Entries tagged with gaming:pokemongo

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Fannish options & enthusiasms | March 2025

Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share!

Spotlight: Captain America: Brave New World
I saw Captain America: Brave New World in a theater on opening night, and... ( Non-spoiler personal opinion with vague allusions to real events )

Ficathons, fests & communities

Create & engage
- fkficfest, the annual FK ficathon, has prompt nominations 3/08-3/14, with voting 3/15-3/21.
- marchmetamatterschallenge is an annual March-long project to preserve fannish non-fiction of all kinds (not just essays).
- womansplace is a March-long call for fanwork meta and recommendations celebrating characters who identify as or align with women.
- bethefirst, the annual challenge to write the first fanfiction on the AO3 for a fandom, has no sign-up deadline this year. Stories come due 4/20.
- hurtcomfortex, the annual exchange for hurt/comfort stories, has sign-ups 3/01-3/16.
- unsent_letters_exchange, the epistolary fanfic exchange, has sign-ups through 3/08.
- trope_of_the_month's March theme is [not yet posted].
- allbingo's March theme is "Tolkien."
- pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in fannish exchanges. For example, fffx is still seeking a pinch hitter.
- whenisitdue lists many more events than I note here!
Enjoy & share
- fancake (themed fanfic recs); March theme: "non-sexual intimacy"
- gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
- het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
- fanart_recs (fanart recs)
- recthething (fanwork recs)

Sidelight: Pokémon GO's rumored sale
I still play rather a lot of Pokémon GO. PvP has been my niche; I ran local meet-ups for Silph Road tournaments before Niantic started Go Battle League and the pandemic came. That said, I don't know whether or not I will stop playing if Niantic succeeds in selling its games division, as is currently rumored, to a subsidiary of a company known for aggressive micro-transactions and funded by Saudi Arabia's government. I am thinking about it. If this potential sale is news to you and you play, check out this concise, pointed article from The Verge.

(FYI, we can move our GO Pokémon into Pokémon Home, owned by The Pokémon Company, not Niantic, if we want to "take them with us" for future use in other Pokémon games while leaving GO.)

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Snowflake Challenge 2023 #5: Resources

"Tell us about 3 creative/fannish resources, spaces, or communities you use or enjoy."

Tip-top canon resources:

Bulbapedia, "the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia," is the highest-quality public wiki I've ever seen. It reports and tracks every bit of canon across the entire sprawling IP. ♥

Now available only via the Wayback Machine, the old dungeonsanddragonscartoon.com fansite is still the very best D&DC resource, "from the Alicorn river to the hills of Zorm." Forever respect and gratitude to its fan creator!

It's super ugly and advertisement-ridden now, but it's as accurate and comprehensive as ever: Portal: Battlestar Galactica (TOS). I depend on its Colonial vocabulary lists.

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gotta_fuse_em_all Pokémon fusion fest

While I don't have the scope just now to contribute to

gotta_fuse_em_all, I am looking forward to reading in the fest. Its premise is to fuse Pokémon with other fandoms, such that characters in the other fandom have Pokémon. (Think Detective Pikachu more than the games or cartoons.)

Yep, I am put in mind of what I wrote for the most recent

hlh_shortcuts: "The Power That’s Inside (We All Live in a Pokémon World)." A difference, I suppose, is that my attempt was a crossover rather than a fusion; it connects the separate canons with logic on both sides (however stretched). And of course I thought I was producing "crack taken seriously," where the fest gleefully neither asks nor dispenses excuses, brushing away any hint that this isn't as awesome as I want it to be. :-)

I am also reminded of the super fun FK/Pokémon outline/sketch that

havocthecat wrote in late December, in which the Forever Knight characters play Pokémon GO in fantastically character-appropriate ways.

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My '20 HLH_Shortcuts story: "The Power That’s Inside (We All Live in a Pokémon World)"

My 2020

hlh_shortcuts contribution was, obviously, "The Power That’s Inside (We All Live in a Pokémon World)" (7K words, PG, gen) (Duncan, Methos, Joe, Giovanni, Emolga, Charmander).

My recipient's sign-up included “crack taken seriously” and the “reality of being immortal,” and allowed “most stuff” for crossovers. I agonized over what direction to take (as usual, but more) and consulted

celli on the nature of the crack-fic genre and this idea. I almost instead went for a Very Serious concept about Joe and all the institutional betrayals he's suffered. (I can do "taken seriously." It's whether I can do "crack" that's in question.) Instead, we start with Methos as a PokéTuber a la TrainerTips, and then it gets even stranger.

