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 #91 - "Pokemon GO in New Jersey" ft. Red Bank Crew Pokemon GO Group
In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by both DarkLugiaMaster & FusionJoe, Pokemon Trainer from Burbank, New Jersey and Community Ambassadors for Red Bank Crew Pokemon GO Group.
Both DarkLugiaMaster & FusionJoe share how there journey with Pokemon stated with the video games. DarkLugiaMaster started with Generation 3 and was a big fan of both Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness. FusionJoe shares starting with Generation 4 and Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. FusionJoe also gives his opinion on the more recent BDSP games and whether they met his expectations or not.
Uniquely, both DarkLugiaMaster & FusionJoe met because of Pokemon GO and started playing back in college. They both share insights on where to play when visiting New Jersey and what interested them in playing Pokemon GO.
Finally, DarkLugiaMaster & Fusion Joe share insight in re-building his community with the Niantic Ambassador Program. They go into detail on how they both became leaders within their community and how the program has benefited their community as a whole!
Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay
Connect with David Hernandez: Linktree
E-mail Me: asthepokeballturnspodcast@gmail.com
Join As The Pokeball Turns Discord Community!
https://discord.gg/AqAbD7FbRt
My name is David Hernandez, and you're listening to As the Pokeball Turns.
David Hernandez:today, I'm joined by The red bank crew Pokemon go group, both fusion Joe and dark Lugia master. Welcome to the show y'all
New Jersey PoGo:Well, thank you for having us. Yep. Thank you for having us.
David Hernandez:without a doubt. And I'm excited because getting people who have like run the communities have been the hardest people to get on the show. Out of every single guest, they are the most shy, bashful people I've ever met. I finally got people who want to come on the show who ran a New Jersey Discord. So I appreciate y'all's time and we look forward to diving into the story of how this all be happened.
New Jersey PoGo:Me too. Yeah, this is awesome.
David Hernandez:before we dive into Pokemon Go, let's start with the beginning. Let's start. What's y'all's initial experience with Pokemon?
New Jersey PoGo:My first Pokemon game was Pokemon diamond. I was eight years old. It was my first Pokemon game ever. My first like experience with it. My older brother had Pearl, so I got diamond ever since then I started watching the show, watch the anime still to this day, still watch it. And 2016 Pokemon Go came out. I was so excited for that, I pretty much played every main series game from Diamond and Pearl. I went back and played some of the older ones and now I'm a collector. I collect the cards. I have a lot of the games. I still have every Pokemon amiibo from the Smash Bros series.
David Hernandez:Oh
New Jersey PoGo:So still keep all of them. Yeah. Got rid of all my other amiibos.
David Hernandez:Yeah,
New Jersey PoGo:Yeah. I got me too.
David Hernandez:that's great. So since we're on, uh, Diamond, what did you think of the remakes? The BDSP?
New Jersey PoGo:I'm, I feel like I'm in the minority. I actually enjoyed my time with the remakes, you know, my biggest thing was I, I didn't like the small Pokedex. I didn't like HMs and the games were slow
David Hernandez:Oh, you're talking about the originals?
New Jersey PoGo:yeah, the originals, but in the remake, you don't have to use HMs cause you have the, Pokedex app. And the Pokedex was expanded by the, the grand underground. So I was able to use like Frostlass and Pokemon like, like Magmortar that I would never be able to use. So I was happy in that regard. I do wish they included more stuff from Platinum like, the Battle Frontier would've been cool, and There's some areas, especially post game, that would've been cool to have from Platinum, but Overall, though, I think it's a, I think it's a great game. I, I, I enjoyed my time with it. I played Shining Pearl, actually. I should've gotten Brilliant Diamond, but I played Shining Pearl for the version exclusives.
David Hernandez:that's fair, that's fair. so when you started with Gen 4, did you have a particular starter that you leaned towards out of the three?
New Jersey PoGo:Oh, Turtwig.
David Hernandez:Oh, Turtwig, that's, that's, that's unique, actually. Most people usually prefer the other two, from my
New Jersey PoGo:Yeah, yeah, I, I, I love Turtwig. I played the Mystery Dungeon games, and the Personality Test gave me Turtwig. I got a Turtwig sticker on the back of my car. I'm all Turtwig.
David Hernandez:Oh, wow, he's decked out in Turtwig. I'm impressed.
