As The Pokeball Turns

TRAINER'S EYE #45 - "Taco 'Bout Pokemon" ft. Abbielizx3

• David Hernandez • Season 1 • Episode 46

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From Shiny Hunting to exploring the world of Pokémon GO, Abbielizx3 shares her journey of connecting with the game and its community since day one. Reflecting on how Pokémon GO evolved from a Google Maps April Fools' joke into a global phenomenon, Abby reveals how it became a tool for adventure, bonding, and even meeting her fiancé. Join the conversation on community days, exploring new strategies, and the lasting impact Pokémon has had on players worldwide.

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Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay

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David Hernandez:

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. Since starting the podcast, I've continued to admire how not only a game like Pokemon Go, but a franchise like Pokemon has allowed people to connect in different ways. regardless of age, sex, or race, pokemon is for everyone and the way people connect is truly endless. When you think about it, when you choose a starter Pokemon, you aren't just picking your first Pokemon within the narrative of the Pokemon world, you're picking a partner, a friend, someone who will be by your side every step of your journey. Maybe the true narrative of Pokemon isn't to be the best like no one ever was, but more so to find your group, your community, a place where you feel like you belong, centered around Pokemon. That means the connections with Pokemon is not confined to your local area, but the connection crosses state lines, countries, geographical boundaries, or can be as simple as sitting down with a friend enjoying some tacos together. My guest in this episode shares how Pokemon has allowed her to connect to her friends and family, even meeting her future fiance, from different places across the U.S. Here's her origin story into the world of Pokemon Go. This is Abbielizx3! before we dive into today's guest, if you have any Pokemon GO stories, send them my way 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. And that's the plug. So let's go ahead and get into it now. Today I'm joined by Abbielizx3. Abby, welcome to the show.

AbbieLizx3:

Thank you for having me.

David Hernandez:

Now I gotta ask, so is the X three mean that you're three Abby's in one?

AbbieLizx3:

No, that would be pretty cool if I was, but no, it actually was originally a heart because you couldn't put a carrot. it's been my screen name since aim If, you wanna go back that far?

David Hernandez:

Oh my gosh, that's, uh, early nineties, I think, right?

AbbieLizx3:

Yeah, yeah. So it's, uh, it's been a username that's stuck with me

David Hernandez:

That's fair enough. So one thing that I always bring my guests on is, you know, to talk about like how you started playing Pokemon Go. So when did you first start playing?

AbbieLizx3:

Oh man, I love this question. So I don't know if you knew this or not, but Pokemon Go originally, originally was actually an April Fools Day thing on Google Maps and that's the idea of where Pokemon Go came from. So I've been actually playing it since then. it became like a widget online for a while and I was playing it through that. I then later signed on to the beta test, when they announced it was coming to the US and didn't get in, and I was really disappointed. So I was a day one person for Pokemon Go, but I tried to get on as soon as I can. It's, it's been one of those things I've always really loved. I love the idea of geocaching. So Pokemon Go was like, oh, it's geocaching with Pokemon, your favorite series.

David Hernandez:

Now, to be fair, you weren't a day one. You're like a day negative 365 since you started liking the day year before with. The Google Maps right.

AbbieLizx3:

Yeah, it was the coolest thing like it was an April fool stage joke and it caught so much traction of just, you know, going to New York City and, oh, there's a Mew and it was like, oh my gosh, this is so cool. It was a game. and I just remember playing it like instead of doing my college classwork, was there's a problem, but it's okay, we ended up all right. We, we graduated, so, not too much of a inhibitor in my life. It was a lot of fun to play on Google, and then they turned it into like a flash game almost, where you could just do it all the time. And eventually I think at Iowa's passing, or the first direct afterwards, Nintendo Direct, they announced Pokemon Go and that this was gonna be an app and I just remember being so excited. It was like the best news. I was like, oh my gosh, it's a Pokemon game on my phone that involves geocaching, which is a hobby I like. This is gonna be the best thing ever.

David Hernandez:

So I gotta ask, so you talked about how you did the first, the April Fool's joke. How did that work for people who maybe weren't there at that time. Can you give like some insight?

AbbieLizx3:

Absolutely. So it was when you just went on to like Google Maps, like you were gonna Google search, you know, what restaurant you were going to or what directions you were going, to need for the day These Pokemon would pop up. It was like, wait, what? Why is there a Pokemon on my map to my destination? And I believe your, your person turned into like either a Pokeball or something, so like you knew something was going on in case, you know, you didn't happen to pass a Pokemon or a Pokestop on your way through your, your destination.

