On the train to Kyoto, a strange space creature was birthed from a strange egg. I then bestowed the name of the one who will one day incite terror upon the universe, Jimmy. However, for now, Jimmy remains a weak being incapable of self reliance. For now, he hides within the world of my phone where I feed him food. I also used a special training technique called playing catch in order to prepare him for his future conquests.
While not impressive yet, Jimmy’s stats will soon greatly improve to become the strongest… hopefully.
Sooo I started my first peridot when I arrived in Tokyo on May 17th. I named her Starry and she grew to be an adult in about 4 days. Here’s a photo of her:
About the time we got to the Shinagawa Prince Hotel, Starry was ready to have a baby and then came Luna. Currently Luna is a teen and I’m gonna hold onto her until we go back to Tokyo but she will be my Kyoto buddy for now. Here’s a pretty photo of her 🙂
i’m joining the league of cheaters who started early although i come to you today bearing little fruit. a few days ago i hatched a little man named patch and i have neglected him ever since. to be upfront, i’m not a fan of virtual pet games to begin with and i’ve been having a lot of real world to explore recently so this really fell by the wayside.
i think the premise of peridot is pretty dependent on taking the game outside but due to this app’s drain on my phone’s battery (that i need for gps and translation), patch is 6 days old and has yet to see the sun for the first time. not to mention when i’m walking around i’m focusing on getting to a train on time, or carrying the world’s heaviest luggage, or looking forward to the thing i’m going to see. pretty much the last thing i want to do is pull out my phone and complete a to-do list.
it could also be because my phone is a bit of an older model, but whether i’m on wifi or data i can’t play this game without a serious amount of lag. i’ll throw him a ball, the game will freeze, and then he’s brought it back already. this happens for virtually every interaction for me, it’s a nice surprise when it doesn’t. i suppose i’m having a hard time feeling organically engaged with this game but that might change if everyone on the trip suddenly starts going all in on peridot. i will say i genuinely feel bad for how little attention i’m giving patch, the guilt feeling is why i avoid these kinds of games to begin with, because the natural conclusion of all of them is that you move on and never come back. genuinely, i wish i had better news.
[patch in the dark void of a hotel room, the only home he’s ever known.]
As part of our trip, we have been tasked with hatching “Dots” (small creatures from Niantic’s new app Peridot) and letting them travel with us while we are in Japan. We were supposed to hatch our first Dots today, BUT I may have cheated and spawned mine early. So I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce the two Dots that I already have since they’ll be traveling with me for this leg of the trip.
My first Dot was named North, a spacey little guy whose personality went from a total teenage rebel to a court jester (fitting, given his horns). He’s also wearing a party hat because it was given out by the app for free for new users (which is also part of the reason I got the app early, as I was worried the promotion would end before we got to hatch our first Dot by the school’s schedule. He will always hold a sentimental place in my heart, and I’m really happy that I was able to hatch him right when I got to Tokyo and let him grow up beside me as I learned more about the new culture I found myself in.
My second Dot, creatively named North Jr., was the first offspring of North and my personal favorite of the two (shhhh, our little secret). I’m a sucker for black and blue combos, and I’m really happy that he kept the jester horns although his personality is that he’s a crooner. I didn’t know what that was until two minutes ago, but it seems like he’s a sentimental little fella who likes to sing.
I may shell out $3 so that I can hatch a new Dot tomorrow to continue to care for, but I am so exhausted that I can barely keep my eyes open and I don’t think tomorrow will be much better. While it was against the wishes of our professors, I am happy that I was able to start early and get a feel for the game before being thrown into the deep end. I think the concept is really cute and it has a lot of potential.
