Pokémon

This August Ruslan Sokolovsky recorded himself while playing Pokémon GO inside Church of All Saints in Yekaterinburg, after having been made aware such activity within the church could result in jail time...

“How can one offend by entering a church with a smartphone?” Sokolovsky asked. “I decided to just catch some Pokemon in church because, why not? I believe it’s both safe and not prohibited by law. Let’s go.”

Well, fast forward to after Sokolovsky posted the video he was investigated by police, and shortly thereafter charged with inciting hatred and offending religious sensibilities. He's being detained for two months, and stands to face up to five years in jail.

What do you guys think, does the punishment fit the crime here?

The world's first "Pokémon Master" was selected from among thousands of candidates applying to Funzing.com earlier this month.

Ivy Lim, a 22 year-old from Singapore, who is a Trainer Level 23, and has caught only 121 characters so far, will be paid $1,000 a month for at least three months to catch Pokémon, train others, hold events like lure parties, teach secrets, and share her experiences.

Maybe she can help me figure out how to evolve my Pidgeys faster?



Check her out below:

...and go here if you want to up your own game in the meantime.

A clever ad campaign has caught Londoners attention by threatening to deport Pokémon Go! characters as a ploy for getting attention for a petition demanding that EU Citizens be allowed to stay in the UK with the same rights as pre-BREXIT had allowed them. The signs were spotted all over London Monday, from the London Eye to Tube Stations:




The #POKEMONGOHOME Campaign has garnered a ton of attention...









So even though we love and adore THESE guys...





...Go Sign The Petition to guarantee EU Nationals a right to remain in the UK, because people are definitely better than freakin' Pidgeys.

Gary Dear, owner of Mad Hatter's Ice Cream in Anacortes found himself situated in the middle of a maddening Pokémon GO mecca. Eager players have flocked from miles and miles away to his shop, where there are three Poké Stops located nearby---many end up getting ice cream after their journeying around.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I ever expected it to end up like this," said Dear. "I've never seen anything take off like this."

Dear even estimates that his store's sales have doubled, if not tripled, on certain nights when the Poké Madness runs wild.

A fire department hailing out of Needville, Texas was recently forced to remove their status as a PokéStop due to public safety concerns; and the events that ensued after (slashing of tires) are being blamed on Pokémon GO players. What do you guys think---this a fair and warranted claim by the fire department?

As noted by Archangelus on Reddit, Vaporeon's go-to move Water Gun has been nerfed from from its previous power of 10, to 6. See in the screenshot below, provided by Alex Zandra:



Thing that's kind of awkward though is that at the same time, Vaporeon's Hydro Pump was deffinitely buffed -- 50% increase.

What do you guys think? The gym leaders were revealed yesterday at San Diego Comic-Con, when hundreds of players also gathered with high hopes that a legendary might be unleashed...no such luck, unfortunately. Some other details covered:

• There are easter eggs that nobody's discovered yet
• They’re planning ways to customize Pokestops
• Pokemon Centers are coming
• There will be more functionality added to gyms, though the specifics aren’t clear
• Niantic says the game is at about 10% of what they want it to be
• They’re still discussing breeding, but nothing concrete in the works yet
• The legendary birds are tied to teams in some way, as the original designs implied
• Yep, they know about the three-step glitch.
• It sounds like we can’t expect legendaries until after the game has been released on all regions, which makes sense

Variety reports that Legendary Entertainment locked down the rights to what could be a massive franchise, subsequent to reported accounts that they were trying to close the deal. Details are pretty hush right now, but we've heard whispers that the studio's nudging for the film to kickstart in 2017. Oh, and we're talking Detective Pikachu for the 'theme'. For those that don't remember, here's a quick reminder that, yes, Detective Pikachu, is the hero you deserve:

It's practically a give at this point that your Pokémon GO! adventures will take you off the beaten path, and maybe even tempt you to go exploring your neighbors' properties with the utmost caution...naturally, this pisses the hell out of some folks who just want to be left alone like this chick...



Well, not Matthew Beaman. Beaman's been busy depositing 3D models of Pokémon for players at Poké Stops around Ikfracombe, Devon. He wanted to leave players souvenirs that'll last off their screens.



"I thought rather than leaving it just to chance I should let people have some fun with it.



"I've had people shouting thank you at me in the street."



Damn right. You are the MAN.

Two things that really got me going here: One, it's almost like he thought by showing the police he was playing Pokémon GO! that he thought it'd be all chill after. Second, I'm pretty sure he was still trying to catch whatever it was that got him in the accident, after being confronted by the cops for CRASHING into a cop car! Sheesh, man. Come on.

Sometimes we lose ourselves amidst the pursuit to catch 'em all...Let's just hope that this fool over in Milford, Michigan wasn't actually trying to catch a Parasect before he was apprehended by police authorities. 

Chief Thomas Lindberg said the man (William Wilcox) just made it easy, by showing up. Wilcox, a repeat offender with a warrant out for his arrest, ended up right in front of the men that'd go on to take him into custody.

"It was a misdemeanor warrant for a failure to appear on a breaking and entering charge," Lindberg said. "They approached him. Took him in custody without incident and he admitted he was trying to catch the character at the flagpole."

Pokemon Go players looking for Pokemon

For those unaware, Pokémon GO has all but taken over the planet at this point. Phone batteries everywhere have taken a devastating hit. People wander the streets with lifeless eyes, tired legs (still getting used to the whole walking everywhere thing) on the hunt for another Magikarp (cause you need like 500 of those to get a damn Gyarados).

Seriously. Go outside, look around, and catch at least a dozen folks committed to leveling up, catching 'em all, and hitting every f**king Poké Stop between here and Narnia, while on their way to a potentially perpetual state of unemployment. Like some of us really should be getting back to work at this point...

And now to the hot topic of the day: when you first start up with this game, you've the option to side with Team Instinct, Valor, or Mystic:





Well, an inspired piece of banner artwork from DeviantArt’s Seoxys6 is serving as the rallying point for players out there that have grown tired of the senseless hostility between players on different teams. Team Harmony's message goes:

“Disturb not the harmony of Fire, Ice, or Lightning lest these three Titans wreck destruction upon the world in which they clash. Though the water’s Great Guardian shall arise to quell the fighting alone its song will fail. Thus the Earth shall turn to ash. O, Chosen One, into thine hands bring together all three.”

Can this new, 'unofficial' team put an end to all the animosity, or nah? I appreciate the nod to the pokémon storyline -- in the movie Ash and friends have to do something with Lugia in order to restore order between the three legendary birds, Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres.



I don't know though; these reactions suggest we might yet be on an endless quest to attain peace between competing factions....

Clearly what's going on here is our pony-tailed Pokemon trainer at hand is too low a level to tame the marshmallow-toned blubbery beast of a beluga.