May 23, 2024

TRAINER'S EYE #91 - "Pokemon GO in New Jersey" ft. Red Bank Crew Pokemon GO Group

TRAINER'S EYE #91 -
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Season 1 Pokemon Community Leaders

Join DarkLugiaMaster and FusionJoe, Community Ambassadors for the Red Bank Crew Pokémon GO group, as they dive into their Pokémon journeys. From Pokémon Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness to Pokémon Diamond & Pearl, they share their unique experiences across generations. They also discuss their shared passion for Pokémon GO, how it brought them together, and their work rebuilding the New Jersey Pokémon community through the Niantic Ambassador Program.

Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay

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Your next Pokemon adventure begins here!

WEBVTT

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My name is David Hernandez, and you're listening to As the Pokeball Turns.

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today, I'm joined by The red bank crew Pokemon go group, both fusion Joe and dark Lugia master.

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Welcome to the show y'all

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Well, thank you for having us.

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Yep.

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Thank you for having us.

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without a doubt.

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And I'm excited because getting people who have like run the communities have been the hardest people to get on the show.

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Out of every single guest, they are the most shy, bashful people I've ever met.

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I finally got people who want to come on the show who ran a New Jersey Discord.

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So I appreciate y'all's time and we look forward to diving into the story of how this all be happened.

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Me too.

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Yeah, this is awesome.

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before we dive into Pokemon Go, let's start with the beginning.

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Let's start.

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What's y'all's initial experience with Pokemon?

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My first Pokemon game was Pokemon diamond.

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I was eight years old.

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It was my first Pokemon game ever.

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My first like experience with it.

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My older brother had Pearl, so I got diamond ever since then I started watching the show, watch the anime still to this day, still watch it.

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And 2016 Pokemon Go came out.

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I was so excited for that, I pretty much played every main series game from Diamond and Pearl.

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I went back and played some of the older ones and now I'm a collector.

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I collect the cards.

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I have a lot of the games.

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I still have every Pokemon amiibo from the Smash Bros series.

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Oh

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So still keep all of them.

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Yeah.

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Got rid of all my other amiibos.

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Yeah,

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Yeah.

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I got me too.

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that's great.

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So since we're on, uh, Diamond, what did you think of the remakes?

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The BDSP?

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I'm, I feel like I'm in the minority.

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I actually enjoyed my time with the remakes, you know, my biggest thing was I, I didn't like the small Pokedex.

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I didn't like HMs and the games were slow

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Oh, you're talking about the originals?

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yeah, the originals, but in the remake, you don't have to use HMs cause you have the, Pokedex app.

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And the Pokedex was expanded by the, the grand underground.

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So I was able to use like Frostlass and Pokemon like, like Magmortar that I would never be able to use.

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So I was happy in that regard.

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I do wish they included more stuff from Platinum like, the Battle Frontier would've been cool, and There's some areas, especially post game, that would've been cool to have from Platinum, but Overall, though, I think it's a, I think it's a great game.

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I, I, I enjoyed my time with it.

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I played Shining Pearl, actually.

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I should've gotten Brilliant Diamond, but I played Shining Pearl for the version exclusives.

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that's fair, that's fair.

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so when you started with Gen 4, did you have a particular starter that you leaned towards out of the three?

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Oh, Turtwig.

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Oh, Turtwig, that's, that's, that's unique, actually.

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Most people usually prefer the other two, from my

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Yeah, yeah, I, I, I love Turtwig.

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I played the Mystery Dungeon games, and the Personality Test gave me Turtwig.

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I got a Turtwig sticker on the back of my car.

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I'm all Turtwig.

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Oh, wow, he's decked out in Turtwig.

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I'm impressed.

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Oh yeah.

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I love Turtwig.

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He's my boy.

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Well, let's switch over to your partner, so Dark Lugia, tell us, what's your experience with Pokemon?

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So, my first Pokemon game, I actually, I started out with four.

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Which were all gifted to me by neighbors and garage sales, but My first game was blue, yellow, and silver, and crystal.

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I played crystal the most which was a gift from my neighbor, which I am eternally grateful.

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Little later on, I ended up getting Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum.

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Which were like my first brand new Pokemon games.

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Oh, so before, you were just getting handy downs,

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Yes.

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Handy downs.

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I would get like, my neighbor gave me a Game Boy and Pearl.

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Some old ladies at a garage sale gave me a blue, yellow, and silver.

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worth a lot of money nowadays.

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So I've heard.

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Crystal is, Crystal is a lot now.

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I think it's 120

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Oh, wow, so if y'all have Crystal, y'all got some money

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Yeah.

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but after that, I played a lot of Diamond and Pearl, and then I moved on to Platinum, which is probably My second favorite Pokemon game.

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And somewhere in the mix, I got given Gale of Darkness, which is my favorite Pokemon game.

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Really?

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Gale of the favorite.

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yep, which I played constantly.

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Is that the go ahead.

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I would beat it and replay it and everything.

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Is that the reason behind your name is Dark because of the Shadow Lugia?

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Yep.

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It absolutely is.

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I used to just call it dark Lugia, cause my kid brain always talked about it as dark Lugia.

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my friends constantly make fun of me over Cause it's shadow Lugia.

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Yeah, it is shadow Lugia.

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But, and then from that kind of just spawned my tag on everything after that.

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Well, see you could have just said like, well, unfortunately, nicknames are within 10, so I couldn't do Shadow, so to do Lark.

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I mean, that could have been your reason right there.

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could have been, um, After Diamond and Pearl, they were my last Pokemon games for about five years.

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Oh, you took a hiatus after

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I took a hiatus, I kinda, I wouldn't say like, aged out.

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I just kinda lost interest.

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when Fusion Joe and I became close friends, he got me back into it.

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It was right around sun and moon.

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So Fusion Joe's the reason why he came back into Pokemon.

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yes, it is.

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and I, then I went back and I played black and white.

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I borrowed black and white too from a friend.

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I played X and Y, Omega Ruby, Alpha Zapper, all of them.

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So Joe, you know, you said like, uh, the Sono region was your favorite, you know, those games.

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What was it about those games that really kind of made you engage with the franchise?

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Did

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liked, well it was my first time playing that kind of game, but I loved collecting.

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Probably just the collection aspect of it was my favorite thing.

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I loved the Pokemon.

