In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by Adam Tuttle, a dedicated Pokemon GO and Pokemon TCG player who co-hosts the Special Conditions and Lured Up podcasts. Adam shares with us his experience with Pokemon GO, from the early days of its launch to present day. He also delves into his love for the Pokemon TCG and how he got into playing it.
We get to know more about Adam Tuttle's friendship with Ken Pescatore from The Pokemon Professor Network, and how their mutual love for Pokemon led them to start their respective podcasts. Adam talks about the origins of Special Conditions, Gotta Watch 'Em All, and Lured Up, and how they have evolved since they started.
Adam Tuttle also talks about his visit to The Pokemon Company in Seattle, and how he got a chance to meet some of the people behind the game he loves.
Trainer's Eye is a series where the stories are real and people still play this game. From PVP to Shiny Hunting, each person's Pokemon GO journey is unique and we dive into each journey here on As The Pokeball Turns!
Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay
Connect with Adam Tuttle: Website | Twitter | Instagram
Connect with David Hernandez: Linktree
E-mail Me: asthepokeballturnspodcast@gmail.com
In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by Adam Tuttle, a dedicated Pokemon GO and Pokemon TCG player who co-hosts the Special Conditions and Lured Up podcasts. Adam shares with us his experience with Pokemon GO, from the early days of its launch to present day. He also delves into his love for the Pokemon TCG and how he got into playing it.
We get to know more about Adam Tuttle's friendship with Ken Pescatore from The Pokemon Professor Network, and how their mutual love for Pokemon led them to start their respective podcasts. Adam talks about the origins of Special Conditions, Gotta Watch 'Em All, and Lured Up, and how they have evolved since they started.
Adam Tuttle also talks about his visit to The Pokemon Company in Seattle, and how he got a chance to meet some of the people behind the game he loves.
Trainer's Eye is a series where the stories are real and people still play this game. From PVP to Shiny Hunting, each person's Pokemon GO journey is unique and we dive into each journey here on As The Pokeball Turns!
Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay
Connect with Adam Tuttle: Website | Twitter | Instagram
Connect with David Hernandez: Linktree
E-mail Me: asthepokeballturnspodcast@gmail.com
My name is David Hernandez and you're listening to As The Pokeball Turns! Welcome to as the Pokeball Turns! Where we interview people around the community on how their Pokemon Go journey started, where it has been and where it is currently going. When Pokemon Red and Green were first released, it wasn't long before our card game was developed around the increasingly popular franchise. The card game back then was rather aggressive with both Haymaker and RainDance being the most dominant decks, and no, the prize Charizard that made kids popular was not viable outside of casual decks. It didn't help that powerful training cards existed, such as Bill, which lets you draw two cards, Professor Oak, that lets you toss your hand and draw seven cards, Energy and Super Energy Removal that allowed you to remove energies from any Pokemon and disrupt your opponent. And, Oh yeah, none of these cards were once per turn. The cards back then were designed as arguably more collectibles rather than focused on the competitive aspect of the TCG many players enjoy today. Over time, the card game has evolved along with the video games to include the new types of Dark, Steel, and Fairy, the introduction of Baby Pokemon, and whenever a new region or Pokemon is introduced, like Johto or Iron Bundle. And parallel to the main series games, the card game also included statuses or special conditions as it's known in the TCG, like poison, confusion, burn paralysis, and sleep. With that in mind, one must remember that whenever you're affected by a special condition, don't forget to use a Full Heal. My guest has an immense passion for both the TCG and Pokemon. He's the co-host of Gotta watch'em All, Special Conditions, and the Lured Up Podcast. From New Hampshire, here's his origin story into the world of Pokemon Go. This is Adam Tuttle. Today I'm joined by the one and only Adam Tuttle. Adam, welcome to the show.
Adam Tuttle:Hey, how's it going?
David Hernandez:It's going pretty good. You know, I'm excited to finally have you on the show and eventually I'll have Ken and I'm looking forward to diving into this, I always have a soft spot for card game enthusiast.
Adam Tuttle:Ooh, I love that.
David Hernandez:Awesome, man. Well, before we get to diving into that, let's start where it all begins. Like, when did you first start playing Pokemon Go?
Adam Tuttle:I started back in 2016, right when it started. I remember downloading the game, and I believe I had downloaded it on, I wanna say like another phone that just, didn't hold up, so like I had downloaded it, whatever, scraped that and then went into another account the following day. Honestly, I played a bunch at the beginning and then kind of tapered off. I have like pictures of a Parasect in my dishes and a Pidgey on a plate that my son was eating off of cuz the old AR was absolutely ridiculous, but I absolutely loved the fact that they had our trainer names at the bottom. That is something I do miss, cuz then you know it's mine.
David Hernandez:It was like an authenticity of the photo to be
Adam Tuttle:Exactly, exactly. Nowadays you have to put your own like little signature in there in order to make it yours. Otherwise it could just be a random Pidgey.
David Hernandez:You can make your own symbol with a Delibird. How about that? And then you just,
Adam Tuttle:yeah, exactly. That's, that's what could happen now.
David Hernandez:Was there a particular place a lot of people went in your area?
Adam Tuttle:Honestly, the day before it came out, I was hiking with my dad and my son I just remember it being not as overtaking as I thought it would be. It didn't take control of my life, it wasn't so big of a part of my life until the following year. I played definitely off and on and as far as places to play, I just kind of opened my phone every once in a while and just dabbled in the game wherever I was. I didn't have a destination ever, if that makes any sense.