I lucked out. My recipient knows and likes main-series Pokémon through her daughter. Whew!

I regret that I ended up with all the women characters off-screen. Angie, Anne, Mary, Amanda, and Jessie all had scenes in my head that ended up as Duncan telling the key takeaway, rather than me showing the encounter. And I see now how I could have done better by digging into Duncan's motivations and memories more, and more frankly (as nudged by

leela_cat's perceptive beta).

But when the story rolls into crack-ness, I think it works.

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gaming:pokemongo

Twas the night before Pokémon Go Fest 2020...

Am I ready for Pokémon Go Fest ("adventure from home" edition) this weekend? I've:

Set out my red Team Valor t-shirt and pink pokéstop cap (with jeans and tennis shoes).
Charged my back-up portable power bank and replaced my Go Plus battery.
Peeked far enough into spoilers to know that the "battle biome" has the spawns I want most (but not far enough to be spoiled on the special research storyline!).
Hoarded up an immense quantity of pokéballs.
Bookmarked the Virtual Team Lounge.
Pre-completed most must-do weekend chores (groceries, laundry, trash, recycling, vacuuming, sweeping...).
Cleared some Pokémon storage space. (Should clear more! Eeeek. Or buy more. Or both.)

When I do eventually go out to the neighborhood park -- maintaining safe distance from others -- I must remember sunscreen as well as my cloth mask (but it's close enough to home that a water bottle and food are unnecessary, unless I'm really ambitious how long I'll stay, or it's really hot).

Am I forgetting anything? :-D

Have fun, fellow trainers!

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gaming:pokemongo

Heads-up for PoGo PvP rewards increase (this weekend only)

Hey, fellow Pokemon Go players! In case you haven't heard, the bonus PvP rewards have already started for February's Community Day this weekend. Don't miss out!

All weekend long, starting today, we can get 5 rewards per day from battling the NPC team leaders (instead of the usual 1), and we can get another 5 rewards per day from battling real fellow trainers (instead of the usual 3). The guaranteed Sinnoh Stones are tomorrow (Saturday) only (in parts of the world where this Community Day is Saturday), but even they will be throughout the day, midnight to midnight, not only during the 3-hour Community Day window.

Also, if you haven't heard, stat buffs are coming! Suddenly, Ancient Power on a Mamoswine looks much, much sweeter than it did a few days ago. I have an appointment that's going to make me miss half of Community Day, and, despite wanting a shiny watermelon Swinub of my own -- and all the boosted stardust! -- I was very blase about missing out ... until the stat buffs were announced. Poor timing for me! Ah, well. I do have several saved-up Swinub from the ice event to evolve (without events, ice types are vanishingly rare here).

Have fun!

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gaming:pokemongo

Boulder Badge achieved

My local Pokémon Go community held our inaugural Silph Arena player-versus-player (PvP) tournament ("Boulder Cup") at the public library. It was fun! And, well, I won. :-D

Really, we had a 5-way tie among all who had lost only one match each. (I lost my last match by going for a more effective move rather than a faster one.) Per rules, ties are broken by the Buchholz system (from chess). This put me in first place by just one point. It was as close as it could have been! A different order of opponents would have given a different result.

( What is the Silph Arena? And what squad did I field? )

(FWIW, if you haven't yet done your Boulder Cup, my advice: Don't bring Rock types. Do bring Skarmory and a counter for Skarmory!)

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gaming:pokemongo

Do IVs matter in PvP?

One of the big questions around the Pokémon GO community lately is whether Individual Values (IVs) matter in player-versus-player (PvP) battles. It depends. How're we defining "matter"? :-D

We can play the game wholly, successfully, and with tremendous fun without ever knowing what IVs are! This is more true than ever since super-effectiveness got boosted a few months ago. So, no: IVs don't matter. If you don't care to, don't worry about them! Just pick the best CP, type, and moves you have for the job at hand, whether raids, gyms, or PvP.

However, if fussing with IVs makes you happy — hello! — there's plenty to dig into.

For raiding and gym sweeping, it's been the same for a long time: (1) IVs really come into play only if we're maxing out a pokémon. Seriously. When we are maxing out, then (2) higher is better, and (3) attack is more important than stamina (HP), which is more important than defense. End of story. (Hard-core raiders will point out that 15 attack / 10 defense / 15 stamina — or even 15/0/15! — is actually better for dealing damage in a raid or gym sweep than 15/15/15, because of how energy-gain works in gyms, but that increment won't register unless we're trying to beat a best time or raid with the fewest possible players.)

