The Wastes Vs. The West

So, Gamelings!
Bethesda has taken legal action against Warner Bros.

I know that there are a lot of Westworld fans out there. I can't blame you.

I mean... I've never seen Westworld but I have always wanted to.

The premise is fascinating. 

Recently Warner Bros. teamed up with Behaviour Interactive to release Westworld the mobile game.

Cool, right?

On the surface, it seems like a great idea until you find out that Behaviour Interactive were contracted with Bethesda to work on Fallout Shelter.

No biggie, right?

Wrong.

Unfortunately Behavior Interactive violated their contract and used many elements of Bethesda's software and intellectual property including Bethesda’s copyrighted code, trade secrets, and other rights to develop the Westworld game for Warner Bros. 

Bethesda commented on the new app saying, "The ‘Westworld’ game is a blatant rip-off of ‘Fallout Shelter."

Now, to be thorough, I downloaded the Westworld game and was immediately taken aback.

The games are almost identical.

How in the world did they think that they could just skirt by with this?!?

Westworld (Cowboy Fallout Shelter)

Fallout Shelter (ACTUAL Fallout Shelter)

The gameplay mechanics are even the same...

Doubletap takes you into a room.

Earn currency and resources by getting people and making them do things.

Use that currency to expand your underground base...

I don't think that Behaviour Interactive has a snowball's chance in hell of winning this one at all.

Hell...

It's even questionable that Warner Bros. will get out of this unscathed.

Bethesda, you know that I have an unhealthy love for you.

I got your back.

Tell me what you think of the games and this lawsuit in the comments or rant with me on the Facebook page!

Until next time,

-Tish Terror

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of My Goddamn Patience

Hello, gamelings!

Stop whatever you are doing and listen to me!!

I HAVE IMPORTANT NEWS!

The mobile game we've all been waiting for has arrived!

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery!

"But wait..." you may be saying. "That game has been out for a while now."

I know... I know.

I have been playing through this game for a couple of weeks now  and I can say that, despite the constant need to wait or pay for energy, the story line, spells, and charms are pretty great!

They recently rewarded us all with 100 gems (WOOOOO!!!) but, if you are like me, you blew through those gems with a quickness that would startle the Flash.

Now I, being a game junkie, have an app that periodically puts some coinage into my google play account... This app is Google Opinion Rewards. It will give you a survey occasionally (more often if you turn on location tracking) and once you've answered between 1 and 5 questions, you get an unspecified amount of funds deposited to your Google Play account. I have noticed that it tends to be around $0.11 for the 1 question surveys.

This helps immensely with my patience issues. Because I use this app, I am able to just buy more energy. Now I have to figure out how to buy energy in real life. (don't say coffee... I already live on coffee.)

Anywho...

I know there has been a huge outcry for a fix. Everyone wants less wait time for their energy. 

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO HAVE ENERGY TO TAKE A BREAK?!?"

yeah.... like that...

There are so many kinds of Hogwarts students out there. There are the affluent players that drop hundreds of dollars on the game and just jump right in like:

Then there are those who are living comfortably but have a hard time justifying the expenditure on a game:

And then there are those like me... Work-from-home parents or others below the poverty line who decide... I'll just wait:

No matter what your financial case is, there are always 2 different kinds of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery players when it comes to running out of energy:

I'm broke so I'll wait. I'll wait a hundred years! I'll wait forever if I have to 

because 

Until next time, gamelings.

-Tish Terror

Never PokemonGo anywhere without a buddy!

Howdy doody, Gamelings!

Another day has come and, as such, so has another Pokemon Go update.

Now, I must be honest with you, Gamelings.

If I'm not honest with you, what kind of journalist would I be?

Anyway...

To be completely honest...

I am a bad PoGo player.

I used to play constantly.

We'd go on family walks just to go catch Pokemon.

Now, though?

I've been stuck at 7.7km out of my only 10km egg for about 3 weeks.

I know...

I know...

What am I doing with my life?

Unfortunately the answer to that question is: Adulting.

So, naturally, when I saw that there was a new update available for PoGo my emotions ran the gamut from regret to guilt to apathy. 

I clearly didn't have time to play this game so why should I care?

Also, being reminded that it exists made me feel kinda guilty for ignoring it and it made me regret all of the time spent staring into the black abyss of "I'm so tired I could die" instead of playing PoGo.

