Stanley Park saw a surge of Pokémon Go enthusiasts Sunday, Oct. 25 as they participated in the game’s latest community day.
Pokémon Go has seen a resurgence in popularity lately, and these community days have been crucial in both bringing old players back and introducing new people to the phenomenon.
Between the hours of 2 and 5pm, players enjoyed heavy spawn rates of Metagross’s first stage evolution, Beldum, and around a 30 percent chance of a species being a shiny. A “shiny” is a rare differently colored version of a Pokémon. The normal chance for any Pokémon to be shiny is one in 8192.
“I’ve seen a lot more people than I have in a while,” said WSU student and Texas native Jack Crownover. He believes community days make it look like it did when the game first came out, with hundreds of people filling every park.
Crowner is one of the few holdouts who has played the game nonstop since its release in the summer of 2016. Unfortunately, the majority of the game’s player base dropped within the first few months.
Pokémon from generation 4 were added to the game Tuesday of last week, further adding to the hype for Sunday’s community event. The game has 5 million active daily players, and 65 million players who participate monthly, according to expandedramblings.com.
“On a regular day I don’t see a lot of people playing it,” said James Leydon, one of the many fans who dropped the game soon after release. He complained of the constant app crashes and bugs which plagued the game’s initial release, as well as how little there was to do at the start. However, he regrets how long it took him to get back into the game, only starting again during the Chikorita event on Sept. 22.
“I met a lot of other people, not just Westfield students… I made a bunch more friends here.” Said Laydon. Though on normal weekends he sees maybe 5 or 6 others in Stanley Park playing the game, community days bring in dozens, if not hundreds.
“Pokémon Go rekindled my liking for Pokémon,” said Springfield resident David Gallerani. Gallerani played Pokémon: The Card Game in tournaments as a child, but fell out of the fandom after generation 2.
“I wish it was warmer, but I am a fan,” said Courtney Tretheway. Tretheway and her friend Lauren Guertin are both Westfield State alumni who took an hour out of their visit to the campus to brave the cold and play Pokémon Go in the park.
It was a crisp, 45 degree fall day, with a windchill of 37. Most people were bundled in coats and wearing hats as they made their rounds between all of the Pokèstops in the park. Few stayed for the whole event, but over 200 people stopped in to catch themselves a shiny Beldum.
“It’s like kinda how it was when it started. Everyone’s out and about.” Said Guertin. Guertin herself never stopped playing since the game came out and is happy to see community days bringing the interest back.
“I think it’s cool that you can team up with strangers in like, a safer way,” said Joel Mercier. “Even if you’re not on the same team if you’re at a raid they’re down to help you and I think that’s like really cool.” Mercier, too, dropped the game soon after its 2016 release and has been playing for only a week since picking it back up.
Holyoke Community College freshman Petru Silvica comes to Stanley Park every weekend to play Pokémon Go regardless if there’s an event or not. Metagross being his favorite shiny certainly made this day more important than most.
“Spend the time well, or else,” warns Silvica, who only collected three shiny Eevees from a previous Eevee community day event. As the Pokémon Eevee has 5 evolutions available in the game, he hoped for far more.
Pokémon Go community days occur once a month. Notifications will be sent through the app once the event date is announced. Eggs will hatch in ¼ the time, participants can hunt for shinies, battle gyms, participate in raids, and meet new friends, all while exercising and exploring local parks.