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as a kid I used to, you know, dabble with the action replay, so it was fun to like get all the Pokemon that I wanted.

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I've since stopped using it, but definitely the collection aspect is always my favorite part.

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I think that's the reason I love Pokemon Go as much as I do,

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did you complete the Pokedex at all?

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No, actually my first game I completed the Pokédex was, uh, X and Y.

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Oh, wow.

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Okay.

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That's not interesting.

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Yeah, I I I didn't, unfortunately, but I I eventually I eventually did.

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I actually did national decks in X and Y, so.

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all, it was like 600 and something Pokemon X and

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Geez that's a lot.

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Amazing, now we're over a thousand

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Yeah, now we're over thousand, it's crazy.

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I'm still keeping up though, I got my complete living decks in Pokemon Home.

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So I'm all set.

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Last question regards to Sinnoh.

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If you had to do a playthrough and you had to choose six Pokemon, which six would you choose?

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I'm picking Tartwig.

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Um,

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right?

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That's gonna be the

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yeah, we'll say Torterra.

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Uh, I guess Staraptor would be my, flying type.

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We'll say Magmortar because I love Magmortar.

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Mamoswine is also a favorite of mine.

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Toxicroak.

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What do we have, five?

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Mm hmm one more.

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One more.

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Uh, we'll go with, I don't want to say Lucario.

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I like Lucario.

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I really like Hippowdon.

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Hippowdon's

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Oh That's interesting one feel like, I think Hippowdon gets kind of underrated from that

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I think so.

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I completely agree.

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I love Hippowdon.

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It was actually one of my first shinies too.

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Oh, really?

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Is it the, I'm trying to remember, is it the male or female one

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I got the female one.

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It's like a lighter brown, I believe.

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It was in platinum.

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Oh, that's nice.

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Mad respect for not

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was a shiny golem, so.

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okay, mad respect for not choosing a single legendary out of the entire team, so.

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Oh, I never use legendaries.

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Oh, okay, he likes a challenge.

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I always play with, with a normal team, you can catch throughout the game.

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When it comes to Legendaries, I, I usually stay away from using them unless I'm doing like a competitive format where like, legendaries are allowed, I might use a legendary, but I, and, and a main play through.

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I stick with non legendaries all the time.

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Lugia.

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Your favorite game is one of my favorites, actually.

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I, well, I'm more of a Pokemon Colosseum is my favorite game.

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But I do have a soft spot for XTGale of Darkness.

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Why XTGale of Darkness is your favorite game?

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I have always been a sucker for more obscure things.

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like, I like obscure Godzilla games and all this, like, other stuff.

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So my mom, I think I was seven or eight, with the Wii, she gave me a stack of GameCube games.

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And in that GameCube games was Gale of Darkness, which I almost immediately fell in love with.

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and there was just something about, I liked the design of Shadow Lugia.

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I liked the concept.

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I liked that it was a lot grittier than any other Pokemon game.

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And they really don't go away from pulling punches.

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that's true, because I remember those games.

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You know, you talk Pokemon.

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They become this evil and they all deal super effective damage to you.

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It was kind of wild, and plus I love Lugia's design.

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It's so great.

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Yeah, it is cool.

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When it came to Shadow Lukia, did you have trouble purifying it?

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Did you keep it as a shadow?

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Do you remember?

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I think I loved the design so much I just kept it.

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My man, yes

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yeah.

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I really, I was kid, some of the members are a little vague now.

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But, I'm almost positive I kept it.

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Oh my gosh.

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Did you like a Mirror Beast song by chance?

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Yes.

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Absolutely yes.

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It's the best theme song in

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is

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My favorite thing to do is, like, I have friends that like Pokemon, and there's so many people that don't know about Colosseum or Galvadactus.

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I agree

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Um, and people talk about, like, the music, like, they'll bring up Black and White, a lot of the Black and White music, and all this stuff, and I just pull out Mirror Beast song every single time.

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Now you do the remix or you do the original from Colosseum?

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the original.

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Okay, that's a good one, too

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I like both of them almost equally, definitely the original one.

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going back to how y'all two met So for a dark Lugia master you came back to the game because Joe introduced you, right?

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Is it worked and would y'all play Pokemon like together at that point?

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Like how would that work?

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A little bit, It was mostly like when they had new events and stuff, like we would go to GameStop to get like events and stuff, but most of it was through Pokemon Go.

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Yes.

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Most of it was through Pokemon Go, for sure.

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we went to high school together.

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We weren't really the closest.

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We were kind of friends, but kind of not.

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after high school, we kind of drifted apart for a while.

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And then like, we came back and really bonded over Pokemon Go.

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in fact, one of our closest friend groups that like we go on trips together, everything.

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None of us would have met if Pokemon Go didn't exist.

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Really?

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Because we got bonded over Pokemon Go.

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Our other friend, Hunter, we met him through Pokemon Go.

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Like we all went to the same college and then like, Joey met him on campus and then we, through Pokemon Go, and then he introduced it to me.

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We started hanging out.

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Hunter's friend, Rob.

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Started hanging, got introduced to us.

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And then the four of us kind of bonded to a friend group.

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It's like it all derived and it all derives from Pokemon Go.

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But also like we all went to our, me and Kieran both went to school at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, New Jersey.

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So there was a group that played Pokemon Go there.

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So I'm sitting there by myself trying to do a Cresselia raid.

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And I see like

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Oh, no.

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10 people show and they're like, Oh, we're in this Pokemon Go discord group.

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Do you want to join?

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And I was like, Oh, sure.

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And then next thing you know, I'm a part of this group and the discord for the school was so great.

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And then that's another way that I connected back with Kieran.

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I was like, Oh yeah, we went to high school together.

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Let's, let's do a dark ride raid.

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I can't imagine trying to battle Elli on your own.

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That must have been

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it was, I knew I couldn't beat it, but I was like, maybe I'll join and someone else will just happen to join.

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It was like level 50 or whatever, or 40 was the max at the time.

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And I was probably like level 25 or something.

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Oh, D

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Yeah, I I was low, but the, the Brookdale, Discord community was so good.

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We had a lot of people in there and that was pretty much the reason that we started talking to each other.

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You know, like, we knew each other from high school and that was about it, but All through Pokemon Go.

