By Christopher Sanchez

Reporter

With a backpack full of portable batteries, charging cables, Mountain Dew, and my comfortable Puma’s, I began a quest to find as many shiny Dratini’s as I could.

Pokémon trainers scoured any Pokestop, park, or any spawn site that could drop a rare shiny Dratini on Pokémon Go’s second community day on Feb. 24 from 11a.m. to 2p.m in our time zone.  The event was worldwide.

“Community day was great,” said Basim Shaktah, senior art major.  “I didn’t think it was going to be this popular.  The last community day event, I didn’t feel like I was a part of it.  This time, you really felt like you were a part of the Pokémon Go community.”

In Pokémon Go, Dratini is a rare and difficult Pokémon to find.  Most trainers hatch their dratini’s from eggs and occasionally this Pokémon can be found near bodies of water.  Niantic, the company that created Pokémon Go, raised the spawn rate from .30% and introduced a shiny pink variation of Dratini into the game.

Steven Watts, a sophomore kinesiology major tried a different tactic than most trainers.

“My strategy for community day was to drive to different lots and catch as many as possible.  I was able to catch over 200 Dratini’s and six shiny Dratini’.”

I started my hunt at CSUB.  The campus has a variety of Pokestop, gyms, and high spawn rates.  28 minutes into the event, I found my first shiny Dratini.  It was disappointing that more people weren’t playing on campus. I decided to go next to Riverwalk park.

It felt like the whole Pokémon Go community in Bakersfield was at the park.  Over 300 trainers showed up.  People brought food, water, and snacks.  After the event there was a barbeque and a meetup for trainers.

“This Pokémon event showed the game isn’t dead,” said Shaktah.  “It’s alive and well, even though there’s not a lot of players on campus.”

That’s a problem that a lot of CSUB students face while playing on campus.  CSUB is a fun and safe place to play that has a lot of Pokestop’s, gyms, raids, and varieties of Pokémon that spawn.  However, it lacks a sense of community.

“During the event, I talked to a lot more people than I do on campus.  That made it fun,” said Armando Orozco, senior sociology.  “I play primarily on campus.  Compared to last semester there aren’t as many players interested in the game.”

When I play on campus, the most frustrating part is the raid system.  Raids are based on a one to five level system.  Each raid has a random Pokémon assignee to that level.  The higher level the raid, the more trainers it takes to defeat the raid boss.

Level five raids or legendary raids are the hardest to beat.  It can take upwards of six trainers to defeat the raid boss.

“For a while, there were a lot of people raiding and playing.  Especially when a new raid boss comes out,” said Shaktah.  “But after winter break, it definitely dropped off.”

I understand that students can be busy, especially as the semester drags on.  Pokémon Go is meant for players to go out and explore their community.

There are students who still play and raid.  We can build a community of trainers here on campus.  If you see people raiding, talk to each other.  Communication is the first step to creating a Pokémon Go community on campus.