TRAINER'S EYE #44 - "Igniting Campfire" ft. SerAmanda

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by SerAmanda, a Pokemon GO player, Wayfarer Explorer, and a community leader who helped give Niantic Campfire access to her entire Pokemon GO community. 

SerAmanda shares he interest in Team Rocket Battles and Field Research. She also shares her story playing Pokemon and her interest in Pokemon Breeding and how it could be implemented within Pokemon GO. She also delves into her experience with Niantic Wayfarer ranging from taking photos to updating descriptions and titles to existing Pokestops and Gyms.

Finally, SerAmanda shares her early experience with Niantic Campfire, a social app that helps Niantic Explorers discover new people, places and experiences around them. It pairs along with Niantic games, more specifically Pokemon GO, that allows Trainers to connect and message each other.

Trainer's Eye is a series where the stories are real and people still play this game. From PVP to Shiny Hunting, each person's Pokemon GO journey is unique and we dive into each journey here on As The Pokeball Turns!

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

Connect with SerAmanda: Discord

Transcript

David Hernandez: 0:00

My name is David Hernandez and you're listening to As The Pokeball Turns. Welcome to As The Pokeball Turns, where the stories are real and people still play this game. Niantic has finally launched Campfire globally as of June 27th, 2023. For years, well, at least within Pokemon Go's timeline, trainers have used a variety of methods such as GroupMe, Facebook Messenger, telegram, discord, and many others an attempt to organize their local areas and make it easier for trainers to find each other. The biggest problem was not everyone was aware of these groups existing. These were all third party applications that weren't tied to the game. For years, players begged for an in-game chat to be implemented. There were many reasons given on why it wouldn't come such as moderation. Pokemon is a kid based franchise first and anybody who's familiar with Game Freak knows how much they protect their IP. There was also an argument on necessity. A question that was commonly asked was, should Niantic invest resources to create a chat where third party apps are already accomplishing and providing a service better than what Niantic could create? Regardless, On July 1st, 2022, Niantic finally released an in-game chat, what we know as campfire. Except it wasn't to everyone. In fact, you had to be invited by those who were the lucky few selected to gain access to campfire. To make it even more difficult, the people who had access only had three invites to use initially. Needless to say, campfire's one year anniversary is off to a rocky start and what becomes of the app and how it's used by the Pokemon Go community remains to be seen. My guest in this episode shares how she was able to use her three invites to give campfire access to her entire community. From Atlanta, Georgia, here's her origin story into the world of Pokemon Go. This is SerAmanda! Before we dive today's guest, if you have any Pokemon Go stories, send'em to my email at asthepokeballturnspodcast@gmail.com. Again, it's asthepokeballturnspodcast@gmail.com. Your story Might be recreated into a skit or you may even be invited onto the show. I look forward to hearing what you send, and that's the plug. Now today I'm joined by Seramanda. Amanda, welcome to the show.

SerAmanda: 2:57

Hey, it's good to be here!

David Hernandez: 2:58

For sure, and I'm really excited to dive into your story. I was Really impressed by how much you've done for community and how you've done it through campfire. So I'm looking forward to diving into that stuff today. I wanna start where it all began. So when did you first start playing Pokemon Go?

SerAmanda: 3:14

I don't remember how I heard about Pokemon Go because it's almost like I live under a rock But I've played every main series game and so I heard about it somehow and obviously I should try this new free Pokemon game that I could just download onto my phone. I remember I was very confused about what login option I should use when making my account. So initially I thought I would try the Trainer Club for some reason, but I kept getting a blue screen of it not working. So I am technically not a day one player cause I had to wait a few days. I eventually gave up and just used my Gmail.

David Hernandez: 3:43

Yeah, around that time I think there was a lot of glitches going on. So don't feel too bad if you couldn't get in the first day.

SerAmanda: 3:48

I'm like a first week player.

David Hernandez: 3:49

There we go. Call it a first week. Uh, one week player. One week player.

SerAmanda: 3:53

Yeah. No one says that, but that's what I am.

David Hernandez: 3:55

you said you were familiar with Pokemon. So how far does your Pokemon fandom go?

