As The Pokeball Turns
A Pokemon interview podcast where Pokemon Trainers share their experiences from the world of Pokemon! Each journey started with a choice and are as different as the number of Pokemon. Listen to the different ways Pokemon Trainer's interact with the Pokemon franchise ranging from Pokemon GO, Pokemon Battles, Pokemon TCG, and much more!
As The Pokeball Turns
TRAINER'S EYE #107 - "Pokemon GO in Illinois" ft. DTC Pokemon GO
In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by KnifeLaughLove, a Community Ambassador for Pokemon GO from Chicago, Illinois.
KnifeLaughLove shares his initial experience with Pokemon starting with Pokemon Red and the Pokemon TCG. He further elaborates his experience with Pokemon GO and building up the Pokemon GO community in Chicago.
KnifeLaughLove shares his experience collaborating with Niantic for GO Fest and shares insight into the type of experience he desires for visitors coming to Chicago. He also touches on building up a Pokemon GO Community utilizing both Discord and Campfire!
Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay
Connect with David Hernandez: Linktree
E-mail Me: asthepokeballturnspodcast@gmail.com
Join Our Discord Community!
https://discord.gg/AqAbD7FbRt
Hey everybody, my name is KnifeLaughLove, and this is my Pokémon story.
David Hernandez:Welcome to, as the Pokeball turns, where we interview people about their experience with Pokemon. My name is David Hernandez. Today, I'm joined by the community ambassador from DTC Pokemon Go, KnifeLaughLove. Welcome to the show.
KnifeLaughLove:Yo, what's up? Thanks for having me, I'm super appreciative and excited to be here.
David Hernandez:Absolutely, and you know, you're DTC standard for downtown Chicago, which you'll get into in a little bit, but I kind of asked like, What's the meaning behind Knife Laugh Love because it's the most unique name I've had from any of my guests so
KnifeLaughLove:It's so funny. So obviously when you're, doing an online game, you just sort of get to pick whatever name or persona you want. And, you know, I wanted to be a little edgy without being too punny. but I wanted it to be short and succinct. And so I thought Knife was there from Chicago. And obviously there's the tropes about violence and, unsafety here. So I wanted that to be there. I look a little, you know, rough around the edges, but I'm a big sweetheart. So I wanted that also to be a little bit in there too. And so there's the play on Live Laugh Love, which is, you know, every Midwestern mom's graphics in their kitchen. But I put the Knife Laugh Love in there. I tried really hard to get the username knife, but it was taken during the beta, I'm sure. So Knife Laugh Love was what I decided.
David Hernandez:I feel like it'd be some kind of decoration when I first heard it. It'd be some decoration off the Joker and he would just have it in his kitchen.
KnifeLaughLove:of decoration.
David Hernandez:I don't know, right? But you know, as you said, you're from Chicago and the one thing I've loved is I love the culture of Chicago. I loved when I went there for GoFest, which we'll dive in later. For just the start, you know, what is it like to kind of play in Chicago for those who may not be familiar?
KnifeLaughLove:Chicago's really cool. So Chicago, has a lot of area. there's generally the north side, the south side, the west side, and then the loop, um, which is sort of the spot in between it all. That's where all kind of the business, end of Chicago is. Um, but we have Lake Michigan that butts up to our east side. so we really have that kind of keystone, for Chicago. each area, each neighborhood within Chicago almost has their own little community, which I'm sure, a lot of wider ranging places have as well too. So that's probably not super exclusive, but Chicago has a ton of parks, which means we have unique nests all over the place. We have a lot of people who are dedicated to Wayfarer and making sure that every unique aspect and art component and church and place in Chicago is highlighted on the map. And when new things pop up, because that happens in an artistic city like Chicago, we get new stops. You know, we have a lot of dedicated trainers to the game. People who have been coming since day one, and new people who have moved here because it's a major metropolitan. So it's really cool to see the community kind of ebb and flow as, as time goes on.
David Hernandez:It brings me back to when I first went to Chicago in 2017. And for me that was my first time traveling outside of Texas.
KnifeLaughLove:Oh wow.
David Hernandez:So for me, I always expected like downtown Dallas was like huge like a huge area and massive. I go to Chicago. I'm like, where the hell am I
KnifeLaughLove:Yeah, it's, it can be a little overwhelming.
David Hernandez:It is, you got the spread out area. Y'all's downtown is way bigger than ours, obviously, but you got the big skyscrapers and it was just so much to take in. And then when I come back to Dallas, I'm like, dang, our downtown small compared to what Chicago's got.
KnifeLaughLove:Yeah, I mean, comparison's always the thief of joy. That's what they, that's what they say. I think that Chicago has a bad rap on the news all, you know, that's going to be a given because everybody from a local place who decides to live there is always going to think that it's totally fine. And it's not, it's not perfect, but it's also not as bad as everyone else thinks it is. you mentioned GoFest when GoFest happened in 2017, that was really their first event that I think they had maybe done one or two little small kind of city street walk kind of things. but GoFest was like a huge thing, right? It
David Hernandez:For Pokemon go. Yeah.