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Now, eventually y'all transition to trying to build y'alls own local community, you know, how did that transition happen?

00:12:44.272 --> 00:12:47.672
So, we are not actually the founders of this community.

00:12:47.841 --> 00:12:47.902
Of

00:12:48.081 --> 00:12:48.331
we're not.

00:12:48.642 --> 00:12:49.692
We can't take the credit for that.

00:12:49.721 --> 00:12:50.312
We cannot.

00:12:50.442 --> 00:12:54.197
the Discord was run by a name, a man named Garrett.

00:12:54.583 --> 00:12:58.870
we all met, like, one of the other admins at the time, invited us into the discord.

00:12:59.171 --> 00:13:10.354
we slowly became friends with everyone, at a certain point, Gary, um, I actually remember we were in, uh, Lincroft, we were in a convenience store, and he, uh, He DMs me saying, Hey man, I'm, want to pass the torch along.

00:13:10.364 --> 00:13:12.094
Do you want to take ownership of the discord?

00:13:12.369 --> 00:13:14.708
And I was like, hesitant at first, but I was like, yeah, sure.

00:13:14.708 --> 00:13:15.188
I'll do it.

00:13:15.509 --> 00:13:21.150
And then ever since then I've been trying to, cause a lot of people had started to stop playing after a while.

00:13:21.150 --> 00:13:23.876
And then I want to say this is pre pandemic, right?

00:13:23.927 --> 00:13:25.687
It was like 2019 or something like that.

00:13:25.797 --> 00:13:26.206
Yeah.

00:13:26.206 --> 00:13:29.187
Because when COVID hit, it really hit the community.

00:13:29.576 --> 00:13:29.876
Yeah.

00:13:29.876 --> 00:13:33.211
COVID really hit the community, but then they started adding those really good bonuses.

00:13:33.557 --> 00:13:59.037
Biggest one probably being remote raids and once that started to come through then it was the community slowly got back together people were more active in the discord and then We've been running it, you know Just trying to keep people involved in the game and every now and then we'll coordinate a little like meetup together to do a raid or something and we usually met in our usual spot of Red Bank, but Lincroft is like right next to Red Bank, so that was another spot that we would sometimes link up and do and do raids.

00:13:59.037 --> 00:14:01.277
Raid hours were probably the biggest thing that we used to do,

00:14:01.890 --> 00:14:04.811
What would you tell somebody who wants to play Pokemon Go where to go?

00:14:04.821 --> 00:14:06.721
What is it like to play Pokemon Go in New Jersey?

00:14:07.322 --> 00:14:09.972
In our area, Red Bank for sure.

00:14:10.092 --> 00:14:14.452
Uh, we had a lot of people, do a lot of, submitting PokéStops in the area.

00:14:14.452 --> 00:14:18.602
So the area that we have, like, Every gym that you know, is possible is there.

00:14:18.673 --> 00:14:22.981
So it's, it's to the point, I don't think there can be any more.

00:14:23.231 --> 00:14:23.662
Yeah.

00:14:23.711 --> 00:14:24.101
Like

00:14:24.297 --> 00:14:30.187
Somebody says challenge accepted Mm

00:14:30.351 --> 00:14:31.272
red bank for sure.

00:14:31.272 --> 00:14:39.168
If you're in downtown red bank, I mean, pretty much anywhere you go, if you're in like the main downtown area, you're walking distance from pretty much every major gym.

00:14:39.475 --> 00:14:43.897
it's not a big town, so like you can usually walk from one end to the other.

00:14:44.211 --> 00:14:46.532
And you'll be hitting plenty of PokéStops.

00:14:46.572 --> 00:14:52.201
There's certain areas that just have like, for some reason, strange clusters of Pokémon that just spawn everywhere.

00:14:52.642 --> 00:14:54.861
So definitely Red Bank would be my first pick.

00:14:54.871 --> 00:14:58.011
Second pick would probably be Brookdale Community College.

00:14:58.345 --> 00:15:00.820
That campus is packed with PokéStops.

00:15:01.254 --> 00:15:02.924
That's the one y'all two met each other, right?

00:15:02.950 --> 00:15:04.039
Yeah, that's where we met.

00:15:04.049 --> 00:15:07.340
So, and there's still a relatively active group of people who play there.

00:15:07.909 --> 00:15:08.379
So.

00:15:08.410 --> 00:15:12.671
Brookdale definitely would be like a second pick and it's, it's a, it's a pretty big campus.

00:15:13.380 --> 00:15:14.880
Pokestops everywhere you go.

00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:17.639
And, uh, I guess third pick would be Keyport.

00:15:17.740 --> 00:15:22.620
It's not too far from, uh, Red Bank, but they have their own sort of group that they meet up with.

00:15:22.629 --> 00:15:23.840
But Keyport is also really good.

00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:24.919
It's right by the water.

00:15:25.309 --> 00:15:30.759
A lot of good seafood places nearby and plenty of Pokestops, plenty of water type Pokemon.

00:15:31.067 --> 00:15:33.876
That's where I caught enough Magikarps there to get my first Gyarados.

00:15:34.341 --> 00:15:35.542
Ooh, that must have been a lot of walking.

00:15:36.126 --> 00:15:36.596
A lot.

00:15:36.817 --> 00:15:37.356
Worth it.

00:15:38.471 --> 00:15:41.822
So, we'll come back to the community part in a minute, but how do play Pokemon Go?

00:15:41.822 --> 00:15:43.892
Like, what's y'all's, like, are y'all Shiny Hunters?

00:15:43.912 --> 00:15:44.631
PvP?

00:15:44.652 --> 00:15:47.101
Like, what's y'all's individual take to playing this game?

00:15:47.697 --> 00:15:48.527
I'm Shiny Hunt.

00:15:49.052 --> 00:15:56.190
I have friends that are, normal Pokémon, competitive, and they for years have been trying to get me to get into Pokémon GO PVP.

00:15:56.509 --> 00:16:00.039
Just for the fact they just want friends to go with them to compete in worlds.

00:16:00.360 --> 00:16:02.470
Cause they always have to rent out their own hotel room.

00:16:02.890 --> 00:16:06.620
But for me, I've always just been more into collecting and shiny hunting.

00:16:07.061 --> 00:16:15.687
I love doing the Wayfarer, submitting PokéStops and, upvoting and looking at other people's submissions and helping people with that.