SerAmanda: 4:00

whenever the anime first aired, I think the very first episode I watched was the last five minutes of when Ash got his badge from Sabrina by making her laugh. I didn't understand the context of it. I'm like, this is cool, I'm into this, let's see more. my parents were all like, we're, we're not gonna give you video games, they're evil, so I sold my bagged lunch to some other kid who thought money grew on trees until I eventually had enough money to buy a Game Boy. by then Gold version came out, so that was the first game I got.

David Hernandez: 4:28

Wait, so real quick, so you actually sold your lunches over a couple days just to build up enough money to be able to purchase Pokemon Go, or I'm sorry for Pokemon Gold?

SerAmanda: 4:38

Oh no, it took almost a year. I mean, a Game Boy cost like a hundred dollars and then the game was another$30 and I think I got like, I got about$2 each time and I spent$1 buying something to eat. I mean, I was a kid, but this other kid, basic math, like there was this box of candy cookie bars, you'd get six in it for maybe, I don't know, a dollar. And I would sell one of those bars for a dollar like the math is not good here.

David Hernandez: 5:03

No, I get it, but that's just so incredible that you had to go through so many hoops to just get your first Pokemon game. That's just incredible.

SerAmanda: 5:09

I mean, I will say the birthday money came in clutch. That was the remaining push I needed to get across the hump.

David Hernandez: 5:15

So when you finally had enough money to buy the game system and the game, did you have to kind of hide it from your parents or how did that work out?

SerAmanda: 5:23

Oh yeah, totally. Although eventually, actually no. I think what we did was, one of my friends, she had lost her game boy, and so she got a new one and she was like, well, if I ever find it, we can just say Your Game Boy is the one I used to have. I don't know if they actually bought into that story. I remember being really paranoid when we bought the Game Boy, cuz we were at Walmart. We were supposed to be waiting in the electronics section. We were like, oh, we gotta buy it before our dad comes back and we have to hide it under our coat. the biggest struggle after that, after getting it though, was the like, oh no, now we need batteries.

David Hernandez: 5:53

So you were having to kind of find a story to get AA batteries or was that something else that you kind of had to keep hidden?

SerAmanda: 5:59

I think the bigger issue was I would initially take my batteries from, my sister, She had a pet fish that had like a little light above the tank that used double A batteries, so I would take those all the time.

David Hernandez: 6:10

I applaud you for your dedication cuz it sounds like you really loved Pokemon enough to be able to play Pokemon games.

SerAmanda: 6:16

Just how it is when you're a kid and your parents don't buy you the games. You gotta make it work somehow.

David Hernandez: 6:21

So you said your first game was Pokemon Gold, right?

SerAmanda: 6:23

Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I played a lot of red and blue and yellow. I would borrow my friends games and even their Game Boy or their N 64 and Stadium two. I played through them a lot, but Gold was the first one I owned.

David Hernandez: 6:35

what'd you think when you started playing the Pokemon Games?

SerAmanda: 6:37

It might have been just the fact that it was the first video game I'd really played and it was just fun, you walk around, you collect stuff level up. These were all like pretty new mechanics to me.

David Hernandez: 6:47

Did you play Pokemon throughout from Gen one to present day?

SerAmanda: 6:51

Yeah, I've gotten every main series game since, but as I've gotten older, the equation of time versus money has completely flipped. ton of time and no money, so I would spend hundreds of hours per title. Now it's the opposite. I have like a job, I make money except I don't have that much free time anymore and I also have more hobbies now. for Sun and Moon, like I like the game, but I don't think I made it past the second island. Scarlet and Violet, I like crawled my way to the first Pokemon Center because I wasn't actually at the Pokemon Center to do the coin bag. I was trying to find out how to do it and they were like, you need to click this in your menu. And I was like, I don't have that like, you need to go to the first Pokemon Center.

David Hernandez: 7:30

I'm the same way. You know, like when you're younger, you have all this time you can play all the games that, you know, you have the time for. When you get older and you have responsibilities and all the other hobbies like you said, you know, you kind of have to squeeze in Pokemon here and there and you feel so uninformed with some of the newer games, you don't know where stuff is, as you did back in as a kid.

SerAmanda: 7:49

It has made it easier to navigate the game at least and by some miracle, I actually finished the main story on Sword and shield, maybe it's because you either leveled up way too easily, so it was pretty effortless or maybe it was also because of the Max Raid battles

David Hernandez: 8:03

So since you've had a chance to play the all the main series games, what's your favorite Pokemon?