New Jersey PoGo:Oh yeah. I love Turtwig. He's my boy.
David Hernandez:Well, let's switch over to your partner, so Dark Lugia, tell us, what's your experience with Pokemon?
New Jersey PoGo:So, my first Pokemon game, I actually, I started out with four. Which were all gifted to me by neighbors and garage sales, but My first game was blue, yellow, and silver, and crystal. I played crystal the most which was a gift from my neighbor, which I am eternally grateful. Little later on, I ended up getting Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. Which were like my first brand new Pokemon games.
David Hernandez:Oh, so before, you were just getting handy downs,
New Jersey PoGo:Yes. Handy downs. I would get like, my neighbor gave me a Game Boy and Pearl. Some old ladies at a garage sale gave me a blue, yellow, and silver. worth a lot of money nowadays.
David Hernandez:So I've heard.
New Jersey PoGo:Crystal is, Crystal is a lot now. I think it's 120
David Hernandez:Oh, wow, so if y'all have Crystal, y'all got some money
New Jersey PoGo:Yeah. but after that, I played a lot of Diamond and Pearl, and then I moved on to Platinum, which is probably My second favorite Pokemon game. And somewhere in the mix, I got given Gale of Darkness, which is my favorite Pokemon game.
David Hernandez:Really? Gale of the favorite.
New Jersey PoGo:yep, which I played constantly.
David Hernandez:Is that the go ahead.
New Jersey PoGo:I would beat it and replay it and everything.
David Hernandez:Is that the reason behind your name is Dark because of the Shadow Lugia?
New Jersey PoGo:Yep. It absolutely is. I used to just call it dark Lugia, cause my kid brain always talked about it as dark Lugia. my friends constantly make fun of me over Cause it's shadow Lugia. Yeah, it is shadow Lugia. But, and then from that kind of just spawned my tag on everything after that.
David Hernandez:Well, see you could have just said like, well, unfortunately, nicknames are within 10, so I couldn't do Shadow, so to do Lark. I mean, that could have been your reason right there.
New Jersey PoGo:could have been, um, After Diamond and Pearl, they were my last Pokemon games for about five years.
David Hernandez:Oh, you took a hiatus after
New Jersey PoGo:I took a hiatus, I kinda, I wouldn't say like, aged out. I just kinda lost interest. when Fusion Joe and I became close friends, he got me back into it. It was right around sun and moon.
David Hernandez:So Fusion Joe's the reason why he came back into Pokemon.
New Jersey PoGo:yes, it is. and I, then I went back and I played black and white. I borrowed black and white too from a friend. I played X and Y, Omega Ruby, Alpha Zapper, all of them.
David Hernandez:So Joe, you know, you said like, uh, the Sono region was your favorite, you know, those games. What was it about those games that really kind of made you engage with the franchise? Did
New Jersey PoGo:liked, well it was my first time playing that kind of game, but I loved collecting. Probably just the collection aspect of it was my favorite thing. I loved the Pokemon. as a kid I used to, you know, dabble with the action replay, so it was fun to like get all the Pokemon that I wanted. I've since stopped using it, but definitely the collection aspect is always my favorite part. I think that's the reason I love Pokemon Go as much as I do,
David Hernandez:did you complete the Pokedex at all?
New Jersey PoGo:No, actually my first game I completed the Pokédex was, uh, X and Y.
David Hernandez:Oh, wow. Okay. That's not interesting.
New Jersey PoGo:Yeah, I I I didn't, unfortunately, but I I eventually I eventually did. I actually did national decks in X and Y, so. all, it was like 600 and something Pokemon X and
David Hernandez:Geez that's a lot. Amazing, now we're over a thousand
New Jersey PoGo:Yeah, now we're over thousand, it's crazy. I'm still keeping up though, I got my complete living decks in Pokemon Home. So I'm all set.
David Hernandez:Last question regards to Sinnoh. If you had to do a playthrough and you had to choose six Pokemon, which six would you choose?
New Jersey PoGo:I'm picking Tartwig. Um,
David Hernandez:right? That's gonna be the
New Jersey PoGo:yeah, we'll say Torterra. Uh, I guess Staraptor would be my, flying type. We'll say Magmortar because I love Magmortar. Mamoswine is also a favorite of mine. Toxicroak. What do we have, five?
David Hernandez:Mm hmm one more.