David Hernandez:

Wait actually had Pokestops on there?

AbbieLizx3:

Yeah, it had like these little stops and you'd spin it, it would be like you recovered HP or you gained xp, or whatever. It wasn't items specifically, but it was little stops that you could go to, and a lot of them were like national monuments and because I was in New York City-ish area around the time, a lot of things that had historical value were these stops per se and so it was a lot of fun. You got to click around and learn about the area and it was just beta alpha pre inkling of an idea of Pokemon Go.

David Hernandez:

when you tried to go catch the Pokemon, like was it instantaneous or did they actually have to do the whole suspenseful of Pokemon Go?

AbbieLizx3:

Oh, oh no. It was just point and click.

David Hernandez:

Okay. So it was very simplified compared to what we do nowadays.

AbbieLizx3:

Yeah, it's, you didn't have to catch, you didn't have balls, you didn't have anything, it was just, you had levels and you had to fill out a pokedex. That was really about it, but it was just clicking and that was it.

David Hernandez:

Now, let's fast forward to 2016, I guess since you played day one. What was it like playing the very first couple days of Pokemon Go?

AbbieLizx3:

Oh man. So playing the first couple days was. Very strange, because I had just moved to a new city with my parents and so I was getting used to the area. And in the area there were no Pokestops, there were no really anything. so everything was on the footprint tracker. I don't know. If all your listeners remember that, where it would say, you know, it was one step away, two steps away, or three steps away. me and my, little brother, he's 10 years younger than me, so I wanna say he was probably like 10 or 11 at the time. was just walking around the neighborhood with me trying to figure out if the Pokemon was in a certain spot and he would run to a spot and be like, is it here? And I'd be like, I don't know. I have to catch up to you first.

David Hernandez:

Was he running faster than you?

AbbieLizx3:

Oh, much faster than me. You know, little kids have a lot of energy and as a teenager I was like, yeah, we can go kind of chill with this.

David Hernandez:

So where did you go? Like you said you were in a new town right when Pokemon Go launched. did you go to like a park or do you remember the area you tried to play at?

AbbieLizx3:

So the area that I played at is near my parents' house, which is actually right on the border of a swamp, a park, a national park swamp. so it really was, you know, the tourist center three or four miles down the road or you could drive into the center of town and there was a good bit of, stops and gyms at the time, and that's usually where a lot of people played and that's where I spent most of my time. I actually figured out the eight is great trick at that time, that if you drove in a circle, Eight miles an hour, you could spin the stops, which I handed my brother my phone and had him spin and you'd hatch eggs.

David Hernandez:

I've never heard it called eight is great, so it's like eight miles per hour

AbbieLizx3:

eight miles per hour, I've eight is great or optimal eight, those are the two that I've heard.

David Hernandez:

Wow. I've never heard that before. That's crazy.

AbbieLizx3:

So that was my early days of Pokemon Go. It was a rather eventful experimentation of trying to figure out this new city I was living in.

David Hernandez:

And that's probably a good way to explore, right? Cuz you get to explore a new area while trying to play Pokemon at the same time.

AbbieLizx3:

Right. And it was like this really awkward time because I was moving to Texas actually three months, no, not even what? It came out July. So I moved in August, I had moved to Texas to go to grad school, so you know, I explored this town that my parents moved to, got comfortable and then, okay, go explore a new place. And so that was, really fun. You know, that's what I like doing. That was the whole purpose of the game, you know, so it made it like, oh, this is, this is so easy to do. This is fun. Like this is just, I can go for a walk and go find a new Pokestop, cool. Like, this is what I wanna be doing.

David Hernandez:

Was it primarily the exploration that kind of appealed to you for Pokemon Go?

AbbieLizx3:

it was definitely both. Like I love to explore, I love to go new places. but I'm a pretty diehard Pokemon fan, always have been. I grew up on the games. I actually taught myself to read by playing red and blue. probably yellow too because I was so young at the time when they came out. they were always just such an important game to me growing up and I remember, everybody was like, oh, you still play Pokemon? And I was bullied a lot for it. so it was a part of my life. I kind of kept secret for a really long time. And then Pokemon Go came out and, oh, it's cool to like Pokemon and I was like, oh heck yeah.