David Hernandez:It does. So you said that it was a year later when the game kind of became more involved, like what changed?
Adam Tuttle:I believe it was when I changed jobs. I started working at the mall at sales and I had more time to not be cooking, cuz I used to, I used to be a cook for a restaurant called Boloco Stands for Boston Local Company. Love that place. Great Nutella Milkshakes.
David Hernandez:Ooh, I'm sold.
Adam Tuttle:Yeah. Honestly, it's so good. Better than Chipotle.
David Hernandez:That's not hard to beat, but
Adam Tuttle:No, I know, I know.
David Hernandez:What was your approach to playing the game? Like do you collect, do you shiny hunt, pvp?
Adam Tuttle:I collect a hundred percents!
David Hernandez:Yes!.
Adam Tuttle:That's kind of like my goal. So I don't know. It was, it was crazy to find a hundred percent, let alone like have multiples. Seeing so many people shouting out on discord, like where they were. I know we have discussed it on Lured Up as far as like cheating and using maps and all that stuff, but I was getting it secondhand. So it's like all of those, like they feel kind of dirty, but also I never really went after so many of them. It was just once in a while I'd see it and I'd be like, oh, I'm gonna go get it, but that would be because somebody in the Discord let me know where it was. They were like,"here's the location exactly, here's the coordinates, longitude latitude, the notification. Yes.
David Hernandez:You were getting secondhand information.
Adam Tuttle:Yeah. So I will admit to that because it stinks not being truthful and it is the truth. Some of them were through that, so that kind of stinks, but I have so many that I've hatched like my favorite is my Shiny Nidoran that I hatched. It's a hundred percent. No, that was my first shun do. Yeah.
David Hernandez:How, close are you to completing your Hundo collection?
Adam Tuttle:very far away.
David Hernandez:So about a couple hundred, you still gotta go?
Adam Tuttle:Yeah, I am a collector, but I go the slow and steady route. Honestly, I got a Bellsprout from a research task and I was over the moon excited about it. I know it's a bell sprout, but that's one that like I've really wanted. No particular reason, I just really wanted it.
David Hernandez:Hey, we all got our favorites.
Adam Tuttle:Yeah. It says, when I look at my Dex, it says 227 Hundos, but that could mean that there's doubles of them and I don't wanna sit here and bore you with going through them all.
David Hernandez:No, it's all good. So before Pokemon Go, what was your experience with Pokemon in general?
Adam Tuttle:I used to play the T C G. I used to play the video games. Started with Blue version as all the cool kids did.
David Hernandez:Team Blastoise, I assume?
Adam Tuttle:Team Blastoise forever, that got left in a, I I'm, I, I know I've told this story a million times, but to any of your listeners that haven't heard the story, I left it in the back of a limousine at my Aunt Jen's wedding, and by the time I realized it after I got home, I was able to, you know, cry enough to have my parents and grandparents do something about it to get it back. By the time I got it, the game had been started over and they must have gotten rid of whatever the starter Pokemon was cuz they just had Rattata. A level four Rattata. I remember it like it was yesterday.
David Hernandez:It still scarred you to the light.
Adam Tuttle:Yeah. And, and since then I have had the hardest time sitting down and completing a Pokemon game.
David Hernandez:Really? So that literally, so you've never completed another Pokemon game since?
Adam Tuttle:I wanna say I completed Sword and Shield, but then there's the, the downloadable content like I bought that, I have that, but I haven't finished that. I haven't even started it.
David Hernandez:Well I haven't either to be honest, but that's just a part of growing up, unfortunately.
Adam Tuttle:Yeah, it's just time. You don't have, you don't have all the time that you had as a kid and even like slowing down and like, oh, I'm gonna play a little bit here and there." Again, finding that time is even hard cuz there's other things that you want to do that take up that time.
David Hernandez:So you've played all the other games though, you just never completed em?
Adam Tuttle:Correct. I think the only one, I, I mean, I did play, Sapphire. I didn't play Emerald. Some of like the middle games I didn't play like black and white two, I don't think I played. You know, the remakes of Shining Diamond and Pearl, I didn't buy, nah, I'm missing much other, oh. Like, let's go! Bought that! Was so excited for that. That was such a good re-entry into the video games.
David Hernandez:Do you have a particular favorite region at all? Like one you enjoyed...
Adam Tuttle:Johto, do, do, do, do, do, do. I know people are gonna take that the wrong way, but the song just hits my brain and I'm like, all right, everybody wants to be a master. Let's go.
David Hernandez:Everyone wants to show their skill. Everyone wants to be a master. Make their way to the top of the hill. Each time, each time we tried. You try or we try.
Adam Tuttle:I don't know all the words, but it's so good! That's my favorite because I'm sure it'll come up later, but my favorite Pokemon world to see with a brand new attitude, new
David Hernandez:world, with a brand new attitude. But we still gotta
Adam Tuttle:catch, catch'em all and be the best you can beat. It's so good. It's so, Ken absolutely hates it. Anytime we record, we record an episode of Gotta watch'em all. he's like, Ugh, I hate that song. I'm like, it's so good.
David Hernandez:It's such a classic. Johto and Hoenn had some of the best opening themes, in my opinion for Yes, yeah, anyway, Johto, was your favorite region so just cause of the song or was it just cuz of the region?
Adam Tuttle:It's cuz of the Pokemon.
David Hernandez:What's your favorite Pokemon?
Adam Tuttle:Delibird! So naturally this is gonna be where Delibird came to be and I've loved him ever since.