SerAmanda: 8:07

Well, obviously it's gotta be Flygon! Flygon's the best. it took me a while to realize Flygon was actually my most favorite cause for a long time I really liked Gardevoir was my favorite. when I was in college, I was really into breeding Pokemon. I would just spend a lot of time just trying to like, oh, cool, I could get earthquakes, which, you know, normally that's like TM you get once per game, like the best move ever. I would be like, oh, if I breed carefully, I can get earthquake from this Pokemon that learns it naturally all the way to this other Pokemon without having to spend my only TM on it. I would do like weird stuff like that, but anyway, I was, I, one time I thought I would finally try to breed like a perfect IV Pokemon or like a shiny. And so I was like, okay, who am I gonna pick? for some reason I picked Flygon. so I was hatching, I managed to get like five out of the six stats perfect. I was like, oh, I'm so close and I never got a shiny, but I hatched boxes full of'em. And I had like a spreadsheet because you had to like, figure out what the IVs were, you had to like plug in stuff into a formula online and then it would give you the output. And then I would like write down my spreadsheet with a nickname, so I was nicknaming all these Trapinch different things, it was bonkers.

David Hernandez: 9:14

You're right because nowadays they have it way more easier to find out which ones are perfect. Back in that day, I think you had a, there was a guy wasn't, you had to talk to, they would say like, these IVs are the best or astounding or something like that to find out if it was perfect.

SerAmanda: 9:27

Yeah. It was like some guy in a subway or something like that. oh, I think one reason I might have chosen Flygon is because there's this Pokemon. Normally I don't hate anything for just existing, like, you are what you are and you were just born that way, but Garchomp existence feels like it's just there to put Flygon down. Garchomp i s a dragon and ground type Pokemon and it's base stats are literally all better than Flygon. The speed stat is better by like three points and so Flygon's niche was, oh I'm cute dragon type that can do earthquake and get stabbed and Garchomp. Like all my stats are better and I can do that too. So anyway, I was trying to think like what's a niche flygon has over Garchomp? And I was like, well, uh, you know, it's special attack that's an interesting angle you could try.

David Hernandez: 10:11

Mm-hmm.

SerAmanda: 10:11

And so I was like, well, hidden power is like a weird special, If I'm doing all this, the IVs affect what hidden power you get and maybe if I don't get the optimal Flygon, maybe I'll get one where it's like, oh, this is like the best possible IV spread you could get for this particular hidden power that's actually useful.

David Hernandez: 10:29

Flygon was actually one of my favorites to use for a play through. The only thing I didn't like doing was having to evolve Trapinch because they gave it all, you know, back in the day it was all dark moves, which were special and Trapinch's special, it was just horrible. So it was kind of, in my opinion, it was difficult to level it up to Flygon, but once you did, man, I loved using that dragon.

SerAmanda: 10:48

Yeah, it did feel kind of like a weird, like not quite Magikarp, but you really have to like baby him along a bit be like, okay, now level up enough so we can get the real gameplay."

David Hernandez: 10:59

Well, very cool, you know, let's fast forward now to 2016. You know, you stop having to give your lunch money for Pokemon, you're making your own money, you know, Pokemon Go gets announced. Where was the place for people to go or where did you go to play when the game first launched?

SerAmanda: 11:12

I worked in downtown Decatur, like I live in Atlanta, but there's all these places around Atlanta. You would still tell someone who doesn't live here? Oh, I live in Atlanta, but technically, no, you live two towns over. anyway, Decatur is near Atlanta and the downtown area has tons of statues and plaques, the Pokemon Go Map is like amazing there. When I was at work on lunch, we would walk out somewhere to eat for lunch play Pokemon Go during that time, be like, oh cool, the map has a lot of things! I didn't figure out raids until Regice and it was actually a intern at my job. He found Discord from his roommate and he discovered the Atlanta Discord and where people meet up near our office for raids. He was like, Amanda, we need to go to the park there's gonna be a raid. And I'm like, what does that mean? Like we tried doing like a Latias or something before and you know, we got murdered. But anyway, he was like, we just have to show up, there'll be tons of people. I'm like, okay, question mark. That was how I discovered the Atlanta Discord and also it's a very huge server because it for a lot of Atlanta and the areas around Atlanta and there are separate smaller servers for particular other groups, but it's trying to service a lot of the area and so there's a bajillion channels and I didn't know Discord, so for two years I was pretty, uh, intimidated by Discord.