New Jersey PoGo:One more. Uh, we'll go with, I don't want to say Lucario. I like Lucario. I really like Hippowdon. Hippowdon's
David Hernandez:Oh That's interesting one feel like, I think Hippowdon gets kind of underrated from that
New Jersey PoGo:I think so. I completely agree. I love Hippowdon. It was actually one of my first shinies too.
David Hernandez:Oh, really? Is it the, I'm trying to remember, is it the male or female one
New Jersey PoGo:I got the female one. It's like a lighter brown, I believe. It was in platinum.
David Hernandez:Oh, that's nice. Mad respect for not
New Jersey PoGo:was a shiny golem, so.
David Hernandez:okay, mad respect for not choosing a single legendary out of the entire team, so.
New Jersey PoGo:Oh, I never use legendaries.
David Hernandez:Oh, okay, he likes a challenge.
New Jersey PoGo:I always play with, with a normal team, you can catch throughout the game. When it comes to Legendaries, I, I usually stay away from using them unless I'm doing like a competitive format where like, legendaries are allowed, I might use a legendary, but I, and, and a main play through. I stick with non legendaries all the time.
David Hernandez:Lugia. Your favorite game is one of my favorites, actually. I, well, I'm more of a Pokemon Colosseum is my favorite game. But I do have a soft spot for XTGale of Darkness. Why XTGale of Darkness is your favorite game?
New Jersey PoGo:I have always been a sucker for more obscure things. like, I like obscure Godzilla games and all this, like, other stuff. So my mom, I think I was seven or eight, with the Wii, she gave me a stack of GameCube games. And in that GameCube games was Gale of Darkness, which I almost immediately fell in love with. and there was just something about, I liked the design of Shadow Lugia. I liked the concept. I liked that it was a lot grittier than any other Pokemon game. And they really don't go away from pulling punches.
David Hernandez:that's true, because I remember those games. You know, you talk Pokemon. They become this evil and they all deal super effective damage to you. It was kind of wild, and plus I love Lugia's design. It's so great.
New Jersey PoGo:Yeah, it is cool.
David Hernandez:When it came to Shadow Lukia, did you have trouble purifying it? Did you keep it as a shadow? Do you remember?
New Jersey PoGo:I think I loved the design so much I just kept it.
David Hernandez:My man, yes
New Jersey PoGo:yeah. I really, I was kid, some of the members are a little vague now. But, I'm almost positive I kept it.
David Hernandez:Oh my gosh. Did you like a Mirror Beast song by chance?
New Jersey PoGo:Yes. Absolutely yes. It's the best theme song in
David Hernandez:is
New Jersey PoGo:My favorite thing to do is, like, I have friends that like Pokemon, and there's so many people that don't know about Colosseum or Galvadactus.
David Hernandez:I agree
New Jersey PoGo:Um, and people talk about, like, the music, like, they'll bring up Black and White, a lot of the Black and White music, and all this stuff, and I just pull out Mirror Beast song every single time.
David Hernandez:Now you do the remix or you do the original from Colosseum?
New Jersey PoGo:the original.
David Hernandez:Okay, that's a good one, too
New Jersey PoGo:I like both of them almost equally, definitely the original one.
David Hernandez:going back to how y'all two met So for a dark Lugia master you came back to the game because Joe introduced you, right? Is it worked and would y'all play Pokemon like together at that point? Like how would that work?
New Jersey PoGo:A little bit, It was mostly like when they had new events and stuff, like we would go to GameStop to get like events and stuff, but most of it was through Pokemon Go. Yes. Most of it was through Pokemon Go, for sure. we went to high school together. We weren't really the closest. We were kind of friends, but kind of not. after high school, we kind of drifted apart for a while. And then like, we came back and really bonded over Pokemon Go. in fact, one of our closest friend groups that like we go on trips together, everything. None of us would have met if Pokemon Go didn't exist.
David Hernandez:Really?
New Jersey PoGo:Because we got bonded over Pokemon Go. Our other friend, Hunter, we met him through Pokemon Go. Like we all went to the same college and then like, Joey met him on campus and then we, through Pokemon Go, and then he introduced it to me. We started hanging out. Hunter's friend, Rob. Started hanging, got introduced to us. And then the four of us kind of bonded to a friend group. It's like it all derived and it all derives from Pokemon Go. But also like we all went to our, me and Kieran both went to school at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, New Jersey. So there was a group that played Pokemon Go there. So I'm sitting there by myself trying to do a Cresselia raid. And I see like
David Hernandez:Oh, no.