00:16:15.687 --> 00:16:22.681
But outside of submitting PokéStops and stuff, I love catching and grinding Stardust because I love building teams.

00:16:22.681 --> 00:16:24.191
I love building teams and Pokemon.

00:16:24.221 --> 00:16:24.500
So.

00:16:25.010 --> 00:16:32.635
Whenever there's a new raid boss, I always try to invest my Stardust Just have the Go Plus, just catching everything, spinning Pokéstops, and I love taking gyms.

00:16:33.086 --> 00:16:36.408
Now, I'm assuming one of those areas you mentioned is where you go to stardust grind?

00:16:36.722 --> 00:16:41.793
Yeah, yeah, if I have free time, I'll just stop by Red Bank and just do a little walk around Red Bank.

00:16:42.003 --> 00:16:43.812
Great way to grind up on Stardust.

00:16:44.312 --> 00:16:46.003
Now this begs the question for each one of y'all.

00:16:46.273 --> 00:16:49.293
For you, Joe, what's your stardust count at at the moment?

00:16:49.533 --> 00:16:51.873
For Shadalugia, what's your rarest shiny?

00:16:51.932 --> 00:16:52.972
We gotta know this.

00:16:53.243 --> 00:16:56.538
I, uh, I'm at 953,000.

00:16:57.947 --> 00:16:58.427
Okay.

00:16:58.668 --> 00:17:00.798
not that much, but I'm, I'm spending it.

00:17:00.977 --> 00:17:01.798
Oh, you're spending it?

00:17:01.798 --> 00:17:03.148
Okay, you just went spree.

00:17:03.148 --> 00:17:03.508
Okay.

00:17:04.268 --> 00:17:06.167
I have a decent amount, though.

00:17:06.528 --> 00:17:07.877
I'm just under a mil.

00:17:08.407 --> 00:17:10.157
I was worried you were going to say 953 million.

00:17:10.157 --> 00:17:10.928
I was like, Oh God.

00:17:11.788 --> 00:17:12.978
Nah, that'd be crazy.

00:17:13.048 --> 00:17:16.337
If I had that much, I'd be powering up all my Pokemon.

00:17:16.659 --> 00:17:18.318
I am thinking, hold on one

00:17:18.538 --> 00:17:19.199
Hey, no worries.

00:17:19.209 --> 00:17:20.878
Hey, it's hard to choose a favorite Shiny.

00:17:20.898 --> 00:17:22.709
It's like choosing your own first born child.

00:17:24.875 --> 00:17:29.865
So, if we want to go with rarest, it is probably Shiny Melmetal.

00:17:29.888 --> 00:17:32.269
that was locked behind the time thing.

00:17:32.580 --> 00:17:39.790
I have a shiny Delibird or I have a shiny hat Snorlax from Seattle, because that's from the actual event.

00:17:40.276 --> 00:17:40.826
Mm hmm.

00:17:41.142 --> 00:17:42.652
What's your favorite one since we're that?

00:17:42.983 --> 00:17:43.943
Uh, Delibird.

00:17:45.816 --> 00:17:46.355
Delibird.

00:17:46.425 --> 00:17:47.306
Is that y'all's favorite Pokemon?

00:17:48.411 --> 00:17:49.580
That's his favorite for sure.

00:17:49.580 --> 00:17:50.490
That's one of my favorites.

00:17:50.840 --> 00:17:53.050
You're the second person I've met who's favorite Pokemon is Delibird.

00:17:53.050 --> 00:17:53.951
You know who the other person

00:17:54.500 --> 00:18:00.020
had a long conversation with him about that.

00:18:00.030 --> 00:18:01.830
All he talks about is Delibird.

00:18:02.381 --> 00:18:03.790
Wow, that's crazy.

00:18:04.611 --> 00:18:05.441
What about you, Joe?

00:18:05.770 --> 00:18:07.201
Oh, Tortara for sure.

00:18:07.260 --> 00:18:08.520
Oh, that's right, we talked about Torterra.

00:18:08.830 --> 00:18:09.540
Yeah.

00:18:09.540 --> 00:18:14.250
I mean, Tartwig in general, but I have, Hold on, let me give you my Torterra count currently.

00:18:14.707 --> 00:18:16.576
I have 29

00:18:16.936 --> 00:18:18.366
That is 28 more than I do.

00:18:18.467 --> 00:18:19.086
That's crazy.

00:18:20.446 --> 00:18:22.326
Currently working on a Shundo Torterra.

00:18:22.326 --> 00:18:24.826
I don't have one, but I'm working on it.

00:18:25.428 --> 00:18:28.387
You've been listening to As the Pokeball Turns.

00:18:28.977 --> 00:18:30.376
We're going to take a quick break.

00:18:30.787 --> 00:18:31.866
We'll be right back.

00:19:20.065 --> 00:19:23.575
Well, guys, let's come back to like y'all, you know, running the red bank community.

00:19:23.914 --> 00:19:29.174
what has it been like for y'all to kind of take the reins and trying to build the community both before COVID and even afterwards.

00:19:29.785 --> 00:19:30.765
it hasn't been easy.

00:19:31.080 --> 00:19:33.490
Like, not everyone was happy with the changes.

00:19:33.491 --> 00:19:35.000
Um,

00:19:35.280 --> 00:19:36.830
the changes with the.

00:19:37.134 --> 00:19:39.555
leadership, not everyone was happy with it.

00:19:39.907 --> 00:19:42.397
After COVID, the community had really died.

00:19:42.711 --> 00:19:53.134
It took a lot and only within the last six months, a little bit more, I would say in the past 12 months, it started to really come back to how it was in the heyday.

00:19:53.345 --> 00:19:59.141
I would say ever since GoFest of last year, people have really been like excited to come back for Empire.

00:19:59.181 --> 00:20:01.570
And then shortly after it was GoFest Global.

00:20:01.924 --> 00:20:04.790
I feel like once that happened, it was like, Communities coming back.

00:20:05.095 --> 00:20:13.372
and it's just good to see the community back together and, We have merch to give out, you know, stickers, key chains that we give out a little wristbands with your teams.

00:20:13.801 --> 00:20:14.721
You know, it's always good.

00:20:14.721 --> 00:20:16.781
A lot of the kids like to get the stuff too.