David Hernandez:

It made it way more Exactly. It made it way more acceptable to actually enjoy Pokemon, in my opinion. Cuz like you, I remember those days to where you got bullied or picked on, if you played Pokemon. I was like, why are you still playing this stuff?

AbbieLizx3:

And I don't know if it was worse because I'm a, female. Uh, it was a lot of girls don't play games, you know, girls don't play video games at all. What are you doing? And Pokemon children. So it was like a double whammy of like, what are you doing? This is, not what you should be doing. you know, that's, Not good, and I'm glad I kept with it all these years, and I'm happy to be where I'm at now because a lot of adults have Mickey Mouse and I have Pikachu. I just have a different mouse.

David Hernandez:

That's a good way to look at it.

AbbieLizx3:

Yeah. I mean, you know, we see all these adults who are like Disney World and Mickey Mouse ears and you know, they'll have a mean comment about Pokemon and it's like, but you're doing the same thing.

David Hernandez:

You know, that's a very good comparison to where a lot of people, you know, who grew up on those old school Looney Tunes, Mickey and Bugs Bunny is kind of their, I don't say idol, but they're kind of, it's their mascot of their generation. For us, it's Pikachu. A lot of us, it's Pikachu.

AbbieLizx3:

Right. And there's nothing wrong with either side. Like you can love Mickey Mouse. There is nothing wrong with that. But it's so funny how some people will pick and choose what's okay and what's not. in the end it's all the same thing. Let's just like a character in a series we enjoy and not reign on people's parades.

David Hernandez:

Now I wanna go back on something you just said a while ago. So you said that Pokemon, red, blue, yellow that actually helped you read?

AbbieLizx3:

Yes. So I was, uh, I guess I was four when they came out. I've always loved games. My parents were, into gaming. We had an NES growing up and like, I remember my first games playing Duck Hunt and Mario Bros on the NES. I always loved it. So when the Game Boy came out and I had to have it, that was the one thing I wanted. It's all I asked for. and my parents were divorced at the time, so having a game console didn't really work because traveling between the houses, it was like, oh, you know, now I don't have my games for the weekend and I'm bored. And you have a million things to do, but you're bored.

David Hernandez:

Right.

AbbieLizx3:

And so I wanted my games with me. That was just who I was. That's what I wanted. And so my parents were like, okay, let's get her a game boy. So I remember, and I have pictures of it for my birthday, I had gotten Aladdin, the Lion King and Pokemon Red. I'd gotten Pokemon Red for my mom because it was to stay at mom's house, and I got Pokemon Blue at my dad's house because it stayed at dad's house. I was always traveling between parents' houses, so it was, you know, like, oh, that three hour car ride, I'm gonna play three hours of Pokemon. I remember trying to, you know, the lights on the street trying to see my screen. and my parents still think that's why I need glasses is because I was trying to look at my game boy, while I was in the car between houses. even to this day, I still get both games. I'm fortunate enough to have a partner who likes Pokemon, so I don't have both versions myself, but you know, I still always have both versions of every game.

David Hernandez:

So did you stick with Pokemon throughout the entire generation? Like from one to present day?

AbbieLizx3:

pretty much I would say yes. and a long story short, the ones I do not really remember because I was On the way out and would play them in secret and not really play them much was Gen four. Gen four is kind of where I fell off. Platinum, Pearl and Diamond. and then there was that long break where there wasn't really any games for a while, so I kind of got lucky and didn't really miss anything. So when black and white came out, I think I was in high school about to go to college and it was like, ah, whatever, you know, who cares? I had my own car, I picked it up. Nobody had to know. It's like, you know who, who has a secret hobby of playing Pokemon? You know,

David Hernandez:

You talked about how you grew up ashamed of Pokemon like a lot of us did. What helped you finally come to terms to accept that, Hey, I'm a Pokemon fan, this is what I enjoy.