New Jersey PoGo:10 people show and they're like, Oh, we're in this Pokemon Go discord group. Do you want to join? And I was like, Oh, sure. And then next thing you know, I'm a part of this group and the discord for the school was so great. And then that's another way that I connected back with Kieran. I was like, Oh yeah, we went to high school together. Let's, let's do a dark ride raid.
David Hernandez:I can't imagine trying to battle Elli on your own. That must have been
New Jersey PoGo:it was, I knew I couldn't beat it, but I was like, maybe I'll join and someone else will just happen to join. It was like level 50 or whatever, or 40 was the max at the time. And I was probably like level 25 or something.
David Hernandez:Oh, D
New Jersey PoGo:Yeah, I I was low, but the, the Brookdale, Discord community was so good. We had a lot of people in there and that was pretty much the reason that we started talking to each other. You know, like, we knew each other from high school and that was about it, but All through Pokemon Go.
David Hernandez:Now, eventually y'all transition to trying to build y'alls own local community, you know, how did that transition happen?
New Jersey PoGo:So, we are not actually the founders of this community.
David Hernandez:Of
New Jersey PoGo:we're not. We can't take the credit for that. We cannot. the Discord was run by a name, a man named Garrett. we all met, like, one of the other admins at the time, invited us into the discord. we slowly became friends with everyone, at a certain point, Gary, um, I actually remember we were in, uh, Lincroft, we were in a convenience store, and he, uh, He DMs me saying, Hey man, I'm, want to pass the torch along. Do you want to take ownership of the discord? And I was like, hesitant at first, but I was like, yeah, sure. I'll do it. And then ever since then I've been trying to, cause a lot of people had started to stop playing after a while. And then I want to say this is pre pandemic, right? It was like 2019 or something like that. Yeah. Because when COVID hit, it really hit the community. Yeah. COVID really hit the community, but then they started adding those really good bonuses. Biggest one probably being remote raids and once that started to come through then it was the community slowly got back together people were more active in the discord and then We've been running it, you know Just trying to keep people involved in the game and every now and then we'll coordinate a little like meetup together to do a raid or something and we usually met in our usual spot of Red Bank, but Lincroft is like right next to Red Bank, so that was another spot that we would sometimes link up and do and do raids. Raid hours were probably the biggest thing that we used to do,
David Hernandez:What would you tell somebody who wants to play Pokemon Go where to go? What is it like to play Pokemon Go in New Jersey?
New Jersey PoGo:In our area, Red Bank for sure. Uh, we had a lot of people, do a lot of, submitting PokéStops in the area. So the area that we have, like, Every gym that you know, is possible is there. So it's, it's to the point, I don't think there can be any more. Yeah. Like
David Hernandez:Somebody says challenge accepted Mm
New Jersey PoGo:red bank for sure. If you're in downtown red bank, I mean, pretty much anywhere you go, if you're in like the main downtown area, you're walking distance from pretty much every major gym. it's not a big town, so like you can usually walk from one end to the other. And you'll be hitting plenty of PokéStops. There's certain areas that just have like, for some reason, strange clusters of Pokémon that just spawn everywhere. So definitely Red Bank would be my first pick. Second pick would probably be Brookdale Community College. That campus is packed with PokéStops.
David Hernandez:That's the one y'all two met each other, right?
New Jersey PoGo:Yeah, that's where we met. So, and there's still a relatively active group of people who play there. So. Brookdale definitely would be like a second pick and it's, it's a, it's a pretty big campus. Pokestops everywhere you go. And, uh, I guess third pick would be Keyport. It's not too far from, uh, Red Bank, but they have their own sort of group that they meet up with. But Keyport is also really good. It's right by the water. A lot of good seafood places nearby and plenty of Pokestops, plenty of water type Pokemon. That's where I caught enough Magikarps there to get my first Gyarados.
David Hernandez:Ooh, that must have been a lot of walking.
New Jersey PoGo:A lot. Worth it.
David Hernandez:So, we'll come back to the community part in a minute, but how do play Pokemon Go? Like, what's y'all's, like, are y'all Shiny Hunters? PvP? Like, what's y'all's individual take to playing this game?