David Hernandez: 12:23

So you talk about how Atlanta's like a big city, right? do y'all have like, tournaments, raid trains like what's the community like out there?

SerAmanda: 12:30

So, I'm just familiar with my little corner of Decatur. we definitely do have monthly tournaments. the two biggest areas, Piedmont Park, that would be like part of Atlanta area, lots of gyms and lots of people meet up there. it's not uncommon for me to just see people walking around playing who they don't know anything about Discord or anything, they're just like, oh, this is a great place to play. or like, oh, maybe I'll be able to find somebody do a raid here. So for community days, we never like formally announced the meetup, but there's always people there playing and it's cool to see people.

David Hernandez: 12:58

It's like the implied area for people to go to, it sounds like.

SerAmanda: 13:01

Yeah, it is. if I happened to notice, like I wanted to raid with these randoms that like I don't know their faces, but they're clearly playing Pokemon Go. I used to try to tell them about the Discord, so that way if they want to join, like intentionally join other events, then they'll know like, oh, I can come here. We just need to meet at the library or whatever. And then there'll be a big group that'll walk around and do raid.

David Hernandez: 13:20

So for you, what's your way to approach Pokemon Go? Like how do you play the game?

SerAmanda: 13:24

my most favorite thing is doing field research I like trying to collect shadow shiny Pokemon, I guess those are my two biggest things. to do those like, well, you need a lot of Pokestops. I would walk around and I would try to spin most of the stops. I mean, there's, there's too many, so I'd kind of, you know, do them in chunks. I would do like a before morning walk, and then I would have my lunchtime walk and sometimes I would have the afternoon walk or the after work walk. I would easily be able to spin at least 30 different stops, more or less, depending on how busy I was that day. before I even started doing Wayfarer, I knew like all the names of the stops around my office cause I would regularly call out like, oh, I found the Spinda task today at the Starbucks or whatever. During Covid, the in-person scene, obviously died. There were still people doing raids but it was just car raid train and so I tried that out cuz I knew that there was a car route and I knew where they started, but then it would stress me out so much to be like," okay, I have to follow this car. Oh God, where'd they go?" I guess I'm done raiding for the day, guys. Bye. Although, I mean, usually I only use like my two free passes and then maybe one or two more, but I didn't really like the whole, like, I'm gonna be in my car by myself and oh no, I need to follow people. And oh, I have to catch this thing too. And, oh, I'm on the catch screen so I can't see the map, so I don't even know where I'm supposed to go. the moment it seemed like people were coming back out in person, I was trying to pull people back in, be like, anybody wants to do the in-person meetup where we meet at the library?" it took a while before that really got going again. I think some of these Raid events like Mega Latios, Latias, like that was a really big, Catalyst per se because, you needed like eight people to comfortably do that raid. so I was individually DM-ing, anybody I knew on my friend's list who played in that area and I was like, Hey, there's this new Pokemon. The best opportunity to catch it is this Wednesday. You need to be here, or I don't know when you're gonna catch this thing on your own. That helps revive some of the in-person play.

David Hernandez: 15:18

So are people now coming out regularly like usually y'all do Raid Hour or weekend raids and stuff like that?

SerAmanda: 15:23

I think the driving group fizzled out which on one hand that's sad by the other hand, that means one of the regulars from the driving group, he now comes to the in-person group where we walk around. So I'm like, yay, we have another irregular, we have a lot of regulars, but then, you know, people will randomly be busy and end up missing a week. there's also a lot of new faces, which is pretty cool to see. Like new people that are like level 30. I'm like, oh, wow, it's such a baby account. Welcome to the game. Come back and play with us. So I, I have a campfire group I made for my area, and I treat it like a billboard. I don't really expect there to be tons of chatter on there. because the notifications aren't great. I'm a little worried somebody might post something and then I'll miss it and be like, uhoh, they had a question and I didn't see it. in the Discord group, I'll post every week, raid hour we're gonna blah, blah, blah, we're meeting at the library, like it's basically a cut and paste, but I change a few of the details, right? And then I'll cross post the same information into campfire, into the open public group and I'll make a little meetup event for it. There's not an invite all button and there's like a hundred people. So it does take me a minute. there's some people who have showed up to these in-person things because I posted it on Campfire It feels like I'm shouting out into the void, but if it helps like a couple of people, then that's good.

