What I don't write about

this iS

[rsmalec]

Charmander Nest - Streamwood IL! (Pokemon GO Special Report)

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Pokemon GO week 3 vlog

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14 days of Pokemon GO!

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Beautiful scenery and lots of Pokestops!

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Can you guess my Pokemon GO story?

[rsmalec]

Pokemon GO blog, Day 5

Greetings!

Short update today.  No new mechanics to remark on, but I did get to level 14.  I really wish I had Nintendo stock :)

Unfortunately, I’m irritated with the gym defender system.  I had a Pokemon defending a gym for 23 hours, before getting kicked out, and I got nothing for it.  Yet if I would have immediately taken the defender reward, I would have gotten something.  Seems like you should always get your earned reward after getting kicked out.  I hardly see any reason to install a defender, otherwise.

Anyway... this was an interesting sight at lunch...

And I did manage to catch a few rarer Pokemon!

There are a ton more people walking around my hotel (2 pokestops and a gym nearby), and the parking lot here seems really good for grinding Pokemon.

Lastly - I’m thinking that this blog might reduce to a weekly installment, after tomorrow, unless there is a new patch with significant functionality or a big catch.

Have fun!

[rsmalec]

Pokemon GO blog, Day 4

I forgot to re-install Adobe Premiere on my laptop after a re-image, so we’re back to the written blog for today.

This morning started with a taxi ride to Ohare Airport.  It was super cool seeing all of the Pokestops and Gyms lined up and ready for me to challenge.  Good thing I planned ahead and had an extra hour on my hands.

As I mentioned in previous days, I chose the blue Team Mystic.  We seem to be the underdogs in Illinois - all of the gyms were red and yellow.  At least for a little while ;)  Although I’m still not 100% sure how the rewards work for defending a gym.  Should I be claiming my reward immediately after posting a Pokemon in the gym, or should I wait?  Do rewards get better over time?  I know that if your Pokemon gets beat, it gets returned to you and you get no reward.  Let me know what you’ve experienced!

As it got closer to my boarding time, I decided to camp out at a Pokestop and try out the Lure Modules.  Worked excellent when combined with Incense!

Then I realized my phone battery was dangerously low (for my upcoming 2.5 hour flight) so I decided to camp the free recharge station.

I also found my favorite Pokestop to date.  An art piece I may never have known existed if it weren’t for this game.

2.5 hours later, I have a new set of gyms to dominate.

Blue gyms are definitely more prominent in the area of New Jersey I traveled to.  And I was super happy to see some some new Pokemon were fairly common here.

Ooh, and what’s this?!  Better Pokeballs!  Just when I thought I had exhausted the functionality, I was really pleased to see a new level of mechanics.

I saw a tweet from @PokemonGoNews with a theory on Eevee evolutions.  It proposes that the Eevee’s evolution has something to do with its moveset.  I already had an Eevee with Dig turn into a Flareon, so now I tried evolving one with Swift, and sure enough - it became vaporeon.  I’ve since read that the theory was disproven, but I’m still going to be on the lookout for an eevee with body slam as its second move!

After work, I took a lap around my hotel’s parking lot and through a number of nearby outdoor strip malls.  I found my first wild fire-type and electric-type Pokemon!

All in all - a great day four and a great start to my week!

Let me know your Pokemon stories, by commenting here or tweeting me @rsmalec !

[rsmalec]

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Trying something new for Day 2 - a YouTube/audio version.  Please let me know if you prefer the text blog or the video vlog format better?

[rsmalec]

Restarting - Pokemon GO Day 1

I wake up this morning in my own bed, fresh and ready to catch ‘em all.  Sadly, the Pokemon GO app (iPhone) is still not able to authenticate using my Pokemon Trainer ID.  Club.Nintendo.com servers have another new splash screen and are also inaccessible.  Being an IT professional, my gut says that Niantic did an ok job with their servers, but they failed to collaborate fully with the Pokemon.com team for performance testing.

Everyone in the RealmSmalec:pokemongo Discord chat seems to be playing with their Google account.  Over breakfast, I listen to “Pokemon GO - Journal Report 02″ on the “It’s Super Effective” podcast.  SBJ gave up on his trainer ID and used his Google account.  OK, fine. I’ll lose my Pokemon from NJ and restart.