New Jersey PoGo:I'm Shiny Hunt. I have friends that are, normal Pokémon, competitive, and they for years have been trying to get me to get into Pokémon GO PVP. Just for the fact they just want friends to go with them to compete in worlds. Cause they always have to rent out their own hotel room. But for me, I've always just been more into collecting and shiny hunting. I love doing the Wayfarer, submitting PokéStops and, upvoting and looking at other people's submissions and helping people with that. But outside of submitting PokéStops and stuff, I love catching and grinding Stardust because I love building teams. I love building teams and Pokemon. So. Whenever there's a new raid boss, I always try to invest my Stardust Just have the Go Plus, just catching everything, spinning Pokéstops, and I love taking gyms.
David Hernandez:Now, I'm assuming one of those areas you mentioned is where you go to stardust grind?
New Jersey PoGo:Yeah, yeah, if I have free time, I'll just stop by Red Bank and just do a little walk around Red Bank. Great way to grind up on Stardust.
David Hernandez:Now this begs the question for each one of y'all. For you, Joe, what's your stardust count at at the moment? For Shadalugia, what's your rarest shiny? We gotta know this.
New Jersey PoGo:I, uh, I'm at 953,000.
David Hernandez:Okay.
New Jersey PoGo:not that much, but I'm, I'm spending it.
David Hernandez:Oh, you're spending it? Okay, you just went spree. Okay.
New Jersey PoGo:I have a decent amount, though. I'm just under a mil.
David Hernandez:I was worried you were going to say 953 million. I was like, Oh God.
New Jersey PoGo:Nah, that'd be crazy. If I had that much, I'd be powering up all my Pokemon. I am thinking, hold on one
David Hernandez:Hey, no worries. Hey, it's hard to choose a favorite Shiny. It's like choosing your own first born child.
New Jersey PoGo:So, if we want to go with rarest, it is probably Shiny Melmetal. that was locked behind the time thing. I have a shiny Delibird or I have a shiny hat Snorlax from Seattle, because that's from the actual event.
David Hernandez:Mm hmm. What's your favorite one since we're that?
New Jersey PoGo:Uh, Delibird.
David Hernandez:Delibird. Is that y'all's favorite Pokemon?
New Jersey PoGo:That's his favorite for sure. That's one of my favorites.
David Hernandez:You're the second person I've met who's favorite Pokemon is Delibird. You know who the other person
New Jersey PoGo:had a long conversation with him about that. All he talks about is Delibird.
David Hernandez:Wow, that's crazy. What about you, Joe?
New Jersey PoGo:Oh, Tortara for sure.
David Hernandez:Oh, that's right, we talked about Torterra.
New Jersey PoGo:Yeah. I mean, Tartwig in general, but I have, Hold on, let me give you my Torterra count currently. I have 29
David Hernandez:That is 28 more than I do. That's crazy.
New Jersey PoGo:Currently working on a Shundo Torterra. I don't have one, but I'm working on it.
David Hernandez:You've been listening to As the Pokeball Turns. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Well, guys, let's come back to like y'all, you know, running the red bank community. what has it been like for y'all to kind of take the reins and trying to build the community both before COVID and even afterwards.
New Jersey PoGo:it hasn't been easy. Like, not everyone was happy with the changes. Um,
David Hernandez:the changes with the.
New Jersey PoGo:leadership, not everyone was happy with it. After COVID, the community had really died. It took a lot and only within the last six months, a little bit more, I would say in the past 12 months, it started to really come back to how it was in the heyday. I would say ever since GoFest of last year, people have really been like excited to come back for Empire. And then shortly after it was GoFest Global. I feel like once that happened, it was like, Communities coming back. and it's just good to see the community back together and, We have merch to give out, you know, stickers, key chains that we give out a little wristbands with your teams. You know, it's always good. A lot of the kids like to get the stuff too. So it's good to see families out. It's good to see new, new, new faces out in town. And it's always fun. It's just so good to see people like back. We're all doing the same thing. We're all just staring at our phones, catching fictional dragons.
David Hernandez:they're real man. They're real,
New Jersey PoGo:then you, and then you see the cars driving by and they're seeing a group of like 50 people and they're like, what are you guys doing?
David Hernandez:right?
New Jersey PoGo:A couple of people like walk by, like, what are you guys doing? Is there an event going on? Like, yeah, it's Pokemon go. Of course, there's always the other people giving the weird looks at us, and all, and always the dirty looks.