KnifeLaughLove:for Pokemon Go. Yeah. but The history is the thing that, continues to come up about 2017's GoFest. And I know from being able to work with some of them later in 2018 and 2019, that, that was all, that was all just. They wanted sell on wheels, or cows, C O Ws, cows, they wanted those there. And all of the carriers said no. I think Sprint was the only one, because they were a partner of Niantic at the time, but all the carriers said, look, we, we have Lollapalooza there. That's a huge event, and there's way more people, and we don't need sell on wheels there. So we don't need it for your game. Neglecting to think. Not everybody at Lollapalooza, especially in 2017, was live streaming it or playing a video game that requires connection, so that is famously, a little bit of a black spot on their career, but I think they recovered from it. when they opened the whole city up, it was so much better, and they learned from that. And playing in the city was like, That was, that was easily the best part of GoFest, not getting my a hundred dollars back, not getting a free Lugia, thank you John Hanke, but being able to, you know, explore the city and have others understand, you know, what it's like to walk the streets of Chicago, especially on the weekend in the business area when it's not as busy. that was the magic, that was cool.
David Hernandez:And you said, like, you got to help 2019, so were you, like, really directly involved or were you kind of more behind the scenes?
KnifeLaughLove:think it was a little bit, I mean, obviously I wasn't like, on a poster or anything, you know, I wasn't, I wasn't trainer tips getting, getting signees, which is totally fun. Cause that's not what I want. but yeah, so 2018, the week before go fast, this was in Lincoln park. They said, you know, we're not doing, grant park right now. We're going to go to Lincoln park cause it's a larger area. they had contacted me and said, Hey, like we are interested like flooding the area. We want to stress test the network. so are you able to get people there? And early Pokemon Go days, you know, 2017, 2018, at least in Chicago, there are some turf wars happening. There are some big egos that are owning these, communities that are sort of rivals in ways. Um, and so Niantic coming and saying, Hey, can you get people here? It was. Almost a, colossal task, at least
David Hernandez:you prepared for Civil War kind of thing,
KnifeLaughLove:no, I wasn't, it's hard. It's hard to, it's, I think more than anything, it was like, Hey, I need to be, you said civil war, but I think if you take the war part out of it, I think that's kind of the synopsis here is that can we work together and be civil with one another in order to help the greater good? Because we can look past our little scuffles that we have in our disagreements and say, Can we, like, be a larger community while the world of Pokemon Go has a microscope on our city, right? The first year was maybe a miss for them. And so they were really trying to win back, favor, from folks. And I think they understood, especially after that next year of the events team coming together that they needed to really. prove that they could do that. And I think that they've gone on since then and done a great job. But, the gathering was the weekend before it was Squirtle Community Day and famously it had sunglasses, maybe not the sunglasses we were expecting, but they had sunglasses and It was awesome to be able to, Not only meet people from Niantic, people like, Liz, who used to be their community ambassador. but people like Brandon and Michael Steranka, who have continued to work with Niantic since. So they are obviously day one buy ins for that company. And it's great to see that sort of longevity continue through. And, they really care about that message. I'm sure some people will listen to me say this right now and think, you know, what a, what a, what a scrub. He's, he's vying
David Hernandez:You're a foot licker? Yeah.
KnifeLaughLove:Yeah, exactly. But I, I do think that, some things are out of their hands. Some things are maybe, you know, from the Pokemon company, or, coming from up top and not everybody agrees with that. And I think if you work at any company, you'll understand that it's not just one big cog that turns the whole machine. It's, you know, 70 to 700 different little cogs and all of them have different lubrication and different parts that they need to replace. So it's not so easy to just summarize it, you know?
David Hernandez:You bring an interesting perspective, and, for those who just didn't live through it, 2017 was just such a disaster that. It really left a sour taste for people to attend these events.
KnifeLaughLove:Yeah.
David Hernandez:you're going back to Chicago and you're like, in that moment, you're like, Oh no, we're going to relive history. Like, is that game actually going to work? Like, these are legitimate
KnifeLaughLove:Yeah,
David Hernandez:not talking glitches. We're talking like actually getting to the game.
KnifeLaughLove:yeah, you can't, you couldn't open you know,
David Hernandez:but just for you to kind of say that, that they kind of asked you to kind of help to make sure that, Hey, we need this event to go well. Kind of shows that they were putting effort in compared to like people who just say they don't know what they're doing
KnifeLaughLove:yeah, and I, and I felt that as well too. And obviously when This company that's pretty new, right? Mind you, like they had, ingress. They had ingress before this. And then, the, April fool's joke churned into this thing that we dedicate so much of our time to, 2018 came around and they were, they said, Hey, like. Can we get on the floor support? This is back when SILF was still around, right? So SILF was kind of our in between between Niantic and communities all over the world. and so for them to reach out direct and have direct contact was like, a real game changer for us in Chicago. and we were super thankful, to have that, all every community was, you know, there was that sort of civility between all these communities as well, in 2018 and things got better. I think after that, because of it.
David Hernandez:You know, I gotta ask this because people are coming and you're a leader, We obviously have some kind of influence within Pokemon go and you've got all these people flying in to Chicago Was it kind of stressful for you to kind of make sure people had a good time? Not just in regards to the game, but just in general of like going to see the sites and make sure they're sure they're safe because Chicago does have that reputation. Unfortunately that, bad things happen.
KnifeLaughLove:it was.
David Hernandez:for you? Like, what was that like?
