How To: Be A Good New Pokémon Go Player

Joanne Dore

## What is Pokémon Go?

   Pokémon Go is a popular app on mobile devices that takes the traditional Pokémon game to the outside world. Released by Niantic in 2016, Pokémon go lets users capture, hatch, and battle Pokémon with other people in their community in real time. To build a sense of community, when the player first signs up, they must choose between three teams, Mystic, Instinct, and Valor. When interviewed about the game, Lucas Blue\* said, “It’s a lot of fun, you meet people, you experience new things, you make new friendships, make new bonds, see new places, it gets you out, and it gets you moving”. The game encourages physical activity by requiring players to walk in order to play. For instance, the further a player walks, the more eggs will hatch and the more Pokémon will be seen. The app is an augmented reality where the device uses GPS to track the player’s movements, which allows the game to let users see where PokéStops, PokéGym battles, and raids are. The game is free to play and the community always welcomes new people to join.

## Defined Jargon:

**PokéStops:**

These are places all over the world that have some sort of significance and stood out to Niantic. Usually they are located at all sorts of landmarks, such as statues or ponds. The stops are blue and shaped like a diamond, when the avatar gets close enough the stop will transform into an upright disc and is able to be clicked on and spun. Rewards range from PokéBalls (what the player catches Pokémon with), revives (if a Pokémon has fallen in battle, this is what is used to revive them), potions (to make health of a Pokémon increase), and fruit that the player can use when trying to catch harder Pokémon to make it easier.

**PokéGym:** These are places that used to be PokéStops, but because they were spun so many times, Niantic chose to change them into gyms. They have larger icons with Pokémon hovering on top. In these gyms, if the gym is the same color as the team a player is on, they can place their Pokémon in it until somebody battles them to take the gym for themselves. Players can gain coins for holding gyms for extended periods of time, with these coins more PokéBalls can be purchased along with revives and potions. Some players take over gyms in the evening so that they are able to rack up as many hours as they can in the gym.

**Raids:** These are battles that many people can go to. They spawn randomly through the times of 6AM-7PM.

   A person can battle the chosen Pokémon, also known as bosses, by themselves if they have high enough level Pokémon or are required to battle it with up to 19 others. The more people that are in a raid, the higher chance of taking it down. After the battling of the boss, each player involved has the chance to catch the boss. If it is a legendary raid, a lower level player may not catch it. Raids come in 5 tiers. Lower level raids can be easily taken down and are easier to catch while Tier 5 raids are the hardest and hold rarer Pokémon. It has been seen that more people tend to go to higher tier raids, and only a few participate in lower tier raids. This is because the higher the tier, the more rewards are redeemed and because the lower tier raid bosses can be caught in the wild. Apart from tiered raids, there are special ones called EX Raids where the player must beat a normal raid at the gym two weeks prior. In these raids, only one type of Pokémon can be caught and it is the only way in the game to catch it.

**Community Day:** This is a day once a month where Niantic makes a certain Pokémon spawn more regularly than normal. From the hours of 2PM-5PM (Eastern Time), the Pokémon that has been selected for that month will be seen more frequently and sometimes will have a higher catch rate. Another benefit that Niantic releases at these times each month, is that they increase the amount of rewards that come when catching Pokémon. Community Day, as suggested in the name, is a day for all players to break out and really play the game while getting a lot of benefits. For Blue, he goes to Cranes Roost each month in Altamonte Springs and spends all three hours catching and trading his Pokémon that he caught, “the biggest community day I have ever seen there was like 1000 people at cranes roost. It brings a lot of people out, it lets you meet new people”. Days like these are when apps such as Discord are important, so that players know where other people are going to be.

**IV’s:**These are the Individual Value for each Pokémon caught. Most players judge their Pokémon on its combat power, but people more involved in the game like to judge them by IV’s. It includes each Pokémon’s stats such as health, attack, and stamina. This is a good way to judge the Pokémon’s overall value instead of just the level. The best IV is 100% which is very rare to get, most Pokémon’s IV lay below that.