David Hernandez:Was it just, was there an appearance in anime or just
Adam Tuttle:Not that I can recall. I don't ever remember seeing Delibird like in the anime except for, oh wait, wait, it was the Christmas winter vacation one, I think. I'm not sure. All I know is I, I saw it for some Christmas special thing and I caught him in the game and I was like, wow, this thing looks like Santa and from that moment on, I was like, that's my favorite Pokemon."
David Hernandez:That's your Pokemon, that's the,
Adam Tuttle:Yeah, it's like the embodiment of Christmas, like the holiday spirit, like it's just happy. It's just always happy, even though it's presence could be good or bad. It's always happy.
David Hernandez:What's your thoughts on iron bundle real quick?
Adam Tuttle:I'm warming up to it. It's gonna be the first quote unquote Delibird card that gets a EX, so I'm very excited to be able to play a Delibird in a deck, finally. Even though it's Iron Bundle, it is definitely a future Delibird. It should have just been a Paldean Delibird. I don't understand the whole past and future forms, like it doesn't sit with me very well.
David Hernandez:So obviously, you're familiar with the games. When did you start playing the TCG or start collecting the cards?
Adam Tuttle:The cards were as soon as they came out. I remember my parents giving me enough money for a pack, running down to my friend's house, which is the house I live in right now, and I hand her the money. I say, here, get me a pack." Leaves, comes back and goes, look what I got!" And shows the holographic Blastoise.
David Hernandez:Ooh, the base set?
Adam Tuttle:Yes. Yeah. This, these are base set packs. And I was like, no way. And then she goes, this is what you got. And pulls like my pack and like had already opened my cards. That is literally like the one rule you cannot break is opening somebody else's pack. She did that, hands me it, it was a holo Chansey at the time, but I was so devastated cause I was like, that Blastoise was most likely mine." And I ran home and like hid in one of those big plastic tubs. I don't know how I did it myself, but I clipped myself back in and I was like, I'm hiding in here. No, my mom's not gonna find me, nobody's gonna find me. I'm so upset. And I just like ran away. I was so upset. But yes, I've been playing since the beginning. I had the overgrowth starter deck with Gyarados and like Ivysaur. I went to local leagues and played for as long as I was around in that area. We then moved to where I am now in New Hampshire and I kind of lost touch with the league because it was like, you know, it was towns over. So it was a lot harder to get to being a 10 or 11 year old kid.
David Hernandez:Right.
Adam Tuttle:I don't have a car, you know, I can't drive in itself anywhere
David Hernandez:A little bit hard. Yeah.
Adam Tuttle:I just kept collecting. I, I got jungle, I got fossil, Base Set 2, and then Neo came out. I was so excited. cuz I found like there was another league in Summersworth that I started going to Paperback Bazaar, which was super old. I was playing and everybody had those, those gold Johto sheets, so they were all a collection that had all the starters evolutions and it was one of the coolest things, but, I didn't have one and everybody else did. I was very jealous.
David Hernandez:I know you still play the Pokemon TCG, So What is it like now to play if somebody was to ever step into it?
Adam Tuttle:There's a lot going on as far as different rule boxes, quote unquote for things. I don't think there's been a time where there's so many different, i, I don't know, mechanics is the proper word to say. Mm-hmm. Because you have like the lost zone. And then you have Exs, which just means, you know, your Charmander has to evolve into Charmeleon and then your Charizard-EX you have to evolve into it. First playing a Charizard-V, which is already a basic. But that V can also go into a V star, which has its own set of rules, which has a V Star ability, which is it's attack, and you can only use one of those per game. And then you have Charizard V-Max, which is another set of rules, because if that gets knocked out, you lose three prize cards. First, the V or the V star, which is two prize cards, to your opponent when they knock you out, instead of taking the one prize card. If you have a V or an EX, it's two prize cards. If you have a V max, it's three prize cards. So there's a lot that's like, yeah, it sounds like it sounds like it. Break card in the game right now.
David Hernandez:It sounds like it breaks off from the final evolution to different phases, that's kind of what's going on in my head at the moment.
Adam Tuttle:Yeah, no, honestly, that's what some of the decks are, you have, like there's Xora V and then V Star and Vmax. People are playing the V but you don't know if they're gonna evolve into the V Star or the Vmax. VMAXs typically have more hit points and bigger attacks because the drawback is that if it gets knocked out, you lose three prize cards.
David Hernandez:So one of my questions I wanna ask was like, how do they determine which cards are eligible at that set time? Like magic, I know they have a rotation to where they have a set rotation of cards eligible. Yu-gi-Oh is its own thing. Like how does Pokemon do it?
Adam Tuttle:It's everything from the e regulation mark and on, I believe. There's little letters now, which this is not how they used to do it. This is, I'd say, very new, but I think they're trying really hard to get us on the same page as Japan or at least trying to merge us so it's closer together instead of a gap being so far apart. They're even now putting silver borders so we can match the Japanese cards instead of the yellow borders that we've all known for years. The regulation is how they determine standard format. And the standard format is basically all the new stuff that's eligible for use until the next rotation, which is typically once every year. Trying to get back into the game has been difficult cuz right now my work, I work on Thursdays. So I don't ever really get to go to league. So it makes it difficult, it's like I really want to play and right now I don't even care about championship points or anything like that. I just want to play and have fun. And that's ultimately what this game is all about is having fun.
David Hernandez:Say for example, somebody's just collecting right and they wanted to get into maybe playing the Pokemon TCG. Where would you recommend they start to be able to get more familiar with the game?