00:20:16.801 --> 00:20:18.782
So it's good to see families out.

00:20:19.089 --> 00:20:21.619
It's good to see new, new, new faces out in town.

00:20:21.619 --> 00:20:22.660
And it's always fun.

00:20:22.957 --> 00:20:24.717
It's just so good to see people like back.

00:20:25.067 --> 00:20:25.836
We're all doing the same thing.

00:20:25.876 --> 00:20:28.763
We're all just staring at our phones, catching fictional dragons.

00:20:30.048 --> 00:20:30.699
they're real man.

00:20:30.709 --> 00:20:31.259
They're real,

00:20:33.273 --> 00:20:38.680
then you, and then you see the cars driving by and they're seeing a group of like 50 people and they're like, what are you guys doing?

00:20:39.459 --> 00:20:39.699
right?

00:20:40.354 --> 00:20:42.663
A couple of people like walk by, like, what are you guys doing?

00:20:42.663 --> 00:20:43.773
Is there an event going on?

00:20:43.773 --> 00:20:44.923
Like, yeah, it's Pokemon go.

00:20:46.294 --> 00:20:51.294
Of course, there's always the other people giving the weird looks at us, and all, and always the dirty looks.

00:20:51.888 --> 00:20:53.858
Oh, dirty looks like they want you around kind of

00:20:54.034 --> 00:20:54.413
Yeah.

00:20:54.824 --> 00:20:55.574
Yeah, like, come on.

00:20:55.773 --> 00:20:56.993
I'm trying to eat here, get out of here.

00:20:57.249 --> 00:20:57.999
Oh my gosh.

00:20:58.269 --> 00:20:59.618
I have a funny story real quick.

00:21:00.449 --> 00:21:04.999
this is old school, before the whole, before the whole pandemic.

00:21:05.378 --> 00:21:06.598
We were doing raids.

00:21:06.598 --> 00:21:07.689
I don't remember what the raid boss was.

00:21:07.719 --> 00:21:10.199
We stopped at this business, we took all their parking spots.

00:21:10.898 --> 00:21:16.239
guy comes out, You're blocking all the customers! So, all of us move our cars.

00:21:16.489 --> 00:21:18.179
Guy had no business whatsoever.

00:21:18.999 --> 00:21:20.969
was an empty parking lot after we left.

00:21:20.989 --> 00:21:22.384
ha ha.

00:21:23.794 --> 00:21:26.064
So, I don't know, I was just always laughing.

00:21:26.064 --> 00:21:26.913
I was like, what comes from it?

00:21:26.923 --> 00:21:27.923
You got nothing, brother.

00:21:30.233 --> 00:21:33.243
And then his business shut down eventually, but that's the dark side of the story.

00:21:37.483 --> 00:21:40.114
We've had people come out of their houses and scream at us.

00:21:40.549 --> 00:21:40.789
Oh

00:21:41.069 --> 00:21:43.690
Cause we're like on their sidewalk.

00:21:44.029 --> 00:21:51.440
I was informed by like community members that like there was like a group of like 20 people was standing on this one side of the sidewalk.

00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:55.789
And this woman came out of her house and screamed bloody murder to get off her property.

00:21:55.950 --> 00:21:56.880
that's crazy.

00:21:57.342 --> 00:22:01.461
We actually had one time, uh, Brookdale police officer pulled in.

00:22:01.796 --> 00:22:05.465
And we thought we were getting in trouble for occupying the parking lot.

00:22:05.615 --> 00:22:06.385
Oh, snap.

00:22:06.625 --> 00:22:09.476
And he pulled out his phone and said, Are you guys in the Groudon raid?

00:22:09.486 --> 00:22:10.096
Yes.

00:22:10.096 --> 00:22:10.256
Yeah,

00:22:10.476 --> 00:22:12.135
I was like,

00:22:12.256 --> 00:22:17.046
that has been to guy pulled up to cop cars, pulled up and we're like, Oh shit.

00:22:17.046 --> 00:22:20.155
We're going to be asked to get And now he's supposed to put the phone.

00:22:20.165 --> 00:22:21.006
They both pull out their phones.

00:22:21.016 --> 00:22:21.776
Like y'all about to do this.

00:22:21.776 --> 00:22:23.226
Ray is great.

00:22:23.355 --> 00:22:23.865
loved it.

00:22:24.296 --> 00:22:26.635
Ever since then, I've seen him a handful times.

00:22:26.675 --> 00:22:29.346
He did a Zapdos raid one time, but he put his lights on.

00:22:30.215 --> 00:22:37.805
I didn't know if it was him until he rolled down the window and I was like, Yes! That was probably my favorite Pokemon GO memory.

00:22:38.250 --> 00:22:41.990
the cops come over and They take out their phones and start playing with us.

00:22:42.368 --> 00:22:44.048
He didn't get a shiny, but it's okay.

00:22:45.439 --> 00:22:47.219
We asked him, is it yellow or is it red?

00:22:47.219 --> 00:22:47.888
He goes, red.

00:22:48.009 --> 00:22:48.078
I

00:22:48.144 --> 00:22:49.273
Oh my gosh.

00:22:50.084 --> 00:22:54.183
Well no, it's a ground on like the dress, like it's either yellow or uh, the other color, I

00:22:54.548 --> 00:22:55.028
Yeah.

00:22:55.388 --> 00:22:56.528
Yeah, um.

00:22:56.759 --> 00:22:57.239
Yeah.

00:22:57.409 --> 00:22:57.759
Yeah.

00:22:58.403 --> 00:22:59.124
Oh my gosh.

00:22:59.173 --> 00:23:04.874
Now that's what I love about that, cause you get some random people like, We had this, I'm sure you had the same paranoia, but we weren't too sure when the cop would ever pop up.

00:23:04.874 --> 00:23:08.144
If it was the guy who was playing Pokemon Go or if we were about to be asked to get a copy of the property.

00:23:08.528 --> 00:23:08.979
Right.

00:23:08.979 --> 00:23:09.249
Right.

00:23:09.249 --> 00:23:09.459
Yeah.

00:23:09.459 --> 00:23:12.439
I couldn't tell until he rolled down the window and I saw his face.

00:23:13.173 --> 00:23:14.433
Oh

00:23:14.568 --> 00:23:14.949
funny.

