My Game of Pokemon GO - Stage I: Beginner

Pokemon GO was unquestionable THE game of the year 2016.  My trainer membership started on July 15, 2016 – the day two local players fell off the cliff while playing the game [1].  As a computer scientist, I was curious to understand this monumental moment; it was the first time a viable business model was found for augmented reality technology.  Under the surface of this seemingly childish feast, something must had gone terribly right!  Over the course of the next few months, I witnessed how mobile network, big data infrastructure, crowd sourcing and social media worked together creating a totally new life-changing experience.

My journal can be summarized into six stages in the schematic drawing below.  The Y-axis is the approximate number of entries in my Pokedex (i.e., the number of unique Pokemon species I caught, not to the scale) and the X-axis is the approximate months into the game.  This blog series is dedicated to my own memory of the game, roughly one blog per stage.

Stage One: Beginner - Opening the Box of Chocolate

The box was opened with my first catch of a Squirtle after work, which was called a “starter” in the game. The first month was definitely a honeymoon, as new Pokemons were caught nearly every day.  One day I drove my daughter home along the Torrey Pines Beach, she spot and caught eight new Pokemons in that single trip!  We had no idea about the vast size of the Pokedex universe, every Pokemon caught was tattooed with novelty, be it a Venonat or a Psyduck.   To stock Poke balls, we mapped out a walking loop to a nearby shopping mall that covered six PokeStops, we felt so lucky to live in a neighborhood full of Pidgey and Rattata.  We were gaining levels quickly and got a taste of gym training at level five, then went on to level eight to secure razz berries.  Life had been peaceful, until I realized I was seriously behind other trainers.  A friend showed off a Horsea caught in her trip to Banff, while I had never spot a Horsea anywhere.  Other colleagues had Bellsprout, Ponyta, some even had Rapidash and Ninetales!  It was obvious there were Poke Galaxies beyond my planet.  Time for an expedition.

Bonus Materials

Three fun facts/theories about Pokemon

• Why fans believe the cartoons of Venomoth and Butterfree were mistakenly swapped? Because Butterfree really look like Venonat [2]!  See for yourself [image from source]:

• Do you know where the names Ekans and Arbok come from? Spell backward.
• Do you know Meowth and Pickachu are enemies just like Cat (Tom) and Mouse (Jerry)?  Their indices in Pokedex are also opposite to each other, 52 vs 25!
• How do I know these?  Because I watched “107 Pokemon Facts YOU Should Know!” [3]

How do I throw a Poke ball?

I only throw “straight” (not “curve”) and only aim for “great” (not “excellent”) hits.  Curve ball has a much lower chance of success, but only gives a 10-point bonus, therefore I shoot straight to maximize the hit rate.  An excellent hit does offer a 100-point bonus, but is much harder than a great hit (offers a 50-point bonus).  I have a trick to shot the ball really straight, not to the left or to the right, so I only need to control the distance the ball travels (see illustration below).  There are mostly two types of distances that one can build muscle memories upon for frequent encounters, a close one (requires a very very light throw) for things like Pidgey and Ratatta; a median throw for most others such as Ekans, Paras, Mankey, etc.  With some practice, you should able to achieve great hits maybe 70% of the time.

With your ring finger pressed against the right edge of the phone (red arrow), slide up-and-down the whole hand as a rigid body.
This make sure the index finger travels up-and-down in an absolute straight line.  With this techinque, you can shoot difficult targets such as Ponyta.

References

1. http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/15/health/pokemon-go-players-fall-down-cliff/
2. http://pokeconspiracy.wikia.com/wiki/Caterpie-Metapod-Venomoth%3F
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtnILw7IFas