You forgot to mention the best part of the Google maps prank: if you caught all 151, which included randomly scanning the Amazon rainforest for 8 hours to find Mew, they actually mailed you a set of official google business cards declaring you “hired” as Google’s official Pokémon Master. I still have mine. I love them.
@@JustBenNotBenjamin I Love that your still so stuck with the actual pokemon go mechanics you dont realize people just had to look at the planet with the map app.
we actually had a huge revival of our downtown parks because people were out well past sundown in huge numbers through what was previously some pretty sketchy walkthroughs after dark. After 2016 all of a sudden we had huge overhauls of parks infrastructure to keep everything lit up and well kept after dark to keep foot traffic, they became much safer after that, even when the massive crowds dropped off.
I was living in Japan in 2017 and one of my favourite Pokemon Go memories was befriending this 50ish-year-old guy at the local exercise park which was a hotspot for PokeStops. I didn't speak much Japanese at the time but he invited me to take down a nearby raid with his friends, two other chain-smoking dudes in their 50s. We lost, but then a couple of kids on bikes rolled up, asked if we were doing the raid, whipped out their phones and we took it down together. It was a Pokemon I didn't have yet and they were all so stoked for me, too. It was just such a lovely moment of connection and made me feel that little bit more settled in my tiny corner of Japan.
I remember this vividly because my brother passed away in spring 2016 when i was 14, & i was really depressed obviously and had to move to a new house and stuff, and when this game came out it was the only way i could get myself to leave the house and go for a walk. I've always loved pokemon so much, my brother showed me pokemon emerald when i was 5 and playing has never left my life. So i was really excited that more people were being exposed to pokemon and i could talk about it to pretty much anyone. Its crazy though that pokemon go is the reason people's bodies were found quicker or at all, i forgot about that happening completely. (edited cus i made a typo) Great video & nostalgia for the only bittersweet time for me that year.
Thank you for sharing that. I started to play because my fiance loved Pokemon and didn't wanna play alone. She passed in October 2016. I quit for a few years, but started playing again for her right before the pandemic hit.
im really sorry for your loss, it sounds like you really cared about your brother. im glad the game had a good impact for you. i didnt share that kind of motivation, but ive also kept playing because its one of the few ways that motivates me to take a random walk and yeah, its an easy and enjoyable icebreaker
My favorite memory of that time was my neighbour ( who is 52) shouted theres a snorlax by the dumpsters! ( this was at 10pm) and at least a dozen nearby neighbours went outside in slippers shuffling to the dumpster for their imaginary buddy lmao
A few weeks after it came out summer break just started and litterally every day i just ate breakfast, threw a battery pack, a bottle of water and some food in a backpack and just went out for the entire day. It was the most active i had ever been while struggling with weight issues. I explored so much of my neighborhood i had never seen before, sometimes reaching up to around 50-60km a day. All because of a “dumb” little game. It was so good.
same here. I walked so much that I discovered parts of town I never knew existed. Before Pokemon Go, I would look at a map and think a mile was too far or that going to a gym was overwhelming. Over the last 7 years, Pokemon Go helped me stay in shape even if I'm not the most athletic guy
It was so wild to be out at 2am and still see a ton of people up & walking/running around in the small city I was staying in at the time. There wasn’t a “dead night” that entire summer. I feel like *every single* younger adult I knew 21 all the way to 35 had the app installed, if not used it every day
I still play Pokémon go, and I’ve used it to bond with friends and my family. It’s been one of the most important things for me growing up. Pokémon Go has grown up with me.
when pokemon go first came out, i was 16 and my little brother was an angsty 14 year old who didn’t want to hang out with me anymore. i’ll never forget that first weekend of pokemon go where him and i spent hours driving to different parks and walking around pokemon hunting together. it felt like we were little kids again.
The irony is as an outdoorsy 20 year old who loved Pokémon, I actually got my first smartphone specifically to play PokeGo and now I have a crippling screen addiction
As someone who still plays this game every single day this video really made me smile and even tear up a little bit. I have my whole life since the game came out of memories that involve this game. Pokémon caught during certain times that I just hold on to cause I remember what was going on when I caught them and the good times around them. I’ve gotten married, bought my first house, made a ton of new friends, gone to a bunch of concerts and lived life to the fullest and this game has always been there for me. I will play it every single day that its available because as silly as it sounds, it really does give me a reason to get up and go out into the world. Thank you for this video guys.
I recently reached level 50 and that's definitely true for me too. I'm 17 years old so Pokemon GO has been a part of almost half my life. I remember specifically one time my mom wondering when she got her glasses, and I instantly knew the date was February 16, 2017, because gen 2 had just released and I got to go to a big city with her and caught my first Phanpy. Stuff like that is why I really love this game, it really becomes embedded into everything and in a good way, not in the way you imagine games taking over people's lives.
glad im not the only one shedding a tear! I miss this moment in time. Maybe it's just a byproduct of getting older but man this felt like the last global phenomenon that brought alot of people together and made alot of people more active
@@CantTellYou I don't think Pokémon go had a predecessor, the company that made it (Niantic) had made made a similar game previously called Ingress maybe that's what your thinking of?
@@MrZorx i may be much older than you (34 as of writing) but your commnet about pokemon being much of your life really resonates with me, because i was 7 when pokemon first came to the US! you think pokego was big, that first surge in the 90s was INSANE it was EVERYWHERE and i was part of it. suddenly i had an easier time talking to other kids and making friends! all because i could name every pokemon and had a charizard card! and now decades later i can still strike up convos because my daily playing has netted me quite the shiny collection .D. (got a shiny darumaka this week!!) So, idk, it feels nice that kids keep feeling the same community surges i did. time is a circle (positive)
I was in a band on tour when this game came out and it couldn’t of been better timing. Pokémon hunting between shows in new cities was the most I ever felt connected to new communities I was visiting
Same here! Was on our first tour outside of alaska to do a run on warped. Being a bunch of kids from small town alaska going to major cities and playing pokemon with your bandmates was the best. We were all on mystic and would constantly do gym runs.
It was definitely nice to experience that community aspect. There has never been anything else like it. As someone who goes on walks every day, it was so nice to see places filled with people, and it serves as an easy excuse to talk with and meet new people. Shame it only lasted a couple of weeks.
the initial boom in players when it first came out may have died down but that’s typical of every game ever released yk? there’s still an active community of pokémon go players around the world! nintendo wouldn’t have made a new $50 gadget earlier this year to go along w the gameplay hunting if they didn’t have millions of players to market it towards
My friend is an elementary school teacher, and her school was approached by Niantic before Pokemon Go was released to beta test it, so she's been playing even before the game was launched. They reached out to school teachers to see if they thought it would reach young people and would be a method for them to get outside, but not necessarily get them off their screens (since the effort of getting them off screens would be too much of a stretch at once). This also caused a lot of young kids to start playing the game very soon after it launched because their teachers were playing it! They still send the beta testing teachers merch from big pokemon go events, my friend gave me some of hers from a recent event.
