Philip Yang

Dr. Jason Peters

English 133

31 October 2017

As we pulled up in the parking lot of Lake Elizabeth, we could see a group of around ten

people standing in a circle, all looking down at their phones. Many of the people standing there

had charging cables running from their phones into bags and pockets. My friends and I got out of

the car with our phones in our hands and walked to the group. We are phyljia in the Discord

group, I tell them.

Great! Everyones here, we can go in now. a man announced. Our group entered the

lobby, chose our pokmon, and started the battle. A hulking raid boss appeared on our screens,

towering over our pokmon as they surrounded the boss and showered it with countless attacks.

The sound of fingernails tapping phone screens disrupted the otherwise peaceful setting of the

the park. The hit point bar of the raid boss slowly depleted, turning from green to yellow and to

red. Finally, we defeated the pokmon, and it shrunk down to a reasonable size so that all the

participants had a chance to catch it. As the players either finished catching the raid boss or

failed trying to do so, we each left the group one by one. Thanks guys! most people would

exclaim as they walked back to their cars.

This past summer, I played a lot of Pokmon GO with my friends Patrick and Matthew.

We caught many pokmon together, but the main reason why we played together was to

complete raids. Raids or raid battles are a relatively new game mechanic in Pokmon GO where

players battle very strong pokmon or raid bosses together for bonus rewards and a chance to

catch the pokmon. Since 7-10 people are needed to take down high level pokmon, my friends
and I used our local Discord group to find the locations of raids and organize large groups to

complete the raids. The discourse community is called (Official) Pokmon GO: Fremont or the

Discord group informally.

To join the group, you need to download the Discord app and have someone send you an

invitation code to the group. Patrick, my friend, got the invite code from me when we started to

do raids together, and he has since been using the chat to find people to complete raids with. The

people in the Discord group communicate with each other through the app in the different sub-

chats. They use these chats to coordinate raids, discuss locations of nests in Pokmon GO

(frequent spawn areas of specific species of pokmon), share locations of rare pokmon spawns,

and more. Patricks favorite part of the Discord group is the raid chat because he can find people

to do raid battles with conveniently. I find it most useful that I can easily and safely

communicate with strangers to find others to do pokmon raids with me. Usually it takes 7-10

people to do legendary raids, so it's hard to find others, and Discord makes it easier for me to go

out and do the legendary raids (Wouang).

The Discord group is also a great place for newer players to get tips from experts about

Pokmon GO. According to Patrick, the experts in the group are considered to be the higher

level players in the group, probably because they know the most about the game. In many

different sub-chats of the group, community members can be seen talking about strategies to

catch raid boss pokmon, where to find rare pokmon, and updates to the game that might affect

players significantly. Members of the community are understanding of the newer players and

very thorough in explaining different aspects of the game. The experts also help inexperienced

players in real life when we meet up to do raids. Most raid groups I have been a part of have at
least one expert giving tips on what types of pokmon to use against the particular raid boss to

maximize the groups damage output and minimize the damage taken.

One thing that some newer players are confused about in the Discord group are the

specialized terms we use or the lexis of the community. According to Patrick, some lexis used in

the group include ttar which means Tyranitar, a raid boss pokmon, and lake e which means

Lake Elizabeth, the local park in Fremont where many people go to play Pokmon GO. Other

lexis include the names of pokmon, in-game items, and gyms where the raid boss pokmon

spawn. For example, newer players might not know that Zapdos is the name of a raid boss

pokmon, golden razz berries is an item you can get from completing raid battles, and Simbra

Memorial Bench is the name of a gym at at Lake Elizabeth.

In an example segment of the raid chat, the chat opens with pegasaur and phyljia (me)

asking for help for a Lugia raid at the Driscoll Fountain (Figure 1). Members of the discourse

community often find local raids nearby using the #raid_alerts tab in the Discord where people

post recently spawned raid pokmon and their locations. People like lillyslaughter and

Gathelin tell that chat that they are heading to the location along with an ETA (estimated time

of arrival), so we set the start time of the raid to be 1:20 PM (Figure 2). I send a link to a google

maps pin so that members who wish to participate in the raid can conveniently tap the link and

use google maps to get to the fountain (Figure 3). Everyone met at the fountain at the set time,

and we defeated the Lugia successfully. Without the Discord chat, Pokmon GO players in the

area would have to go to different gyms and hope that there are fellow players there also looking

to complete the raid or constantly travel in large groups of 7-10. The group makes it so that

players without friends who play the game can find other players to help them complete raids.
 In the end, my favorite part of the Discord group is that my friends and I get to meet so

many fellow Pokmon GO players. Once we went to more and more raids, we started to get to

know the frequent raiders in the discourse community who are all very friendly. The members of

the community come from different backgrounds and walks of life, but the thing that connects us

is our love for the game. I hope to continue participating in raids here in SLO and meet the

members of the discourse community of Pokmon GO players here on campus.

Figure 1:
Figure 2:

Figure 3:
 Works Cited

Wouang, Patrick. Personal Interview. 18 Oct. 2017.

Hammer and Chisel Inc. (2017). Discord (1.9.4). [Mobile application software]. (Official)
Pokmon GO: Fremont. #raid_chat. 24 Oct. 2017.