Adam Tuttle:So I would definitely hit up your local league. That's the number one resource cuz people are so nice at leagues, people are so generous. If you go and you're like, I'm just learning, this is the deck I have and you show up with like four Squirtles in your deck and then 56 water energies, somebody there is gonna give you some cards to make your deck better than just a Squirtle with one energy doing water gun for 10 damage, you know. And honestly, they can listen to Special Conditions too. Not a plug, but a plug at the same time. Once you understand the game mechanics and how to play, then you're good. Just shuffle up your 60 card deck and you're good.
David Hernandez:Now I guess we can go ahead and talk about like, where does the name Special Conditions come from? Like how did that name come about?
Adam Tuttle:So in, in the Pokemon T C G. I mean honestly in the games themselves, you can be affected by a special condition and that would be frozen, like burn, confused, paralyzed, poison, asleep? Each of the conditions that you can inflict in the Pokemon TCG, like, I just thought that was like super cool. Special conditions is all of the things that can affect you effectively. So you've got, poison in between the checkup or in between turns. Your Pokemon takes 10 damage, if it's poisoned. If it's burned, you'll take 20 damage during the checkup or in between turns, but you also flip a coin, and if heads, you're not burnt anymore, and if your tails, you're still burnt. if you're confused, you flip your card upside down, and then if you attack, you flip coin, and if heads your attack succeeds. If tails you hurt yourself, you take 30 damage. And then if you are asleep, I always say left like a left asleep, cuz you gotta turn your card to the left. If you're asleep. You flip a coin and if heads, you're awake and if tails you stay asleep. And when you're affected by asleep or paralyzed, you can't retreat and paralyzed,"para- right lies", your card goes to the right, you're paralyzed. That means you can't attack, you can't retreat, you can't do anything. In order to get out of a special condition, your Pokemon from the active just has to go to the bench or evolve. So if you had a Charmander that was affected by poison, you evolve into Charmeleon, poison's gone.
David Hernandez:Did you ever think that with how involved you're with Pokemon, that you would become a podcaster about it, or
Adam Tuttle:No? Never. That's not something I ever thought of at all.
David Hernandez:Really?
Adam Tuttle:I, I honestly, I... At one point I did YouTube. You probably are gonna have to do a hard search, but I think it's number one rule in Pokemon. I think the videos are still up there. The last time I looked, they were there.
David Hernandez:Oh, okay. It's a challenge for our listeners to go find your video.
Adam Tuttle:Yeah and it's, little old me talking about Pokemon cards.
David Hernandez:How long ago is this?
Adam Tuttle:this is, whew,
David Hernandez:that long. Okay.
Adam Tuttle:Yeah. Probably around that 2008, 2009 timeframe.
David Hernandez:Oh, wow. Well, we could see a younger Adam.
Adam Tuttle:Yes. I will say I definitely look better than I do now.
David Hernandez:No, you don't look that bad,
Adam Tuttle:eh, maybe. No, the lighting's off. No, no. I definitely had more hair, I'll tell you that.
David Hernandez:Oh, wait, I thought your blonde golden hair right now is your natural hair.
Adam Tuttle:Oh, no. That's, that's just fading. Uh, but yeah, I, I had a lot of fun doing that, but there were other YouTube creators and I got jealous that they were pumping out so many videos and much better quality. All I had was my junkie laptop and a flip recording camera.
David Hernandez:Ooh. Those are old school.
Adam Tuttle:Right. At the time I thought that was like the coolest thing, I was like, yes, I can record and then just throw it in the computer and then just upload it. That's all I need to do! Then when I saw other people doing it much better than me, I just effectively gave up. I should never have given up. That's not something that I should have done, but it happened and I think everything happens for a reason and I'm back into that sphere thanks to Ken cuz if we, if we can roll back all of these things back into 2016. So right when Pokemon Go started, I was doing a lot of taking pictures of my toys to life cuz that's kind of where Ken and I's relationship originated because he was the community manager for the Toys for Games podcast community. Which is Toys to Life Games, so Skylanders, Amiibos, Lego Dimensions, anything like that, Disney Infinity. I was doing like a consistent every single day post of all of my toys that I had and I just kept going with it. And then Ken saw me probably around March, I want to say. Cuz around that time, 2017, March-ish. Ken reached out to me and asked if like, I had any interest in running his Instagram for for Gotta Watch Em All, and I took that over, started making posts, and then he was like, oh, yeah, I, I could use you as a second person and I was like,"yes, I'm in!" And that's how I started podcasting.
David Hernandez:How has it been to be able to be a part of the podcasting platform? Like compared,
Adam Tuttle:it's been wonderful. I still feel like I, I choke up, like I probably botched this whole interview and I'm like, how? I've been doing this for years. I should be okay at this. But still like right now, I'm nervous and I don't even know why I'm nervous, you know?
David Hernandez:Take a deep breath, Adam.
Adam Tuttle:No, I know. I'm just excited. I'm just excited. I love talking about Pokemon and I love talking about Pokemon with good people, that also love Pokemon. Which there's a lot of those. So
David Hernandez:Yes! this community's massive and there's so much to talk about.
Adam Tuttle:Exactly.
David Hernandez:So I know Special Conditions debuted in 2019, and at the time, I believe you're already part of Lured Up. Is that correct? Lured Up started, I believe, in 2017, back on the Gotta Watch Em All podcast.
Adam Tuttle:Yeah. And special conditions. Yeah. How f That was, that was a while ago, no.
David Hernandez:Mm-hmm. Starting 2019. Your first episode was July 16th. I don't know when Episode Zero was, but that's the first one.