At about 6am, I’m happy to see that the game map reflects a day/night cycle.  That gives me hope that we will see different Pokemon in the same locale at least twice a day.  It also makes me wonder if we’ll see night-specific evolutions (in a later patch) like Eevee to Umbreon!  In fact, I wonder how we’ll be able to pick between Flareon, Jolteon, Vaporeon in this gen...

All right. Let’s get some basic catching done here.

And then it’s time to run errands.  First, dropping off Nugget (our Yellow Lab) for a grooming appointment.

Then, I’m driving Matt to his daily summer camp (about 45 minute drive).  I have to say, this is probably the best car ride we’ve ever taken.  We have so many excited shouts and laughs - Matthew in the backseat, “Dad!  There’s a ghastly following us!  Dad!  An oddish!  I caught a Clefairy!”  

Chatting about our old Pokemon Platinum memories is a blast.

I admit, we also pull over to visit a few Pokestops.  These are EVERYWHERE.  They re-use Ingress data for churches, parks, outdoor artwork.  Brilliant design choice.  

I take a back roads path to my own doctor’s appointment and... make a few pitstops.

Sadly, once I get home I have work for a few hours.  I do a bit of online reading and listen to some additional podcasts.  Everyone is getting into this game!

I learn how to scroll down (duh?) to see more info about my captured Pokemon, and how to ‘transfer’ (sell) them to Professor WIllow in exchange for candy (which allows themto power up or evolve).

Several weedle later, I had enough candy for a kakuna!

And then it’s time for another road trip to pick up Matt from camp and shuttle him over to piano practice.  Did I mention both sites are at churches, which are Pokestops?  Awesome!  One of them is also next to a Pokegym, and at level 5 I am able to pledge my allegiance to one of the game’s 3 'teams’.

The yellow faction seems to value egg hatching (I don’t think there’s a direct bonus) and probably determines that Zapdos will show up in your game.

The red team (with the coolest gym leader name, Candela) seems to value power ups and is probably tied to Moltres appearing.

I choose blue, based partly on the description of the team, but mostly because they value evolution.  I am probably stuck with Articuno, my least favorite of the three legendary bird Pokemon, but I’m fine with that.

At this point I also realize I accidentally chose a female avatar (I think?).  All of my medals (achievements) are somethingsomething ‘girl’.  Oh well.  I really hope we can get more wardrobe options later.

In the late afternoon, I start getting new error screens, indicating that the  core Pokemon GO servers are getting overwhelmed.

One more errand tonight - gladly!  Pizza pickup.  Which also happens to be near a Pokegym.

Once defeated, it turns to blue (my faction) and I’m able to leave behind one of my Pokemon to help defend it from red and yellow players.  I’m not sure what benefit this is to my personal game to be honest, but it’s a fun concept.

There really are not a lot of Pokemon in my neighborhood.  We must be a bit too far from the core suburbs.

While walking the dog, I am absolutely delighted to come across 3 other groups of people (both kids and adults) playing Pokemon GO.  It’s ACTUALLY working!  It’s getting people out of their houses and walking or biking around.

I anticipate another 2 days before I’ve caught and evolved every type I can without having to go on any far road trips.  And Monday will be back to NJ.  So for the average kid player, the game should at least last 2 weeks before it gets frustrated or they run out of progress.

I suspect we’ll see at least one performance patch before then, and then it will be a race to see if Niantic can hold our attention with new features.  Or events.  As I speculate above, I think we’re going to see the legendary birds start showing up first.  I’m also wondering how the availability of Pokeballs will impact progress/frustration.  I’m actually running low.  Interestingly, I feel like I’ve gotten enough happiness that I’d be willing to drop $10 on balls.  Which is a dangerous slope to start down!

So with that - I look forward to more adventures and learnings tomorrow.  See you there!

[rsmalec]

Pokemon... Go?... Please?

I’ve only been loosely following Pokemon Go! news since the epic tv commercial earlier this year.  I knew it was coming out some time in July, but this morning I woke up delightedly surprised to find a “day 1 report” in my podcast feed.  It’s out!

Of course, I immediately installed it and logged in using my Pokemon Trainer ID (this becomes important to the story later).

Oh, hello there professor. You’re looking sleek.

Somehow I thought there would be something other than the traditional Gen 1 starters, but that’s not a big concern.  I did know this would only be Gen 1 (hopefully that expands later).  I also knew this game would not integrate with Pokemon bank, would not include traditional Pokemon leveling, evolving, or even battling.  So... it’s a standalone game.  Well, let’s see...

