Real Life Skill Development
Has anyone else, intentionally or not, developed a (potentially weird) skill as a result of playing this game?
Mine is an uncanny ability to wake up roughly when I want - without an alarm - thanks to the 21-hour gym reward cycle. When collection is overnight, I wake, start the app, collect, and fall right back asleep.
This all started because there's no way my girlfriend would tolerate an alarm (and rightly so), but I like piling up coins and dust, so a few months ago I tried to get myself to wake up at collection time - merely by making a mental note, before I fell asleep, of how long was left.
Timing was iffy at first, but now I usually wake 5-30 minutes after collection time (which I think is better than too early). Over the past two nights I was early by 3 minutes, and late by 6 - my most accurate set of overnights yet.
I wouldn't expect this sleep thing to be common, but I am curious to hear if others have purposefully or accidentally developed any non-game skills (e.g., riding a bicycle with no hands, or precisely timing pedestrian walk signals) as a result of playing.
Answers
I've stood healty enough to be able to go out and get at least daily bonuses, wherever I was, since I play. I walk a lot too, but no gym or sport...
There are way more negative side things connected with addiction to this game (and other games before it, especially pokemon games).
Lack of motivations, way big distraction, easy escape from socially unconfortable situations (bye bye, and I go walking playing), pain at leg for ~over-walking.
Not exactly skills but:
- Checking the weather (I have a waterproof device, Galaxy S7 Edge, but it is way more different attempting to throw balls from a wet screen than a dry one. Also, I also wear shades to protect my eyes now from the screen glare)
- Bringing a recyclable grocery bag when going to college (it's much easier to throw balls when you have both hands free and just groceries on your shoulder, instead of attempting to bypassing the government tax on plastic bags by holding groceries with bare hands). Sometimes I even bring a freezer insulation bag if I think I might need to attack a level 10 gym after buying frozen food lol.
- Avoiding eye contact with strangers (seriously, this game has saved me in situations like scammers who try to get your attention with a 'survey'), I listen to them, say I'm not interested, and plug my headphones back in and fling balls.
California and parts of Hawaii make you pay a nickel at the store for a bag. In fact in hawaii they don't even have plastic. Just paper.
Interestingly enough they do offer the rolls of plastic bags in the produce department. what's more disconcerting are those six pack holders. You know the dolphin killers. Why those were not dropped (on an island especially) before plastic bags is mind boggling.
I cannot remember the last time I saw an actual 6 pack holder. We recycle those bags but I find it a kind of comical product to target in the world of waste plastic. I think 15 of those bags is the same amount of actual plastic as 1 bottled water bottle. Seems like a political move people clap for while they get fleeced at checkout so a politician can score political points. And diapers dwarf all other waste plastic expenditures by a massive amount and have the notoriety as not being recyclable (or shouldn't be due to being a form of medical waste).
I study in London, shops like supermarkets, toy shops etc require a 5 pence charge (I think this is around 7 cents in the US? Not sure how you call that) when you grab a plastic bag from them to carry your shopping.
Before Pogo I buy my groceries or whatever and carry them with my two hands (to avoid the charge) but now with Pogo I do carry my recyclable bag.
