GOtcha Podcast Episode 2: My Way of Playing Pokémon Go

Here's another longtime post that I've wanted to make, as the follow-up to the one for the first episode of my podcast with Handoyo. After that first episode, we followed up on the plan to have the episode be an hour long, and we did just that: the second episode is one hour and seven minutes long, which is quite longer than the previous one. It also means that much more content and a longer time to make the overview, which is why I've delayed it for the longest time, along with and as a result of whatever I do in and out of Pokémon.

For this episode, we decided on the title "My Way of Playing Pokémon Go" because we got quite personal for this episode. Specifically, we decided to introduce ourselves (an idea that I posed since we didn't do it in the first episode, which we ideally should have done) and what makes us involved in Pokémon Go as well as Pokémon in general. We also shared what we do in Pokémon Go and the adventures that have progressed. Continuing into the "What's Happening" segment, we continued discussing the particulars of the Mega Evolution event that had continued up to that point, and the updates that had been or are to be implemented for Mega Evolution. There were also updates on the other surrounding events, to which we contributed our thoughts and experiences from raids, related Pokémon, items, and so on.

In the "Pokémon Trivia" segment, which is the segment I'm fully responsible for, I discussed Meltan and Melmetal as a family of two unique Pokémon species. Many of their characteristics are indeed as such, not the least because of its epithet as a Mythical Pokémon. I also covered much of their relationships with the main series games (specifically Sword and Shield and the Let's Go games, as well as Pokémon Home). Interestingly, much of the info I detailed proved to have their own twists in realization thanks to recent developments, including the Go-Home link. Its characteristic introduction was also a part of the discussion between Handoyo and me, a moment that I myself covered in a couple of posts of this blog. Handoyo and I consider that all the relevant links that Meltan and Melmetal have with the games as a form of marketing.

The "PvP Corner" segment for this episode dealt with the Go Battle League of Season 3 at that time, as well as previews for Season 4 and 5, and even Halloween (Cup), the last with a special discussion of its involved types, and all of them with discussions of their respective rewards. There was also a discussion of Go Battle Night and its associated Flying Cup, which ended up being canceled, or rather rescheduled - therefore, much of our discussion continued to apply, just not for its intended scheduled time as we reported. Commonly, Handoyo would take care of this segment all on his own, but for this episode, I also contributed by giving a "for Dummies"-style primer and how it became relevant to the competitive aspect of Pokémon Go, community or otherwise. I intended myself to contribute further in this way.

One last thing that we added in this episode is a "Weekly Challenge" segment designed to test ourselves. We each establish three challenges that we would attempt to fulfill during the week between the recording of episodes, and then we would report on how we fulfilled those challenges, if we did at all. The intent is, of course, to set these individual challenges each week and then come back to them, but as it's plainly obvious by now, it's been more than a week since then, and this podcast has become inactive for one reason or another, which is regrettable. What was intended to be weekly has turned out not to be the case. With that, the "Weekly Challenges" have seemingly ran aground along with the podcast itself. It is unknown if we'll get to them in a later episode, even for the sake of closure for the challenges here.

For that matter, I don't know if we'll get to a later episode, if at all. Over the course of initially starting this podcast, we've invested in efforts and tools for that purpose, and we had gotten something good going as a result that has now stalled. Regardless, we did manage to get lots of content in this episode that could serve very well for the template of further episodes down the line. We would just have to get to them as I finally did for the overview of this episode. It may be a longtime project in the works for the both of us as Pokémon Go Trainers.

One year ago: Timeless and Forever

Two years ago: Local EX Raid (and the Power of Us), 12/7/2018

Three years ago: The Shops of Shuffle