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Special Pokemon characters at haunted houses

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  • Special Pokemon characters at haunted houses

    Yesterday I stopped at a Verizon store to replace one of our phones. The store was really busy and when it was my turn to meet with a rep; I asked why they were so busy. He said the Pokemon game has been great for their sales. People were upgrading their phones, buying chargers and charging sticks to extend their battery life and upgrading their service plans.

    I asked how long this craze was expected to last and he said they expect it to continue for a couple years as they have more characters to introduce and variations of the game on the horizon. They expect some people to drop off, but the game creators have some special tricks up their sleeve to get more people involved in the game.

    I told him the phone I was replacing was for our haunted house. His eyes lit up and he said the game creators have plans to introduce special scary Pokemon characters that will only be available at haunted houses this October. Apparently you have to go to a haunted house to collect these exclusive scary characters.

    I’m not sure I want people running around my haunt with their phones on, but if we can limit them to the inside queue lines, well then I could be in.

    Has anyone else heard about this? Pro's and Cons? I'm not familiar with the game so I'm not sure how it would work.

    Any suggestions on who to contact to sign up your haunt to participate?

    Kelly Collins
    The ScareAtorium

  • #2
    Haven't heard anything about the special characters near haunted houses, and I don't see anything after a google search.
    From what I've seen, though, it would certainly draw a whole lot of people from within the haunted house target demographic right to your front door.

    I pulled into a shopping center parking lot the other night at 11:30 p.m.. DOZENS of teens and young adults wandering around with their phones, hunting for Pokemon.
    Fright In Falcon Haunted Maze
    http://frightinfalcon.com

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    • #3
      I think Brett may have found it; it could be Haunter, Pokedex entry 93: Haunter is a Ghost/Poison type Pokemon.

      http://www.pokemongodb.net/2016/05/haunter.html

      So, how do we contact someone to make arrangements for it to appear at our haunted attraction? Any suggestions?

      Kelly

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      • #4
        Hi Kelly,

        I messaged you on FB about this. I researched the possibility of Pokemon Go Halloween events and nothing has been released yet. There was a discussion on Reddit of the possibility of a Halloween event and how cool that would be but Niantic did not weigh in directly as far as I can tell.

        If any haunt wants to determine if they can partner with Pokemon Go they have to reach out to the developer, Niantic, Inc.

        Here is their website: https://www.nianticlabs.com/

        At the bottom of the webpage there is an email address for business inquiries. I would recommend emailing that address.

        There are three mechanics of the game that a haunted house could serve as: 1. A pokestop where items can be found, 2. A gym where players can fight for control, 3. A special environment where pokemon spawn.

        However, I looked into how to make a location a pokestop or gym and it appears that Niantic has removed the request form. Perhaps this can be worked out with Niantic directly.

        Some topics to avoid based on the spirit of the game (my personal advice):
        1. Creating new pokemon, this is a no go from the start
        2. Requiring the purchase of tickets or anything not in the app itself for access to pokemon, gyms or pokestops. This is against the spirit of the game, which is anyone can play and access the content without paying. I am sure Niantic would not entertain this idea.

        What social groups, bars, businesses, etc. area doing, though, is hosting Pokemon Go events, where they do some sort of walking tour (bar crawl, a large park, a downtown area, etc.) This gathers lots of people together for a social event. Maybe a costume themed one could be hosted by a haunted house in a park somewhere. These events, as of now, are a HUGE hit. We just had a few this past weekend in Columbus, two bar crawls and one event in a large park.

        As a side note the players are broken up into three teams, Valor (red), Mystic (blue) and Intuition (Yellow). Each team takes gyms and there is a sort of friendly rivalry going on.

        Anyway, those are my thoughts.

        Toothpaste

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        • #5
          Pokemon Disclaimer

          This brings up a good point.... are we going to have to add a disclaimer at our entrances that states something to the effect " POKEMON CHARACTERS ARE NOT LOCATED INSIDE THE ATTRACTIONS. PLEASE TURN YOUR PHONES OFF AND PLACE THEM IN YOUR POCKETS"
          If not you are going to have everyone taking out their phones wondering if a character is nearby. They won't be paying attention to their surroundings so we will get people running into things, losing phones, etc.

