Pokemon Go still has a place at UMW

By OLYMPIA JARRELL

Staff Writer

Pokemon Go at the University of Mary Washington was incredibly popular after its release in July 2016 and today though it is not as widely spread in popularity, teams still play on campus. Gary Baldanza, a senior studying computer science as well as a member of Team Valor has played pokemon Go since the beginning.

“Pokemon Go on campus is crazy and has no love for Team Valor,” Baldanza said. He continued describing the competitiveness of the three Pokemon Go factions on campus, “most of the time the gyms here are controlled by either Team Instinct or Mystic, which really cripples the currency income.”

Tara King, a senior creative writing major and who is on team Mystic weighed in on the Pokemon Go popularity on campus,

“campus is one of the best  places to play Pokemon Go,” said King. “There are so many PokeStops and Gyms. I also find a greater variety of Pokemon while playing on campus which is nice, because I live off campus in an area where there aren’t that many stops or spawn points.”

When asked if Pokemon Go was as popular on campus since its release King replied, “I don’t think it is quite as popular now as it was in the beginning.” King concluded by saying, “I do think it still has a strong fanbase though.”

When asked if Pokemon Go was as popular today at UMW Baldanza said, “not even close. You have a few players that are dedicated, but I think a lot of players gave up pretty early on… Pokemon Go kind of has a pay-to-win model, which has a lot of hostility from both casual and hardcore gamers.”

Baldanza stated that he had never paid real money for pokemon go and that it is nice to have a free to play game. “But you definitely know when someone has invested quite a bit of money into their account,” Baldanza  said.

Baldanza also commented on how competitive Pokemon Go is on campus. “Pokemon Go is competitive between team mystic and Instinct, team Valor is not really represented well here.”

Michelle Goff, a senior creative writing major who is also Team Mystic commented about Pokemon Go’s popularity in 2017 on campus.

“I don’t think Pokemon Go is nearly as popular as it used to be,” said Goff. “Some people still have it on their phones but I think the majority of people play it super casually or just open the app every once in awhile.”

Goff went on to say, “I do think it’s nice to have Pokemon Go at Mary Wash, even if I only use it when I’m walking by myself between classes. It’s fun