## Important Tools to Use

**Discord (or other communicating devices):** Discord is an app on mobile devices that community members can use to communicate with each other; it is a huge gaming group chat. Not just one person can write information in it, anybody in the community that has discord and is in the chat can participate in the conversation. Mostly people tal

    k in the chat to organize raids, respond about what times work for them and post any updates about the game that they think other players might find important. Not all players use discord, for many people, they do not realize that a community like that exists. For instance, when Blue first started playing, “I would go out to raids and… I met somebody who knew what they were doing and they were like, “Dude you need to get on discord, you need to meet people, you need to find out where people are meeting at. You can't go out raiding by yourself because you won’t meet anybody… you have to communicate to meet up otherwise it will fail.”” Communication is a large part of the game. Many solo players stop playing because of the fact that when the game first came out there was no community aspect, there was only the unity of teams but nobody would meet up. For Cornelius Wind community could have changed the way that they played the game, “[The community] it may have kept me playing a little longer if I knew more people who played and would play with me”. Since raids have come out, apps like Discord have become crucial to the game. It is apps like this that allow players to coordinate with each other to meet up and help each other get better at the game, it really brings the community together. Without an app like this new players would have a hard time finding people to raid with. To access Discord, a player would download the app and search for Pokémon Go and then the city that they are in. There are chats for cities all over the world.

**Websites for Research:** Research in this game is more important to players that are more committed than to ones who just play for fun. From Blue’s perspective, “if you want to be a competitive and good player, you have to research”. This is because people who look the information up usually get it before Niantic releases it a week later. Information that people in the community research would be what their Pokémon’s IV’s are, what new raid bosses are going to be released, which Pokémon they should use to combat the bosses best, and what upcoming Community Days will be. The people behind the websites that others use to research are usually community members that have been playing for a long time or really understand what the game is. Any questions that a new player has about the game can be looked up and reliable, popular sources will have an answer. Another example of a resource is YouTube. Watching videos on other people playing the game and listening to their advice is a way many community members better themselves at the game. A channel called Trainer Tips vlogs about Pokémon go, he travels the world playing while documenting his whole experience. He has almost 800,000 subscribers, and most of them play the game themselves. As Blue put it, “the purpose is to share their experience but to also help other people. Trainer Tips tries to share his knowledge.” The more well-known players try and help others because the community as a whole values supporting one another. Researching is important to this community because it allows players to delve deeper and learn things about the game they may have not known before.

**Game Notifications:** ·         The company behind Pokémon Go, Niantic are the ones who send out the updates on the app, they are there to tell the players that changes have been made. For instance, when friends were introduced they announced it to their audience, so that the players could

     start using that tool. They also send out notifications when new bosses are out or when Pokémon will be spawning more frequently, so that their base knows what is going on and isn’t left in the dark. The company sends these notifications to all players, either on the home screen or when the game is loaded up. The information that is sent out is also posted online in case any players missed it earlier. This is important to the community and new users because it brings the company to their players, they are directly telling them what is changing and what to expect.

## Roles of a New Player

    A way to understand the roles of a new player is by analyzing the game as a whole from a new player’s perspective. As indicated in the figure, there are many tools that new players and skilled players use including Discord and research methods. Some responsibilities of new players that would like to be a part of the community (therefore moving toward being a better player) is to participate in raids, and let people know in the community when they are available to raid. Other responsibilities would be to respect the people in Discord that organize raids and don’t try to go against them. Everybody in the community is trying to get to the same goal: to be better players and to try and get to the highest level that they can, whether that be their physical level or the amount of good Pokémon they have. While doing this they are also trying to help community members around them and including everybody.

## ​​​​​Roles of a Skilled Player

    The same as a new player, a good way to understand the roles of a skilled or long-time player is to look at the community and game in general, from their perspective. The tools that are used for skilled players do not vary much from newer players, the only difference may be that these players research more than others. Responsibilities of these players are where things change. This is because these players are the ones who are supposed to organize raids and see them out. They are also expected to give lower-level players advice on how to move up in the game. Many higher-level players are very welcoming and encourage new players to try and organize raids and gain some more responsibility in the community.

## End Notes

Community is one of the most important ways on becoming a better player. Researching what others have done previously and using those same strategies or learning from them is a great way to learn what works for a new player. Using communication methods such as Discord, or just texting brings people together to share their own experiences and using the tools such as researching and looking at notifications makes reaching the goal of being a better player more achievable; the player is not going in blind. Being involved in the community and participating not only makes the game more enjoyable but allows players to be in a friendly atmosphere where everyone is trying to achieve the same goal.

## Works Cited:

**Interview with Lucas Blue\*:** A long time player who took a break when community was not a big part of the game. When raids came out they started playing again as they were able to use the game to form relationships with other players.
**Interview with Cornelius Wind\*:** A player who played when the game first came out and now only plays here and then for fun. Never really got into the community aspect of the game.

* Names have been changed to respect the anonymity of interviewees.