this year is the 13th annual meet-up. With days being booked this far in advance, Pokemon sometimes gets aside unintentionally.

It is quite frustrating not knowing when Community Day will be until the month prior. or sometimes even in the same month! I don’t want to miss Community Day, but at the same time, if I make plans and give my word and/or pay money to attend a certain live event, I will miss Community Day and I will be unhappy about it. So far, I have not had any conflicts, but I came very close on Trapinch Day (which was a Pokemon I did not have going in). At least I managed to catch a bunch and some shinies before going into the event, so I was happy to do that. Still, I really would like advance knowledge of when Community Days will be in the future so I can make my plans accordingly. I do not believe this is too much to ask for!

Another major Community Day issue was when it was scheduled for 11 AM on a Sunday in January. Poor timing for those of us in who don’t live/play in urban areas, especially in winter. Most indoor malls in my area do not open until 11 AM on Sunday, which limits abilities to get maximum Pokemon. I imagine most other indoor malls have similar hours. We have to wait for the mall to open and lose some time at the beginning of the event if the doors are not open on time. I usually like to walk around some before hand and get ready for Community Day. This also allows me to be 100% ready when the switch is flipped and the Community Day Pokemon are out in full force. We also do not know what the weather will hold for that Sunday. If it is poor outside weather, which happens year round (precipitation or temperature), most people will move indoors. If there will be more Sunday Community Days, make the start Noon so that everyone can get ready and to their destinations and inside to play. Even in the nicer weather, the extra preparation time will be appreciated. 11 AM works on Saturdays when indoor places are already open usually for at least 1/2 hour or more… or parks are easy to access.

Lots of ground to cover on this one…

The first thing that comes to mind is that there have been (and will be at the time of publishing) some game events that have been very poorly timed. The managers of Pokemon Go must look at the calendar a little closer when they schedule events.

In recent memory was the Lunar New Year event which was on during Super Bowl Sunday. Some people who do not understand were saying this is an American only problem and were dismissive. Those people are not correct. The Super Bowl is a major social event for many in North America. There are many other American style football leagues and fans who don’t live in the US who watch and enjoy the game. Many people have Super Bowl parties that last all day with family and friends. There are plenty of people who are not fans of football, but enjoy the winter party and time together. Many watch for the commercials and pay attention to them and not the game action. The timing of the event would have forced those in the western half of the country to choose between the Super Bowl and the Lunar New Year event. Even those of us in the east could have choices between the parties and being with friends and the game possibly. Add on that the US and Canada market is one of the largest markets for Lunar New Year activities outside of Asia, this was poorly timed. There is, however much worse.

Philadelphia’s Pokemon Go Safari Zone is Mother’s Day Weekend (May 8-10). Yes, the first Safari Zone in the Northeast USA is on a weekend where most of us have some kind of family obligation that Sunday and would preclude us from going to a major Pokemon event. I was considering driving down and spending at least one or two days of the weekend there. I figured this would be a nice mini-vacation away and even if I took Monday off from work, it would be a nice time to do something different, Pokemon related, and meet fellow Pokemon Go enthusiasts. That’s not happening. I cannot believe that the managers of Pokemon Go were not aware that they were putting this Safari Zone on Mother’s Day Weekend. Yes, there are Moms who play and would enjoy this and bring their family to this event. Mine understands that I play, but would be very disappointed if I did not show up to the family event. This is a major timing error that is easily avoidable by looking at a holiday calendar.

Another timing issue is the issue of the Ex-Raids. Why have these rewards on weekdays when people should be at work or at school? The current Ex-Raid pass I have is on a Monday at 1:30PM. This is a working hour for 9-5 people (which is the majority working hour) and is during school hours for children. The Ex-Raid I am invited to is also nowhere near me, so it’s not even a lunch time event. I remember when Ex-Raids were on weekends and that worked for many of us. I can understand if there is a rotation so that people who work weekends have a chance at the Ex-Raids too. If theses are rewards, let’s allow people who earn them to have half a chance to participate.

There are other timing issues, but I have separated them into another post.

I would believe that almost everyone has at least one friend that they know and play with or see their Pokemon in a gym on a somewhat regular basis. I mentioned my friend who is Red/Valor whom I raid with on Wednesday Nights and play with on weekends on a semi-regular basis. We trade Pokemon and hints/ideas. We gripe about some things. We defeat Yellow/Instinct gyms. Sometimes the gym in the mall on Wednesday night after the raids for walking is her color and I know her defending Pokemon is in the gym. I don’t knock her out. It’s my choice, I know, but there’s an understanding that we just don’t knock each other’s defenders out of a gym unless either of us has 8:20 in the gym or the person who wasn’t supposed to win the gym won the gym (we alternate who gets the defeated Yellow/Instinct gyms so we both get credits). Sometimes I am walking around 2 hours or so later and her defending Pokemon is weaker. I wish I could help out, I would be OK with only a little bit of reward in return. Obviously not as much as if we were on the same team, but I value real life friends and want to help.

Solution: I call it the “Frienemies Bonus”. For those friends on other teams who are at least Ultra (3 hearts), if you are close enough to a gym where your “Frienemy” is, you can feed that friend’s defending Pokemon. Your “Frienemy’s” defending Pokemon gets full credit for the berry you feed, you get 50% credit of the XP and Stardust. You cannot feed the entire gym, nor can you use this as a boost to then attack the gym to gain more XP from fighting it. The Ultra Friends requirement also limits the bonus to those people whom you trade gifts with and/or complete raids with on a regular basis. At least there is some sort of a relationship.

Rationale: We trade gifts and get benefits from those gifts regardless of team. Players team up to fight in raids (which benefits everyone regardless of team). Gifts and raid teaming up give friend XP up to Best Friends (4 Hearts). In the past, there have been weekend events where if the Pokemon Universe reaches certain goals we get benefits based on what team we are on. Everyone contributes as long as they play. Even the leaders team up in the various story lines (the Team Go Rocket story line is an example).