AbbieLizx3:

combination of, I stopped caring what people think, which I think is a great skill that a lot of people should learn to acquire. also it kind of became cool to like Pokemon. I don't know when it happened. I don't know what caused it, but all of a sudden this switch flipped and hey, it cool to like Pokemon again. And I don't know if that's because society is really like embracing those geeky. And nerdy habits and, I don't wanna say habits, habits isn't the right word. Those nerdy and geeky interests. Yes, that's a great word. Interests. it's okay to like anime now, but you know, if you talked about Dragon Ball Z or Sailor Moon, 15 years ago, kids would've pointed and laughed at you and been like, you're weird. But now it's like, why didn't you watch that? And it seems like if you talk to anybody online or even in the communities, it's like, oh yeah, I grew up watching that. And it's like, why did we make it seem like this was such a weird thing to do? Because everybody was doing it.

David Hernandez:

Like we're all in the closet about Pokemon. We just, we're all making fun of each other for no reason.

AbbieLizx3:

Yeah. You know, I, and I mean, granted, there are people who, you know, Pokemon is not their thing and that is fine, but of everyone I talk to these days, like I don't hear anybody that's been a loud and proud Pokemon fan throughout at all. I hear a lot of, oh, I was, you know, people made fun of me. I was bullied. It was childish. You know, a lot of us really kind of receded into this closeted hobby of playing Pokemon and it didn't need to be, but for some reason we were made to feel that this wasn't a good thing to be doing and it was wrong for doing it, even though we all did it anyway.

David Hernandez:

Right now, I will say that, I mean, I've interviewed a couple people. The younger ones, the Gen Z'ers, from my experience, they didn't go through what we had to as millennials. they seem to have maybe embraced it from the get go. Now, maybe I could be wrong cause like of course I'm not that age, but for the most part it sounds like whenever I've ever, I've talked to them, they don't seem to be familiar with our struggle.

AbbieLizx3:

Yeah, and I think I think of that too because I was, like I was saying, there's a 10 year age difference between my siblings and I. my brothers love Pokemon to this day and their first game was black and white. I actually took them to GameStop. They had birthday gift cards left over and I made them by Platinum and Diamond at the time. And I said, I want you guys to play this. I really think you're gonna like it. And of course they did. that's their favorite game to this day. You know, you ask them their favorite Pokemon series and game in the series and it's platinum and diamond. and so, you know, I knew that, for them, they didn't have to go through this phase of, oh, it's not cool to like Pokemon because when they started like Pokemon, they were still kids. And as they grew up into adults, it became, oh, it's cool to like Pokemon again. I showed them the original anime, you know, I remember watching Pokemon 2000 with them, and they were like, that's the coolest movie. And I'm like, I. Yeah, I saw this in movie theaters. Guys, you have no idea. Make me feel like a fossil. You did what? You know, 2000 was forever ago. I it was at this point, you know, but,

David Hernandez:

people born in 2000 and old enough to drink, that's how long ago it was at this point.

AbbieLizx3:

Oh, goodness. Yeah. So, uh, It definitely was one of those things that I feel like I kind of showed them Pokemon when they were growing up and because that happened and they grew up kind of where it became cool, they didn't have this disconnect of being shameful of Pokemon like I feel like the millennials did.

David Hernandez:

Do you have a favorite Pokemon at all?

AbbieLizx3:

Oh gosh, I have a bunch, but my favorites are kind of random. I don't

David Hernandez:

me, gimme, try to gimme a top five. How about that?

AbbieLizx3:

Okay. My top five, I would say Lunatone.

David Hernandez:

Lunatone. Really?

AbbieLizx3:

Yes, Lunatone is one of my favorite Pokemon. It has been since it launched. I adore Lunatone. then I would say Spheal is number two. I have the Giant 32 inch Spheal from the Pokemon Center. I love Spheal. then probably, gotta say Jigglypuff, can't pass up on my puff ball. that's been my favorite. It's my main in Super Smash Brothers Melee. That Pokemon just means a lot to me. love me some Jigglypuff. Then Espeon would be my evolution, which I'll throw on my top five to be basic. And then, um, Archen, archen is my favorite.

David Hernandez:

That is a very diverse group. Like you were going on a little bit of a HOenn streak for a minute and then you kind of branched off to different regions. That's pretty diverse. I'll say that much.

AbbieLizx3:

I really like Hoenn and Sinnoh a lot. like those are my favorite regions. I don't know why. Maybe it's because of the age I was when they came out. I mean, I love Gen one, let's be honest, you can't say anything bad about Gen one. it is. Such a strong generation, but two, three and four were the ones that were just so they had such good Pokemon designs in those gens.

David Hernandez:

They did! I love Gen three. I played it. I played that one the most.