KnifeLaughLove:think it was stressful is maybe not the word that I would use, but I certainly think that my team and I took it upon ourselves to be that like Midwestern hospitality. Welcome to our city. Here is the best of what we have to offer. We spent a lot of time. putting together, two resources. We put together a PDF guide, which was kind of the magnum opus of what we wanted to offer. It was a quick, easy, to digest guide on the best ways to get around the city. You know, if you flew in to Midway or to O'Hare, our two major airports, what lines could you take to get into the city? And how much would it cost to get from one place to another? And while you're here, what food should you get? This is the best. Pizza, these are the best burgers. This is the best, tacos, right? This is the best desserts. We wanted to make sure that we had every thing for Pokemon at the time. We had highlighted a few great AR spots, and give some examples. We highlighted, the best places to play with like the best spawns, because it wasn't just going to be. Go fast. Some people like you mentioned, we're flying in from a long ways away and maybe got here the Wednesday, Thursday before, and maybe they stayed after until a few days. So be able to experience the city for the first time. That's like the it's, it's hard to say the coolest, but I think it's such a interesting opportunity to create travel. when Niantic puts together these events, GoFests, you know, tour in LA, you know, Singapore, Indonesia, all the safari zones, right? it's funky because I don't think I would ever Think to go to Indonesia. That's maybe not my first like place on my travel list to check off. But when Pikachu is wearing a new costume and there's a Lapras that's there and I can have a picture there, it's like, okay. Is this game really like changing my worldview? There's this component of would I ever go there? Maybe, maybe if the, if, if the situation's right, but. Would I go there for Pokemon and then also get to enjoy these cool things? Like it's a really, it's a really funky and fun, aspect of Pokemon Go is that travel part. I think there was, gosh, 20, it might've been late 2016, but 2017, there was like someone who was trying to complete, Their Pokedex. And they got some sort of like sponsor. I don't remember if it was an airline sponsor or they like won the opportunity to, and they flew them to like Australia so they could catch Kangaskhan and to Europe somewhere. So they could catch Mr. Mime and then they were the first person to complete their Pokedex. And it was like, that's, that's like such a cool thing. it's maybe not thought about too often with Pokemon Go, just because you sort of travel locally and Partake in your own small community that's around you, but there's that part where you could see the world with Pokemon Go as like a, as a vessel for travel and for having a great time. it's a really cool thing that not everybody gets to participate in. It's not, Inexpensive to buy a plane ticket and a hotel and food out every day. but for people to be able to come to Chicago to see my city, I grew up in the suburbs and I've lived here my whole life for people to come here. It wasn't a stress component, but component, like you mentioned, but I think it was like a sense of pride. Like I want to show off the best parts my city. and so we made that PDF guide and then we also made a video. Component to it too, where we sort of took everybody around the Lincoln park area where we were playing and got everybody a bit of a heads up, you know, it's not just a Google street view. It's, you know, here's some nice slow mo shots of bees and the flowers and what it looks like to walk along the zoo area. And so it was really cool. I had, I had a ton of fun blocking out all those shots and waking up early to see the sunrise for those. And we did another one in 2019. And I'm super proud of the team that was able to put that together. Susan and Tony and Nick and me put a lot of effort into that and it was fantastic. I still think about
David Hernandez:So what got you into Pokemon Go? What, before you even, you know, built the community, before GoFest, like when did this whole crazy story happened?
KnifeLaughLove:mean, Pokemon's been, just in general, Pokemon's been a thing since, uh, Red and Blue. I have a picture of me, sitting on my plaid couch. In 1998, wearing who knows what from Kohl's and having, an Arctic purple Game Boy color it might've been a gold pocket, but I had Pokemon red and there's a, Prima, guide in my lap and you can tell I'm just enveloped in it ever since Pokemon came out, it's been like an obsession of Not to the point where like it's an issue, but like I've just been enamored with the franchise. it's so cool to meet other people that have that same feeling. Grew up at the same time and saw Mewtwo for the first time and their jaw hit the floor and, you know, read the Nintendo power where, oh my God, there's 151st Pokemon. Like, oh my God, there are more than what's on this game. It's, it's, it's. It's a memory that I'll always cherish and I hope I can pass on to others and, other children, other, my kids in the, in the future, you know, it's a really cool thing to be able to do that. but Go in specific, you know, I mentioned the April Fool's joke. which is famously where Pokemon Go kind of got its legs. I was doing that. I probably have screenshots in my photo reel somewhere of, you know, in Brazil, finding a Machoke and going to New York city and finding a Rattata, like screenshotting that and, you know, enjoying that on April 1st. And when Pokemon Go was, first announced that like that teaser trailer and Mewtwo in downtown, New York city and Times Square, it was just one of those, like, Oh, it's, my like, my passion for this is like, coming. Into real life, into some aspect, you know? It's not just playing the games in the back of the car or going to a movie It's like I can do this and catch an Eevee like at the Euroshop You know, I can go on the train to downtown and find a Dragonite like Dragonite's on the map That's crazy. I can go explore that and End. all those 2016, you know, was the last time the world was perfect when Pokemon Go came out memes, like, it really is, an amazing memory, a really cool time to be around, and be alive, and be playing this game actively. I opened my game on 6th of July, when it came out. I looked around and all the gyms around my area were red. And so I said, well, I guess I'm going to be red with all my neighbors. And so I chose Valor. I chose my strong melanin leader. And, I woke up the next morning and nothing was red. I'm It was like, oh, we're in a turf war now, you know, so it's, but that idea of, you know, competition but also working together, it's like, the heart and the core of what Pokemon Go is. And it's one of the, the most fun parts about it, you know, ribbing your, best friend because they chose the wrong team, you know,
David Hernandez:that's also what Pokemon is, right? Cause Pokemon is, you know, trying to compete to try to be the very best. That's in the mantra. That's what the most memorable line from the very first song from the anime is about. Right?