          I have not played the game myself, but you already hear about people running into poles, into the streets, into each other.... just image that scenario INSIDE your haunt!!

          Thoughts???
          R&J Productions
          Las Vegas, NV
          www.LasVegasHaunts.com

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          • #6
            As a haunted farm with trail I have no interest in this happening on my property. I can't imagine the dangers of people walking around unrestricted: barbwire fences, holes, pointy tree limbs. And if they are walking through the designated trail and stop to try to catch one? That could kill through-put. We already struggle to keep people moving during peak hours. No thank you.

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            • #7
              I can understand the reluctance to having patrons using their phones inside your haunt or on a haunted trail.

              Pokemon Go falls under the heading of an "Augmented Reality" game.

              Augmented reality is already in use in haunted house applications by companies like "Phantom Finder". Although, when we tried it in our home haunt a couple of years back it was still very glitchy and not quite ready for prime time.

              It may be to the benefit of haunt owners to accept the reality of the change in demographics with millennials and integrate their ubiquitous smart-phones into their haunt experience.
              Fright In Falcon Haunted Maze
              http://frightinfalcon.com

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              • #8
                I think everyone needs to spend money on this game dropping mods then promoting on social media. People are playing this game like nothing I've ever seen. Does anyone know how to get one of those towers at your location? Larry
                Larry Kirchner
                President
                www.HalloweenProductions.com
                www.BlacklightAttractions.com
                www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com
                www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by drfrightner View Post
                  I think everyone needs to spend money on this game dropping mods then promoting on social media. People are playing this game like nothing I've ever seen. Does anyone know how to get one of those towers at your location? Larry
                  The request for Pokestops form has been taken down from Niantic's site, however you can still email the company if you want to work on a promotion.

                  I just heard that someone took the code apart and found references to McDonald's, potentially hinting at an already planned event with the chain. In my post above I posted the website to Niantic and where to find their contact info.

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                  • #10
                    Pokemon Go uses Ingress' database for spots

                    I'm not sure if this is how it still works, but I know that Pokemon Go got its initial database of checkpoints from a game called Ingress. Its a kind of "capture the flag" with cell phones. We run a big fall festival outside of Washington DC and 5 or 6 years ago Ingress players approached us and asked if they could make a bunch of checkpoints on our property. They were always really good about not trespassing and bought some extra tickets to play the game on our place.

                    I'm not sure if you get your place as a checkpoint for ingress if it will still transfer over to pokemon go. Not all of the ingress spots transfered, but most did.

                    Turns out they had aboutt 30 checkpoints on our farm. When pokemon go started up my property turned out to be a pokemon go hotspot with 3 gyms and about 25 pokestops. My employees are thrilled. In the first week we had some pretty big tresspassing issues. We've put up a bunch of signs and whatnot, thats helped some.

                    We are trying to decide what to do in the fall. I'm sure you can get the pokestops and gyms removed from the game, these are on private property and we can site the tresspassing. Not all of our farm is accessable during our haunt and I dont want people exploring places they shouldn't be. The Pokemon thing is not part of the experience I'm trying to create, either for our Fall festival or our haunted attraction, but you can either fight it or embrace it right? people are going to be doing it regardless because YOU CANT CONTROL WHERE THE POKEMON SHOW UP! They pokestops and gyms yes, but not the pokemon themselves.

                    We've been talking about embracing it. Our target demographic for the haunt in teenagers. maybe getting rid of the poke stops that are not in places we want people to go but keeping the others. One of the in game purchases you can get is a LURE. this lures pokemon to a certain area, everyone in the game can see it and catch pokemon there. We were talking about buying a bunch of lures and lighting our place up with them for the customers. if you could get one in your que or your holding area right after leaving the haunt it would be pretty hot.

                    anyway. lots of good discussion about it.
                    Lucas Cox
                    Cox Farms
                    www.Fieldsoffear.com

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      We have an Ingress portal and a Pokemon hub at NETHERWORLD - sorta make sense - monsters coming from the NETHERWORLD and such. There are people in our parking lot every day.
                      Ben Armstrong
                      NETHERWORLD HAUNTED HOUSE
                      www.Fearworld.com
                      www.NetherworldNetwork.com

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