I still play Pokémon Go! There is still quite a large, lively community. It is honestly worth revisiting if you haven’t played in a while. In-game events are always a blast, and meeting up with other players is so much fun. I am always surprised by the turnout during event days. We like to play at a local university, and we always run into others who are playing.
It's such a pleasant surprise because there's usually that moment of disbelief followed by sheer joy (or embarrassment because they're like "I haven't played that in years" and then they walk away)
Living in New York City during that summer was something different. I don’t think I will ever feel that connected to so many people I don’t know. Not even concerts, festivals, or sporting events can really compare to an entire city participating in something that I truly love
My husband and I got married in the middle of July the summer of Pokémon Go. We spent hours walking together catching Pokémon, and on our honeymoon we spent sat on a beach and defending a gym. 10/10 would marry him again.
I was 16 when Go came out and in the middle of my summer vacation in Florida. Me, my brother and cousins spent hours walking around hunting down Pokemon. We went to the pier and it was insane, there were SO many people playing the game, all having fun together and just hanging out. Looking back, that was such a cool, unique experience and I'm really glad I was there for it.
Bro I seen u commenting on coaster youtubers with >10K subs... it just shows your a genuine person who actually watches other youtubers, which always puts a smile on my face. So many people with millions just treat this platform as a job and don't watch or comment on other youtubers. So its refreshing seeing greater youtubers also watching great videos.
@@Sonic-gy7kq Seriously usually when you see big channels commenting on others it’s when they’re views are dying down but that’s not the case at all for CZ
I remember when they would go down, some of us would sit in the grass/benches and just chat while we waited for the servers to start back up. I also remember some people who were too into the game, who would throw an actual tantrum in public. Those days taught me the difference between a fan and a fanatic.
When Pokemon Go came out in 2016, I was living in Tokyo and had just finished my final year of highschool. Some of my friends had already returned to their respective home countries for university, but I was stuck there for a few more months with nothing to do all day. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. Me and my remaining friends weren't into Pokemon at all, but we ended up hanging out multiple times a week, travelling all around the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area by train, chasing rumors of rare Pokemon being found in various places via Facebook groups and those really shitty third-party Pokemon hunting websites. There was one moment when we arrived at a public playground where Onyx was meant to spawn often, and it was absolutely full of salarymen in suits with zero children to be seen. Just men in their early 20's - 40's standing around, cigarettes in hand, staring at virtual pocket monsters on their phones. Me and my friends made friends with a few of the younger ones and even added some of them on Facebook. It would have been a bizarre enough sight on its own, then suddenly someone yelled out that Onyx had spawned a kilometer down the street. I don't think I will ever again see such a large group of men in suits sprinting so quickly down the street, nor will I ever again be sprinting among them.
Me and my now husband met in 2016. I will forever treasure the memories of that summer. Running around town at all hours, catching pokemon, and falling in love
The launch in Japan happened a couple of weeks later than in the US but oh, when it did... I remember being in Yoyogi park outside Harajuku, and it was insane. Tokyo is always crowded, but it was 11pm and it was BUMPIN, there were food trucks everywhere selling out of everything, people jogging across the park to get to one thing or another, endless lures... it was incredible. And so fun.
i was in summer school when it came out, and i’ll never forget our teacher stopping the class and making us all go to the pokestop together. truly a great moment.
You guys are right. My fondest memory of playing Go was during its first year. My friends and I hooked up to one battery bank and walked around a massive park catching Pokémon. Good times.
I had major surgery the weekend Pokémon go came out and felt so sad about missing out because I couldn’t leave the hospital. After I got out I couldn’t walk very much for several weeks. But I still made happy memories because friends came over to drive me around my town so that I could play too ❤️❤️
That summer was amazing. I remember a Snorlax showing up and a hundred people sprinting to the area. The energy was off the charts. WHY COULDN'T THERE HAVE BEEN PVP?!?!?!? So close, Niantic... so close to perfection.
@@leotheliongames that said I think it is a good thing more complex gameplay came out a little too late. Imagine pvp came out from the beginning, just a few days and there would be someone got shot by a bitter loser, and the game would receive fatal backlash. At least now those who continued to play are those who are in truly for the love of the game, and appreciate the game so much not to ruin it with individual-caused incidents.
my first community day i was at a park for a user made event with a raffle, and it paused as we all ran to a corner specifically because a snorlax had spawned. that was the closest i got to those crowded rushes you saw on the news
Your community college story hit me so hard. This game came out the summer after graduating high school, and I was the only one of my friends not moving away for college. My friends and I spent the whole first couple weekends driving around playing Pokemon Go. It took us to places in our home town we had never even been to before, and prompted so many hilarious moments between our selves and groups of strangers. I lost contact with that group after the first year of college, but I continued playing pokemon during all of my community college classes lol. I met a bunch of people on campus because of the game who made a discord server to organize raid parties and trades etc. I still play regularly to this day, and a few of the players from my community college do to, and because of the postcard mechanic I can see where in the country everyone moved to!
I’ll never forget everyone being outside randomly in the same place. We’d all be meeting at a bus stop freaking out looking at our phones as some guy is just waiting there confused
My partner befriended a Japanese family on the bus despite an almost complete language barrier, because the family noticed he was playing Pokemon Go. That was the only real-life interaction he ever had with this family, but they still send each other gifts in the app regularly. It's very sweet.
To see SOOOO many people out and about, walking around in huge packs in downtown Houston, was a crazy unifying moment in time. It was one thing to grow up in the pokemania late 90s but this was a next level bc you saw all the fans outside instead of being at home playing Pokémon on their ds.
I remember chilling with few strangers in my small town and setting two lures at pokecenters that were right next to each other, and within about 10 minutes an entire crowd of people had gathered to catch as many Pokemon as possible. We quite literally summoned a small army, we could have marched on City Hall Those first few months of Pokemon Go were incredible
There was a major downtown park near where I lived when this came out, and I remember picking my friends up and going there daily that summer, and tackle gyms near our houses on our way back. It was a magical time.
This was one of the few times where even people who didn't know what Pokemon was, who never played a video game before, gave it a try and we were able to make that connection. I felt seen, they understood why games meant so much to me. I'll never forget how excited we were, all the new places we decided to go just to see if there were Pokestops there, it genuinely got me into healthier habits and reignited my interest in exploring the world.
Summer after my graduation. Me and the boys all worked terrible high school jobs just to get enough money to buy beer and party. Afterward, we'd just wonder our small town and play Pokemon Go til the sun came up without a care in the world. Such a magical moment in history I'll always cherish.
It's amazing how Pokémon Go was a fad but at the same time cemented itself in Pop Culture. It was huge for the Pokémon Company Nintendo and every other entity that has a stake in Pokémon. It got people into Pokémon that would have otherwise never gotten into the trading cards or Nintendo games and when they played Pokémon go with their friends they started getting more and more into Pokémon as a whole.