For PvP in Master League (unlimited CP), pretty much the same applies! We want to max out our best IV individual pokémon in the best species. The difference is that defense isn't a value to sneeze at in PvP. (Energy gain in PvP differs from that in gyms, among other things.) So definitely pick that elusive "hundo" (15/15/15) over an attack specialist (15/10/15), if you're so lucky as to have both. Basically: we'll use the same pokémon for raiding, gym sweeping, and Master League PvP.

For PvP in the Ultra League (max CP 2,500) and Great League (max CP 1,500), our goals change. The CP caps are everything! It's Price is Right rules. We want the highest level — level, not necessarily CP, though both together is ideal — that we can get without going over the CP cap. Since the CP rework, attack stats boost CP significantly more than stamina (HP) or defense stats do. So not only could a pokemon with generally poor IVs potentially get closer to a league's CP cap than one with great IVs, one with specifically lousy attack stats will probably get closer than one with awesome attack stats.

Probably? Yes, probably! It varies not only by pokemon species but by each specific possible combination of IVs. Yay!

I admire, but don't personally play at, that ultimate level of calculation. I still personally pick better IV pokemon when powering them toward the caps. Mainly, this is because I worry I'll accidentally power them up one turn too many and then need them to be able to make their way in Ultra League or even Master League. (This has already happened once. ~grin~) However, I did try to trade my worst IV Cresselia for someone else's worst, hoping that the IVs would plunge in the re-roll and she'd slide in just under the 1,500 CP cap for Great League. (It didn't work. ~wry~)

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gaming:pokemongo

Duo'd a weather-boosted Deoxsys

On Tuesday, I was lucky enough not only to have a Pokémon Go EX Raid pass, but to have one for a timeslot at the end of the workday that I could actually attend. Luckier yet, with the new system, I was able to invite my in-game "best friend" Y. to come raid, too...

She surprised me with the proposal that we try to duo the raid boss.

Now, we did have the "best friends" bonus on our side. But the boss, being psychic, was boosted by the very rare (here) windy weather. Nevertheless, we knew that Deoxys Normal Form is at best a glass cannon in Pokémon Go. (Every form of Deoxys is underwhelming in this game, though not in the main series games.) We're both high-level players; we both know our type advantages. We went for it.

Both of our first teams (6 pokémon each) fainted out at almost precisely the same time. While we were both out in the lobby healing them up, the raid boss regained some strength. This is a known glitch. Grrr. Nevertheless, he'd been in the yellow, and together, we took him down with time to spare. Yay, us! Granted: glass cannon. Just Deoxys, not Mewtwo. But still. We duo'd an EX boss!

(A special call out to Y.'s infant son, who was adorable and supportive from his stroller the whole time, and didn't cry until after we'd both caught our Deoxys.)

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gaming:pokemongo

PokéTuber recommendations

You know that my favorite PokéTuber is Trainer Tips Nick. He focuses on Pokémon Go gameplay. He used to specialize in analyzing the game itself and explaining how to play it better; this year, he's shifted toward documenting communities of play. Some episodes are better than others, of course, but overall, his channel is amazing. If you're returning to the game after a hiatus, try starting with his "What's new in Pokemon Go 2018?" episode.

I've been meaning to introduce you to my rising second-favorite PokéTuber, Bird Keeper Toby. He's a pokémon theorist, seeking to scientifically(ish) rationalize "the pokémon world" — what you and I would call "pokémon canon," across all the games, anime, and movies. He's recently been working through an amazing "Ultimate Pokemon Evolution Tree" series, which I've found tremendously fun.

Other PokéTubers I'd recommend include Mystic7 for sheer fun enthusiasm (but don't play like him; he never picks super-effective attackers), and ProdigiesNation, especially for his "Is it worth powering up?" series, where he uses PokéBattler and does the math for us.

And of course some leading female PokéTubers: Pokémon Master Holly, Zoë Two Dots, Sparkie Joy, Candy Evie.

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gaming:pokemongo

Pokemon Go news & rumors this week so far

Wow! So much activity...

News: Alolan forms of Kanto pokemon are coming in the next several weeks. Speculation: Likely only Alolan Golem will be very meta-relevant, but Alolan Exeggutor will be funny, and I personally want an Alolan Ninetales (fairy/ice) to be my glass-cannon dragon-killer.