Adam Tuttle:Wow. Geez. We've been doing that a long time. No way on
David Hernandez:Four years, dude. Yeah.
Adam Tuttle:That feels insane.
David Hernandez:And Lure Up started in, I believe, 2017 Cuz y'all started a year after Pokemon Go did.
Adam Tuttle:Yes. Yep. And that was, that was crazy cuz we were just like, yeah, let's just start a podcast about Pokemon Go. And we, we didn't think that there would be anything behind it and here we are, 2023, still going.
David Hernandez:Six years later we're still talking Pokemon Go. Right. People thought this game dies every year.
Adam Tuttle:Yeah. It dies. Every is that game. People still play that game. And that's probably the best joke, like, that's the best thing to hear cuz it's so funny because it's so true. It's so true. Cause oh, you let me Redownload that like everybody just keeps downloading it and then getting rid of it and downloading it again. Like a lot of coworkers that I work with, they're like, I definitely have an account in that, let me, let me log in. I'm like, yes, we could be friends. There's a bunch of new things like get into the game, let's play. I try to get people involved, it's not always easy. I'll add them as a friend and then not receive a gift for three months and I'm like, I should probably just delete them. They're never gonna play.
David Hernandez:Oh my gosh. That's hilarious. But that's the funny part, like just seeing how people come in and out in the game and seeing new players that's kind of the fun part about Pokemon Go that I enjoy so much.
Adam Tuttle:Yes. And seeing a lot of people that you don't get to see every day. Covid happen, that stunk and it really killed our local community that we had and now we're trying to get back to that. And I can see it in the chat group, I can see a lot of people trying to coordinate, but a lot of people just wanna do remote raids.
David Hernandez:Really. So your community's trying to get restarted with Pokemon Go?
Adam Tuttle:Yes.
David Hernandez:What was the community like before 2020, like what would they do? Do you know?
Adam Tuttle:Yeah. It'd just be like, Hey, we got a raid here. And I'd be like, all right, I'm there. I'm gonna be there five minutes. Like it. It was just co a lot of coordinating.
David Hernandez:Would they do a lot of raid trains and stuff like that? Like they'd be out raid all day?
Adam Tuttle:Yeah. Yeah. We would try. Especially, especially when a new raid boss, like when Rayquaza came. Woo. That was a good time. and then ex raids. I miss ex raids. I, I do.
David Hernandez:Oh, the invites whenever'em,
Adam Tuttle:yes. Yeah, because then I'd be like, Ooh, work. Ah, shoot. I've got this thing I have to do from this time to this. I just, I can't be here, so I'm gonna have that day off. I can't work. I'm sorry. And then
David Hernandez:you want excuse?
Adam Tuttle:Yeah. Well, and it was like, it was a ticket. It was like a, an invitation. It was like, you only get this one at this one time. Mm-hmm. You have to be there. Verse. The elite raid? I'm showing a zero in my hand. I had that much inspiration to go do one. I had no drive because it was like, it wasn't something that I was invited to. It was just everybody could do it. Let's go. And it just didn't feel special. It didn't feel special. That's what this game needs. It needs something to make events or special things like that that are happening, that are like rare to be special.
David Hernandez:Yeah. Cause that was kind of the mixed bag with the old Ex Raid system cuz the times were kind of weird but it felt kind of exciting to go for. I remember Mewtwo was the first Ex-Raid. Yes. And you were always hyped up to try to get invite frustrated because of the system, but it was also a bit of hype.
Adam Tuttle:Yeah. And I would honestly, I would take back that frustration in a heartbeat.
David Hernandez:Really?
Adam Tuttle:Like, yes, it was a awful weird time. But I would rather have that, Hey, you need to be here from two to 3:00 PM and like, that's my window. So if I need to leave work early, I know. Or if I need to go into work late, I know. Not, oh, you've got all day, somebody might show up for this.
David Hernandez:That's true. And it allowed people to kind of work together. You know, people couldn't make it, I don't know about y'all, but over here we had people try to help one another out, like we would get the phones from work or stuff like that, we had people with more flexible schedules.
Adam Tuttle:Yes.
David Hernandez:They would take the phone from the other person and go to the raid for them. And it kind of brought the community together in a weird way.
Adam Tuttle:Yes. Yep. Or like the parent of like the child, like cuz I would go and there'd be a parent and two children, but it would be at like noon time and it's like they're in school. Like, what are they supposed? What they, they, they can't go, but they have them, so they're like, oh, I will use their accounts to help out because they're in school like, that's unfair to them. You know? It's unfair to the people that have to go to work too.
David Hernandez:Only we didn't have to work to earn money.
Adam Tuttle:I know.
David Hernandez:Of the system.
Adam Tuttle:Gosh. Well I guess you could work like really, really late. What's that called? Night shift.
David Hernandez:That's a graveyard shift.
Adam Tuttle:Oh, graveyard shift.
David Hernandez:Well, so how has being able to being a co-host on Lured Up changed your Pokemon Go experience at all?