KnifeLaughLove:like no one ever was.
David Hernandez:Exactly. And then just to kind of see Pokemon Go come to life to where you can actually travel and walk around, even just your own neighborhood and find Pokemon just so
KnifeLaughLove:it's a nostalgic dream come true in so many ways. It was, it was really cool when it first came out and it still is in its own way.
David Hernandez:I did want to touch on something real quick. Cause you talked about how, you know, we found out back in the early days when Mew was the 151, right? We still get that with Pokemon Go to the degree to where, you know, Some people just make up these myths. Cause I remember if you were back in the raids, people believed if you don't press the okay button, that everybody would catch the raid boss. remember like if you, people were trying to find Ditto because Ditto wasn't available and they thought that if you press the buttons on the main screen in a certain direction, Ditto may pop up. So there still is that kind of mystery from Pokemon that is kind of a lost art at this point with, you know, technology and internet and access information, but Pokemon go still kind of catches that to a degree.
KnifeLaughLove:Yeah, it's really cool. It's, I love those little things and, even thinking about how Niantic is, Purposeful. And when they release new stuff, obviously they need to sort of like. They can't just release Gen 2 like they did, for Gen 8, you know, they have to trickle these things out a bit. They have to make it an event every time a new Pokemon is, is out or else they'll run out of content. But I mean, even when Gen 2 came out, it was just, hey, Gen 2 is available. You can go get a Togetic and you can go get a, Donphan and that was amazing, too. It was a snowy day in Chicago. I got off my job at the retail store I worked at and my wife Rushed down to meet me and We walked around the downtown area catching all these new shadows on our map and it was a really cool thing Pokemon Go has a ton of little Funky little things and talking about people us seeing Mew for the first time and being shocked. You know, Pokemon Go is a lot of people's first Pokemon game. It's their first entry into the franchise because it's on their phone and it's easy to get into because it's free. And their cousin or neighbor or boss or someone that they know probably still plays it. It's not a dead game like people think it is. And so, they get in there and they go, What's this little guy, Grubbin? What's that? You know, he's kinda cute, I like him. You know, and that becomes their favorite Pokémon. It's the first time they ever saw Grubbin, because they didn't play Gen 7, you know? So, that idea of exploration, and wonder, finding these little creatures, still to this day, just so much fun. So cool.
David Hernandez:Now with Pokemon, you said you've had experience all the way to go. And even I guess to present day, what generation is kind of your favorite or something that kind of draws you to the franchise?
KnifeLaughLove:Man, it's such a tough call for me. So, so many people have like their own, they're like, yep, this one's mine. And I think it's, it's hard for me because I think that there's a lot of memories that I have around each generation. And, you know, gen one is obviously where it all started, but it's so, normalized for people to have gen one be their favorite. That it's, Gen 1 probably has the least amount of Pokemon that are my favorites in Johto Gen 2 probably is what takes the cake there, for me. Although it's a close Gen 5 after. And then a close Gen 7 in X and Y, there's just, there's some really cool memories, like Gen 5, and we'll, we'll go back to Gen 2, but Gen 2 is like, Oh my gosh, it's not just Mew, we get a whole new slew of Pokemon, a hundred new Pokemon, and you saw Donphan in the anime for the first time, and you saw Togepi in the anime, and you saw Lugia in the movie, and it was just like, we already saw Ho Oh in episode one, you know? and so there was, hints that there were more, but it's really cool to have Gen 2, bring Kanto back. there's just too many formative memories in my youth for Gen 1 and Gen 2 not to be, kind of, top of the list. You know, I mentioned Gen 5 and Gen 7, Gen 5 was for two reasons. My friends and I drove down to Indianapolis, I think it was Indianapolis, because they had a, uh, a black and white like mall tour where they were showing off Gen 5 and Gen 5 famously does not have any Pokemon from previous generations, your gen one through four are not in there. Right. And so a lot of gen five, if you haven't noticed the world yet, gen five, is basically like a gen one clone, but without any gen one Pokemon in it, right? You've got Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee are Sawk and Throh. You've got, Machop is Timber and, you know, Conkledurr is Machamp, right? There's all these like, uh, similarities between them. Uh, probably to make it
David Hernandez:and Zoobad is
KnifeLaughLove:There you go, right? Exactly, yeah. which, you know, Bouffalant, Taurus, we can go on and on. Because there are just like, clones of those. But Personally, I thought that that was so innovative for them to be like, nothing, nothing old. You only get to see these new Pokemon. And this is before leaks, right? This is before 4chan was out, before Reddit was out to leak everything. And so, When you play through Gen 5 for the first time, I kind of don't know. What is Swaddle? It sort of looks like a bug. So, you know, maybe I can use fire moves and, oh my god, that's weak. Maybe because it's bug and grass, right? So there's that exploratory component to it, you know? So I like Gen 5 a lot for that. And again, some strong memories tied to that too. We would, uh, one last thing on Gen 5, I promise.
