Loiterers at the Source! | The Source Weekly - Bend

Loiterers at the Source!

Nah, just Pokemon GO players...

For the past few days or so, we've been noticing more and more people hanging out on the north side of our downtown office building, just off Bond St. These aren't your average loiterers, however. Most of them wear office type gear, some ride quality bikes, and they carry nice phones. Some of them have multiple phones, placed on clipboards for easy access.

But why exactly are they out of their cubicles in the middle of the day, you might ask?

Turns out, they're doing the very important work of playing the newest iteration of Pokemon GO. And it turns out, the Source has a "Boss." (Besides our publisher, that is, who gets to witness this fun outside his window every day now.)
Hang on, harried moms, clueless professionals and anti-smartphone people. I'll attempt to explain.

Last year, Pokemon GO exploded onto the scene, and suddenly, throngs of errant teens were seen, eyes pointed at their screens, trolling the streets, pointing their phones at what looked like nothing at all. But once they'd found all the Pokemons, it seemed like the craze kinda died down. At least, that was the case with my own tween. 


Now though, Raid Battles have appeared onto the scene, forcing otherwise solitary loners, who actually enjoyed strolling alone through cemeteries in the half dark in order to find a Pokemon spot, to interact. With Raid Battles, (and this is pretty much still over my head here...) you have to work with a team.

According to the Raid Battles page on the Pokemon GO site: "Before the raid begins, a Raid Egg will appear on top of the Gym."

From there, players can join that battle, and "once the Egg hatches, the raid begins and you have 45 minutes to defeat the Boss. Any number of Trainers can join a raid, but only in groups of up to 20 Trainers." 
So basically, they have to show up together to beat the Boss. Thus, the throngs of office workers, flocking to the Source at 10 am on any given work day.

That's fun and all guys... but care to submit a letter to the editor while you're at it?

Author's Note: Before you bristle about the "solitary loners" comment, you should know that I too am a solitary loner, and proud of it. I just manifest it with Downton Abbey reruns, Nat Geo back issues and pink wine...