AbbieLizx3:

Oh man, I love Ruby Sapphire and Emerald. That one. Those ones are good. Those secret bases.

David Hernandez:

Yes, the love, the secret bases. They were so awesome, especially in the remakes.

AbbieLizx3:

those were always my favorite. And I just remember getting mad at my friends because they would come over and like turn on my game boy and mess up my secret base and I'd be so mad at them.

David Hernandez:

So let's get back to Pokemon Go. the game comes out. Did you stick with it throughout or did you have to take a break at some point?

AbbieLizx3:

I pretty much stuck with it throughout. Now, the thing I did not stick with was raiding, so because I was in grad school at the time, my schedule was really thin and I was in classes from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM with really no breaks. Um, so if I did any raiding, it was on the weekend and college campus was iffy on the weekends. my first raid that I did was a Croconaw. I'll never forget that. And I met a bunch of people who were like trying to teach me how to raid, and it was just a really nice little, like random community moment. Never spoke or saw any of them again, but it was just, I like that about Pokemon Go. You can just find a group and talk to them for five minutes, they're so polite, and then you guys carry on your way in. That's it. I had a friend who took my account and did a couple raids for me, so I could get the legendaries at the time because I was so annoyed that I was like, oh, I'm in clinicals all the time and I never get to raid and I can't drive anywhere on the weekends because it costs too much money to drive anywhere. What am I gonna do?

David Hernandez:

Right. So you couldn't raid because of your schedule, and your friend helped you basically. Yes.

AbbieLizx3:

Right. So he would sign into my account and do a raid for me and then log out and I would turn my phone on at the end of the day and it'd be like, oh, cool. He caught me, you know, a Suicune. Oh, I got an Entei. Oh, I got a Kyogre. You know, it was, probably the first couple cycles of raid bosses. I missed all the gen one birds. I missed all of Gen two birds and dogs. And I also missed, gen threes Legendaries. My first legendary that I caught was a Mewtwo at an Ex-Raid.

David Hernandez:

Oh wow.

AbbieLizx3:

it was very stressful. I had never done a raid before and some kind gentleman at the park taught me the circle lock trick. I didn't get it at first, and I don't know if that's a common thing because I feel like that's, The general response when I try to teach people it, is that what, what do you mean circle lock? I just remember that was my first exposure to it and learning it now and how much it's changed, how much I play the game, and made me so much more successful at catching and timing my throws.

David Hernandez:

Well, just speaking of how you play, like what's your way to play Pokemon Go? Like what do you enjoy most?

AbbieLizx3:

Dex Collection and shiny hunting. I'm definitely a shiny hunter. I care way more about my collection than I care about battling or P V P or Raiding. I mean, Raiding's fun, but I don't wanna do 800 raids in one day. That's not a, that's not a good time for me.

David Hernandez:

what's one of your favorite Shinies you've caught?

AbbieLizx3:

Oh man, I have a couple really, really cool ones. I have a lot of costume Shinies. that's usually my goal when any event comes around. I really want the costume shinies. One because they're rarer, and two, because they don't evolve and I like first form Pokemon, so I have a shiny lucky Galarian Ponyta with the Meloetta hat. that's one of my favorites and then I also have, a shiny Galarian Meowth. That's one of my favorites. And I know that that one's kinda weird, but I think he looks like my cat, so that's one a lot.

David Hernandez:

I guess you go hardcore when a costume shiny is announced. So are you like out there like hours upon hours trying to catch or click on each one you find like I. Is that what you have to do?

AbbieLizx3:

I think it depends on the event. So like the New Year's event, I really wanted a shiny party hat Wurmple this year. I got it. it's a 10 CP and it's never leveling up And its name is Legends Never Die. I'm sorry. Legends. No Die because of the character, max. But,

David Hernandez:

we know what mean.

AbbieLizx3:

yeah. So it's one of those, things that I really like to do because the hats change so much and I know a lot of people really give a lot of flack to costume Pokemon. and I completely agree, they are an inventory monster. They take up so much space. I never know what to do with them because I don't wanna get rid of them. I feel like I should be trading them away, trying to either roll them to be a Hundo or get a lucky. it's one of those ones that's like a double-edged sword. I'm like, oh, do I really want this costume shiny? Usually if it's a shiny that's not in my dex, yeah, I go pretty hard for it. if it's one that's like, had a community day, I'm trying to think like the Larpas, Lapras had a raid day and then Lapras with the bow tie came out last year and I was like, eh, I have like seven shiny lapras. I don't really need the one with the bow tie. I'll be good.