My dad was forced into retirement last summer due to health problems, and he found Pokemon go. He's been playing for almost a year now, and he has slowly roped me and my brother back into it for the community bonding time you were talking about
Man, I haven’t played Pokémon go since like 2018, but jeez, those initial few months of the game were awesome. If you saw someone outside with their phone out, it was a safe bet, they’re trying to catch Pokémon. I wish I could time-travel back to summer 2016, just to relive that.
I remember the wonderful time in July 2016. The timing was perfect for my little brother and I, I was 16 years old and he was 14. At the release, the Easter vacations began and our parents took us on a vacation to a vacation island in Germany, Rügen. We played the game for 3 weeks with dozens of people our own age and made lots of friends.
I have been playing the game ever since 2016, and it's only gotten better, I love it so much. What I like most about the game is the community, the local and the online community. I could go to a random town of 10K people and still randomly meet people playing the game to do a raid with.
Having y’all recall the release of the app day by day took me back to my hometown & watching every night get more and more crowded over the weekend ❤ That was magical… and before they patched the ability to steal a defeated gym from another time just by good timing. Hearing their collective GROAN as we scurried away… what a wonderful time 😂
I graduated high school in 2016 as well, and spending that last summer with all my buddies running around hunting Pokémon before everyone moved away was truly special.
12:18 as a skater who also plays pokemon go, (sometimes at the same time if I'm just cruising) I find it hilarious that "skater falls off board" would make headlines anywhere unless someone is trying to be a fear monger, or the fall was like what happened to Tony Willie who flew off the roof of a three story building a while back. We fall off our boards all the time, it's part of the sport, some of the falls hurt sure, but it isn't like we didn't sign up for it, even if you are just cruising, one tiny crack in the sidewalk can send you flying if you hit it wrong
Pokemon Go came out during one my of summer breaks from college when I was just sitting at home with nothing to do, and it got my sister and I to finally walk to the park near our house for the first time and we met a really cute and fluffy black cat along the way that I still think about 6 years later 🤗
I remember the summer this came out going to visit my best friend at his college and seeing a wedding happening on campus. We were walking around campus during the time of the wedding reception and the bride and groom had left their own wedding reception to go catch Pokémon and people from the wedding were looking for them. Knew right then and there that wouldn’t be a cultural moment like this happening for a long time.
My biggest takeaway is that there have always been tons of dead bodies outside, we just only noticed them when we had a reason to go outside for that one summer.
Pokemon Go GO fest is this exact feeling still to this day. It's one weekend a year. All weekend is special event pokemon, rotating biomes, new/returning raids and a lot of people out on the streets hanging out playing pokemon. Go to your nearest city and you'll meet thousands of players with the same level of excitement all coming together.
I was a camp counselor during this summer so I had to deal with campers and other counselors spending all their time catching Pokémon. At the time I had an older phone so I couldn’t play it myself so I was a bit jealous. Just a few years ago I finally got the app and convinced my brother to do Pokémon go with me. While I didn’t get the community that everyone had that first week, I like remembering the times where my brother and I would just walk together in our local park catching Pokémon. I work at a library in that park (and it happens to be a gym) and I still see people come in all the time playing the game.
For someone who didn't even play Pokemon Go I have a lot of great memories around it funny enough. Namely, it brought out a lot of my young adult friends to move around outdoors and it was such an experience going to the park and just seeing it packed with people socializing with each other. It was a very warm feeling going out to get ice cream and seeing packs of friends and strangers alike socializing.
I'm so glad this channel has taken off. You guys have such a fun dynamic, and it makes me miss living in the same house as my sister (but in a good, cathartic sort of way.) We used to watch Eddy's videos together all the time, and I recommend the Burback vids to her whenever a new one comes out. Keep on keepin on, boys!
I remember Pokémon Go starting, I was in college (which was the perfect place to start playing because I walked to classes everyday). So many conversations about teams and full departments of students walking downtown like gangs taking over gyms. I also fully believe that was also a surge in external battery packs for phones because the app drained your cellphone battery like crazy. You mentioned the crime and the bodies…. But how could you forget that this was the SAME SUMMER as the creepy clown sightings all over the US??
I'm so sad I missed the initial wave of the game due to my life and job and at the time. That was a weird and magical moment where Pokemon became mainstream again.
I turned 16 and got my drivers license that Summer, the combination of finally having the freedom to drive wherever I want + the Pokémon Go craze was magical
me and my friends have recently gotten back into pokémon go (like in the past month or so) and it has been SO fun to play together! They have added so many new features and events to the game and it’s such a fun activity and excuse to go on a walk once or more a day
Started playing when it dropped in 2016 (like everyone) but stopped shortly after. Logged back in recently to play with kids (theyre finally interested) and it was nostalgic. Still had some 2016 eggs to hatch too.
I started playing poke go on 2022! It was so sweet to go to the community day events every month and meet with sooo many other people, 500 guys in the same park simply bc we love psyduck... (i know i do) but that's not why i wanted to comment, i just wanted to say that the last time i went to a community day the first thing we saw as soon as we arrived at the park was, of course, a corpse. Great video!!!
Words could not describe that summer, I enjoyed it so much. Just the silly little idea if catching pokemon in the real world with my friends is something I never knew I needed.
0:16 I was there when this was going on. It was so funny hearing people shout about a high level or rare pokemon and just seeing a massive group of people just immediately book it in that direction.
as someone who's never stopped playing and does so regularly (going outside does improve my qol), the game has improved so much! there's very frequent events, including rare or even regional mons, community days have shiny rates boosted, and yes there are people still playing! last community day in december i ddint catch as many mons as i wanted because i was really enjoying chatting with a new friend i made who was originally from across the country. the game isnt free of problems, but its very enjoyable even for casual people and i really enjoy the friendships ive made via it. its a good vehicle for me.
I had my university orientation that summer and it was absolutely amazing. I grew up in a small town, so seeing gyms and Pokestops everywhere blew my mind.
I remember the summer of Pokemon Go. It was the first real holiday I had with my parents, we went to a caravan park near a seaside town. I didnt play it, but I remember how much busier the streets were, my dad swearing about people walking in the road and just the sheer shock of how massive it got. Being called a geek or nerd for playing Pokemon when it wasnt popular and then seeing those same critics going mad for it.
Every now and then i see small groups of people with phones connected to power banks in their backpacks walking together, and it always puts a smile on my face :)
This summer was one of the best of my life. I went on a trip through Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas then flew to Washington State and Pokemon Go guided me through cities on this wild adventure
Summer 2016 was mystical.. despite that I was stuck in a small mostly Mennonite town with barely anything to do, I remember playing Pokémon Go on my iPod 5 at the library (only place we could find with wifi that had a gym or a stop lol) but it was still so fun?? I still play PG, started again during the pandemic, if it had the features then that it does now, I rly think it would’ve held on for longer than just a fad
I still play Pokemon Go, it's still a great game. Always new events, new Pokemon only available for a limited time etc, always some new thing to keep you playing. Plus it's free with no ads, that fact alone makes it worth it.
