YouTube Pokémon Highlights - Virtual Team Lounge

I wanted to highlight a different kind of YouTube videos for another edition, but I suppose it can wait. Right now, there is a group of videos that are more pertinent. Those who played Pokémon Go particularly during this year's Pokémon Go Fest may have peeked into or even tuned in, whether partially or nearly fully, into the Virtual Team Lounge. As part of that, there were a series of video features throughout the first day before the Team Go Rocket takeover on the second day, and they all were scheduled to appear at certain times as the event made its way around the world. All of them are of course hosted on YouTube, which makes it appropriate for me to highlight them. It is also appropriate to do so to close off this "Go Fest month", for which today is the last day.

Some of the videos were from the official Pokémon Go channel, particularly the intro/kickoff video that played each time the event entered a new section of the world. This was the one I noted in my coverage as featuring John Hanke. Another neat and particularly useful video from there is a video on how to build the Gift papercraft, which is something that I probably should have obtained reference to early on, as it has a good amount of notes on the model, which could be useful for a second build. Later on, there was a "Developer Insights" video that provided a few hints on what to expect for Mega Evolutions and a level cap increase, both of which are imminent. While the intro video was more relevant during the festivities, there are good takeaways from the latter two even now.

A few of the videos were from Niantic's own channel, which may not sound all that exciting, but they have their own qualities. For those who have seen it, a commercial was created to promote this year's Pokémon Go Fest, entitled "Look Closer"; one of the videos presents a behind-the-scenes look into that commercial with its director Rian Johnson, who is also a Trainer in Pokémon Go. In a different (follow-up) video, he talks further about his play style and favorite moments involving things that go on in it. Meanwhile, for those wondering how games like Pokémon Go can have social impact, there is one video that shows exactly that, and it may inspire others to do something as they play. "Insight" is an important keyword for these videos as well.

Then, there were also videos by ever-supportive Trainers and fans that have been supported for inclusion into the schedule. A couple of them are for helpful tutorials for popular features in Pokémon Go: one of them is how to take great pictures with Go Snapshot (as well as to take full advantage of the AR functionality) and how to build great teams for the Go Battle League. The latter happens to be a Polish language video for audiences in Poland, but those who understand English can still take advantage of subtitles to understand it, which is why I've included it here. Finally, one of the last videos to appear was a storybook reading to ease younger Trainers, featuring a Pokémon story from a popular storybook series. These videos ought to have found their use as intended.

Not everyone may have tuned into these videos; after all, they were likely to have been busy catching Pokémon, dealing with challenges, and so on and so forth for Pokémon Go Fest, whether inside or outside. That would mean missing out on the opportunity to check into the Virtual Team Lounge in a certain capacity to check on what was offered. This highlight should help those who are looking for good videos from the lineup that was featured, or even as a reference for those who did tune in, in order to find worthwhile videos to watch again from that lineup. Still, after all, the point of Pokémon Go Fest 2020 was to have a blast - especially to blast some thugs in black - and there's no denying that these videos are definitely part of that effort.

One year ago: Mythical Numbers?

Two years ago: To Watch a Movie

Three years ago: Like a Fierce Double Battle