David Hernandez:

Okay, so you're very selective like it's something that's I don't wanna say rarer, but less common?

AbbieLizx3:

Yeah. if my inventory already has, you know, if they announce Teddiursa tomorrow with a top hat like, yeah, I want a shiny Teddiursa with a top hat, but I have 46 of them from another community day.

David Hernandez:

Oh.

AbbieLizx3:

Well, I don't actually think I have 46, but I got a lot that community day, it actually bothered me. I was like, what do I do with all of these Shinies? I think I got like 14, 15 Shinies, and I was just like, huh, that's a lot of space that's gonna take up for a while.

David Hernandez:

do you actually ever release a shiny or do you always hold onto them?

AbbieLizx3:

I have released a couple, I've accidentally, oh man. I was trying to evolve one during a community day and I released a shiny 98% Torchic. And I still have nightmares about that cuz I just kind of fast clicked, like through the Yes and it was like transfer and I was like, what have I done? but I do throw out some Shinies, especially if I try and re-roll them. me and my fiance will swap, Shinies like shiny Magikarp is a good example cause I feel like we get those all the time from eggs or whatever. So we'll swap the shiny Magikarp and if it's like a zero or a one star,"Bye!" I am not gonna keep that in my inventory, especially that now it either is gonna sit there as a zero, one star forever, I'm never gonna evolve it, I can't trade it anymore. Maybe I'll send it to Pokemon Home for one of my main series games. Probably not. But if that's the case, yeah, I send a lot to Pokemon Home to kinda wonder trade away.

David Hernandez:

Give off to the everybody else to

AbbieLizx3:

Yeah, maybe someone else will love it. I don't,

David Hernandez:

Well, let me ask you this, so you get the chance to create any costume Pokemon, what would you make?

AbbieLizx3:

oh man. That's a hard question. I love, I love, I love the two that are already out that I have both Shinies of is party hat Wurmple and scarf Spheal. So I have my two dream Pokemon. So I think if I were to want a shiny of anything in a costume, my goodness. that's such a hard question.

David Hernandez:

It can be, it can be even a costume that doesn't even exist yet.

AbbieLizx3:

I would like a Jigglypuff with a microphone. the animation, is it taking off the cap of the microphone and it turning into a marker for a throwback for the OGs for a Pokemon Day. That would be my pick, I think because we got the sunglasses Squirtle, the Squirtle squad, and that was the coolest thing, I loved that, so I really would like more nods to the show, I think in a costume Pokemon.

David Hernandez:

So basically it'd be the jiggly plug with the same marker from the anime, but just put in Pokemon Go.

AbbieLizx3:

Yeah, we could even do something fun like have it draw on itself and it has like a drawn on mustache.

David Hernandez:

Or it just draws a little, uh, squiggly whatever in the background or something

AbbieLizx3:

Yeah, the mad variant, I don't know.

David Hernandez:

They could do that with the ar, like they have the Jigglypuff in the ar and it happens just to draw on somebody's face.

AbbieLizx3:

That would be so funny as like a daily screenshot.

David Hernandez:

Yes. That'd be awesome, Niantic get on that.

AbbieLizx3:

Jigglypuff drawing on your buddy Pokemon like come on, 10 outta 10 idea. Hit me up for marketing Niantic.

David Hernandez:

You've been listening to As The Pokeball Turns. We're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back. your fiance also plays Pokemon, right?

AbbieLizx3:

Yes. Yes he does.

David Hernandez:

Is that how y'all too met?

AbbieLizx3:

Yes it is. we had met several times prior, you know, we're both team Mystic, so, we would meet at random raids and throughout the city and stuff. I went to a trivia night and I didn't really know anybody there and so another member of Mystic is like, oh, go with this team there's a mystic and a valor and another mystic on this team. And so I was like, oh, okay, I'll, I'll go. Like, that's fine. I'll, I'll go hang out with, with blue kids. That's cool. one of them was my fiance and we had met before. He kept confusing me for another member in the community. So of course he's like, oh, hey, wrong name and I'm like, yep, that's not me. We sat down, we started playing trivia, and we just connected, like really good as friends like we bounced off each other's answers like we just really had a good trivia team. Like, I don't know how to explain it like we kicked butt at trivia, that's for sure. and then we just became friends because we became trivia buddies. we'd be on the same team every week and it was fun. and then as Things progressed, we got closer and eventually started dating and here we are.