I remember when me and my father would go rollerblading together and would stop every so often to pull out his tablet so we could catch Pokémon. I remember this so fondly even if it's a bit fuzzy and I think it's helped the bond I have with my dad, it being so connected and intertwined with gaming all my life. I owe a lot of my good memories with my father to Pokémon Go, as crazy as it sounds.
Having this throughout highschool and college has been an integral part of every year. I was even able to make some lifelong friends in college when I first started after the pandemic just from meeting kids through raids while I was on campus at my university
It’s really hard to explain to people who weren’t into it that first summer just how awesome it was. Regular meetups with your friends to go around random spots in town and take gyms for as long as you could. I was working at an online marketing firm that summer and the entire office took regular breaks to go out and catch what we could, and we even got to make some marketing campaigns trying to get gyms added to businesses. I still play regularly though usually in adventure mode with the game tracking my steps from my pocket.
The Pokémon go time was great. There was this spot you could sit and had multiple poké stops and we would go there pretty much every night and people would hangout, listen to music and catch Pokemon and we were all complete strangers just having fun: It was great.
Favorite memory was during the first week of the game. Some friends and I were at our local park at the lure hot spot in the middle of the night, along with a decent group of others, when a Charizard spawned nearby. Not nearly as big as the ones in NYC, but we had a legit stampede of about 30-50 people all running to the same spot once someone found it.
I’m recovering from a foot and ankle injury and part of my therapy is to walk a lot. It’s made me get back into Pokémon Go more than ever. I genuinely think there is a resurgence in players because, in just the last few weeks alone, I’ve seen more people out playing. I’ve even noticed several new poke stops pop up. It’s kinda cool. Feels like a little echo of the 2016 craze.
One of the best spots in the midwest was Lake Park in Milwaukee. I still remember discovering it on my own with friends. Wandering through the woods up a hill through a drainage ditch in the dark (not knowing the path was 10ft away) to come around the corner to the waterfall and find people sitting on the rocks from top to bottom on their phones. It was so dark all you could see was the lights from their phones like fireflies, and all i heard before getting closer was someone playing the Pokemon theme song on their speaker. Was such a cool experience
Thank you for documenting one of the wildest times of the mid 2000s. People may know Pokémon Go but having something to point to that explains the context of its release is great lol
My sheriff's department commissioned me and a few college classmates to make a Pokemon Go safety video several months after the game peaked, and it's about as much of a relic as you could imagine.
I can't believe we're rapidly coming up on ten years later. It was magical watching my city basically turn out its pockets and dump everyone onto the streets to socialize and walk around completely organically. I remember counting the number of restaurant signboards offering discounts based on what team you picked in game, and the throngs of people in the city parks taking a breather from doing loops around the area, many of them learning where new interesting places were because the game called them out as locations. And everyone seemed to be in a good mood. You'd fall in with a group of random people, chatting about the game as you walked down the street to the lure that just lit up and meet up with a stadium-event sized crowd where you'd eventually shuffle into another group and go off with them for a while. I miss that time.
Obviously the summer of 2016 was the biggest point in pokemon go for a lot of people but my friend convinced me to get back into it at Uni in 2019 and it kept me going during the pandemic. Summers of 2020/2021 when you could go on a 3 hr walk and feel like you're actually progressing and the chance to run into someone not from your own house really helped me during lockdowns
Honestly Pokemon GO was the first time that me and my siblings (as adults) played anything together. And we took their kids to the park several times a week just to play. So the kids were on the jungle gyms, the adults were doing laps around the lake at our park. And people would be barbecuing and just having a fun time bonding over pokemon. Like.. honestly. even though the hype died down a lot, in 2023 i was able to befriend a coworker at my new job because we both played Pokemon GO and we became buddies and it's still fun. It was a fun time to be able to socialize. And Pokemon GO made me want to go around my city and hang out with people. And I rarely ever do that lol
i am deathly afraid of twins i hope there aren’t any in this video
Eddy do NOT watch the show Zack and Cody, just trust me
NEVER watch Liv & Maddie
Bad news man…you might wanna sit down for this.
I was just watching the twin video when this video was posted
there are MANY twins
You forgot to mention the best part of the Google maps prank: if you caught all 151, which included randomly scanning the Amazon rainforest for 8 hours to find Mew, they actually mailed you a set of official google business cards declaring you “hired” as Google’s official Pokémon Master. I still have mine. I love them.
Did... You go to the Amazon rainforest just to do this? I mean, how was it, that sounds awesome
@@JustBenNotBenjamin No, you just had to scroll around inside Google Maps. Actually going to the Amazon would have been more fun :)
@@JustBenNotBenjamin
I Love that your still so stuck with the actual pokemon go mechanics you dont realize people just had to look at the planet with the map app.
Lore accurate. In the first Pokémon games, it was stated that Mew was discovered in South America.
@@jensvide777 impossible, consistency
we actually had a huge revival of our downtown parks because people were out well past sundown in huge numbers through what was previously some pretty sketchy walkthroughs after dark. After 2016 all of a sudden we had huge overhauls of parks infrastructure to keep everything lit up and well kept after dark to keep foot traffic, they became much safer after that, even when the massive crowds dropped off.
That's so beautiful 😭
thats awesome!
i hope people still use it!
Pokémon Go was a magical time. lol.
I was living in Japan in 2017 and one of my favourite Pokemon Go memories was befriending this 50ish-year-old guy at the local exercise park which was a hotspot for PokeStops. I didn't speak much Japanese at the time but he invited me to take down a nearby raid with his friends, two other chain-smoking dudes in their 50s. We lost, but then a couple of kids on bikes rolled up, asked if we were doing the raid, whipped out their phones and we took it down together. It was a Pokemon I didn't have yet and they were all so stoked for me, too. It was just such a lovely moment of connection and made me feel that little bit more settled in my tiny corner of Japan.
Good story but there were no raids in 2017
@@HedgeyyRaids were introduced in 2017.
Hmmmm@@angelm4789
what a noob to think no raids in 2017@@Hedgeyy
@@Hedgeyynice try you failed to realize raids came out 2017, you fool
The surge of Pokemon popularity that summer caused was what allowed me to go full time with Pokemon RUclips the following year
This comment REALLY helps me get an idea of how big it was considering it's friggin Michael "Hottest Poketuber" Groth saying this
Ey it’s micky.
and you went on to give us all amazing content. Hello mikey!
hi mikey
hi mikey
I remember this vividly because my brother passed away in spring 2016 when i was 14, & i was really depressed obviously and had to move to a new house and stuff, and when this game came out it was the only way i could get myself to leave the house and go for a walk. I've always loved pokemon so much, my brother showed me pokemon emerald when i was 5 and playing has never left my life. So i was really excited that more people were being exposed to pokemon and i could talk about it to pretty much anyone.