David Hernandez: 16:35

campfire originally just barely started coming to more people. how'd you get people on your community into campfire or do you kind of leave them by themselves to Discord?

SerAmanda: 16:44

I do like Discord a lot more. You can do custom emojis on Discord, which is the best ever. That's also why it's like I'm just treating campfire like a billboard like here's the information because I do see people that aren't on the discord or know about it. sometimes trying to explain discord to somebody who has never used it is a little overwhelming and so being like, there's this thing called Campfire that is already like, integrated in the app a little, like, it feels like I could try to get them there. At least they have a way to contact or see when events are posted. when I finally got access to Campfire, it was like, okay, you can invite three of your friends and so I looked at my friends list and my friends list has a lot more than three people on it. It had like 300 people, granted, some of'em had campfire already, but I was like, I can't just pick three people off this list. That's, that's, that's too cruel. I was like, well, I'm just gonna pick everybody. And so I messaged every person that didn't have campfire access and I was like, Hey, there's app called Campfire and for the most part, the main reason why the app is immediately useful is you get access to this raid map, which is very nice to have. when you go traveling, you can use it to see, like at the hotel you're staying at, you know, is there a gym or like, where are the gyms Or if you're just hunting like a one star, three star raid boss, you can be like, oh, can I find one on my way to work? Oh, if I go this weird route, that's not too far outta the way. I can do an Alolan Weezing on the way to work and it'll even give you a map link. So I was mostly selling as you get access to this roadmap and you can message people on your friends list that you don't know how to message if they have this app. Basically, if somebody was like, yes, I would like access to campfire, I'd be like, great and then I was coordinating like this crazy invite train where I would be like, okay, these are the first people I'm gonna invite. And then I think the first people I picked were people who, they didn't have anyone in particular they didn't want invite. They were like, yeah, you can use all three of my invites, invite whoever. I mostly targeted my local people, cuz I knew like a lot of them are gonna have each other on their front list, so this will help speed up the process. So I'd be like, okay, here's like 10 people who's on your list already? And they're like, oh, I know those three people and then I would make notes and I would just have these branching chains of like, you invite these people which I'm, by the way, am still doing it, so if you don't have access to campfire, you can just, at me

David Hernandez: 18:58

That's awesome. Definitely hit up, Sarah, Amanda, if you need some campfire access, she'll be able to give you the hookup it sounds like.

SerAmanda: 19:03

Yes, a spreadsheet is a mess, but, doing the work.

David Hernandez: 19:06

I mean, that's some intense coordination and organization skills for you to use your three invites and turn that into being able to invite basically your entire community onto campfire, granted for you to use it as a billboard. I don't know many people who could do that or maybe do that successfully as you did. I know Campfire is more accessible now, quote unquote, more accessible. Maybe there's somebody maybe in your position to where they only have a few invites and they wanna invite their community. What tips would you give them to be able to get their entire community or people who don't have it into campfire?

SerAmanda: 19:38

Man, I don't know if there's really a more efficient way to do it. to be honest, most of the people who are already on a messaging app, it's hard to be like, Hey, let's move to Campfire, but it's more like, Hey, would you like access this really cool app?" so it is a bit of, also messaging people like, Hey, this is the app and this is what it can do cause dear gosh, like trying to coordinate elite raids without knowing where the raids are, I can't imagine how I would work. usually whenever elite raids come by, that's when I get an uptick in people ask me about campfire, they're like, oh, that's the app that lets me see where the raids are without using a spoofer bot network that I don't have in my city? I was crazy and I got most people invited off my friends list in like two days, like I was really going at this. There's been some weird random snags I've run into, like trainer kids accounts, like those have campfire issues, they have limited access and, some people their campfire name. I don't remember when it asked you to pick it, but their campfire name is different than their in-game name and so that causes confusion. So that sometimes takes some troubleshooting too, but usually it works out and it's like, hooray.

David Hernandez: 20:41

You've been listening to As The Pokeball Turns. We're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back. So you mentioned earlier how you started doing Wayfarer and I think you like to dabble into it a little bit. why did you start getting into Wayfarer?