David Hernandez:Oh, dirty looks like they want you around kind of
New Jersey PoGo:Yeah. Yeah, like, come on. I'm trying to eat here, get out of here.
David Hernandez:Oh my gosh. I have a funny story real quick. this is old school, before the whole, before the whole pandemic. We were doing raids. I don't remember what the raid boss was. We stopped at this business, we took all their parking spots. guy comes out, You're blocking all the customers! So, all of us move our cars. Guy had no business whatsoever. was an empty parking lot after we left. ha ha. So, I don't know, I was just always laughing. I was like, what comes from it? You got nothing, brother. And then his business shut down eventually, but that's the dark side of the story.
New Jersey PoGo:We've had people come out of their houses and scream at us.
David Hernandez:Oh
New Jersey PoGo:Cause we're like on their sidewalk. I was informed by like community members that like there was like a group of like 20 people was standing on this one side of the sidewalk. And this woman came out of her house and screamed bloody murder to get off her property.
David Hernandez:that's crazy.
New Jersey PoGo:We actually had one time, uh, Brookdale police officer pulled in. And we thought we were getting in trouble for occupying the parking lot.
David Hernandez:Oh, snap.
New Jersey PoGo:And he pulled out his phone and said, Are you guys in the Groudon raid?
David Hernandez:Yes. Yeah,
New Jersey PoGo:I was like,
David Hernandez:that has been to guy pulled up to cop cars, pulled up and we're like, Oh shit. We're going to be asked to get And now he's supposed to put the phone. They both pull out their phones. Like y'all about to do this. Ray is great.
New Jersey PoGo:loved it. Ever since then, I've seen him a handful times. He did a Zapdos raid one time, but he put his lights on. I didn't know if it was him until he rolled down the window and I was like, Yes! That was probably my favorite Pokemon GO memory. the cops come over and They take out their phones and start playing with us. He didn't get a shiny, but it's okay. We asked him, is it yellow or is it red? He goes, red. I
David Hernandez:Oh my gosh. Well no, it's a ground on like the dress, like it's either yellow or uh, the other color, I
New Jersey PoGo:Yeah. Yeah, um. Yeah. Yeah.
David Hernandez:Oh my gosh. Now that's what I love about that, cause you get some random people like, We had this, I'm sure you had the same paranoia, but we weren't too sure when the cop would ever pop up. If it was the guy who was playing Pokemon Go or if we were about to be asked to get a copy of the property.
New Jersey PoGo:Right. Right. Yeah. I couldn't tell until he rolled down the window and I saw his face.
David Hernandez:Oh
New Jersey PoGo:funny. It was so funny. Now, now we know that they play, so if they, they see me pulled over and I'm just sitting there looking at my phone, they're probably not going to bother me. They're like, oh yeah, he's the guy who was playing earlier.
David Hernandez:Look, I'm just going to say, if there's a cop who wants to play Pokemon Go, give us a little bit of an escort. We'll be
New Jersey PoGo:Yeah. Yeah. Look, can you put your lights on? We got to catch this Pokemon right down the block.
David Hernandez:Exactly. Like, well, it'd be perfect, but we'll pretend like it's a funeral or something like that. I don't know.
New Jersey PoGo:I'll do him a favor. I'll submit the, uh, his office as a pokey stop for him.
David Hernandez:Moving forward in regards to y'all building those community, what was it like for y'all to kind of apply for the ambassador program and try to go through the process? Like, was it easy, difficult? Like, what was it like to do that?
New Jersey PoGo:So I was, the big proponent in the beginning. this was when it was still part of Silph. I was really pushing. I was really working on it. I had issues where Silph was taking away it from us and like, we were at the rank we should have been, but then it wasn't working and it just was a whole big thing. And then once it shifted over to how Niantic is running it now. it was more important that our community have one and it'd be one of us. Yeah. So once I got the acceptance it's just a matter of saying, Hey, this is our community. Always fun to do all the work to get the community together, you know, host, setting up the event, seeing who's joining. And now they're trying to get more people to check in by giving out free stuff for people who check in. So. That's another thing that Antic is doing. I think it's really cool.
David Hernandez:Since y'all are on the other side, you know, y'all are officially, you know, community ambassadors, do y'all find that it's worth it? Like, has community benefit from trying to be a part of this? And what ways have they?