Its crazy though that pokemon go is the reason people's bodies were found quicker or at all, i forgot about that happening completely. (edited cus i made a typo) Great video & nostalgia for the only bittersweet time for me that year.
Thank you for sharing that.
I started to play because my fiance loved Pokemon and didn't wanna play alone. She passed in October 2016. I quit for a few years, but started playing again for her right before the pandemic hit.
im really sorry for your loss, it sounds like you really cared about your brother. im glad the game had a good impact for you.
i didnt share that kind of motivation, but ive also kept playing because its one of the few ways that motivates me to take a random walk and yeah, its an easy and enjoyable icebreaker
Don't tell Eddy Burback this but you guys are my favorite Burbacks on RUclips.
I don’t know who this edy guy is, but there’s 1 burback
@@jtgdhe’s referring to eddy “ninepins” burback
dude i’m telling eddy and he’s gonna be PISSED
My favorite memory of that time was my neighbour ( who is 52) shouted theres a snorlax by the dumpsters! ( this was at 10pm) and at least a dozen nearby neighbours went outside in slippers shuffling to the dumpster for their imaginary buddy lmao
A few weeks after it came out summer break just started and litterally every day i just ate breakfast, threw a battery pack, a bottle of water and some food in a backpack and just went out for the entire day. It was the most active i had ever been while struggling with weight issues. I explored so much of my neighborhood i had never seen before, sometimes reaching up to around 50-60km a day. All because of a “dumb” little game. It was so good.
same here. I walked so much that I discovered parts of town I never knew existed. Before Pokemon Go, I would look at a map and think a mile was too far or that going to a gym was overwhelming. Over the last 7 years, Pokemon Go helped me stay in shape even if I'm not the most athletic guy
It was so wild to be out at 2am and still see a ton of people up & walking/running around in the small city I was staying in at the time. There wasn’t a “dead night” that entire summer.
I feel like *every single* younger adult I knew 21 all the way to 35 had the app installed, if not used it every day
>50-60km of walking in a day as an overweight person
>Press F to doubt
@@TheFiendishFive dawg
Thank God for all those Pokemon GO players or those families would never have known where those missing loved ones went.
I’m just surprised they never made Pokémon Go mandatory police work so maybe they can find some bods too
@@CantTellYou thats what I was thinking!
I still play Pokémon go, and I’ve used it to bond with friends and my family. It’s been one of the most important things for me growing up. Pokémon Go has grown up with me.
same whats your friend code/do you want mine?
same! my friend code is: 4381 5305 9374 @@jena7239
Me too! Mine is 203380258687
Same here friend, daily player since winter of 2016
@@jena7239 064892268492
when pokemon go first came out, i was 16 and my little brother was an angsty 14 year old who didn’t want to hang out with me anymore. i’ll never forget that first weekend of pokemon go where him and i spent hours driving to different parks and walking around pokemon hunting together. it felt like we were little kids again.
The irony is as an outdoorsy 20 year old who loved Pokémon, I actually got my first smartphone specifically to play PokeGo and now I have a crippling screen addiction
Love that for you
chronically online
Get rid of your phone
MEEEE
Same brother. Same.
As someone who still plays this game every single day this video really made me smile and even tear up a little bit. I have my whole life since the game came out of memories that involve this game. Pokémon caught during certain times that I just hold on to cause I remember what was going on when I caught them and the good times around them. I’ve gotten married, bought my first house, made a ton of new friends, gone to a bunch of concerts and lived life to the fullest and this game has always been there for me. I will play it every single day that its available because as silly as it sounds, it really does give me a reason to get up and go out into the world. Thank you for this video guys.
I recently reached level 50 and that's definitely true for me too. I'm 17 years old so Pokemon GO has been a part of almost half my life. I remember specifically one time my mom wondering when she got her glasses, and I instantly knew the date was February 16, 2017, because gen 2 had just released and I got to go to a big city with her and caught my first Phanpy. Stuff like that is why I really love this game, it really becomes embedded into everything and in a good way, not in the way you imagine games taking over people's lives.
glad im not the only one shedding a tear! I miss this moment in time. Maybe it's just a byproduct of getting older but man this felt like the last global phenomenon that brought alot of people together and made alot of people more active
@@BostonBlues what was the one before that?
@@CantTellYou I don't think Pokémon go had a predecessor, the company that made it (Niantic) had made made a similar game previously called Ingress maybe that's what your thinking of?
@@MrZorx i may be much older than you (34 as of writing) but your commnet about pokemon being much of your life really resonates with me, because i was 7 when pokemon first came to the US! you think pokego was big, that first surge in the 90s was INSANE it was EVERYWHERE and i was part of it. suddenly i had an easier time talking to other kids and making friends! all because i could name every pokemon and had a charizard card! and now decades later i can still strike up convos because my daily playing has netted me quite the shiny collection .D. (got a shiny darumaka this week!!)
So, idk, it feels nice that kids keep feeling the same community surges i did. time is a circle (positive)
I was in a band on tour when this game came out and it couldn’t of been better timing. Pokémon hunting between shows in new cities was the most I ever felt connected to new communities I was visiting
couldn’t have, player
Same here! Was on our first tour outside of alaska to do a run on warped. Being a bunch of kids from small town alaska going to major cities and playing pokemon with your bandmates was the best. We were all on mystic and would constantly do gym runs.
Dude, I was also in a band when this happened and honestly setting a lure on the venue we were playing definitely helped ticket sales lmao
It was definitely nice to experience that community aspect. There has never been anything else like it. As someone who goes on walks every day, it was so nice to see places filled with people, and it serves as an easy excuse to talk with and meet new people. Shame it only lasted a couple of weeks.
the initial boom in players when it first came out may have died down but that’s typical of every game ever released yk? there’s still an active community of pokémon go players around the world! nintendo wouldn’t have made a new $50 gadget earlier this year to go along w the gameplay hunting if they didn’t have millions of players to market it towards
This was such a magical little moment in history. Going to the park and seeing all the little packs of people going around. Honestly I loved it. 😊
My friend is an elementary school teacher, and her school was approached by Niantic before Pokemon Go was released to beta test it, so she's been playing even before the game was launched. They reached out to school teachers to see if they thought it would reach young people and would be a method for them to get outside, but not necessarily get them off their screens (since the effort of getting them off screens would be too much of a stretch at once). This also caused a lot of young kids to start playing the game very soon after it launched because their teachers were playing it! They still send the beta testing teachers merch from big pokemon go events, my friend gave me some of hers from a recent event.
I still play Pokémon Go! There is still quite a large, lively community. It is honestly worth revisiting if you haven’t played in a while. In-game events are always a blast, and meeting up with other players is so much fun. I am always surprised by the turnout during event days. We like to play at a local university, and we always run into others who are playing.
It's such a pleasant surprise because there's usually that moment of disbelief followed by sheer joy (or embarrassment because they're like "I haven't played that in years" and then they walk away)
Yes!! Me and my 3 closest friends still play regularly.
