I see a lot of hate for this game. It doesn’t take five minutes on this site alone for hate to flood into the comments section of any article. But, really, a little perspective here might change a mind or two.
Very quick background on me, because it’s important to the story, not because I like to share. First, I’m a Marine Vet, due to my time in service I have unfortunately seen my share of disabilities. I have PTSD, Severe Depression, and Severe Social Phobia (that means not wanting to be around people to a crippling point). After almost getting dead for the third time in two years, there were almost three years that I left my house but maybe once every several weeks, like 5 or 6. During that time I would just want to go, but couldn’t. I don’t know how to explain it well, but just say I was stuck there. Unfortunately, no matter who you are, just staying in the house you obviously gain a lot of weight. And I did, up through.. well, a lot. I don’t tell you this for thanks for my service, that’s not the point, and frankly that’d be a little crass don’t ya think?
A month ago (not even… or maybe?) this stupid game comes into my life. I was actually at an airport returning from my brother’s wedding. I actually saw this girl catching a Pokemon in the airport and I was stunned. Thinking these things were ultra rare (I know better now) and that they were hard to find, I downloaded the game quickly because I thought my kids would love to see that I caught one!
After getting home and doing a little reading on the game, my 3 kids all got to download the game and we set off to all get our starter Pikachu like good little late adopters that had the fortune to read the cool trick. My kids are 14, 12, and 10 (yes, I’m going crazy but summer just ended!). Knowing that we had about a month left of summer, we set out to figure this game out and see what we could do. Quickly we became very interested in the game and were setting off on many adventures, almost daily, to try and find whatever we could.
Those that have played this game know there is only really three methods of figuring the game out. Trial and error is one, reading about it online is the second (which I did), and the third is talking to other players as you bump into them… and bump into them you do! Here’s where my history is important.
Mind you, I read a lot of stuff… A lot. I wanted to be able to know the game well enough that if my kids had a question I could answer it. I wanted to be able to tell them cool tricks. And… Well… I wanted to be good too! But, there’s really only so much you can understand and read. There are tons of conflicting reports. So that’s where the third method started to creep in. Slowly I would ask someone a question. At first it was sickening to me. Then I would ask another. I dropped my kids off one night at a church thing, right around the corner from the church there’s a museum with 7 stops outside all within baseball throwing range (gotta throw hard). I spent the hour and a half there by myself. By myself is BIG. Not only that, but I was talking to people. When I reported this to my wife she was stunned.
This is starting to become regular. Yesterday, at that same museum, I was there for a long time. I needed only 10 more Magikarp for my Gyarados (if you don’t play, that guy is hard to get). Usually, you can get a few to a dozen in a couple hours at that place. I live in South Florida so there’s water everywhere, these guys aren’t hard to get. But in that time I spent about 45 minutes of my 3 hour trip talking to a lady that I didn’t know, answering her questions and she answering mine. Guys, if you’re still reading this… THAT IS HUGE for a person like me. Add that to the fact that I’ve walked 122 Kilometers in that time and lost 15 lbs doing it (I’m about 300 lbs, so that ain’t easy) now you understand that though people hate, this game is changing my life!
I went to a Charmander nest today and actually ran into a guy that remembered me from the last time I was there. Dude is on a skateboard with a pokeball hat, I couldn’t not remember him. To me, that’s cool.
So, in closing… to all the haters out there. Yes, you very much may not want to read another article, or hear about the game, or even play it. But dang… How can a game that is actually helping people get in shape, making some recluses social, and letting millions have fun be that dang bad?
Just my thoughts I had today while hunting Charmander...
Very quick background on me, because it’s important to the story, not because I like to share. First, I’m a Marine Vet, due to my time in service I have unfortunately seen my share of disabilities. I have PTSD, Severe Depression, and Severe Social Phobia (that means not wanting to be around people to a crippling point). After almost getting dead for the third time in two years, there were almost three years that I left my house but maybe once every several weeks, like 5 or 6. During that time I would just want to go, but couldn’t. I don’t know how to explain it well, but just say I was stuck there. Unfortunately, no matter who you are, just staying in the house you obviously gain a lot of weight. And I did, up through.. well, a lot. I don’t tell you this for thanks for my service, that’s not the point, and frankly that’d be a little crass don’t ya think?
A month ago (not even… or maybe?) this stupid game comes into my life. I was actually at an airport returning from my brother’s wedding. I actually saw this girl catching a Pokemon in the airport and I was stunned. Thinking these things were ultra rare (I know better now) and that they were hard to find, I downloaded the game quickly because I thought my kids would love to see that I caught one!
After getting home and doing a little reading on the game, my 3 kids all got to download the game and we set off to all get our starter Pikachu like good little late adopters that had the fortune to read the cool trick. My kids are 14, 12, and 10 (yes, I’m going crazy but summer just ended!). Knowing that we had about a month left of summer, we set out to figure this game out and see what we could do. Quickly we became very interested in the game and were setting off on many adventures, almost daily, to try and find whatever we could.
Those that have played this game know there is only really three methods of figuring the game out. Trial and error is one, reading about it online is the second (which I did), and the third is talking to other players as you bump into them… and bump into them you do! Here’s where my history is important.
Mind you, I read a lot of stuff… A lot. I wanted to be able to know the game well enough that if my kids had a question I could answer it. I wanted to be able to tell them cool tricks. And… Well… I wanted to be good too! But, there’s really only so much you can understand and read. There are tons of conflicting reports. So that’s where the third method started to creep in. Slowly I would ask someone a question. At first it was sickening to me. Then I would ask another. I dropped my kids off one night at a church thing, right around the corner from the church there’s a museum with 7 stops outside all within baseball throwing range (gotta throw hard). I spent the hour and a half there by myself. By myself is BIG. Not only that, but I was talking to people. When I reported this to my wife she was stunned.
This is starting to become regular. Yesterday, at that same museum, I was there for a long time. I needed only 10 more Magikarp for my Gyarados (if you don’t play, that guy is hard to get). Usually, you can get a few to a dozen in a couple hours at that place. I live in South Florida so there’s water everywhere, these guys aren’t hard to get. But in that time I spent about 45 minutes of my 3 hour trip talking to a lady that I didn’t know, answering her questions and she answering mine. Guys, if you’re still reading this… THAT IS HUGE for a person like me. Add that to the fact that I’ve walked 122 Kilometers in that time and lost 15 lbs doing it (I’m about 300 lbs, so that ain’t easy) now you understand that though people hate, this game is changing my life!
I went to a Charmander nest today and actually ran into a guy that remembered me from the last time I was there. Dude is on a skateboard with a pokeball hat, I couldn’t not remember him. To me, that’s cool.
So, in closing… to all the haters out there. Yes, you very much may not want to read another article, or hear about the game, or even play it. But dang… How can a game that is actually helping people get in shape, making some recluses social, and letting millions have fun be that dang bad?
Just my thoughts I had today while hunting Charmander...
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