SerAmanda: 22:03

I was listening to this podcast out of Wayspotters and the main reason I started listening to this podcast was like I was familiar with the guys who were doing it, I was like, oh cool, like, these guys aren't like complete strangers. Like I know them and oh, they like this thing that's related to Pokemon GO, I'll take a listen. So I would listen to it every week and my company had gotten big enough where they opened a second office. I was like, wow, it's in an office park, which very little POI's there at all. So I submitted on a whim, like the little water fountain in the front of the office. Eight months later I magically got an email saying like this got accepted and I was like, whoa, that's amazing! Now the next time I visit there, there'll be a stop where there wasn't, that's when I started to get more interested in trying to figure out how I could do more things like that. I think other people in my community have mentioned Wayfarer like try to help get more stops added. But like I played in downtown Decatur, and I would look around and I would see, like, there were tons of stops. I was like, I don't know, there's already a lot here, question mark. but if they were like, Hey, would you like to edit the titles and update the photos of all these stops, I would've been like, sign me up because That's like the main thing I'm interested in doing. I mean, well, I like adding new stops, but I do a ton of edits as well. unfortunately it's only local reviewers that see the edits. I think it used to take like an average of like one week maybe for a new photo to get added and now it's four months it's kind of a joke among the local people that it's my fault because I submitted so many photos, right? I'm like, oh no, it takes four months for this to go through and they're like, I wonder why.

David Hernandez: 23:32

Oh no. But as you were learning the Wayfair system, you know, what was something that was challenging for you to learn like was it difficult to get into? Was it easy?

SerAmanda: 23:41

I think the thing that confused me the most when I was reviewing is I would see something when reviewing and I would think, okay, this, doesn't seem like it qualifies, but I didn't know how to market as like a one star and cuz there's a lot of like little reasons on the dropdown list like, oh, like this doesn't pass because it's on K through 12 school grounds or Oh, this doesn't pass because it has a legible license plate in the photo like those are pretty obvious. But then it's like, I don't know, like this is a utility box with no art on it, I was like, how do I mark this? that's what other rejection criteria is for, it really should just say doesn't meet criteria.

David Hernandez: 24:15

It's not really straightforward sometimes.

SerAmanda: 24:16

Yeah. And then another thing I guess that's a little weird is when you're reviewing an edit, you see two titles that are similar but they're a little different. And it was like, okay, this is important enough to somebody to put in an edit, but you're like, I don't know which one it should be, you just feel like you're flipping a coin. Usually I almost always submit a description that is factual like I am trying to tell reviewer, like, here's the additional information you need to make a choice that makes sense versus throwing a dart at the wall, but make your own choice please. So usually I'll say something like, Formerly name Church X, but now it is church y cause that is factually true and hopefully it will help the reviewer understand the whole point of this edit.

David Hernandez: 24:53

That's a good little tip right there, actually, I never would've thought of that cuz usually, sometimes Google Maps doesn't update the new church name.

SerAmanda: 24:59

And also sometimes it's, not convenient or it's sometimes like not always easy for the reader to even check the map, especially if they're on mobile. So whatever information you can give without directly saying, take this, you know, you're not supposed to tell the reviewer what to pick, but give them information, that would be, probably helpful to everybody.

David Hernandez: 25:16

One thing I wanna ask, so you've nominated a lot of stuff, you've had some things accepted, you've been part of Wayfarer. do you have a favorite nomination that you're proud of that you're able to get through the Wayfarer system?

SerAmanda: 25:26

that's hard to pick. Yeah, it's like picking your best child or most favorite child or whatever. I submitted a lot of murals. There's like new murals around Atlanta all the time and they always look pretty and they look the best in the photos. One of my most favorite nominations is this huge mural on the side of an apartment building. You can see it from the freeway, and that's how I saw it the first time. I think I was a passenger in a car coming back from Dragon Con and saw it on the freeway and I was like, whoa, that's a cool pretty mural, but I wasn't ready to take a picture of it. So the second time we passed by, I attempted to take a picture from a car, which A) pretty hard, because if a photo looks like it came out of a car, that's a rejection criteria cause it's a pretty bad photo. B) you're also in a moving vehicle and it's far away, so I had a picture that did look like it could be serviceable, but I was like, no, this mural is too pretty like I'm gonna go visit it, take a, like a legit picture. I knew somebody who lived at the apartment complex because I would get gifts from like the dog park there. And so I asked him like, Hey, like, that mural on the side of your apartment building, if you felt like taking some pictures and sending them to me, I could turn them into a Pokestop within a week, just let me know. And he never did. So I drove over there the next day and took the pictures and submitted it. And it's there and now I sometimes get a gift of that mural with that picture. I'm like, ah, that looks nice.