David Hernandez:

And so would y'all play Pokemon Go together?

AbbieLizx3:

Yeah, we did, we actually play a lot together. every big event, and I say big event, I mean like community day, go fest, go tour, whatever, big event. I usually get up really early in the morning and I'll pack us a picnic for the day and we go and we play Pokemon all day. I mean, we go from the event start to the event end, and then when the event ends, we pull out our picnic and we enjoy it and usually there's a themed parfait that I make for the Pokemon of the week.

David Hernandez:

Can you gimme like an example?

AbbieLizx3:

So like for, Swinub, we had, a Nutella and peanut butter parfait with the stripes for the Swinub. Um, yeah, I get bored. I like to experiment with food and art and things, so,

David Hernandez:

I mean, that's a good talent right there. That sounds, that's real creative.

AbbieLizx3:

So, yeah, it's something fun to do to try and make it match the event that's going on. A lot of times I'll get really lazy and I'll just do a banana and cut half of a strawberry and turn it into a Pokeball on the top. I'll usually pack a couple sandwiches and a parfait and a salad, and we'll have a good day.

David Hernandez:

So y'all would just go catching and just try to, whatever event's going on, y'all would just play nonstop basically.

AbbieLizx3:

Yeah, pretty much. And we live pretty close to a college campus, so it's pretty stop dense. when it's college season, there's usually a decent number of people Raiding, so we can always get enough people together to help out the community members that don't really have enough accounts or friends to be able to be doing these types of raids. So we will, often kind of orchestrate these raids on the campus if we're in the area. You know, especially now that campfire is out, it makes it so much easier, because the university disbanded their discord. So it's made it harder to get in contact with the people who don't really have access to raiding, but campfire's really been nice with being able to light a spark or a flare, I don't know what it's called. I don't usually do what he does, um, but it allows people who can't usually do the raids to be able to join us, and that's always cool. I like helping out the community members especially ones that are just trying to get back into the game or haven't been playing much or play casually and don't really do the raids, especially cuz we're kind of like that middle rung of being hardcore and casual. I don't even know where to really describe it on that ladder. Um,

David Hernandez:

call it average.

AbbieLizx3:

yeah, I guess average would be the, the best term. I feel like we're a little bit above average. I would say we go harder than average,

David Hernandez:

Okay. That's fair. That's fair. That's fair.

AbbieLizx3:

but yeah, no, it's a, it's a lifestyle for sure.

David Hernandez:

How many people would show up whenever y'all try to organize these, raids that y'all would do on the college campus?

AbbieLizx3:

I think it depends. It depends on the event. especially if it's a popular one, the weather, because we're kind of out in the desert, it gets really hot, so the middle of the summer raids are kind of dead. when we were in the cooler spring months, we would get probably a, a lobby of 20 and there would be times like we'd have to back out and we'd start a new lobby just to make sure that everybody got a chance and got in and would be dictating, you know, Hey, we need two of you to drop out and jump in this raid so we can help this group get it and kind of dictating, you know, hey, once we get 10, you know, that group can do it, but we need to make sure this other group has enough to be able to do it too.

David Hernandez:

how does it change your experience with Pokemon Go that you go to this college campus and try to help these players out?

AbbieLizx3:

You know, I think we all were there at some point, you know, whether we were day one ERs or we were joining the game right now. I think everybody needs a little bit of guidance to some degree, you know, to get the hang of it. The circle lock trick, you don't know that that's not a, something they teach you, when you start the game, but you see all these countless YouTubers that do it or quick catching. These newer trainers are people who don't really have the exposure to these communities or have had the exposure to these communities. There's a lot of things they don't really know about the game, and you can end up teaching them a bunch. So hopefully that if I'm not there that day, somebody else has enough knowledge to be like, Hey, let's get everybody in on this raid and make sure everybody can do it because overall I think that should be our goal of Pokemon Go is to unite all the players, and not exclude anybody because they're feeling socially anxious or they don't have a friend group, or they're new to the area, or they're just a new player. You know, we should really work on trying to get as much of the community to play together as we can, all the faction, drama aside,

David Hernandez:

For sure. Especially with, this game doesn't come with instructions and the things you mentioned, quick catch and the circle lock trick. Nobody would know that. And unless you have somebody who's there who can kind of show you and say like, Hey, probe the circle down and wait for it to attack, people won't know, they'll just keep throwing balls and get frustrated.