First off, it’s pretty hard to get a good screenshot while holding my iPhone at just the right angle with the Pokemon jumping around.  And you can’t turn it sideways.  Ok - not the end of the world.

Let’s name all of my Pokemon based on where I caught them.  This morning, I woke up in a hotel in Edison, NJ.  I only have about 30 minutes to spare in between getting ready for work.

Ok - getting the nang of snapping pictures now.

The lack of tutorial is really surprising.  It actually took me an hour to realize I was looking at a zoomed-in map of the area I was standing.  I thought it was just a colorful background based on the ‘biome’.  I couldn’t figure out how to do anything other than throw Pokeballs either.

Eventually I saw that I could pinch-zoom the map and see a nearby Pokestop, but sadly had to get on the road to work.

It seems like you can also click on the ‘nearby’ Pokemon and maybe filter for the ones you are missing?  Some have footprints and some do not.

Upon arriving at work, I thought I’d try one more time, and see if there were different Pokemon available (about 40 minutes away from the hotel).

For the next 12 hours I’ve been trying to log back in, and the authentication servers are down.  Specifically, the club.pokemon.com page is down with SO MANY people trying to log in today.  Turns out if you created a new login via Google you can play today, but I really wanted to use my Pokemon id in case there was some kind of integration/bonus later.  Sadly this means I’ve been frustrated all day.  Finally, about 13 hours later the club.pokemon login page was changed from a Psyduck error to a maintenance page - so it’s being worked.  I hope.  I really don’t want to wipe my progress and start over with a Google id.

So I missed out on catching Pokemon at Newark Airport, Ohare airport, and now tonight, finally back home.

But I did have 2 more astonishing experiences.

At the airport, I boarded the “AirTran” train that takes you from the rental car facility to the terminals.  These are about 10 foot x 6 foot train cars.  In my car were about 7 people.  TWO of the 7 were also trying to get Pokemon GO to work - adult males - not kids!  We all had a good laugh.  What are the chances?  I’ve almost never bumped into any other adults playing Pokemon before (and I travel every week for the past 16 years).

Then, when I got home, my son ran up to me to tell me that the game was released and everyone at his summer camp was playing today.  EVERY one of the ~30 kids.  That’s really unprecedented. 

The app shot to the #1 app on iTunes and I heard something like 15 million downloads in one morning.  And the #2 app is some kind of strategy guide.

So... I understand why the servers had issues, and am disappointed they didn’t anticipate or load test better.  I’m underwhelmed with the features and the limited generation.  But... it’s freaking Pokemon!

And even though it’s kinda gimmicky, the AR is just plain cool.

So... hopefully I come back here for a positive ‘day 2′ blog.  Not sure how long my enthusiasm will last, but I’m still pretty excited to Catch ‘Em All!

[rsmalec]

The Labyrinth

In a time where I am really burned out on playing (let alone creating) custom maps for Minecraft, I randomly decided to tackle something that’s been on my to do list for (literally) years.  I went back to the OLDEST map you can still download from the Minecraft forums.  The post was started August 9, 2010.  I originally played it in November 2010, and from what I can tell it hasn’t been updated since.  The map is called “The Labyrinth”, version .31, by fireb0rn.  

http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/mapping-and-modding/maps/1454461-adv-the-labyrinth-a-dungeon-map-third-semifinal

In order to play it in 1.10.2, you have to first load it in 1.0, and then load it in 1.10.  Even still, many chests are missing, iron doors don’t open properly with redstone signals, etc...   but for all that, the level design is still pretty incredible.  After navigating/fighting through 6 “levels” you think you’re done and realize that was just the tutorial.  Made me laugh.  And the visuals are actually impressive considering this was (arguably) the first map on the forums.

I found it interesting that I got stuck in pretty much the same spots I did when I played this 6 years ago.  Even with new skeleton and boat mechanics.  A lot more parkour than I remember.  Luckily, the void fog no longer obscures some portions.

I couldn’t help feeling that this map is BETTER than 80% of the new maps I see these days - with all of their fancy command blockery and block models.  And this one has absolutely no character motivator or story.  Except maybe the nostalgia soundtrack playing in my head the whole time.

[rsmalec]

Oh yeah. I still have one of these.