David Hernandez:No, I love Gen
KnifeLaughLove:I used to do sleepovers. We're like adults at this point, but my friends and I are still playing on our DS lights. and so we would go to Walmart at midnight, because this is when Walmart was still open at midnight. We would go to Walmart at midnight and buy the game and then, you know, pick up Mountain Dew and pizza and chips everything that you would, and we would stay up through the night and play the new game. It was like, it's just so much fun. It was so cool, and Yeah, I just have some really fond memories of Gen 5. Oh, that's awesome.
David Hernandez:was released. So we literally camped out, because I think it was a midnight release when they came out because Black and White, I think it was the first ever world release.
KnifeLaughLove:Yeah, I think you're right.
David Hernandez:And so we camped out as well. And then we got some pizza. We got some, cause you know, you're in college, it's pizza and soda, unless you do some beer, but we drink at the time, but we would that and we played the games for the first, I think we're up till maybe three or four in the morning just trying to find out all this stuff with the games.
KnifeLaughLove:Such a fun time to be playing the Pokémon game.
David Hernandez:Now you said you're gonna talk about set gen seven real quick.
KnifeLaughLove:Oh yeah, I don't know, I just like Gen 7. It's it's nice, it's a beautiful town, it's got awesome music, it was kind of the first, well it wasn't the first 3D games, but the mechanics of travel in Gen 6 and X and Y were a little dubious. But it does have my favorite boy in there, which maybe we'll get to later if we ask
David Hernandez:what is What is your favorite Pokemon?
KnifeLaughLove:Hawlucha. I love
David Hernandez:Oh, Hawlucha. I think you're the first person I've ever met that's, uh, that's their favorite.
KnifeLaughLove:Ah, man, I love Hawlucha. Shiny Hawlucha in specific is like my literal favorite Pokemon. It's so good.
David Hernandez:Have you gotten in Pokemon Go yet?
KnifeLaughLove:Yes, I have a few. I've had a couple friends and people from the community who have traveled to Mexico or South Texas and were able to get their hands on some and we've done some non lucky trades and some lucky trades and no hundo, but definitely have a best buddy.
David Hernandez:Hey you! Yes, you with the ears! Don't go anywhere, just taking a quick ad break. We'll be right back. So, you know, keep going with Pokemon. I know you said you earlier before we recorded that you got into TCG as well.
KnifeLaughLove:Yeah, TC, I mean TCG, oh boy, here we go. TCG been a thing since, uh, you know, base set, right? my brothers and I would get cards, right? We would go to the store and at school they were really popular. This is when I'm in elementary school and before cards we were collecting pogs, which maybe ages me a little bit. But, when the cards came out it was, almost. At the same time that the games came out, the cards came out. And so Pokemon understood they can't just get people in on the digital side of things. They can't just sell a video game, which also requires a handheld device, with a, you know, a full on system, which I can't think of the prices right now, but I'm sure that a Game Boy Pocket was like 200 bucks. And then the, the Game Boy games was 30, 40, probably 35 bucks. And so. You know, for, for a 7 year old, for a 12 year old, that's not money that you make at the lemonade stand, right? But, Going to the corner store and picking up a pack of Pokemon cards, you know, going to Kmart to Target or seven 11 or White Hen Pantry here in Chicago. That's how people from Chicago land know that I'm reals'cause I know about White Hen Pantry. Uh, you could go there and you could three bucks for a pack of cards, maybe you open it and it's got a cool blast o inside. I still have my childhood Charizard.
David Hernandez:Really?
KnifeLaughLove:Absolutely. It is not in great condition,
David Hernandez:Of course.