I clicked on the "What's new" option to see what cool new feature they had added.
As usual it started with "bug fixes".

Ah, good ol' bug fixes.

Then it listed "Buddy Pets".

I read on to find out that "buddy pets" allows you to equip a certain pet as a "buddy" and earn candy for that pet as you travel certain distances.

This is friggin phenomenal for people, like me, who live in a less-populated area and STILL HAVEN'T EVOLVED THEIR FRIGGIN EEVEE! 

Your buddy will either stand behind you, beside you, or sit on your shoulder depending on how big they are!

PoGo screenshots courtesy of me and Bri. ;)

SO yea... this is now a thing.

"But how will I know just how far I have to walk to get candies for my Poke-dudes?"

Well HERE is a wonderful link that has them all listed!

You'll notice that the legendaries and ditto are listed.

Super cool!

It makes a lot of sense that buddy system would be put into place.

It would probably be the only way to get candies for legendary Pokemon.

Unfortunately this update also blocks root/jailbroken users!

I mean, that never stopped anyone before and it certainly hasn't stopped them now!

Now, while we DEFINITELY DO NOT endorse cheating, stealing, or any such stuff...
THIS LINK gives info on how to get around the user block.

You do you, booboo.

One final thing that users have noticed is that the game has Android Wear compatibility which enables users to use their android smartwatches as Pokemon Go Plus devices!

Super neato!

So...

I guess, now that I've updated my PoGo, I have no excuse.

It's time to get out there and

CATCH

THEM 

ALL!

Source: ComicBook, LifeHacker, Heavy

Trainers Rejoice In Trading

Let the Pokemon Trading Commence!

According to Niantic CEO John Hanke, players will soon be able to trade their Pokemon to other trainers in a future update to the wildly popular mobile game Pokemon GO.

We do not have even a guess-timation on the release date, time or even millennium that the patch will be released, but we have been assure that it WILL in fact happen. All we can hope for is that it will be sooner than later.

Now, if we could just get some server stability that would be nice too!

Source: Comicbook

Wait, They Don't Catch You Like I Catch You. Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaps. Wait...

THE MAPS ARE FINALLY HERE 

While searching the web this evening trying to see if anyone has started tracking their Pokemon sighting at all, I stumbled across something called PokeCrew. It is a map that piggybacks off of Google Maps to give a startlingly accurate world map where people all over the world are reporting their Pokemon sightings. All you have to do is look up your location, and see what people in your area are finding. I highly recommend creating a free account yourselves and reporting your findings as well, as helping other trainers out is the wonderfully nice thing to do! 

You can find the PokeCrew maps →  HERE  ←   

HAPPY HUNTING

Thoughts on Pokemon Go from a stay-at-home mother of 4

I will start with the bad stuff and work my way to the good... 

Pokemon Go is just not a game made for people like me. It is more of a single-people game. This game requires you to get up and go within a moment's notice to find the Pokemon of your dreams. When you are stuck at home with 4 crazy kids and you see a Clefairy down the street, your heart sinks knowing that it is either, leave your kids home alone or just let it go.

 

This game can be life-consuming. It has only been a couple of days and already I know of people who have skipped work, slammed on their brakes, and didn't sleep... All in the name of catching Pokemon. 

On the other hand, it is making my family happier. Let me elaborate on that... Before this game our evening routine was: 

dinner

shower

play

bed

Now our routine is filled with much more togetherness: 

dinner

family walk (to catch Pokemon and visit Poke-stops)

shower

bedtime story

bed

When we take our family walks every evening we discover new things we had never seen before. We are able to have fun hunting and catching Pokemon!
My daughter caught her very first Pokemon yesterday!

isn't it cute?

As for the stay-at-home parents like me, if you feel the need, you can buy incense and put those out. The Pokemon will come to YOU. You will be the king/queen of catching Pokemon from your couch/kitchen/laundry room/bed/etc.

Pokemon Go has also united my community in a BIG way! I have made friends with people I would have never met through my town's Pokemon Go Facebook group! We share tips, tricks, rants, etc. on there and we have divided the messages up into teams. I am Team Mystic (Blue) and we have our own chat where we discuss Pokemon Go, safety tips, and our next moves against the other teams!

Pokemon Go is a wonderful game for (almost) everyone!

Have fun out there and be safe!