Pokemon GO at PAX WEST

Shankmaster13

Hey everybody... I was looking at he maps of where pokestops and gyms were located in Seattle and i saw that the convention center was really lacking in any of those. Would anybody that lives or visits Seattle be able to request some in the area? Please and thank you

http://www.shacknews.com/article/95855/how-to-request-a-pokestop-and-gym-in-pokemon-go

DashD

The Convention Center might not have many, but the area around it has a fair amount. Also remember that Pokemon Go requires a working GPS and your signal inside the convention center will probably be fairly weak, if it works at all.

Use this as an excuse to get out and see Seattle and explore!

Desert Leviathan

Yeah, playing Pokemon Go inside the convention center itself sounds like a fast track to a dead battery. Cell coverage in that building is pretty dodgy even when the place isn't stuffed to the gills with people.

Additionally, PAX is a dense enough setting that people really should have eyes up at all times to navigate. Failing to maintain situational awareness in such an environment is frankly super rude, and I'd be willing to bet the Enforcers will be on high alert for people impeding the flow of traffic because they're at a dead stop in the middle of the Exhibition Hall chucking balls at a Pidgey.

YoungFrey

The WSCC might be a no-go for Pokemon-Go, but any business with a Pokestop downtown is going to make serious bank.

Solelron

I wouldn't stress about it being an on floor issue. Most Pokemon Go Players will be focusing on where the pokestops are, which will probably be post floor like out in front of the stairs or things of that nature.

TabbyKat

I'm more curious about there being some type of possible event or panel or gathering sponsored by the game, whether Niantic or Pokemon. With Sun and Moon coming out and the popularity of Go I would hope there is a decent presence this year.

jukkakhan

I was hoping they'd have a special event at the Space Needle, much like the Mewtwo battle in Times Square that was showed in one of the trailers. But with the current state of the game, it doesn't look like that's gonna happen.

TabbyKat

jukkakhan wrote: »

I was hoping they'd have a special event at the Space Needle, much like the Mewtwo battle in Times Square that was showed in one of the trailers. But with the current state of the game, it doesn't look like that's gonna happen.

Optimism! We have a month til PAX and the game has been out for less time then that. I have not lost hope.

Englishseige

While the convention center is not necessarily the hot spot it could be for Pokestops, the surrounding areas including the paths between the Convention Center and say Benaroya Hall, do have a good number of stops scattered around. The shear number of people playing the game in such a localized area could be useful even if pokestops are not plentiful in the main hall and cause more Pokemon to appear and at higher CP. That is based on personal experience playing the game downtown Seattle with a large group of people vs playing in the same area mostly on my own.

cbellevie

TabbyKat wrote: »

I'm more curious about there being some type of possible event or panel or gathering sponsored by the game, whether Niantic or Pokemon. With Sun and Moon coming out and the popularity of Go I would hope there is a decent presence this year.

I find anything with Niantic to be unlikely as that might require them to actually talk about the game.

Regardless of what Nintendo does, I expect their area to be busier than usual.

tea_bird

Does anyone have screenshots from in-game of the area around WSCC? I'm highly curious as a rural resident.

akThera

Keep in mind that pokemon spawning seems to be based on cel usage... So while the convention center might not have a lot of stops or gyms, expect it to be swarming with actual pokemon.

pelicanflip

akjak wrote: »

Keep in mind that pokemon spawning seems to be based on cel usage... So while the convention center might not have a lot of stops or gyms, expect it to be swarming with actual pokemon.

If you can ever get cell service. I can barely get texts/tweets when I'm in the convention center, so I doubt Pokemon Go will be functioning properly.

Solelron

people keep talking like you will look in the center.

Don't.

Do it outside, after the floor closes. Go outside, hit the pokestops. Do the after hour things

bacon_avenger

Few things as a PoGo field tester and founder in ingress:

• That link is incorrect. Niantic is not accepting submissions for new stops/gyms for 99% of the people who are probably flooding that form. They are only considering new stops for places where there are not any around (rural locations since there are few portals around, if any). And Niantic does not have a good history of responding to requests for new locations, removals of bad ones, and so on. I've got new ingress portal submissions that are well over a year old, and I've still not heard back from them (and ingress has a much smaller player base than pogo).
  
• Per the ingress intel map, there are about a dozen portals around the block area of the convention centre, and any one of those could be a stop or gym. Officially, Niantic said that part of the criteria for what became what was based on how 'active' a given portal was. That being said, I've seen portals in the areas around my home that barely see any activity due to them being behind a guarded fence, but somehow they became stops. :?
  
• Pokemon spawning: There appears to be a definite correlation between high XM areas and 'tall grass' areas, which is believed to be caused by, as mentioned, higher concentration of cell phone users (ask any ingress player in your area). This is why I see 'tall grass' spots in my area at the bigger transit centres and places like costco.
  