00:23:14.979 --> 00:23:15.679
It was so funny.

00:23:16.021 --> 00:23:22.286
Now, now we know that they play, so if they, they see me pulled over and I'm just sitting there looking at my phone, they're probably not going to bother me.

00:23:22.355 --> 00:23:24.215
They're like, oh yeah, he's the guy who was playing earlier.

00:23:24.415 --> 00:23:28.596
Look, I'm just going to say, if there's a cop who wants to play Pokemon Go, give us a little bit of an escort.

00:23:28.615 --> 00:23:28.955
We'll be

00:23:29.205 --> 00:23:29.355
Yeah.

00:23:29.625 --> 00:23:29.915
Yeah.

00:23:31.205 --> 00:23:32.195
Look, can you put your lights on?

00:23:32.195 --> 00:23:34.135
We got to catch this Pokemon right down the block.

00:23:34.175 --> 00:23:34.746
Exactly.

00:23:34.746 --> 00:23:37.526
Like, well, it'd be perfect, but we'll pretend like it's a funeral or something like that.

00:23:37.526 --> 00:23:37.895
I don't know.

00:23:37.911 --> 00:23:38.480
I'll do him a favor.

00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:41.030
I'll submit the, uh, his office as a pokey stop for him.

00:23:42.833 --> 00:23:48.853
Moving forward in regards to y'all building those community, what was it like for y'all to kind of apply for the ambassador program and try to go through the process?

00:23:48.853 --> 00:23:50.272
Like, was it easy, difficult?

00:23:50.313 --> 00:23:51.755
Like, what was it like to do that?

00:23:52.319 --> 00:23:55.424
So I was, the big proponent in the beginning.

00:23:55.703 --> 00:23:57.433
this was when it was still part of Silph.

00:23:57.527 --> 00:23:58.527
I was really pushing.

00:23:58.527 --> 00:23:59.916
I was really working on it.

00:24:00.247 --> 00:24:08.143
I had issues where Silph was taking away it from us and like, we were at the rank we should have been, but then it wasn't working and it just was a whole big thing.

00:24:08.153 --> 00:24:12.653
And then once it shifted over to how Niantic is running it now.

00:24:12.758 --> 00:24:15.903
it was more important that our community have one and it'd be one of us.

00:24:16.634 --> 00:24:17.075
Yeah.

00:24:17.125 --> 00:24:22.505
So once I got the acceptance it's just a matter of saying, Hey, this is our community.

00:24:22.823 --> 00:24:29.690
Always fun to do all the work to get the community together, you know, host, setting up the event, seeing who's joining.

00:24:29.690 --> 00:24:34.970
And now they're trying to get more people to check in by giving out free stuff for people who check in.

00:24:35.029 --> 00:24:35.259
So.

00:24:35.385 --> 00:24:36.776
That's another thing that Antic is doing.

00:24:36.776 --> 00:24:37.665
I think it's really cool.

00:24:38.452 --> 00:24:44.559
Since y'all are on the other side, you know, y'all are officially, you know, community ambassadors, do y'all find that it's worth it?

00:24:44.559 --> 00:24:47.549
Like, has community benefit from trying to be a part of this?

00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:48.829
And what ways have they?

00:24:49.417 --> 00:24:56.724
for one, it feels more like it's weird to say United, but it feels like we're like a, like a, a real.

00:24:57.805 --> 00:24:58.285
Yes.

00:24:59.154 --> 00:25:01.285
And it's also nice to be heard.

00:25:01.775 --> 00:25:02.115
Yeah.

00:25:02.164 --> 00:25:08.565
Cause it, it very much makes you feel like Niantic is actually listening and like listening to your problems and trying to help the community.

00:25:08.805 --> 00:25:14.810
And like we've had people show up to like, when Joe like lists that, Hey, this is a community ambassador event, come on out.

00:25:14.820 --> 00:25:23.790
Like we've had people show up from and be like, Hey, I saw on Campfire that there was a, uh, a Niantic community ambassador event.

00:25:23.800 --> 00:25:26.861
Uh, so I just wanted to show up and it's been really, really cool.

00:25:26.941 --> 00:25:27.250
Yeah.

00:25:27.250 --> 00:25:39.871
Just seeing people who just hear about it from word of mouth or just, they happen to be in the area, but they're not a part of a discord that, you know, where we usually post it, just seeing them happen to just, Hey, I see there's a community here.

00:25:40.151 --> 00:25:42.300
You mind if I join you and walk with the group?

00:25:42.300 --> 00:25:47.022
And that's how a lot of people, especially just some of the newer people who started playing within the past year or two.

00:25:47.458 --> 00:25:48.488
That's how a lot of them started.

00:25:48.488 --> 00:25:53.766
They just walked by, saw there was a group, saw the Pokestop in game that said community ambassador program.

00:25:54.106 --> 00:25:57.906
I gave him a bunch of stickers and stuff, you know, always have stuff to give away.

00:25:57.946 --> 00:25:59.784
And they're like a regular part of our group.

00:26:00.143 --> 00:26:01.702
So that that's probably like the coolest part.

00:26:01.702 --> 00:26:03.502
Just seeing like new people joining in.

00:26:04.143 --> 00:26:05.663
And y'all get your own Pokestop, too.

00:26:06.192 --> 00:26:06.432
Yeah.

00:26:06.663 --> 00:26:06.992
Yeah.

00:26:06.992 --> 00:26:07.323
Yeah.

00:26:07.323 --> 00:26:10.663
I love It's, it's not permanent, but

00:26:11.553 --> 00:26:12.663
Oh, is it on temporary?

00:26:13.032 --> 00:26:14.182
day for the day.

00:26:14.182 --> 00:26:15.932
But it's, it's nice to have.

00:26:15.932 --> 00:26:17.413
Cause like, Oh, we can meet at this Pokestop.

00:26:17.413 --> 00:26:17.892
Yeah.

00:26:18.242 --> 00:26:25.520
we'll usually meet like a little bit before it is like a little area where they have like restrooms and stuff, place to sit down and then, chit chat, exchange.

00:26:25.550 --> 00:26:27.111
I usually give out some of the stuff there.

00:26:27.111 --> 00:26:28.951
We usually take a group photo right then and there.

00:26:28.951 --> 00:26:32.838
And then, we're spinning, we're catching and we started wandering off, walking around town.