KnifeLaughLove:but as any card that I had when I was a kid, you know, but it was, I still have it. I'm planning on getting it graded. I hope it doesn't come back very high cause I'm not selling it to anybody. I'm unclear if it's mine or my brother's, but collectively it's ours. but yeah, it's, I mean, I still have a ton of cards. I played a little bit. of, competitive TCG when black and white, again, Gen 5, really popular generation for me, um, and right into when X and Y came out and mega evolutions were out. The best alternative mechanic, mind you. And then I stopped. I stopped because TCG in competitive was getting expensive. Every season there was decks, and you had to rotate them, and you had to sell your old ones. And I just didn't want to. I was kind of a collector. And so I sort of dipped out of But probably the last two years, There's a content creator who goes by Tricky Jim. His name's Andrew. Andrew Mahone. He's in the Akron, Ohio area. He's been a longtime TCG player, and really good for a really long time. gotten, top placements in worlds, won regionals. He, essentially, not created, but put together, a format called Gym Leader Challenge, where instead, if you're familiar with Magic, it's like a commander. But same size deck, 60 cards, but you can only use one type. So, you can be psychic type or you can be fire type. And instead of being able to have up to four of the same card, you can only have one of the same card in there. So, it's a singleton format and it's been so Cool. I like that. It's kind of evergreen. That was the reason that I went in there monetarily. It's evergreen. You pick up a deck. Maybe that deck costs 70 bucks, let's say, and for the foreseeable future, you've got top of the deck. You can swag out and you can get the gold versions of cards and put some steez on it, you know, but, I really like being able to sit down across from an opponent. In real life, and open the deck case and use my brain and put together this strategy that this deck is built on to compete for wins and to compete and learn a lot. I'm not a competitive person by a mile, which is actually part of the reason I really let go is because for a long time, it wasn't necessarily competitive outside of gyms and it was a lot more community building. but when GLC came around, it was one of those things where I wanted to test myself a bit more and Push myself. I didn't play a ton of sports when I was growing up. And when I did, it was kind of just for the love of the game and not to win. And so GLC has taught me a lot about myself, a lot about, you know, not to get too into therapists here, but, uh, I struggled a bit with having fun and winning those two things were, on the same plane for me for probably first year that I was playing. If I wasn't winning, I wasn't having fun. And so I've had to separate that and not as a cope, but as like a real life, like lesson, that. You're not always going to win, and when you do your best and you put your best foot forward, and your opponent does as well, one of you is going to be more successful than the other. And if you still stand behind your decisions and the plays that you make in this, game, you did your best, and that's something to be proud of. So I really like that. We have an awesome, awesome gym leader challenge and TCG in general community here in Chicago. there's a lot of, there's a few different stores, but good games is the one that I go to. Cause it has the strongest gym leader challenge crew. every person there is so kind and so fun and understanding. And they just know that when you go there, you're going to have A good time. It's awesome.
David Hernandez:I think they call that the spirit of competition to where, you don't focus much more on the wins and losses, but more of the idea of competing against somebody else. If so, will. I think that's kind of what it sounds like. You kind of more relate to now.
KnifeLaughLove:I think I've learned a new word today.
David Hernandez:Hey, it didn't cost you anything either. going back to the Pokemon go side, What has it been like both before and after the pandemic to build up the Chicago community?'cause Chicago's massive. So like, are the challenges and how did you get involved with that?
KnifeLaughLove:Yeah, Chicago's big. I mentioned before that there was, there was, you know, uh, splintered, communities, that, broke off from bigger places, whether that was because physical need, like this area has a really good Pokemon crew, but like in between there, there's nothing. And so we are just going to sort of localize the area that, I lived in. Rogers park, famously wasn't really all too into DTC. They had their own Facebook group. They did their own things. They had their own events and it was always kind of like a, uh, hollow Place on DTC and, Facebook is in 2024, maybe not the, the, the top spot. So, and again, you've had people move away. You've had people kind of lose the love for the game. and so Chicago in general is an amazing place to play, but as a leader in Chicago, I know that there's just no way. That I'll be able to oversee everything. And I don't want to like, there's, there's just no, there's no desire for me to, what I know I can control is what happens on my server. And I'm going to do my best to put our best efforts forward and share those two, not just like, Hey, let's meet up here. Okay. See you later, everybody. But like, we took pictures and we uploaded them and, you know, they're on social media and they're on our discord and now they're on our campfire and we'll get to that as well too. But, you know, starting with, that initial talk with the people from Niantic, gave me the sense that they cared in a way that I don't think others ever And so that distrust or that frustration people have with the company is to some extent understandable. I think that there's a whole mindset of keyboard warrior, you know, you're just word vomiting on Twitter about things that you're upset about and looking too deep into specific phrasings of things that people like Michael Staranka have said. Um, and maybe I'm being an apologist for, Niantic, but I understand that the company is a bigger, thing than the specific person. And of course, someone like Michael or Liz in the past, Kestrel at this point, they do represent Niantic. I, I understand that. But if someone were to, on my off time, point out to me something that I said at my job, I would be like, That's customer service, Dave, who said that that's not real. That's real life, Dave, you know, and some, and in some respects, like customer service, Dave is community leader, Dave, you know, I own the things that happen and, in the community and it's not just me. I have an incredible mod team, that helps out with. so much, DTC originally stood for downtown Chicago back in 2017 when it was just a Twitter account. And then we got Discord, um, and the moderators at that time, saw that as just a better platform for growth rather than Facebook, rather than Lion, rather than WeChat, rather than any other, you know, Slack, whatever else was out there. Which is. Maybe, I don't, I don't know exactly why, but obviously a lot of Pokemon Go has picked Discord since. thankfully for us, we have always had that kind quality component. Um, at least that's kind of how I've always thought of it as, um, we've always been a very open minded community. back in the day, we were also popular because we ran like a map and this is back when mapping was, allowed rather not like totally shut down and, poo-pooed by Niantic. And we, we as a, as group have always said, no spoofers, anybody who was spoofing to the map where we posted, you know, research or, or hundos, they were, they were kicked. There was, there was just no benefit that Spoofers would