• So far, every map I've seen for PoGo has been crowd sourced (there is no official map, unlike what we have with ingress), so the accuracy of them is suspect. Unless someone can get a screenshot of the convention centre area in game, it's anyone's guess if there is anything there. That being said, the freeway park area behind the centre, I would imagine is a spawning area with at least one gym or a few stops. I remember the portals back there flipping quite often.

And for those who are wondering what this talk is of portals, XM, and ingress, ingress is Niantics' older augmented reality game that's been live for over three years. Every stop and gym was picked from the ingress portal database, based on things like activity and some magic sauce algorithm Niantic has, and 99% of the portals were submitted by ingress players and accepted as portals as they were things like works of art, unique local businesses, places/things of historical/religious interest, or places where people would gather (not that Niantic was consistent on following these guidelines, which is why one sees things like 'red ball statue' portals at Target or pub/bar/'adult business' portals).

XM is an in-game thing that is needed to do other things, and it spawns 'naturally' in various areas, usually around portals and in places where there are a lot of people (see the pokemon spawning bit above).

So, that's it in a nutshell (walnuts are nuts, and those are big shells, right?), I think.

akThera

bacon_avenger wrote: »

Every stop and gym was picked from the ingress portal database, based on things like activity and some magic sauce algorithm Niantic has, and 99% of the portals were submitted by ingress players and accepted as portals as they were things like works of art, unique local businesses, places/things of historical/religious interest, or places where people would gather (not that Niantic was consistent on following these guidelines, which is why one sees things like 'red ball statue' portals at Target or pub/bar/'adult business' portals).

So, that's it in a nutshell (walnuts are nuts, and those are big shells, right?), I think.

My cousin liked to call portal submission and acceptance "Calvinball" because it seemed like the rules changed every day.

bacon_avenger

akjak wrote: »

bacon_avenger wrote: »

Every stop and gym was picked from the ingress portal database, based on things like activity and some magic sauce algorithm Niantic has, and 99% of the portals were submitted by ingress players and accepted as portals as they were things like works of art, unique local businesses, places/things of historical/religious interest, or places where people would gather (not that Niantic was consistent on following these guidelines, which is why one sees things like 'red ball statue' portals at Target or pub/bar/'adult business' portals).

So, that's it in a nutshell (walnuts are nuts, and those are big shells, right?), I think.

My cousin liked to call portal submission and acceptance "Calvinball" because it seemed like the rules changed every day.

Calvinball seems to be a long standing tradition with Niantic and Ingress, and it's been applied to the gameplay and rules so many times...

My circles, we always referred to it as the submission lottery due to some of the decisions on what made it as a portal or not being based on the flip of a coin or hitting a jackpot on a slot machine. :P

rrracheljoy

I'm sure that there are going to be more events going on around the area than there will be inside the con itself. Here's one from the Team Mystic subreddit for Sunday, which I assume will be countered by the other teams. And whichever day they have a panel will likely be buzzing with activity (or outrage). The initial hype is dying down, but there are still definitely a lot of people playing and a lot of businesses ready to cash in, so I'm sure there won't be a lack for GO things to do during the con. If I get some time this week I might walk around the area and take some map screenshots in-game to get everything mapped out for anyone out of town and curious.

CupcakeMiryai

Shankmaster13 wrote: »

Hey everybody... I was looking at he maps of where pokestops and gyms were located in Seattle and i saw that the convention center was really lacking in any of those. Would anybody that lives or visits Seattle be able to request some in the area? Please and thank you

http://www.shacknews.com/article/95855/how-to-request-a-pokestop-and-gym-in-pokemon-go

I don't think they're open to suggestions on pokestops and the like anymore. Not to mention by the time they get to the email/suggestion, PAX will probably be gone and over with.

akThera

Adding Pokestops for them is as simple as pasting in a few coordinates tho. I won't be surprised if they do a couple just for the weekend.

I know that in the past, bandland folks have had their own Ingress portals up temporarily. Same deal here.

SinoSamba

I wonder if the Pokemon booth will have any special event tied to Pokemon Go? That would be nice.

jag986

As a Seattle area resident, I can tell you that the downtown area is absolutely terrible for Pokemon spawns. Any time I go out in that area of the city, and I work downtown so it's pretty frequent, I don't find anything more exciting than a very rare Hitmonlee or a Meowth. Mostly, it's Zubats, Rattatas, Pidgeys, and for some reason Drowzees. Unless something drastically changes during PAX with higher cell usage, you won't really find anything worth your trouble around the Convention Center.

Now, if you go up to Capital Hill, you'll find some better things. I've caught Wartortles, Taurus, Dragonite, Vulpix up there. The waterfront is also pretty good for some spawns like Dratini, Staryu/me, or Psyducks. Seattle Center is also supposed to be a very good place for some rare spawns, as is Bellevue Park if you go out that way. But downtown is not where you're going to really find any Pokemon worth your interest that you couldn't get in lesser populated areas.