News: June's Community Day will feature Larvitar! Rumor: The exclusive move will be the first quick move so featured, specifically the rock-type quick move that Tyranitar needs to become the all-around top rock-type in the game. Speculation: The shinies don't really interest me this time (unlike awesome "charcoal" Charizard), but any gym-battler or raider will want at least one with the double-rock moveset for battling the legendary birds most of all, and also all flying types and ice types in general.

Rumor: The next Pokemon games are coming to the Nintendo Switch, titled "Let's Go Pikachu" and "Let's Go Eevee." They'll have some sort of Pokemon Go integration, some sort of accessory that works with both platforms, and will in some way adopt the Pokemon Go catching mechanic.

And if you haven't noticed, Ho-Oh is back and can be shiny! Latias and Latios are still around, on their respective sides of the globe, but it seems no one wants to raid them anymore. On Monday after work, my only raid shot that day, I experienced a group literally walk away from a Latias hatch because they couldn't be bothered with a non-shiny. They did invite me to join them in Ho-Oh hunting! But it looks like it will be tougher than ever to muster a group until the Regis come.

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gaming:pokemongo

Charmander Community Day

It's May's Community Day* in Pokemon Go! Catch a shiny Charmander and evolve it to shiny Charizard with Blast Burn! Triple catch stardust and extended lures, 11 AM to 2 PM Pacific Time.

Blast Burn will apparently make Charizard the best non-legendary fire-user. It reportedly doesn't lift Charizard above any legendaries after all, though many expected that.

It's been a while since I've posted about Pokemon Go. To catch up:

I love the research mechanic! In-game research is the best. "Yes, Professor, I'd love to help you investigate powerful pokemon!" (And yes, I have my Mew, and look forward to Celebi in due time.)

During the most recent double-XP event, I reached Level 40, the highest available. I was delighted to no longer think about XP at all! (But then the head of Niantic said that a level-cap raise is coming, so, oh well.)

I've received 2 EX passes that I've had to let go, because the raids were during the workday. ~sigh~ But I have 3 total Mewtwos, one with great IVs, so I'm doing just fine. Nevertheless, I'm one of those who thinks the EX raid system bombed. If Niantic must add another pokemon to it, I feel that it should be Deoxys. But I'd rather have research and one-per-player distributions all around.

* The monthly Community Days alternate between Saturdays and Sundays. Unpredictably, but so far 50/50.

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gaming:pokemongo

Pokémon GO documentary-style trailer narrated by Stephen Fry

I've watched this one-minute video ~~three~~four times since it premiered earlier this week. It's still making me smile. Yep, this is pretty much the world I'm imagining when I play the game...

Watch on YouTube

(Some are speculating that it could be a Superbowl commercial, or an excerpt from one. I doubt it; companies don't pre-tease Superbowl commercials, do they?)

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gaming:pokemongo

First "Community Day" in Pokémon Go

Today is the first monthly "Community Day" mini-event in Pokémon Go. In the Americas, it's from 11 AM to 2 PM (Pacific Time) / 2 PM to 5 PM (Eastern Time). Goodies:

Double XP
3-hour lures
Increased Pikachu spawns everywhere (but most of all in parks)
Increased Pikachu shiny rate
Pikachu can learn the exclusive quick move "Surf" (Pichu and Raichu can't)

And if you participate in the Silph Road's new "Traveler's Card" program, you may be able to find a local event where Discord Admins or other local leaders and coordinators will be giving out badges.

Have fun!

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gaming:pokemongo

Why to feed berries in Pokémon Go

At a Kyogre raid recently, I met a couple of people who hadn't yet learned the side benefits of feeding berries at pokégyms! Just in case, let me spread the good word. In addition to filling a pokémon's strength meter, keeping that pokémon in that gym, and keeping the gym your team's color (for increased resources for you each time you spin or raid there), you'll want to feed berries to pokémon in your team's gyms in order to:

Get 20 stardust per fed berry
Get 20 XP per fed berry
At ~1-in-100 odds, get 1 of the fed pokemon's candy in exchange for a fed berry
Incrementally raise your medal at that gym (higher medals yield more resources per spin, and higher chances for EX raid invitations)

Because of the 1-in-100 candy-back reward, I actually have candy for pokémon not yet in my 'dex, like Kangaskhan. :-) It's also an incentive to put rare pokémon in gyms, so that you can feed them berries and win their candy. Lately, I keep putting my Kirlia in gyms, for more Ralts candy to power up my Gardevoir (unless I really need to help hold the gym for my team, in which case it's always Blissey or Chansey, of course).