New Jersey PoGo:for one, it feels more like it's weird to say United, but it feels like we're like a, like a, a real. Yes. And it's also nice to be heard. Yeah. Cause it, it very much makes you feel like Niantic is actually listening and like listening to your problems and trying to help the community. And like we've had people show up to like, when Joe like lists that, Hey, this is a community ambassador event, come on out. Like we've had people show up from and be like, Hey, I saw on Campfire that there was a, uh, a Niantic community ambassador event. Uh, so I just wanted to show up and it's been really, really cool. Yeah. Just seeing people who just hear about it from word of mouth or just, they happen to be in the area, but they're not a part of a discord that, you know, where we usually post it, just seeing them happen to just, Hey, I see there's a community here. You mind if I join you and walk with the group? And that's how a lot of people, especially just some of the newer people who started playing within the past year or two. That's how a lot of them started. They just walked by, saw there was a group, saw the Pokestop in game that said community ambassador program. I gave him a bunch of stickers and stuff, you know, always have stuff to give away. And they're like a regular part of our group. So that that's probably like the coolest part. Just seeing like new people joining in.
David Hernandez:And y'all get your own Pokestop, too.
New Jersey PoGo:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love It's, it's not permanent, but
David Hernandez:Oh, is it on temporary?
New Jersey PoGo:day for the day. But it's, it's nice to have. Cause like, Oh, we can meet at this Pokestop. Yeah. we'll usually meet like a little bit before it is like a little area where they have like restrooms and stuff, place to sit down and then, chit chat, exchange. I usually give out some of the stuff there. We usually take a group photo right then and there. And then, we're spinning, we're catching and we started wandering off, walking around town.
David Hernandez:Last question in regards to just the community before we continue, it's say somebody is on the other side and they're trying to build a community up, or they don't know how from each of you, what advice would you give somebody?
New Jersey PoGo:the best advice I can give for someone who's trying to start a new community. First things first, I would start like a discord or a campfire and, just like go in your local community and, and, and see who's, see who's playing and kind of just have to get your name out there. Like say, Hey, I'm running a community. Would you like to be a part of it? and it's sort of just spreads, you know, cause a lot of people, once they hear about it, they're like, Oh, my friend plays, it's okay if I invite them and then they invite their friends. And then it's slowly, but surely it evolves more and more. And then eventually you would just get people who are like really dedicated to the game, who will be a part of your server. So just got to keep doing it. Just like, keep going into the area you want to start in. Like for us, it was Red Bank. just keep going out there and say, Hey, like I see you're in a raid, you know, let's talk, you know, you gotta meet people. You gotta, you gotta meet the people. You gotta, really just engage with them and, just be friendly, it's best to start, like I said, I think Discord is probably the best, campfire is now Niantic's basically version of Discord. So campfire is a great way to get people together and, people who play this game are very nice people. I would say about the same. My big thing is make connections. Make friends. If you make enough connection friends It makes it so much easier to build your community because they'll be like, Oh yeah, we, we hang out with him. Like they're cool. Like it's just easier. And then the community kind of just builds off those friendships. we absolutely would not be community leaders if we hadn't made friends with the people we made friends with and we're friendly and like outgoing. And like made those connections. it's really just all about the friendships.
David Hernandez:it wouldn't happen if y'all two hadn't become friends. kind of out y'all two.
New Jersey PoGo:exactly.
David Hernandez:That's
New Jersey PoGo:it's very easy to play the game and not interact with anyone. Like the game you could walk by a group of people who are doing a raid together and just join and leave. But if you make the extra step to join the raid and say, Hey, are you guys playing Pokemon go? You mind if I. Stand here and then we take down this raid boss together. And next thing you know, like, Hey, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm running a discord where we coordinate raids all the time. If you're in the area, you like to join? obviously nothing's like super easy. It's going to take time. It's going to, you know, we have the advantage of having it passed down to us. It already had a community, but I think Gary would say something similar, like just. Just keep meeting people. You get to see so many different kinds of people so many different types of players old young and they're all playing for different reasons. They might just love the game. They might love pokemon They might just love collecting. They might just like shiny pokemon. They might just love eevee just want to catch every eevee in the world
David Hernandez:God bless your soul.