There are also so many Pokestops around the Convention Center, I doubt they'd find it worthwhile to add one there. You hit at least two every block.

AK Shadow92

jag986 wrote: »

As a Seattle area resident, I can tell you that the downtown area is absolutely terrible for Pokemon spawns. Any time I go out in that area of the city, and I work downtown so it's pretty frequent, I don't find anything more exciting than a very rare Hitmonlee or a Meowth. Mostly, it's Zubats, Rattatas, Pidgeys, and for some reason Drowzees. Unless something drastically changes during PAX with higher cell usage, you won't really find anything worth your trouble around the Convention Center.

Now, if you go up to Capital Hill, you'll find some better things. I've caught Wartortles, Taurus, Dragonite, Vulpix up there. The waterfront is also pretty good for some spawns like Dratini, Staryu/me, or Psyducks. Seattle Center is also supposed to be a very good place for some rare spawns, as is Bellevue Park if you go out that way. But downtown is not where you're going to really find any Pokemon worth your interest that you couldn't get in lesser populated areas.

There are also so many Pokestops around the Convention Center, I doubt they'd find it worthwhile to add one there. You hit at least two every block.

Well if there are a decent amount of pokestops like you say I'm expecting a ton of lures going :biggrin:

AK Shadow92

AK Shadow92 wrote: »

jag986 wrote: »

As a Seattle area resident, I can tell you that the downtown area is absolutely terrible for Pokemon spawns. Any time I go out in that area of the city, and I work downtown so it's pretty frequent, I don't find anything more exciting than a very rare Hitmonlee or a Meowth. Mostly, it's Zubats, Rattatas, Pidgeys, and for some reason Drowzees. Unless something drastically changes during PAX with higher cell usage, you won't really find anything worth your trouble around the Convention Center.

Now, if you go up to Capital Hill, you'll find some better things. I've caught Wartortles, Taurus, Dragonite, Vulpix up there. The waterfront is also pretty good for some spawns like Dratini, Staryu/me, or Psyducks. Seattle Center is also supposed to be a very good place for some rare spawns, as is Bellevue Park if you go out that way. But downtown is not where you're going to really find any Pokemon worth your interest that you couldn't get in lesser populated areas.

There are also so many Pokestops around the Convention Center, I doubt they'd find it worthwhile to add one there. You hit at least two every block.

Well if there are a decent amount of pokestops like you say I'm expecting a ton of lures going, but also as a side note I hope that they fix the game since there isn't a way to track anything now.(Pokevision is no more)

The Aviatrix

YAY! Drowzee!

Maybe I'll get a hypno finally!

-not sarcasm-
I've only seen one Drowzee in the wild. And I hatched a second xD

LuckySunnavaGun

Here's a snapshot I took from my office on 5th and Pike, convention center is on 7th and Pike. Lots of stops just walking down Pike street.

I've got a pretty wide range of pokemon leaving the game running while I'm at work. Fair number of squirtles, shellders, ghastlys, meowths, jigglypuffs, clefairies, lickitungs, koffings, just to name a few. A very large variety of my pokedex as been while I'm at work.

If you want a good spot to chill and catch pokemon, Westlake park on the corner of 4th and Pine has 4 stops, almost always lured (popular bus stop), food trucks, westlake mall with food court across the street (though it might be closed due to remodelling) and usually there's a musician playing during lunch hours.

Solelron

more lures and people should increase the spawns...seen it happen

AK Shadow92

The Aviatrix wrote: »

YAY! Drowzee!

Maybe I'll get a hypno finally!

-not sarcasm-
I've only seen one Drowzee in the wild. And I hatched a second xD

You should come to anchorage, Alaska we have them in herds

somenewguy

Seattle resident and avid pokemoGO player here. For a good hunt out of the convention center your best bet is to head down Pike or Pine to the waterfront. from the aquarium head south along the waterfront until the Washington state ferry terminal. Next, head up Yesler way to 3rd ave. from this point i would hop on a bus ($2.75-2.50 adult fair) and ride up the hill on 3rd ave. back to Pike st. This entire trip is only a few kilometers, is mostly downhill, and should only take about an hour. It not only takes you through some very decent pokemon hunting but also passes some of Seattle's more iconic locations.

HeyJoe

SinoSamba wrote: »

I wonder if the Pokemon booth will have any special event tied to Pokemon Go? That would be nice.

Not to sound overly negative, but I highly doubt it. They haven't quite figured out how to run a decent booth in my experience. Also, there is a weird disconnect between The Pokemon Company International (based in Bellevue), Nintendo, and every other company (such as Niantec) which uses the brand.

just0ne

Just wanted to say: There's a Pokemon Gym right outside the Entrance to the Grand Hyatt. It's a big Sculpture right next to the Valet. The Hydra and the Hippograph Theater are both in the Grand Hyatt as well as the Classic Arcade room.

There will also be plenty of PokeStops near or on your way to the Main Stage (Benaroya Hall) if you ever hit that up. Enjoy.