The eNotes Blog Pokémon GO What toKnow

Pokà ©mon GO What toKnow Unless youve been living under a rock, you have probably heard (and seen) the new craze sweeping the nation: Pokà ©mon Go. The new augmented reality game by Niantic, Inc. and The Pokà ©mon Company has taken the world by storm as its international releases continue. Image: The Official Pokemon Company YouTube Australia, New Zealand, and the United States were the first to see the game in their app stores, as it was released on July 6, 2016.  Since then, the international releases of Pokà ©mon Go have hit Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Canada, Puerto Rico, Japan, France,  Hong Kong, and the majority of the remaining European countries. For  all its sensationalism, Pokà ©mon Go was actually a  project twenty  years in the making. February of 1996 saw  Nintendo introduce humans to the world of Pokà ©mon in its domestic stomping grounds, Japan. By 1999, Pokà ©mon had  made its way to Europe, and quickly became an international sensation. Picking up its own cartoon series, trading card deck, and comic book series, Pokà ©mon was at the peak of its popularity.  Its handheld game series has continued to be popular, and is approaching the release of its seventh generation. By the time Pokà ©mon had hit its stride, Google-controlled Niantic was creating Ingress, a game not too unlike Pokà ©mon Go. Based on the data from mapping  firm  Keyhole (which became Google Earth), Ingress used location to create  a game based on  holding control over certain physical landmarks that became- you guessed it- Pokà ©mon gyms. Niantic became independent and teamed up with The Pokà ©mon Company (responsible for t he marketing and licensing of Pokà ©mon  since  1998) to bring the world Pokà ©mon Go. Unsurprisingly, the new game has a lot of players asking a lot of questions. Very little information was released along with Pokà ©mon Go in all its glory, and users have taken to sites  like Reddit to share information and  inductively conclude as much as they can. Weve corralled the most common and most interesting questions about Pokà ©mon Go and answered them over on Homework Help. 1. How much data does Pokemon Go use? Short answer: Not very much! As little as 5 to 10 mb per hour. Long answer: According to P3 communications Inc., Pokemon GO only uses 5 to 10 megabytes per hour. To put that into perspective, Verizons data calculator says that watching an HD video takes 350 megabytes of datacontinue reading 2. What features are coming next to Pokemon Go? Image: The Pokemon Company According to Tech Insider, we can expect eight new Pokemon GO features to be available soon! Improved Pokemon tracking Pokemon trading between friends Pokemon battles between friends Continue reading 3. How do I get a Pokestop in my house? Although Niantic is not currently accepting requests for Pokemon Go stops, many hope they will reopen the form at some point so that you can ask them to place one in your areacontinue reading 4. Is Pokemon both singular and plural? Pokemon can be used as both a singular and plural word. The lyrics to the intro song of the popular cartoon Pokemon states: Pokemon, gotta catch em all By using em, a shortened version of them, we can conclude that Pokemon is suitable to be used in the plural formcontinue reading 5. Do teams affect anything besides gym and color? Image: Attack of the Fanboy Upon reaching level 5, you can finally head to your first gym. It does not matter what color the first gym you go to is on your mapyou will still be able to choose your team! The different team leaders claim to have different methods of researching Pokemon. It does not seem that there is any technical advantage to choosing a teambut some speculation states that the Legendary Birds that represent each team’s color may come into play sometime in the futurecontinue reading 6. Are Pokemon based on mythological creatures? In many cases, yes! While a lot of Pokà ©mon are based on animals from the real world, and all are at least the partial product of the creators’ vivid imaginations, many Pokà ©mon are drawn from world mythology. Japan, where the Pokà ©mon franchise originates, has a particularly rich tradition of myths and legends of kami- gods, deities, or spirits- and the spookier yokai- demons and ghostscontinue reading 7. Does location affect the likelihood of encountering different Pokemon? Yes. There are certain Pokemon that are hypothesized to be location locked by continents. Tauros: North America Mr. Mime: Western Europe Kangaskhan: Australia / New Zealand Continue reading 8. How can Pokemon Go bring communities together? Image: The Alternative Press If you take a moment to head to your local park, you will probably spot clumps of people stooped over their phones. This is due to the latest app craze- Pokemon Go- and the vast number of people it has affected. People of all races, genders, orientations, and personalities play the game. Some people have waited years for the game, and some people only discovered the game when it was released a few weeks ago. The main point here is that there isnt a single type of person that Pokemon Go targetscontinue reading 9. Are Eevee evolutions random? Image: sanlea.deviantart.com Apparently not! The original anime Eevee Brothers were named  Rainer, Pyro, and Sparky. Rainer owned a Vaporeon, Pyro owned a Flareon, and Sparky owned a Jolteon. People have discovered that  naming your Eevee either Rainer, Pyro, or Sparky will result in the respective evolutioncontinue reading 10. How far away is each footstep? As of today, July 25th, 2016, the footstep function is broken, and has been broken for a few days now. The footstep counter is supposed to be one step away, two steps away, or three steps away depending on how close/far away you are. There is a lot of debate on the internet about the exact values (Niantic wont give us exact numbers), but it appears that: No Footstep: 0m to 40m (the same as the distance you can trigger PokeStations and the like from) One Footstep: 40m to 75m Continue Reading 11. How do you avoid taking damage in a battle? You cannot take zero damage in a fight.   But you can dodge the attacks and reduce damage taken significantly. While you are fighting there will be a yellow screen flash right before your opponent attacks.   When that happens forget everything else, stop attacking, and dodgecontinue reading 12. How is Pokemon Go affecting real estate and the housing market? Image: Upload VR Currently restaurants, bars, and coffee shops that have Pokestops in them are benefiting from Pokemon go.   Personally I have stayed at a coffee shop for over an hour, buying multiple coffees purely because I wanted to use the Pokestop for lures. Yelp already has a Pokestop filter on their websitecontinue reading 13. What is the best way to get stronger Pokemon? The trick to playing Pokemon Go and getting strong Pokemon is focusing on leveling up your character. Dont worry about powering up Pokemon until you are a higher level; youll gain levels quickly- and youll catch higher level Pokemon later. So if the best way to get strong Pokemon is to level up your character, what is the best way to level up your character?  Continue reading Have more questions about Pokemon Go? Head over to Homework Help to ask your own!