[rsmalec]

I first took this picture, thinking about black vs white. But in the moment of flash I realized I had interrupted a quiet conversation. This was the headlight of a passing car, on two youths stealing a moment in the darkness.

[rsmalec]

If I were J. J. Abrams... (random thinking about episodes 7 - 9)

... I would...

leverage the "Kessel Run" as the next race sequence

feature a Gungan in the background as a slient bounty hunter

give Carrie Fisher a lightsaber for at least one scene

go with a 'clone of Palpatine' story arc

include Jaicen/Jaina/Anakin Solo

show Corellia

explore the concept of the Force being in balance within Luke, but out of balance in the universe if there are only good Jedi

I was thinking about posting this without any context.  Does it really need any more context?  And I'm sure there are a million of these lists popping up all over, but my strategy is: avoid spoilers and popular speculation until the trailer comes out, and then decide if I'm going to dive in or maintain radio silence.

I saw Episode IV: A New Hope from the roof of my parents' car at a drive-in, somewhere between ages 6 or 7.  It was the FIRST scifi film I had ever seen and obviously made a big impression on me.  Figures. Role playing. Novels. Video Games.  E.U.  Etc.. etc...  When I saw the first trailer for Episode I: Phantom Menace, I burst into tears.

So, yeah, I'm totally looking forward to VII.  I don't care if it's good, bad, or ugly.  I just want to know what happens next.

[rsmalec]

Pinnochio

[rsmalec]

I wasn't joking when I meant the things I said

I play a lot of Minecraft maps. I watch a lot of YouTube videos. I don't watch YouTube to see others play maps.

In fact, if there's a video of someone playing a map that I'm interested in, I can't watch it until after I've played the map myself. And, if I'm watching someone play a map that I've already completed, I usually don't WATCH the video, I just listen to them while doing other mindless things (driving, shopping, eating) and maybe take a peek now and then if I hear something that I didn't experience or I want to see their physical reaction to a special effect.

In other words, I watch YouTube for the people. I guess that's kinda the point in the "you", right? I've always known this, but it never really hit home until a recent twitter response from a friend.

I subscribe to roughly 100 channels of people I care about. I peruse my subscription list several times a day. When I first started on YouTube (April 17, 2011) I used to subscribe to every channel that subscribed to me, left me a comment, or I watched. At about 427 subscriptions, I was getting spammed with too much content I could care less about. From that point on, I unsubscribed to anyone I didn't personally care about, and if I haven't seen an intriguing video from one of my subscriptions in a few weeks, I unsub. *gasp*

There are about 25 people that I will watch (or listen to) EVERY video. Period. And I make it a goal to try and befriend these people, or at least become a familiar name, by leaving consistent comments on every video as a sign of appreciation. Then there are about 50 people where I watch a portion of, and 'like' every video, but don't always comment or watch the entire video. And then there's that last 25% where I only watch a particular 'series' on their channel for various reasons.

Back to my point.

I like watching people. Mostly, this is people playing video games that I like. Or, listening to them react to video games that I don't really need to see to envision.

Here's what I like: Underdogs - someone who's tackling a game they are NOT expert at, and having a good time failing Creatives - someone who's mixing something of themselves into their video; roleplay, characters, themes Curiousities - someone who's easily led off track, which usually gets them into hot water

I don't really care for: Experts - someone who knows the game inside and out and is expertly navigating and trashing mobs, speed-running to greatness. Boring. Tinkerers - *gasp* someone who creates a complex invention without demonstrating it in a visual and thematic context. (I'm going to be slightly more specific here to differentiate some you-know-whos; I don't care for seeing an invention in a sandstone flatworld, described in a monotone voice. I like it when you take your 3-shot target dummy or your quest-giver tracker and show it to me in the context of unique terrain and an upcoming map). Spazzes - someone who'e just blatantly screaming and being chaotic for the purpose of attracting 12 year olds attention. Jerks - someone who's intentionally knocking other people down to prop up their own ego

Of course, there's a lot of gray area where the above concepts overlap.

So, I like people, not maps.

I don't care if you have the wrong aspect ratio on your videos. I don't care if you have a crappy mic. I don't care if there's background noise or lack of editing. I appreciate people who take the time/effort to clean that stuff up, but I tend to overlook that if you have a good heart and intent.

Revelationary post? Probably not. But thinking through this helps me step back and evaluate my own videos. And reinforces the feeling of gladness for having connected with good people who I may never meet in person.