00:26:33.808 --> 00:26:43.679
Last question in regards to just the community before we continue, it's say somebody is on the other side and they're trying to build a community up, or they don't know how from each of you, what advice would you give somebody?

00:26:44.797 --> 00:26:48.247
the best advice I can give for someone who's trying to start a new community.

00:26:49.057 --> 00:26:59.192
First things first, I would start like a discord or a campfire and, just like go in your local community and, and, and see who's, see who's playing and kind of just have to get your name out there.

00:26:59.192 --> 00:27:01.501
Like say, Hey, I'm running a community.

00:27:01.817 --> 00:27:03.017
Would you like to be a part of it?

00:27:03.356 --> 00:27:10.462
and it's sort of just spreads, you know, cause a lot of people, once they hear about it, they're like, Oh, my friend plays, it's okay if I invite them and then they invite their friends.

00:27:10.913 --> 00:27:13.611
And then it's slowly, but surely it evolves more and more.

00:27:13.621 --> 00:27:17.901
And then eventually you would just get people who are like really dedicated to the game, who will be a part of your server.

00:27:18.183 --> 00:27:19.526
So just got to keep doing it.

00:27:19.605 --> 00:27:22.226
Just like, keep going into the area you want to start in.

00:27:22.236 --> 00:27:23.425
Like for us, it was Red Bank.

00:27:23.755 --> 00:27:29.076
just keep going out there and say, Hey, like I see you're in a raid, you know, let's talk, you know, you gotta meet people.

00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:30.630
You gotta, you gotta meet the people.

00:27:30.630 --> 00:27:40.144
You gotta, really just engage with them and, just be friendly, it's best to start, like I said, I think Discord is probably the best, campfire is now Niantic's basically version of Discord.

00:27:40.384 --> 00:27:45.374
So campfire is a great way to get people together and, people who play this game are very nice people.

00:27:46.394 --> 00:27:47.544
I would say about the same.

00:27:47.554 --> 00:27:49.703
My big thing is make connections.

00:27:49.784 --> 00:27:50.604
Make friends.

00:27:51.334 --> 00:27:58.709
If you make enough connection friends It makes it so much easier to build your community because they'll be like, Oh yeah, we, we hang out with him.

00:27:58.999 --> 00:28:00.088
Like they're cool.

00:28:00.229 --> 00:28:01.699
Like it's just easier.

00:28:01.729 --> 00:28:04.169
And then the community kind of just builds off those friendships.

00:28:04.707 --> 00:28:12.125
we absolutely would not be community leaders if we hadn't made friends with the people we made friends with and we're friendly and like outgoing.

00:28:12.199 --> 00:28:13.788
And like made those connections.

00:28:14.441 --> 00:28:16.340
it's really just all about the friendships.

00:28:16.690 --> 00:28:18.759
it wouldn't happen if y'all two hadn't become friends.

00:28:19.109 --> 00:28:20.769
kind of out y'all two.

00:28:21.073 --> 00:28:21.732
exactly.

00:28:22.070 --> 00:28:22.270
That's

00:28:22.286 --> 00:28:25.891
it's very easy to play the game and not interact with anyone.

00:28:26.402 --> 00:28:32.157
Like the game you could walk by a group of people who are doing a raid together and just join and leave.

00:28:32.494 --> 00:28:37.401
But if you make the extra step to join the raid and say, Hey, are you guys playing Pokemon go?

00:28:37.401 --> 00:28:38.171
You mind if I.

00:28:38.219 --> 00:28:41.009
Stand here and then we take down this raid boss together.

00:28:41.009 --> 00:28:46.086
And next thing you know, like, Hey, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm running a discord where we coordinate raids all the time.

00:28:46.086 --> 00:28:47.900
If you're in the area, you like to join?

00:28:48.192 --> 00:28:50.118
obviously nothing's like super easy.

00:28:50.128 --> 00:28:50.959
It's going to take time.

00:28:50.969 --> 00:28:54.259
It's going to, you know, we have the advantage of having it passed down to us.

00:28:54.439 --> 00:28:58.416
It already had a community, but I think Gary would say something similar, like just.

00:28:58.439 --> 00:28:59.577
Just keep meeting people.

00:28:59.923 --> 00:29:05.684
You get to see so many different kinds of people so many different types of players old young and they're all playing for different reasons.

00:29:05.694 --> 00:29:06.805
They might just love the game.

00:29:06.815 --> 00:29:08.924
They might love pokemon They might just love collecting.

00:29:09.424 --> 00:29:10.494
They might just like shiny pokemon.

00:29:10.505 --> 00:29:13.714
They might just love eevee just want to catch every eevee in the world

00:29:15.265 --> 00:29:16.174
God bless your soul.

00:29:17.325 --> 00:29:28.861
You get all sorts of different people that's like the one thing I really liked about it Just everyone's got their own reason for liking it for For disliking it in some regards and everyone's got favorites eventually your community will grow.

00:29:28.861 --> 00:29:34.792
And especially if everyone's like local, if they're all in the same sort of area, like a lot of the people in our group, they're from Red Bank.

00:29:34.792 --> 00:29:36.352
They're from towns nearby.

00:29:36.659 --> 00:29:38.096
So it's just so much fun.

00:29:38.426 --> 00:29:42.007
And we, and there's still people that like, even though they moved away, we still keep in touch.

00:29:42.646 --> 00:29:45.884
So the last thing I want to touch on for y'all both is GoFest.

00:29:46.163 --> 00:29:48.003
It'd impossible for me not to touch about GoFest.

00:29:48.784 --> 00:29:54.105
Last year, y'all had it, and y'all, it's not, yeah, we'll call it your backyard, because y'all from New Jersey, you're not from New

00:29:54.155 --> 00:29:55.226
Yeah, we're close enough.

00:29:55.405 --> 00:29:58.885
Yeah, what it like for to have GoFest so close for y'all both?

00:29:58.915 --> 00:30:00.766
What was the experience like for each one of you?

00:30:01.221 --> 00:30:03.672
for me, it was amazing.

00:30:04.372 --> 00:30:06.082
Um, I had actually went to Seattle.

00:30:06.521 --> 00:30:06.771
Go first.

00:30:07.301 --> 00:30:08.821
Mm Was first one?