Living in New York City during that summer was something different. I don’t think I will ever feel that connected to so many people I don’t know. Not even concerts, festivals, or sporting events can really compare to an entire city participating in something that I truly love
My husband and I got married in the middle of July the summer of Pokémon Go. We spent hours walking together catching Pokémon, and on our honeymoon we spent sat on a beach and defending a gym. 10/10 would marry him again.
This is what I want my future marriage to be like :) woman or man or nonbinary, THIS is what I want
Too sweet, not fear-mongering enough, could never make the news. The kid who scratched his hand on his skateboard tho
@@paolacarmichael611same! Life goals!
Get divorced and do all again!
Pokemon is for males and females
I was 16 when Go came out and in the middle of my summer vacation in Florida. Me, my brother and cousins spent hours walking around hunting down Pokemon. We went to the pier and it was insane, there were SO many people playing the game, all having fun together and just hanging out. Looking back, that was such a cool, unique experience and I'm really glad I was there for it.
The Summer of 2016 was a beautiful time.
We had no idea it was the end.
I truly believe somewhere between 2016-2018 our timeline diverged.
True the last time we were united
Tru ya I was a kid and even I noticed the massive trajectory the world took that year and it has been downhill ever since amazing
life all started to go down when Harambe the gorilla was taken from us.
after harambe died
when the world took Harambe and Mac Miller from us is when i knew it was all over
This might be my favorite video that you've done.
Bro I seen u commenting on coaster youtubers with >10K subs... it just shows your a genuine person who actually watches other youtubers, which always puts a smile on my face. So many people with millions just treat this platform as a job and don't watch or comment on other youtubers. So its refreshing seeing greater youtubers also watching great videos.
But Rainforest Cafe tho lol
@@Sonic-gy7kq Seriously usually when you see big channels commenting on others it’s when they’re views are dying down but that’s not the case at all for CZ
I happened to be in St. Louis when Pokemon Go dropped, and seeing all the frustrated players when the servers crashed was wildly entertaining
I remember when they would go down, some of us would sit in the grass/benches and just chat while we waited for the servers to start back up.
I also remember some people who were too into the game, who would throw an actual tantrum in public.
Those days taught me the difference between a fan and a fanatic.
When Pokemon Go came out in 2016, I was living in Tokyo and had just finished my final year of highschool. Some of my friends had already returned to their respective home countries for university, but I was stuck there for a few more months with nothing to do all day. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. Me and my remaining friends weren't into Pokemon at all, but we ended up hanging out multiple times a week, travelling all around the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area by train, chasing rumors of rare Pokemon being found in various places via Facebook groups and those really shitty third-party Pokemon hunting websites.
There was one moment when we arrived at a public playground where Onyx was meant to spawn often, and it was absolutely full of salarymen in suits with zero children to be seen. Just men in their early 20's - 40's standing around, cigarettes in hand, staring at virtual pocket monsters on their phones. Me and my friends made friends with a few of the younger ones and even added some of them on Facebook. It would have been a bizarre enough sight on its own, then suddenly someone yelled out that Onyx had spawned a kilometer down the street.
I don't think I will ever again see such a large group of men in suits sprinting so quickly down the street, nor will I ever again be sprinting among them.
Me and my now husband met in 2016. I will forever treasure the memories of that summer. Running around town at all hours, catching pokemon, and falling in love
That’s so beautiful ❤
My now ex husband and I bonded over Pokémon go as well
The launch in Japan happened a couple of weeks later than in the US but oh, when it did...
I remember being in Yoyogi park outside Harajuku, and it was insane. Tokyo is always crowded, but it was 11pm and it was BUMPIN, there were food trucks everywhere selling out of everything, people jogging across the park to get to one thing or another, endless lures... it was incredible. And so fun.
i was in summer school when it came out, and i’ll never forget our teacher stopping the class and making us all go to the pokestop together. truly a great moment.
that’s so kind of your teacher aw
Did your class get robbed while you were there?
That sounds irresponsible on the part of the teacher, but obviously it went well.
@@whimsicalstraywhy do you care?
@@whimsicalstrayshut up
You guys are right. My fondest memory of playing Go was during its first year. My friends and I hooked up to one battery bank and walked around a massive park catching Pokémon.
Good times.
That summer felt like it was probably the closest chance we had to achieving world peace across the globe. What a time.
15:10
@@bece00 this is what I get for putting this halfway thru the video 🤣
2016 felt like a great year
11:00 "these three teens including a sixteen year old..." WELL THEN THATS 4 TEENAGERS.
I’m assuming they’re saying “3 older teens who’s mugshots we’ll show, plus a 16 year old who’s just a kid”
As morbid as it is I imagine players finding bodies helped solve cases faster and give families closure so it's kind of a net positive
I had major surgery the weekend Pokémon go came out and felt so sad about missing out because I couldn’t leave the hospital. After I got out I couldn’t walk very much for several weeks. But I still made happy memories because friends came over to drive me around my town so that I could play too ❤️❤️
That summer was amazing. I remember a Snorlax showing up and a hundred people sprinting to the area. The energy was off the charts. WHY COULDN'T THERE HAVE BEEN PVP?!?!?!? So close, Niantic... so close to perfection.
there is pvp. It was added a couple of years late lol
@@Fr00steethat’s the trend with Pokémon go, everything was too late. Gen 2, trading, pvp, etc
@@leotheliongames that said I think it is a good thing more complex gameplay came out a little too late. Imagine pvp came out from the beginning, just a few days and there would be someone got shot by a bitter loser, and the game would receive fatal backlash. At least now those who continued to play are those who are in truly for the love of the game, and appreciate the game so much not to ruin it with individual-caused incidents.
my first community day i was at a park for a user made event with a raffle, and it paused as we all ran to a corner specifically because a snorlax had spawned. that was the closest i got to those crowded rushes you saw on the news
Your community college story hit me so hard. This game came out the summer after graduating high school, and I was the only one of my friends not moving away for college. My friends and I spent the whole first couple weekends driving around playing Pokemon Go. It took us to places in our home town we had never even been to before, and prompted so many hilarious moments between our selves and groups of strangers. I lost contact with that group after the first year of college, but I continued playing pokemon during all of my community college classes lol. I met a bunch of people on campus because of the game who made a discord server to organize raid parties and trades etc. I still play regularly to this day, and a few of the players from my community college do to, and because of the postcard mechanic I can see where in the country everyone moved to!
I’ll never forget everyone being outside randomly in the same place. We’d all be meeting at a bus stop freaking out looking at our phones as some guy is just waiting there confused
showing up at churches or random statues LMAO
My partner befriended a Japanese family on the bus despite an almost complete language barrier, because the family noticed he was playing Pokemon Go. That was the only real-life interaction he ever had with this family, but they still send each other gifts in the app regularly. It's very sweet.