Adam Tuttle:It definitely has kept me involved in the game, inside and out of the game. I don't think I would probably be playing as much as I do without being part of the podcast or at least part of the community. Mm-hmm. I feel like our community is really, a wonderful thing. I don't know what I, we would do without our community. They really are fantastic people. like, honestly, like, I, I mean that from the bottom of my heart, it, it warms me to know that like, I can go in there and just say anything and have somebody be positive in there. You know, there's nobody like, ugh, get good unless it's a joke. You know what I mean? Like, you know what I mean? It's just, it feels really good to just know that there, there's a safe space for me at least, you know? Cuz this game is, uh, it's kind of volatile on the internet. You say one, thing on, on Twitter and, you'll have all these people coming at you, like, why do you want, oh yeah. What was the thing I, I wanted, I wanted, I wanted PVP to have to walk again. That made me want to walk to play pvp. I don't have a lot of drive for the PVP right now and I wanna say a part of that is because there's no requirement, there's no challenge to PVP. Not that PVP isn't challenging and there's no challenge in the actual game itself. It's not challenging to me to get there. Like, all I have to do is hit a button and then just say, yep, I wanna fight somebody. I want a challenge personally, and I get some people heated and I understand that, and I don't expect everybody to feel the same way, but that's how I feel, I like that.
David Hernandez:Well, some people would claim that having that walking requirement gate keeping people out of pvp. So do you feel like that matters at all or just?
Adam Tuttle:I can see that because you're gotta understand a lot of people have, accessibility issues. So I get that. I wish I had that option to choose that I wanted that.
David Hernandez:Right. Like I know one of the ideas is maybe walking for extra sets. Like you have certain, kinda like a free raid pass, you got guaranteed sets you can do, and then to get the walking requirement afterwards would be unlock additional sets. Would that be kind of a good, happy balance? Or do you still feel like it'd be
Adam Tuttle:I don't necessarily do all of my sets. But I feel like if they like split it in half where they're like, here's half of them. Okay, let's, okay. How many sets are, do you, can you do, is it five? Let's say they bump it up to six, but the first three are free, and the other three you have to walk for. Something like that. Exactly. Give us the opportunity for more, but you just have to work a little bit to get there. Or even if it was four and two to kind of like not be such a hard blow, I'd be okay with that just cuz it would make me want to try to, to PVP a little bit more just to get that, to try to see if I can accomplish that. Like right now I'm having issues with trying to just get through my daily incense because honestly on your break, taking that 15 minutes and going to walk, that's a huge benefit for you mentally and if you're playing the game, it's a benefit because you're catching all these Pokemon that you wouldn't normally catch by walking. But the issue is in a car you can get more spawns. Why? Why is that okay. That's not okay.
David Hernandez:It sounds like my argument whenever I say this game should have better spawns at parks and why is it always the middle of the streets of Walmart or not Streets parking lots of Oh, yep. Gas stations. And it's so frustrating sometimes
Adam Tuttle:It's like, wow, look at all these rare Pokemon in these parking lots.,
David Hernandez:Right? Like, how'd you get so many shinies? Well, I drove around going to parking lot to parking lot.
Adam Tuttle:Hey, that's where the cell activity is, you gotta go, but then you go inside Walmart and you get one spawn. Way in the back. Way in the back.
David Hernandez:Or you go to a random park and you get lucky if you get two spawns sometimes depending on the park.
Adam Tuttle:Yeah, that's, that's not cool.
David Hernandez:It isn't it very isn't. Adam with the spicy takes. I like it.
Adam Tuttle:I keep it like some buffalo sauce, you know
David Hernandez:Buffalo mild.
Adam Tuttle:Yeah, mild. But it's always on it. It's on everything.
David Hernandez:Gosh. Anyway. Have you had any chance to go to any in-person Niantic events at all?
Adam Tuttle:A lot.
David Hernandez:Ooh, Let's do your first one. What was the first one you ever went to?
Adam Tuttle:I believe it was Philly Free Streets and that was such an experience seeing so many trainers, like fighting each gym and just, there was no control there. They, it was just, it was just a mad house. It would be red, yellow, blue, red, blue, yellow, red, blue, red, yellow. Just so much battling and then there was Entei raids. It was insane. It was so much fun. So many people walking around. I, I, ugh. It was just, it was such a good event. I can't, like, I can't describe in words how good of an event that was. And there wasn't anything extra. they had nothing that was like set up except for like a stand that, like they had some posters and stuff they were given out. But there was no like habitats, there was nothing. It was just kind of, Walk the streets and we lay down all these Pokestops and everything is lured up. It was awesome.
David Hernandez:What is Philly Street? Free East East. Was that the safari zone or was that something else?
Adam Tuttle:Nope. So that was them promoting Philly. So it was them being like go out in the streets, like explore the location and like that was the goal. And I'll tell you what I did. I got to see the, bell that's cracked, I don't know what the
David Hernandez:Liberty. Liberty Bell.
Adam Tuttle:Liberty Bell. That one? Yeah. Yes. And like that's a stop. I wish postcards were a thing way back when cuz I would've liked to save that. But now I guess you could just revisit it and save it and then have to remember that it was an event that happened several years ago. I don't know if I could do that.
David Hernandez:I know you've been to a lot of them. Do you have any that stick out?
Adam Tuttle:Honestly, so, so far Philly's Free Streets. Safari Zone, I wanna say Philly. Yeah. That was awesome. And it wasn't even awesome because of the event, it was awesome because of the people. We got to hang out with so many of our Discord members and it was so cool meeting people and just getting to know them on a personal level. Me and my fiance took CasaDeCubone from our community and he came with us, so we got to know him a whole lot better. He's now a great friend of mine. Shout out to Casa Cubone. He's just so friendly, so full of like life and energy. I just absolutely love it. And we got to hang out with him, Ken, MythicalHitch, JustWill, Jamal, like, just, we got to hang out with so many great people. And I, I don't know. I mean, there's like some gross stories that happened, with the squirrel. Those who know, know
David Hernandez:the squirrel. Oh my god.