have that we, we always thought it was against the spirit of the game. And, um, it was something that I think that we still stand by, you know, no cheating, none of that stuff. But I think having a map was something that we had the wool pulled over on our own eyes for a while. I think we had convinced ourselves that having a map and having, a community that was, paying us on Patreon to upkeep that as well too, was something that we Helped the crew out because it's a lot of parents. It's a lot of people with full time jobs who work more than 40 hours a week. Who, wanted that Hundo Shinx or whatever it was, you know, because that's their favorite Pokemon and they wanted to chase that. And there was like a, a fun component. We'd get a notification that there'd be an unknown and it would be 25 minutes away and the timer for it is 28 minutes. And I remember my wife and I, we would. throw on our shoes, jump into the car, race to that spot, and we'd get the unknown. And it was like so much fun for that, but it was fake in a way. And I don't think that like any of my efforts there are, invalidated because of how I got those. But I do think that when the community ambassador program rolled around and we took a step back and looked, At whether or not what we were doing was like valid. We sort of said, I think we probably need to move past this. And there wasn't a big upset about it. There was definitely people who were confused about it when we had moved away from it, but. It really felt like we had grown up at that point. We had stuck around and we'd been a community and we'd built our community off of some of that to some, to some extent. It wasn't just, you know, having a map was what made us popular. we had people on the ground in Ravenswood, in Bridgeport, in all these locations within Chicago, making genuine efforts for doing raids, raid trains, especially. Gosh, those were so much fun. Back day, and we wouldn't have been able to do raid trains had it not been for having a map. but now that Niantic has put out Campfire and that gives us a map, it just gives us the tools that we need to be able to support our community. And I think it was a natural jumping off point when we said goodbye to our mapping efforts, That coincided with going and applying for community ambassador and, they were understanding. I don't think I ever had like a direct conversation with them about that, but I was very forthright about it when I had applied for, ambassadorship. I said, you know, this is stuff that we did in the past and I don't think that we were in a bad place for doing it, but I also understand that it, you know, pretty hard is against TOS. And so we've dropped those efforts. We don't have that stuff anymore. since then, it's been great. Honestly, I was really worried about when talking about growing the community, I was really worried about Campfire because it felt like diluting. Our discord efforts, just if that makes sense. I don't know if any other ambassadors have thought about that or said that. And I'm sure that there's ambassadors that have come into playing Pokemon Go only because Campfire exists. but being a community as large as we are pre campfire, it felt like almost an attack where we were like, well, we, We can't have both. You know, we have to choose one, right? Um, and that
David Hernandez:felt like he was more of a black and white, like you either got to do campfire or nothing else, or you have to use discord. You didn't
KnifeLaughLove:I think maybe when they initially announced it, that's kind of how it felt, and then Not too long after, it was just the idea of, well, we'll use Campfire as a Discord recruitment tool, We'll, have a link on our Campfire that says, Gummin and Discord, this is where we do our business. And, man, real quick after Campfire launched, You know, we went, we had a couple hundred, a thousand, we met that mark, and I think now we're over 4, 000 on Campfire, which is not the largest, but for a major metropolitan, a pretty good size. and it's absolutely a, component to our larger community. There are people that are on both. And I think that, People who are clued in or play this game in a more like, not legit or not rigid. What's the word I'm thinking of? Like a more dedicated way. You know, they're on both because they want to be able to have access to anything that's happening between trade channels or between friend channels or neighborhood channels that we have set up. And I can't tell you how many people I've met at our post Campfire events that have said, I just don't understand Discord. I don't get it. Too hard, too difficult. Campfire though? Campfire has a little square built right into the app that we all use, you know? And Campfire has the sign off from Niantic. It's like a part of the game and the social part of the game where you can talk to others and you need to communicate and you need to coordinate. It's just necessary. And so while I still think discord is our home, especially since it's got the longevity, I, especially as an ambassador, I'm using campfire a lot. and I, when I post, when I post every one announcement, I make sure that I have them both written up in both platforms and then I send them both at the same time. Cause I cannot be the person who tags, and then tags 10 minutes later. I just can't I can't be that guy. So, so quality control is, is a, is a component of being a community ambassador too, you know,
David Hernandez:So you know, talked about how y'all used to do run the maps, you know, y'all were the, that was thing. And, you know, we had mapping here in our area too.
KnifeLaughLove:I think of understood.
David Hernandez:have the same justification to where like, well, as long as you're physically going out there, then, you know, you're actually playing
KnifeLaughLove:Yeah. You're playing the game.
David Hernandez:Yeah. But then the primary also part was at the time we didn't have a way to see rates. You had go based on just you're local. And that's what the mass back then really helped with and how I justified it as well to where if we didn't have the math, we couldn't do the rate change that we're doing. We couldn't do
KnifeLaughLove:a
David Hernandez:50 raids day. Yeah.
KnifeLaughLove:We couldn't do that, we couldn't, you couldn't wafu for sure, no way, you
David Hernandez:Yeah, and then just, you know, now that Campfire has, it kind of just milled out the reason to have the maps outside of you just wanting to do hundos or shundos or get perfect stats or do quests. So it kind of lessened the reason to have mapping. So I kind understand like how you shifted to being pro maps to now becoming a community ambassador and not seeing much of the need because Niantic finally provided an in game map for you to do raids. So yeah.
KnifeLaughLove:I think, I think you're, summarizing it in a way that makes a lot of sense. and it makes a lot of sense for me because I think that it was easier for us to clean break. We didn't apply for ambassadorship when it first started because we didn't know if this was going worth it. when Campfire came out, you know, the map was there, but Campfire is still at this point, kind of a touchy app. You know, it's not really a perfect thing. Trying to select text. in the app is reason enough to be frustrated
David Hernandez:Look, I just want to have the option to be able to organize my groups in Niantic. So if you happen to listen to this, a
KnifeLaughLove:Oh, groups. Yeah, Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it's, it's definitely, due for some sort of, overhaul, but, we can we can get into
David Hernandez:I had throw that in there just in case somebody's listening case y'all listen, that's my only ask
KnifeLaughLove:I'll submit that as feedback for you to Niantic.
