CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Mission Day showed me just how unfit I've become, so, this week, I'm trying to get my walking habit back on-line - and what better way to do that, than to take on an easy mission through the centre of Canberra? Created by Resistance agent, Frostbeast, this colourful 12-mission banner walks you around the city centre, and features were as follows: Time to Complete:   The average time for each mission is around 10 minutes, although some are much shorter. If you’re taking the time to glyph-hack, capture, fully deploy, link and field, then these times will be much, much longer due the portal density of the area. Complexity:   This is a very straight-forward mission series, with easily accessible portals, but, as noted below, you should be wary of hacking portals not included in the mission you’re on. Terrain and Location Notes: Location Accessibility: You can travel to the mission area by bus, although there is plenty of parking, if you prefer to travel by car, al...

In other news, today I finally worked out where the weather icon went. It used to sit at the bottom right-hand side of the screen, just above the window for finding nearby pokemon. In all the excitement of the new PokemonGo Missions, I lost where it was, and didn't even really think to look for it... until today, when I had to catch a serious amount of weather-affected pokemon. it took me a bit, but I finally realised the weather icon is now located in the top right of the screen... which is kind of appropriate when it's a sun - when it reminds me of a kid's drawing of the outdoors.

Today, Ingress announced that the Guardian Medal was being retire d - and I am glad. Of all the medals, this one has been behind most of the angst and stress I have seen in fellow players,  and I am glad to see it go, because of this. It has also been the main means I have seen players use to taunt their opposition, and not in a game-friendly way. Of all the medals, this one has also puzzled me the most, just from the point of view that, if no player can truly 'own' or 'lay claim' to a portal, why was there a reward for doing so for a long period of time? And, of all the medals, this one did not really require skill or teamwork to achieve (although I would argue that teamwork plays a great part in longevity, and smart selection occasionally helped, while remembering to recharge was an essential skill, too). However, those three points aside, what this medal mostly required was persistence in seeding portals, and a lot of dumb luck. For example, given the high...

February was a bit of a mixed month for walking. After a week of almost no walking, my back protested, and I decided to set myself some challenges as incentives to get out and about. It kind of worked. I certainly had more reason to get out - even on days I *really* didn't want to. The writing is becoming more demanding as I work out what I want to do... or is that *I* am becoming more demanding. Either way, the temptation to work at my desk, instead of walk, is high PokemonGo Happenings in February 2018: February was a pretty busy month in Pokemongo, with several promotions occurring, although it was frustrating to receive notifications of these later than the event start, so it's important to remember to check out the Niantic PokemonGo blog in order to stay on top of them. Here's a quick run-down: More pokemon arrived - YES! And Rayquaza quickly followed - and then things got busy, with Valentine's Day, new costumes, the Lunar New Year, more legendaries, a...