Adam Tuttle:Just that, that was so awesome. we all were on the roof just hanging out. Shout out to PhillyFisty, if you're listening to this. But he's been somebody that we met over Rooftop and he's like, wait, you guys all play Pokemon Go? I'm like, yes, that's why we're here. And we were playing like rock paper, scissors with the people across the, rooftops, it was so much fun like it was a night to remember. And that's what this game is about, people like hanging out and being around people and that's what we did. And that like honestly, yes, go fests are awesome, but honestly the smaller, closer to home as in with a lot of good friends, close friends makes the event a lot better and like a go fest a lot bigger. Yes, you're with your, your group of friends, but it's just a giant event. But definitely embrace your community. That's all I wanna say
David Hernandez:Now last one I wanna talk on is, you got to go to Go Fest Seattle, right?
Adam Tuttle:Yep. Yes.
David Hernandez:What was that like for you?
Adam Tuttle:That was crazy. there was like an itinerary that we had to follow cuz we were with Niantic and we were doing our like morning, like meeting thing with them and we got to get some insights and great guest speakers. Appreciate all of the Niantic that help make that possible. We even got a special field trip to be able to go to the Pokemon International Company and that was like,
David Hernandez:wow.
Adam Tuttle:Dream come true. I never thought in a million years, like even further away from podcasts like that I thought, like I would, that would never happen, I never thought that I would actually step foot into the Pokemon company. Like that was
David Hernandez:How much can you share what it was like inside?
Adam Tuttle:I'm pretty sure I can share everything. We were allowed to like record, you know, a fair amount. If you check back on our Instagram, we do have some videos. I was opening up a pack of, the Pokemon Go set for the T C G. It was already released, but it was just the packs that they had put in the bottom of our bags. I will start at the beginning, so I'll go, So, Ken and I, we got onto the bus pretty much last, but we got like the front row seat. I was like, Hey, that makes us first get off. So let's try to get in front of wherever we need to be as fast as possible. So, I remember me and Ken getting in the elevator as fast as possible. From the outside doesn't look like anything. You get up to the floor and like the elevators open up and all of the elevators. it must go by floor, like as far as different types of Pokemon. It opened up into the fire floor. So we had like, one elevator was like a, gray outline of like Charmander. And then it was a bunch of like other fire Pokemon, like Fennekin, Torchic, and stuff like that. And I was like, whoa, this is really cool. And then you turn to the right and then you've got Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, and Pikachu just kind of like chilling out really big... Not figures, but like their statues, right? And I was like, whoa, let's take, some photo ops like really quick. And I was like, Ooh, we gotta sign in. So they made us sign in. We got a little note card that was like, Hey, this is me. I'm here with the Pokemon Go crew. They did end up taking those away at the end of the day, I really wish we could have kept them, but they probably just didn't want us reproducing them and then like showing up randomly. Right. Which I can understand that as well. But as you walk through the hall, you can see like downstairs and upstairs, like there's definitely other floors of Pokemon, but we didn't go to those floors, so I don't know what was on those floors. There's a giant Charizard kind of like in attack position staring down at us from the ceiling with a Pikachu on, on its back, which is really cool,"I'm like, oh my goodness." This is like my heart's pounding a mile a minute just thinking about it. I'm like, shaken. Cuz it was so exciting. Oh. And I haven't let, had to like re relive this moment since then. So, I mean, it's, it was insane. Yeah, and we keep walking, we pass like a Lucario room and each of their like meeting rooms are Pokemon. So imagine that being like, oh yeah, I've got a meeting at Lucario!" Right? Like, how cool is that? So we get in and there's like this like open, like, living room area. But um, they said, you all have a bag with your name on it." And it literally was like Christmas. It was so surreal that we walked into the Pokemon company, each bag had our names on them, and in our bags like you opened it up and like, I, I actually, I don't think I shared it on Instagram, but I do have a video. It's like, I'm like breaking down in tears, opening this up because like, I have no idea like how I deserve to be in the spot that I was in. I still to this day am like, I'm still so thankful for the opportunity to have gone there. But I grabbed my bag. There's a team instinct sweatshirt, team instinct button up, team instinct, T-shirt. I have, uh, a little like satchel thing uh, and then they gave us a bunch of packs and I was like, we gotta open these here. So I do have some Insta boosters that we opened on our social media, so you can check those out over at Pokemon Professor Network on Instagram. They have a glass pane in between, like, an actual, like large table for eating, and then a couple like cushion seats. The view of just the whole like waterfront in Seattle, it's like you could see across the lake or whatever area that was, you could see the Space Needle just way off in the distance. I was like,"whoa," because we're on the, I think the 27th floor. It was remarkable. It was breathtaking. They had the detective Pikachu prop just chilling out on the stand. So we got some pictures of that. but that glass pane in the middle had all 151 original Pokemon, all in the pixel, eight bit forms all along it. So it was a glass you could see through, but in between each little area had all of the Pokemon, Ooh, sorry. This is, this is exciting again.