00:30:09.311 --> 00:30:16.501
guess it was, I, stayed at a hotel with all the people from the Lured Up podcast discord and made a bunch of friends with them.

00:30:16.551 --> 00:30:21.759
So to not have to travel across, absolutely across the country for me was amazing.

00:30:22.058 --> 00:30:29.796
And just to be able to take the train in and I had actually had friends come in from Michigan and I, took the whole weekend to play Pokemon Go

00:30:30.096 --> 00:30:30.886
Oh, wow.

00:30:31.402 --> 00:30:39.791
just really went into it and just the fact I got, I used to, I got to show them the sites and then go around, it was just insane.

00:30:40.442 --> 00:30:41.711
I love the city.

00:30:42.041 --> 00:30:45.571
Like I work in the city, but I also have a soft spot for it.

00:30:45.592 --> 00:30:47.796
So the fact in New York.

00:30:48.090 --> 00:30:52.230
I've never actually been to Randall's Island Park before GoFest, so that was a new experience for me.

00:30:52.891 --> 00:30:54.050
It was awesome.

00:30:54.366 --> 00:31:01.227
It was so cool to see so many people in a large area all playing Pokémon.

00:31:01.530 --> 00:31:02.550
it made me so happy.

00:31:02.550 --> 00:31:09.544
Like, every second that I was there, even if I didn't get a particular shiny that I really wanted, just the fact that it was, it's just so cool.

00:31:09.544 --> 00:31:14.663
Because I've been watching people, like, on YouTube go to these in person events for so long, and I was always so jealous.

00:31:14.663 --> 00:31:18.287
It So once they said it was in New York, I was like, I'm taking off for work.

00:31:18.747 --> 00:31:20.207
taking the train into the city.

00:31:20.207 --> 00:31:21.457
I was, was so great.

00:31:21.457 --> 00:31:24.663
We got, we had a great group of people to join us too.

00:31:24.961 --> 00:31:29.871
And that after that day, I was like, this game is back, like in person events, we're back.

00:31:30.166 --> 00:31:34.426
ever since then, I was like, I want to make this like a regular thing every month or so.

00:31:34.743 --> 00:31:35.973
The experience was great.

00:31:36.007 --> 00:31:37.557
Lured Up Ken had a little booth.

00:31:37.576 --> 00:31:41.656
So we stopped by to visit him and seeing some like big names and Pokemon go.

00:31:41.656 --> 00:31:42.686
Be there physically.

00:31:42.983 --> 00:31:43.836
So cool.

00:31:43.916 --> 00:31:45.436
I'm so excited for this year.

00:31:45.763 --> 00:31:47.544
I was gonna say like y'all get a Round 2!

00:31:47.854 --> 00:31:51.534
You, we do get around to something I absolutely did not expect.

00:31:51.534 --> 00:31:53.804
I want to put money on it.

00:31:53.804 --> 00:31:55.483
Not, not being in New York again.

00:31:55.544 --> 00:32:00.064
I was gearing myself up to have to go somewhere else around the country for it.

00:32:00.396 --> 00:32:02.487
I really decided I was wherever it was.

00:32:02.737 --> 00:32:03.616
I got the ticket.

00:32:03.777 --> 00:32:04.416
It would be fine.

00:32:04.446 --> 00:32:04.997
I would go.

00:32:05.257 --> 00:32:06.507
I'm so happy it's in New York.

00:32:07.227 --> 00:32:12.037
I am too, because I get a kind of a mulligan a little bit, because I didn't get a chance really experience New York when I was there.

00:32:12.037 --> 00:32:15.326
So, I'm going to stay away from Times Square.

00:32:15.497 --> 00:32:16.676
I don't care what my friends are doing.

00:32:16.676 --> 00:32:17.676
I'm not going to Times Square.

00:32:17.676 --> 00:32:19.146
Ha ha

00:32:19.227 --> 00:32:26.317
Times Square can get crazy, but I will say the fact that they had mega Rayquaza raids just like all throughout New York.

00:32:26.555 --> 00:32:27.964
That was awesome.

00:32:28.198 --> 00:32:35.741
I wish there were more, but every lobby filling up in two seconds and the raid being finished in like less than 30 seconds.

00:32:36.054 --> 00:32:37.153
I didn't get the shiny.

00:32:37.243 --> 00:32:39.743
I didn't even get a hundo, but I was just having so much fun.

00:32:39.983 --> 00:32:40.173
It was.

00:32:41.272 --> 00:32:43.603
I was exhausted by the end of it, but it was so much fun.

00:32:43.643 --> 00:32:50.646
A lot of walking, a lot of walking all day, but yeah, the experience was everything you'd ever want from an in person meeting.

00:32:50.656 --> 00:32:51.597
Just better.

00:32:51.597 --> 00:33:05.182
cause like I'm used to like the modified bonuses from like the global stuff, having like the full bonuses just felt better, like the better shiny odds, the, the, the habitats where you can kind of pick whenever you want to be in the habitat instead of it rotating hourly.

00:33:06.056 --> 00:33:07.395
Last question about go fest.

00:33:07.625 --> 00:33:11.695
If somebody's on the fence or they're thinking about going to a go fest, what would y'all tell them?

00:33:12.022 --> 00:33:12.373
Do it.

00:33:12.605 --> 00:33:13.096
Just Nike.

00:33:13.096 --> 00:33:13.625
Just do it.

00:33:13.655 --> 00:33:14.036
All right.

00:33:14.165 --> 00:33:14.596
do it.

00:33:14.605 --> 00:33:23.915
Just go, just pick a day and just go get a, get a group of friends, even if you go alone, there's so many people there, everyone there is playing Pokemon Go.

00:33:24.239 --> 00:33:25.449
you'll meet a group of people.

00:33:25.588 --> 00:33:29.088
Like my statements go, but it may be a lot.

00:33:29.385 --> 00:33:35.046
it's going to be crowded, but like the amount of community you're going to feel like all these people are playing Pokemon Go with me.

00:33:35.405 --> 00:33:39.542
Like, oh my God, you'll just like see in a perspective how large this game is

00:33:40.311 --> 00:33:43.086
Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns.

00:33:43.455 --> 00:33:48.576
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00:33:48.895 --> 00:33:51.046
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00:33:51.434 --> 00:34:00.434
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00:34:00.748 --> 00:34:04.107
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