God ill never forget the giant crowds when a Lapras would appear or a Pikachu. It was so fun!
at 5:00 the stock backing track that was used in JORT STORM starts playing and let me feel you i was not ready
To see SOOOO many people out and about, walking around in huge packs in downtown Houston, was a crazy unifying moment in time. It was one thing to grow up in the pokemania late 90s but this was a next level bc you saw all the fans outside instead of being at home playing Pokémon on their ds.
I remember chilling with few strangers in my small town and setting two lures at pokecenters that were right next to each other, and within about 10 minutes an entire crowd of people had gathered to catch as many Pokemon as possible. We quite literally summoned a small army, we could have marched on City Hall
Those first few months of Pokemon Go were incredible
This video makes me want to Pokémon Go hit the like button
ngl that was at the same level as "pokémon go to the polls"
Yeah so fire
Rainer Wolfcastle: "That's the joke"
It couldn't reach the audience quite as well as "grab em by the pu**y"
There was a major downtown park near where I lived when this came out, and I remember picking my friends up and going there daily that summer, and tackle gyms near our houses on our way back. It was a magical time.
This was one of the few times where even people who didn't know what Pokemon was, who never played a video game before, gave it a try and we were able to make that connection. I felt seen, they understood why games meant so much to me. I'll never forget how excited we were, all the new places we decided to go just to see if there were Pokestops there, it genuinely got me into healthier habits and reignited my interest in exploring the world.
Summer after my graduation. Me and the boys all worked terrible high school jobs just to get enough money to buy beer and party. Afterward, we'd just wonder our small town and play Pokemon Go til the sun came up without a care in the world. Such a magical moment in history I'll always cherish.
It's amazing how Pokémon Go was a fad but at the same time cemented itself in Pop Culture. It was huge for the Pokémon Company Nintendo and every other entity that has a stake in Pokémon. It got people into Pokémon that would have otherwise never gotten into the trading cards or Nintendo games and when they played Pokémon go with their friends they started getting more and more into Pokémon as a whole.
My dad was forced into retirement last summer due to health problems, and he found Pokemon go. He's been playing for almost a year now, and he has slowly roped me and my brother back into it for the community bonding time you were talking about
Man, I haven’t played Pokémon go since like 2018, but jeez, those initial few months of the game were awesome. If you saw someone outside with their phone out, it was a safe bet, they’re trying to catch Pokémon. I wish I could time-travel back to summer 2016, just to relive that.
I remember the wonderful time in July 2016. The timing was perfect for my little brother and I, I was 16 years old and he was 14. At the release, the Easter vacations began and our parents took us on a vacation to a vacation island in Germany, Rügen. We played the game for 3 weeks with dozens of people our own age and made lots of friends.
I have been playing the game ever since 2016, and it's only gotten better, I love it so much. What I like most about the game is the community, the local and the online community. I could go to a random town of 10K people and still randomly meet people playing the game to do a raid with.
Having y’all recall the release of the app day by day took me back to my hometown & watching every night get more and more crowded over the weekend ❤ That was magical… and before they patched the ability to steal a defeated gym from another time just by good timing. Hearing their collective GROAN as we scurried away… what a wonderful time 😂
I graduated high school in 2016 as well, and spending that last summer with all my buddies running around hunting Pokémon before everyone moved away was truly special.
12:18 as a skater who also plays pokemon go, (sometimes at the same time if I'm just cruising)
I find it hilarious that "skater falls off board" would make headlines anywhere unless someone is trying to be a fear monger, or the fall was like what happened to Tony Willie who flew off the roof of a three story building a while back.
We fall off our boards all the time, it's part of the sport, some of the falls hurt sure, but it isn't like we didn't sign up for it, even if you are just cruising, one tiny crack in the sidewalk can send you flying if you hit it wrong
The first week of Pokemon Go was one of those moments where we were closest to world peace
Pokemon Go came out during one my of summer breaks from college when I was just sitting at home with nothing to do, and it got my sister and I to finally walk to the park near our house for the first time and we met a really cute and fluffy black cat along the way that I still think about 6 years later 🤗
I remember the summer this came out going to visit my best friend at his college and seeing a wedding happening on campus. We were walking around campus during the time of the wedding reception and the bride and groom had left their own wedding reception to go catch Pokémon and people from the wedding were looking for them.
Knew right then and there that wouldn’t be a cultural moment like this happening for a long time.
My biggest takeaway is that there have always been tons of dead bodies outside, we just only noticed them when we had a reason to go outside for that one summer.
That summer was the closest we will ever get to world peace 🕊️
Pokemon Go GO fest is this exact feeling still to this day. It's one weekend a year. All weekend is special event pokemon, rotating biomes, new/returning raids and a lot of people out on the streets hanging out playing pokemon. Go to your nearest city and you'll meet thousands of players with the same level of excitement all coming together.
MAN that Pokemon Google Maps challenge is a throwback. I remember "playing" it so eagerly back in middle school :')
I was a camp counselor during this summer so I had to deal with campers and other counselors spending all their time catching Pokémon. At the time I had an older phone so I couldn’t play it myself so I was a bit jealous.
Just a few years ago I finally got the app and convinced my brother to do Pokémon go with me. While I didn’t get the community that everyone had that first week, I like remembering the times where my brother and I would just walk together in our local park catching Pokémon.
I work at a library in that park (and it happens to be a gym) and I still see people come in all the time playing the game.
For someone who didn't even play Pokemon Go I have a lot of great memories around it funny enough. Namely, it brought out a lot of my young adult friends to move around outdoors and it was such an experience going to the park and just seeing it packed with people socializing with each other. It was a very warm feeling going out to get ice cream and seeing packs of friends and strangers alike socializing.
I'm so glad this channel has taken off. You guys have such a fun dynamic, and it makes me miss living in the same house as my sister (but in a good, cathartic sort of way.) We used to watch Eddy's videos together all the time, and I recommend the Burback vids to her whenever a new one comes out. Keep on keepin on, boys!
I remember Pokémon Go starting, I was in college (which was the perfect place to start playing because I walked to classes everyday). So many conversations about teams and full departments of students walking downtown like gangs taking over gyms. I also fully believe that was also a surge in external battery packs for phones because the app drained your cellphone battery like crazy.
You mentioned the crime and the bodies…. But how could you forget that this was the SAME SUMMER as the creepy clown sightings all over the US??
omg I forgot about the clowns lmao, 2016 was such a memey year
I'm so sad I missed the initial wave of the game due to my life and job and at the time. That was a weird and magical moment where Pokemon became mainstream again.
I turned 16 and got my drivers license that Summer, the combination of finally having the freedom to drive wherever I want + the Pokémon Go craze was magical
yooo same!!!! felt so good
me and my friends have recently gotten back into pokémon go (like in the past month or so) and it has been SO fun to play together! They have added so many new features and events to the game and it’s such a fun activity and excuse to go on a walk once or more a day
Started playing when it dropped in 2016 (like everyone) but stopped shortly after. Logged back in recently to play with kids (theyre finally interested) and it was nostalgic. Still had some 2016 eggs to hatch too.