David Hernandez:It's crazy to see how far you've come from an eight year old who lost Pokemon Blue. To standing in the town or
Adam Tuttle:10, 10, 10 year old. I was prime age
David Hernandez:who lost his game to standing in literally Pokemon's building and seeing all this stuff. It's gotta be,
Adam Tuttle:it was so surreal. When we walked in, they were like all the pluses on the tables everywhere, like, everything that's on the tables is all for you guys. So I immediately, I'm like,"whoa, that's a giant Greninja there!" In my bag. It was the first thing. It was the first thing and I was like, this is so cool. I think I grabbed a Pokeball and a Pikachu that had like, it almost looks like corduroy. You had like a bunch of booths that were all separated, so if you wanted to sit in a restaurant style, you could do that. They had tap like Cambuca or Kambucha and like, cold brew coffee, and then they had like a Starbucks, make your own, coffee there. Which it, I don't know. It was just amazing. They had like sexy tacos, which were like tofu and a bunch of vegetable, like, ah, they were just so good, like the food was like unbelievable that they got catered for us. but each of those booths had every Pokemon center from Kanto to wherever we are now. Past all that, you had another meeting room. They had like a library that they were trying to put together. It wasn't completely finished, but it had, the whole door was a giant orange door and it was a Charizard, like a Charizard outline on the outside of it all in black. It, it was just amazing and then like, they allowed us to walk in and they have anything that basically had Pokemon. So if you had that Pokemon Pokedex book from 1998, like they probably had it in there. It was just so cool to have a like physical library of everything that they've ever produced and then from there there's a huge hallway, and that hallway leads down, and along that hallway is just this assortment of plushes. They said you can't take anything from that wall, but there was just giant Groudons, like just so many cool different plushes that I've never seen before. Past that there's a giant Charizard T C G card, but it's 3d, it's thick, and it's all charcoal. It looks like someone took a pickax, like a archeological pickax and like hit it a few times and in each of those breaks in the, the 3D printing thing is gold. So it's a Charizard card that looks like it came from a fossil and it's probably the coolest thing there. Sorry. This is just very, very, very exciting. Ooh, I have to keep catching my breath. And then they have like, around the corner, they have a Cinnabar Island helmet and jersey, like a football helmet and a football jersey that, I don't know where that's from, but I'm assuming Pokemon and football had something to do at some point in a commercial at some point. I'm not sure. I saw that and I thought that was the coolest thing. And then they have big, giant models of the Pokemon, I don't know what it's called, it was like the figure battle. where you had to like spin'em and they could do certain amount of damage when they spin.
David Hernandez:Oh, I remember those.
Adam Tuttle:Yeah. Yeah. It was like hero clicks, but for Pokemon. They had like live bigger versions of those, like on pedestals, which was really cool. And then for the T C G, they had tons of cards, just in different languages, just in different, printings. I don't know, it was just, it was a mosaic of just like tons of cards. It was just really cool to walk down memory lane by looking at these, cuz you're like, oh, I played with that card. Oh, Claydol, I used to play like four, four of those. You put two down, put you used the ability to put two cards under and drawn to add six, I did that over and over again, but it was, it was an amazing time, honestly. And then there was like a section where it was like, Not gated off, but you couldn't see through the door, but you could see the employees were like, who are these people? What are they doing? They were like watching me opening up packs. It was really cool, it just felt surreal.
David Hernandez:It had to be, dude, like hearing you describe it was just so, I'm so jealous right now cause I'm like, dude, I kind of want to see what that was like and that would've made easily my entire trip if I had seen that.
Adam Tuttle:Yeah, I'll definitely tell you there was a lot of tears, but they were tears of joy. I was very, very teary-eyed the whole time.
David Hernandez:Well, very cool Adam, it has been a pleasure talking with you. I do have one final question before we close this taco stand. You talked about your entire journey with Pokemon Go So far. It's tooken you to Seattle. It's tooken you into the Pokemon company, it's tooken you into Philadelphia, all these places. What do you consider your biggest accomplishment when it comes to just being involved with the Pokemon franchise?
Adam Tuttle:That is an extremely tough question.
David Hernandez:That's why I ask it.
Adam Tuttle:Even know how to answer that. Ugh. I'm just gonna have to say my biggest accomplishment isn't even really mine, it's really what Ken and I have built around the Pokemon Professor Network. It feels really great to be a part of that duo. It feels really great to be a part of that community. And honestly, like, I don't know where I'd be without Ken right now like, I definitely wouldn't be as involved in Pokemon as I am right now.
David Hernandez:That's awesome
Adam Tuttle:because I was, very on the fence with Pokemon Go because I didn't really see too much of a drive. And then I started listening to the Gotta Watch'em all podcast and they would talk about Pokemon Go here and there and I was like,"oh, this is excellent. I'm gonna whip out my game." and then that was the motivation that I had to keep playing. So I'm gonna assume that the people listening to our podcast are playing or get motivated by us talking about it and having fun. And I think being able to be an influence on the community is the biggest accomplishment and being able to do that every week is amazing.
David Hernandez:Couldn't say it any better myself. Adam, thank you for coming onto the show. Real quick, if people wanted to check out your content, your podcast, where could they check it out? Like by all means, please plug away.
Adam Tuttle:you can check everything we're doing on Pokemonprofessor.com. That's the easiest place you can find all of the shows. If you're into the anime, you watch, gotta watch'em If you're into the Pokemon Go, you can do Lured Up. If you're into the TCG, you can do Special Conditions. You can find everything that we do right there on that website.
David Hernandez:Cool beans! And I'll make sure to include links to everything that was used in the description of today's episode. Thank you for listening to an episode of As The Pokeball Turns. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Remember to give the show a rating of five stars. If you wanna do four stars, sleep on it and come back tomorrow. If you're feeling eh with three stars, come back in about two days. If you think this podcast is like McDonald's with two stars, come back in about three days. And for some reason, if you feel like you can only give this show one star, come back next week because no matter what, each road should lead to five stars. Until then, I'll see you next time! Here's the sneak peek for the next episode of As The Pokeball Turns.