David Hernandez: 26:44

isn't that awesome? Whenever you find a new mural and it's like you get to be the first one to submit it.

SerAmanda: 26:48

Well, there is that, but actually what I find more exciting is when I find an old mural, like, wow, this has been there since 2016 and no one has submitted this. How is that possible? I find that more exciting actually.

David Hernandez: 27:02

Well, very cool, Amanda. I do have my last question before we close this taco stand. So, earlier you talked about how in the main series game you were really into breeding like that was how you loved to play Pokemon, you loved being able to get one moves from one Pokemon to the other with the TMS and whatnot. Right now breeding isn't in Pokemon Go, but if it did ever come to Pokemon Go, a would it, you would actually do it, and B, how would you like to see it implemented?

SerAmanda: 27:27

Man, not something I actually thought about because A, I'm like, it'd be a cool idea but really don't know how it would work. It would be nice to have more agency over the eggs we're hatching. Part of what I liked is being able to transfer moves over from like really weird stuff like I think Surskit could learn Hydro Pump,

David Hernandez: 27:43

yes!

SerAmanda: 27:43

But like Masquerain couldn't. And then like, I was like, oh, okay, I'll get a Surskit to level 52 or whatever to learn Hydro Pump and then I can breed it with such and such to transfer Hydro Pump over like I would do weird stuff like that. the move pool is very small in GO and very restrictive like I can't imagine them doing something like that or you could like breed new moves on the Pokemon somehow.

David Hernandez: 28:05

Maybe they could do something like, there's like maybe two to three moves that you can only get by breeding, like they're breeding exclusive, that you can't get it anywhere else?

SerAmanda: 28:13

Hmm. You mean like each Pokemon had two to three moves or you mean there were two to three moves total that could be obtained only?

David Hernandez: 28:19

No. Each, each Pokemon. Each Pokemon would have different, individual Pokemon like one that comes to mind would be Salamence with hydro pump. If you wanted to do that, you had to breed it with, uh, I think in the main series you had to do Kingdra with the female Salamence. So maybe Salamence would have, if you wanted the Salamence for hydro pump for whatever reason in GO, you had to breed for it, you couldn't never get it with an elite tm, you could never get it through any other means.

SerAmanda: 28:39

Well, breeding is like super weird, backgroundy nerdy shit like I really, think it would be very off putting to like the casual player. what I'm interested in for breeding, like what I enjoy doing, I don't see how that would actually translate into GO as like a fun non-game breaking experience. it is a huge deal when you give a new, a Pokemon, a new move in GO cause that's how little moves they have And so like, if all Pokemon could somehow get like one or two additional moves just from this new feature, that would be quite a balancing act.

David Hernandez: 29:07

That's true. I mean, how would you cater breeding to the casual audience? That's actually, Ooh, that'd be difficult. there's something for the casual audience and then there's something for the hardcore. I guess the moveset would be for the hardcore, but I guess what would be the benefit for the casual audience, which is, ooh, I don't know.

SerAmanda: 29:22

what I think would be a little bit more likely and is totally not breeding. one idea for like why people might like the idea of breeding is like, oh great, I can get a lot of the same Pokemon. If there was some system where like, whatever is your buddy is prioritized on the nearby radar screen...

David Hernandez: 29:38

mm-hmm.

SerAmanda: 29:38

That would make it easier to hunt for particular Pokemon.

David Hernandez: 29:40

Mm-hmm.

SerAmanda: 29:41

Definitely not breeding, but it would aid their, you know, the whole exploration mechanic and it would give player a way to actually, cause once you catch a Pokemon,

David Hernandez: 29:48

Something to think about. SerAmanda, thank you for coming on the show. If people want to get into contact with you for campfire reasons, you know, where could they, contact you or how could they contact you?

SerAmanda: 29:58

I am on Discord. My username is SerAmanda. Capital S-E-R, capital A M A N D A. I have message requests off, so I should receive all messages.

David Hernandez: 30:10

Awesome. And I'll make sure to include the links into the show notes of today's episode. Here's the sneak peek for the next episode of As The Pokeball Turns.