New Jersey PoGo:You get all sorts of different people that's like the one thing I really liked about it Just everyone's got their own reason for liking it for For disliking it in some regards and everyone's got favorites eventually your community will grow. And especially if everyone's like local, if they're all in the same sort of area, like a lot of the people in our group, they're from Red Bank. They're from towns nearby. So it's just so much fun. And we, and there's still people that like, even though they moved away, we still keep in touch.
David Hernandez:So the last thing I want to touch on for y'all both is GoFest. It'd impossible for me not to touch about GoFest. Last year, y'all had it, and y'all, it's not, yeah, we'll call it your backyard, because y'all from New Jersey, you're not from New
New Jersey PoGo:Yeah, we're close enough.
David Hernandez:Yeah, what it like for to have GoFest so close for y'all both? What was the experience like for each one of you?
New Jersey PoGo:for me, it was amazing. Um, I had actually went to Seattle. Go first.
David Hernandez:Mm Was first one?
New Jersey PoGo:guess it was, I, stayed at a hotel with all the people from the Lured Up podcast discord and made a bunch of friends with them. So to not have to travel across, absolutely across the country for me was amazing. And just to be able to take the train in and I had actually had friends come in from Michigan and I, took the whole weekend to play Pokemon Go
David Hernandez:Oh, wow.
New Jersey PoGo:just really went into it and just the fact I got, I used to, I got to show them the sites and then go around, it was just insane. I love the city. Like I work in the city, but I also have a soft spot for it. So the fact in New York. I've never actually been to Randall's Island Park before GoFest, so that was a new experience for me. It was awesome. It was so cool to see so many people in a large area all playing Pokémon. it made me so happy. Like, every second that I was there, even if I didn't get a particular shiny that I really wanted, just the fact that it was, it's just so cool. Because I've been watching people, like, on YouTube go to these in person events for so long, and I was always so jealous. It So once they said it was in New York, I was like, I'm taking off for work. taking the train into the city. I was, was so great. We got, we had a great group of people to join us too. And that after that day, I was like, this game is back, like in person events, we're back. ever since then, I was like, I want to make this like a regular thing every month or so. The experience was great. Lured Up Ken had a little booth. So we stopped by to visit him and seeing some like big names and Pokemon go. Be there physically. So cool. I'm so excited for this year.
David Hernandez:I was gonna say like y'all get a Round 2!
New Jersey PoGo:You, we do get around to something I absolutely did not expect. I want to put money on it. Not, not being in New York again. I was gearing myself up to have to go somewhere else around the country for it. I really decided I was wherever it was. I got the ticket. It would be fine. I would go. I'm so happy it's in New York.
David Hernandez:I am too, because I get a kind of a mulligan a little bit, because I didn't get a chance really experience New York when I was there. So, I'm going to stay away from Times Square. I don't care what my friends are doing. I'm not going to Times Square. Ha ha
New Jersey PoGo:Times Square can get crazy, but I will say the fact that they had mega Rayquaza raids just like all throughout New York. That was awesome. I wish there were more, but every lobby filling up in two seconds and the raid being finished in like less than 30 seconds. I didn't get the shiny. I didn't even get a hundo, but I was just having so much fun. It was. I was exhausted by the end of it, but it was so much fun. A lot of walking, a lot of walking all day, but yeah, the experience was everything you'd ever want from an in person meeting. Just better. cause like I'm used to like the modified bonuses from like the global stuff, having like the full bonuses just felt better, like the better shiny odds, the, the, the habitats where you can kind of pick whenever you want to be in the habitat instead of it rotating hourly.
David Hernandez:Last question about go fest. If somebody's on the fence or they're thinking about going to a go fest, what would y'all tell them?
New Jersey PoGo:Do it.
David Hernandez:Just Nike. Just do it. All right.
New Jersey PoGo:do it. Just go, just pick a day and just go get a, get a group of friends, even if you go alone, there's so many people there, everyone there is playing Pokemon Go. you'll meet a group of people. Like my statements go, but it may be a lot. it's going to be crowded, but like the amount of community you're going to feel like all these people are playing Pokemon Go with me. Like, oh my God, you'll just like see in a perspective how large this game is
David Hernandez:Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns. If you want to support the show, consider becoming a Patreon by either clicking the link in the description or going to patreon. com slash as the pokeball turns. Now, if you aren't able to support the show financially, you can always support the show by sharing it with your Pokemon community, because this show wouldn't exist without listeners like you. Now, here's a sneak peek for the next episode of As the Pokeball Turns.