David Hernandez:okay. No, you don't have to do that.
KnifeLaughLove:You know what, David? I'm gonna do it anyways.
David Hernandez:Okay. Well, I can't stop you. You're all the way in Chicago. But, but then the other thing I wanted touch on was you talked about, you know, how important campfire is and campfire, you can do a lot of things with it. And even for me, cause I was like, why would I want to touch campfire? Because I'm disco I'm pro discord. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm tough to China. Just the things, you know, I'm used to doing discord. I was reluctant to go to discord and I stuck with Facebook and then finally went to discord. loved it. I was reluctant to go to campfire, you know, y'all know, it's a pattern here if y'all listening, campfire has so many options to where you can light flares at the raids. You can even promote in a way events. So like sometimes what we'll do is we'll be the raid boss. And then we'll say like, Hey, come to our community day at such and such time and post it as part of the bragging channel. And people see that.
KnifeLaughLove:Yeah.
David Hernandez:So it has ways to where you can kind of market your events as well as, be able to kind of connect with people who may not be on. Discord and discord, you know, it's a huge step. It's a whole learning process for some people. And it kind of intimidates people, which, you know, it's fair.
KnifeLaughLove:It's really cool to be able to do this without a monetary component. I said earlier that we were on Patreon and that is true. People did pay to get access to the map and we had different levels of that, but we would always use that money. Back into the community. We'd make one inch buttons and we'd hand them out at events and we still do that. I think we're actually just doing it out of our own pocket at this point because we aren't making any money off of this, but we, like you mentioned, being able to market and bring more people into this. It's not necessarily just like a numbers game, but it is more fun when you have more people. and in Chicago, because it's a place that people move to and from so often, like I said before, there's. Always new people at events and campfire is built into the game and easy to find that stuff. They see we have our location right at Lincoln Park Zoo. and that's not necessarily in the middle of the city, you know, it's not in the heart of the city. It's not in the loop, but I do think that, because of GoFest and that being in Lincoln Park, In a popular time in 2018, when Niantic proved themselves, they really could do that. I think that's when they proved to the world that they were like, we can do this. Last year was fluke. I think that having it there, especially since the zoo is free as well, it's really easy for people to see that and find it. I love using emoji in our events and posts because it helps them stand out a little bit, right? As ambassadors, when you market. your events and your next things that you have going on. It really is to me, well, to me, at least it's very much, I want everyone to know that we're doing this. If you're in this game and you've opened Campfire, I want you to know that we are out here. if you're playing this and want more, more than just a curve ball, that's excellent. If you want more, you've got a place to, do more with this. There's so many friendships and relationships that have built just from Pokemon Go. It's so cool. and so being an ambassador is like representing that, continuing that on. And it's such a point pride for me to be, leading. A larger group, but you know, a group that really cares for one another and cares about the experience of others. so that's also really cool being able to turn folks who are consistently there and recognizable and approachable and fun. And like charismatic people, these like diverse people that I probably wouldn't say hello to on the street. Or if I saw them on the train, I probably just, keep my head down and listen to, you know, the, the hate breed in my headphones, you know, I just wouldn't, think anything of them. But like, because we have this thing, it, It makes me see and find and appreciate all different types of trainers and people who are all over the world, I assume, and know, but really especially those that are here in Chicago.
David Hernandez:My last question in regards to just being a community ambassador. there's a lot of people who are either on the other side, or they're still trying to build a community or they don't know how. You know, what advice would you give to somebody who's trying to build up a Pokemon Go community in their area? Ha
KnifeLaughLove:That's a great question. I get that question in DMs a lot on Campfire and never on Discord, of course. But again, the power of Campfire there. my general response is make events, make sure that your crew understands that checking into these events will help them. you know, that's not just help them get, A community ambassador, which can help bubble up their frustrations or their feedback, their, their positives. But also as the community grows, it gives you other tools. It gives you a flag, gives you some wristbands, you know, prizes to give the most important thing outside of creating check ins that I tell people is just to be authentic. I've had, A person in my group whose name is Ravens, um, Invincible Ravens. And he's a really cool guy. He's just really interesting. And he lives out in the suburbs. And, while we do reach out there, like our, Chicagoland area, like is in the area that he's in, he saw a need for a little bit more of like a focused group there. And he's been doing a fun job. And. My thing that I see with him and what I told him and what I tell others is just you have to do like your authentic own thing. My thing, use a lot of emojis, make jokes in my announcements, posts, congratulate people and create this warm, welcome environment. But like, if that's not you, if you're more sarcastic, if you're more of like a guy who ribs another, then do that, man. Like you'll find the people that appreciate that. And that stay with that community. So I think being authentic, finding those that also appreciate that, and then getting the logistics of events created and getting the check ins all in, you know, all the, all the, the detail work there is super important well. I think as cliche as it sounds, I think you just, can't build a proper community when you like fake right? You have to be real.