AbbieLizx3:

Absolutely. And I've seen it where I've been sitting at raids and I'll throw one ball and the kid next to me, he's like, I'm at one ball left. And I'm like, whoa, what do you mean? Like I just showed you like don't throw until they're attacking. And they're like, oh, but I only have one. Can you catch it? I. And so I think, I don't know if this is a seasoned member of the community experience where people ask you to catch things for them. but you know, there are those YouTube tutorials, but who's seeking them out? if you're seeking them out, great, but not everybody is and I think that's where older players roles in the community is really important because, you know, we didn't all get the same training and especially different experiences with where we're from. I'm still active in several regions discords from where I was living at the time, just to be like, Hey guys, I learned this new trick. Did you guys know that you can do X, Y, Z? some of'em were like, oh my gosh, I had no idea. like there was a great debate if a go plus and the golden lure would spin and you'd get coins because the coins weren't populating on your items received. so that was one of those things that, hey, I experimented with this, we still get coins, your gotcha is safe. And one of the community members was like, oh, thank you. I was so worried. I had no idea I would, didn't use my gotcha for days because of this like, they just were scared, but you know through this connections and experimenting and knowing people within the community who are posting, you know, here's this knowledge and this study and this testing I did and spreading it to people who are like, I've never played Pokemon Go. What's a discord? there's definitely all sides of the coin, or maybe it's a 20 sided dye, that would be a better euphemism. But, there's players of all calibers out there and, you know, helping the ones that are at that lower level, I think is, is important.

David Hernandez:

For sure, And going back to what you said, they're not even looking this up. How can they look something up if they don't even know it exists?

AbbieLizx3:

Right. And so a lot of times when my friends are like, I'm playing Pokemon Go, or somebody I know or somebody at work and I'll be like, Hey, did you know if you go on Reddit Silph Road, there's all this stuff. Hey, did you know LeekDuck gives you an infographic of this? You know, I'm always trying to pass on places where you can get the information yourself without me needing to parrot it to somebody again, with the Raiding, you know, my hope is they're gonna be able to do it on their own eventually down the line. So, hey, here's this resource that I have, why don't you use it cuz it's pretty helpful? And so a lot of places that people don't think to look, you know, they'll search Pokemon Go and realize Pokemon Go isn't necessarily the best community on Reddit for Pokemon Go. it kind of trickles down with again, who, you know, who kind of led you through your Pokemon Go experience. You know, who you've met along the way to find, whether it's podcasts, YouTubers, Twitter feeds, Reddit threads, websites, IV checkers, you know, all of that was through word of mouth and that's I think still predominantly the way it gets around is from somebody knowing somebody who's doing something

David Hernandez:

it's a word of mouth grassroots kind of game, and the only way people find that out is if they hear from somebody else sometimes.

AbbieLizx3:

Right. Which is really interesting because in the same breath, it's not like there's such a big community for Pokemon Go and I almost feel like each individual region has its own little knowledge capsule and we try and share it with each other, you know, when we travel or whatever, meet at Big Go events. But I feel like a lot of us have a lot of knowledge that we've kind of accumulated, Separately, and then you hear from somebody else and then it trickles and spreads into another community. And I think that's how a lot of the big Pokemon Go YouTubers have really started. You know, they were popular within their community, and it trickled into another community that trickled into another and into another, into another, and then eventually blew up to be what they are today.

David Hernandez:

Well, Abby, that's pretty much almost the podcast. I do have one last question and it's basically this, if you could change one thing of a Pokemon Go, what would you change?

AbbieLizx3:

I would change community days back. I really don't like the three hour window. I feel like having the longer day really gives you the opportunity to, if you have to work on a Saturday or Sunday, you still have the opportunity to get out there and get something, whether it's a couple of them versus the whole event. I think it really limits a lot of people. I don't typically see myself being affected, but I definitely know of more people who are hurt by this than helped with the three hour community days.

David Hernandez:

Here's the sneak peek for the next episode of As The Pokeball Turns.

People on this episode

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David Hernandez

Host
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Dux

Co-host
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Layla

Co-host