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gaming:pokemongo

fun tiny thing lost in unfun big news

When Norway's Prime Minister visited Washington D.C. last week, a news photographer "caught" her putting one of her pokémon in the White House gym. (Sources: Comicbook.com, NintendoSoup, Daily Mirror, etc.) This wasn't the first time she'd been thus "caught" taking a break between meetings with the game; in 2016, she told the media she'd reached Level 14 (no word on her current level).

I, at least, was utterly charmed. I hope that she caught an amazing Tauros while she was over here. ♥

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gaming:pokemongo

Subsequent EX raid adventures

I have my Mewtwo! 80% IVs.

The last time that I posted about Pokemon GO, I told you that my first EX raid pass went sadly wrong (see that post), with only 3 trainers and 1 spoofer showing up. Not nearly enough to tackle Mewtwo (though we tried!). This was back when EX raids were still in beta, before Niantic added consolation prizes of premium raid passes and stardust for canceled EX raids. We walked away with nothing but disappointment. I'd simply been unlucky enough to be invited to a "how low can we go?" test.

Since then, I've received 2 — 2! — EX raid passes, including to the surprising Christmas Day raids. These subsequent 2 passes arrived so close together that I got the second before I used the first, and when I attended the first of these 2 EX raids, I caught my Mewtwo on the first ball. These highly unusual circumstances made me suspect that my account could perhaps have been on a "make it up to the player" list after that initial debacle.

( more about these EX raids )

Now, even powered-up, Mewtwo is far from unstoppable. Type counters and weather boosts matter! But I do love soloing Machamp raid bosses with Mewtwo leading my team. I'm building up to a Gardevoir to join Mewtwo in that mission; beating fighting types with fairies is my favorite. :-D

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gaming:pokemongo

Failed EX raid (not enough people came)

I'm a disappointed pokémon trainer tonight.

A week and a day ago, I was excited to receive my first EX pass for a raid to take place today. Formerly called "Exclusive," these "EX" passes invite players to come test a new game feature at a specific time and place, with a group of other players, for the expected reward of an opportunity to catch a supreme legendary monster (Mewtwo!). These EX raids have been happening in waves around the world for a few months now.

I looked forward to the event all week, put it on my calendar, powered up my best counters, wore my team-color sweater and jacket...

Now, I had worried that no one had chimed in when I posted the raid to my local Discord group. Or the neighboring group. Or all the groups in the region. But, hey, not everyone uses Discord! Surely regular players would just show up at the park without organizing?

Nope.

Only three of us came for the raid in person: me, another woman, and a boy with his mom. A fourth spoofed in from a distance (cheating). When the raid clock dwindled, the others let me convince them to try, for the sake of the experience, even knowing that we couldn't win with so few (they were understandably reluctant to incur the cost of the resources to heal up from an impossible contest). And we couldn't. We didn't. But we tried! We played well! We battled Mewtwo down under a quarter strength! But we were just too few.

Discovering the lower bound is part of the game testing. Of course. But it's disappointing to be the guinea pig at this end.

I wonder whether we'll get another EX pass someday.

(BTW, when you battle Mewtwo but don't win? It doesn't register as "seen" in your pokédex.)

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gaming:pokemongo

gold ghost-type medal

I've achieved the gold medal for ghost types! I was really close before the Halloween event started yesterday. Now, of all the type medals, only dragon remains for me. (I'm far away from even silver in dragon types. And I'm okay with that! I like the challenges.)

I've also already wild-caught 4 of the 5 Gen 3 ghost types released for the event. Um. That seems awfully soon! (The Dustskull evolution Dustclops appeared in my living room. Was I to not catch it? Silly!) The event will last 2 weeks.

I suppose that the real quest must be for a shiny Sable Eye, as that's the sole shiny in the event. (So far, I have 3 shinies in the Magikarp family, and no shinies in the Pikachu family. I'm nervous that I'm going to fail to recognize the sunburned-Pikachu-look shiny, should I ever come across it, especially if my phone's night mode tinting is on at the time. I've been advised to watch the ear-tips. Apparently, they're gray on the Pikachu shinies.)

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gaming:pokemongo

Entei beaten by 4 (including me)

Yesterday, I managed to take down an Entei raid boss with just 3 other trainers! It was second teams all around, by pretty high-level players, and close even so, but we beat a legendary with only 4 people!

Entei has 3 vulnerabilities, of course: water, rock, ground. But ground is too slow. When you're hard against the clock, go with rock and water for sheer damage-per-second.