I started playing poke go on 2022! It was so sweet to go to the community day events every month and meet with sooo many other people, 500 guys in the same park simply bc we love psyduck... (i know i do) but that's not why i wanted to comment, i just wanted to say that the last time i went to a community day the first thing we saw as soon as we arrived at the park was, of course, a corpse.
Great video!!!
Words could not describe that summer, I enjoyed it so much. Just the silly little idea if catching pokemon in the real world with my friends is something I never knew I needed.
I played a bit when it came out but then didn't for a few years. picked it back up in 2020 and it is still a genuinely fun and alive game
0:16 I was there when this was going on. It was so funny hearing people shout about a high level or rare pokemon and just seeing a massive group of people just immediately book it in that direction.
I remember hearing people yell Charizard and the already filled downtown Kenosha Piers all scrambled in one direction.
I miss Pokémon go sometime and you’re right about it being about things like the community excitement and a reason to go and explore new places
This was such a heartfelt video guys! Here’s to hoping the Switch 2 has some form of StreetPass so we can pull people together again like this :)
as someone who's never stopped playing and does so regularly (going outside does improve my qol), the game has improved so much! there's very frequent events, including rare or even regional mons, community days have shiny rates boosted, and yes there are people still playing! last community day in december i ddint catch as many mons as i wanted because i was really enjoying chatting with a new friend i made who was originally from across the country. the game isnt free of problems, but its very enjoyable even for casual people and i really enjoy the friendships ive made via it. its a good vehicle for me.
I had my university orientation that summer and it was absolutely amazing. I grew up in a small town, so seeing gyms and Pokestops everywhere blew my mind.
I remember the summer of Pokemon Go. It was the first real holiday I had with my parents, we went to a caravan park near a seaside town. I didnt play it, but I remember how much busier the streets were, my dad swearing about people walking in the road and just the sheer shock of how massive it got. Being called a geek or nerd for playing Pokemon when it wasnt popular and then seeing those same critics going mad for it.
Every now and then i see small groups of people with phones connected to power banks in their backpacks walking together, and it always puts a smile on my face :)
This summer was one of the best of my life. I went on a trip through Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas then flew to Washington State and Pokemon Go guided me through cities on this wild adventure
Summer 2016 was mystical.. despite that I was stuck in a small mostly Mennonite town with barely anything to do, I remember playing Pokémon Go on my iPod 5 at the library (only place we could find with wifi that had a gym or a stop lol) but it was still so fun?? I still play PG, started again during the pandemic, if it had the features then that it does now, I rly think it would’ve held on for longer than just a fad
I still play Pokemon Go, it's still a great game. Always new events, new Pokemon only available for a limited time etc, always some new thing to keep you playing. Plus it's free with no ads, that fact alone makes it worth it.
I remember when me and my father would go rollerblading together and would stop every so often to pull out his tablet so we could catch Pokémon. I remember this so fondly even if it's a bit fuzzy and I think it's helped the bond I have with my dad, it being so connected and intertwined with gaming all my life. I owe a lot of my good memories with my father to Pokémon Go, as crazy as it sounds.
Having this throughout highschool and college has been an integral part of every year. I was even able to make some lifelong friends in college when I first started after the pandemic just from meeting kids through raids while I was on campus at my university
It’s really hard to explain to people who weren’t into it that first summer just how awesome it was. Regular meetups with your friends to go around random spots in town and take gyms for as long as you could. I was working at an online marketing firm that summer and the entire office took regular breaks to go out and catch what we could, and we even got to make some marketing campaigns trying to get gyms added to businesses. I still play regularly though usually in adventure mode with the game tracking my steps from my pocket.
5:20 Jort storm instrumental cameo 😂😂
The Pokémon go time was great.
There was this spot you could sit and had multiple poké stops and we would go there pretty much every night and people would hangout, listen to music and catch Pokemon and we were all complete strangers just having fun:
It was great.
Favorite memory was during the first week of the game. Some friends and I were at our local park at the lure hot spot in the middle of the night, along with a decent group of others, when a Charizard spawned nearby. Not nearly as big as the ones in NYC, but we had a legit stampede of about 30-50 people all running to the same spot once someone found it.
I’m recovering from a foot and ankle injury and part of my therapy is to walk a lot. It’s made me get back into Pokémon Go more than ever. I genuinely think there is a resurgence in players because, in just the last few weeks alone, I’ve seen more people out playing. I’ve even noticed several new poke stops pop up. It’s kinda cool. Feels like a little echo of the 2016 craze.
When PoGO launched I was with my buddy smashing Coors, storming outside, we were outside looking for mons together. It was awesome.
I always consider Summer 2016 to be one of the better ones.
I like how Tassie just gets left out of “Australia” 😂 5:28
One of the best spots in the midwest was Lake Park in Milwaukee. I still remember discovering it on my own with friends. Wandering through the woods up a hill through a drainage ditch in the dark (not knowing the path was 10ft away) to come around the corner to the waterfall and find people sitting on the rocks from top to bottom on their phones. It was so dark all you could see was the lights from their phones like fireflies, and all i heard before getting closer was someone playing the Pokemon theme song on their speaker. Was such a cool experience
Thank you for documenting one of the wildest times of the mid 2000s. People may know Pokémon Go but having something to point to that explains the context of its release is great lol
It was such an incredible time and I hope I get to see another like it in my lifetime
My sheriff's department commissioned me and a few college classmates to make a Pokemon Go safety video several months after the game peaked, and it's about as much of a relic as you could imagine.
It was truly a different time, I remember in the first couple weeks of it being out, I though the hype would last forever
I can't believe we're rapidly coming up on ten years later. It was magical watching my city basically turn out its pockets and dump everyone onto the streets to socialize and walk around completely organically. I remember counting the number of restaurant signboards offering discounts based on what team you picked in game, and the throngs of people in the city parks taking a breather from doing loops around the area, many of them learning where new interesting places were because the game called them out as locations. And everyone seemed to be in a good mood. You'd fall in with a group of random people, chatting about the game as you walked down the street to the lure that just lit up and meet up with a stadium-event sized crowd where you'd eventually shuffle into another group and go off with them for a while.
I miss that time.
Obviously the summer of 2016 was the biggest point in pokemon go for a lot of people but my friend convinced me to get back into it at Uni in 2019 and it kept me going during the pandemic. Summers of 2020/2021 when you could go on a 3 hr walk and feel like you're actually progressing and the chance to run into someone not from your own house really helped me during lockdowns
Honestly Pokemon GO was the first time that me and my siblings (as adults) played anything together. And we took their kids to the park several times a week just to play. So the kids were on the jungle gyms, the adults were doing laps around the lake at our park. And people would be barbecuing and just having a fun time bonding over pokemon. Like.. honestly. even though the hype died down a lot, in 2023 i was able to befriend a coworker at my new job because we both played Pokemon GO and we became buddies and it's still fun.
It was a fun time to be able to socialize. And Pokemon GO made me want to go around my city and hang out with people. And I rarely ever do that lol