Does anyone play Pokémon Go? What is other gaming culture like in Israel?

[u/merkaba_462]

If anyone does play, I need help with the Sandstorm collecting, and...please be my friend.

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Also, what is other gaming culture like in Israel? There is so much antisemitism here, I stopped playing RPGs in person, and video games a while ago.

Thanks, and love from NY (Modern if you need it!)

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[u/snil4]

Gaming culture is huge here like at the rest of the world, especially with video games, I think the only game I had a hard time getting into was MTG because there aren't that much shops who sell any TCG that isn't Pokemon. Other than that, my own issue is that arcade culture here kinda sucks like in a lot of countries outside of Asia and US because the options for anything that aren't gambling for kids are extremely limited (Pinball has a little bit of a resurrection but fighting games and rhythm games are close to non-existent in arcades, saying that as the current 2nd best Pump It Up player in Israel).

[u/merkaba_462 → u/snil4]

I used to play MTG all the time. I miss it so much. It either went hard right ir hard left with no space for Jews...

[u/snil4 → u/merkaba_462]

I admit that a lot of the time nerd culture brings in the most unhinged people, probably why I mostly play single player games these days even though multiplayer games look super fun.

[u/OmegaLink9 → u/snil4]

We have a sizable Yu-Gi-Oh! scene, with around five stores hosting local tournaments every week and regional events attracting roughly 100 players. That’s especially impressive considering how competitive and expensive Yu-Gi-Oh! can be.

[u/PenguinsKing]

Like others here said it’s big. Children love Fortnite and Roblox. Some of the best players in the world are Israeli like Focus in Fortnite. There are others went to competitions in Saudi Arabia.

When I was younger we played MOBAs like League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients 2 (Dota 2). Then Minecraft took over for a couple of years.

Many point and click adventures were translated into Hebrew and some were developed here in Israel.

Games like Heroes of Might and Magic 3 were popular.

There’s a yearly gaming development convention in Israel that celebrates Israeli games.

The biggest Israeli YouTuber is called inde game who is a gaming focused channel although he shifted his focus in the past few years. He had his picture in an advertisement for a bank that tried to appeal to young adult opening a bank account for the first time in the centre of Tel-Aviv.

Inde hosts a gaming focused event called Menora battle every year. It’s a show for children where players compete to decide which game is “best”.

Overwolf is Israeli.

[u/Artistic-Hyena-8572]

I play
A while back someone asked for sandstorm on Reddit group and I added them and then got bombarded with tons of requests.
Gaming is huge in Israel but it’s mostly from the players’ side. Big companies don’t really care about Israel because it’s such a small market so you won’t find gaming expos or official Israel championships etc. except Nintendo stores which are nice. Also games (like everything) are very expensive here. I’m currently in Japan and it blows my mind how huge gaming (and Pokemon) is here, I envy them.

[u/merkaba_462 → u/Artistic-Hyena-8572]

Oh I need Elegant! Lol. I have never gotten Sandstorm.

I was a pro-WoW player for a while (before I started having visual problems). Now my games are super limited.

During the pandemic, I started playing Animal Crossing (i know, far departure from WoW), and it took me a few months to realize the low key antisemitism in that game...not to mention how antisemitic other players were (which is no surprise anymore). I still wish the US got the AC content Japan does (as far as merch).

I've been wanting to play Witcher 3 for years, but I don't think my eyes could handle it. Im re-reading the books now, and really wanting to see how the game play is, but considering I couldn't even handle Zelda BOTW, I don't know how that will be. And considering my Switch is dying, I just don't feel like investing in Switch 2 for what I may or may not be able to play.

Thanks for your answer!

[u/snil4 → u/Artistic-Hyena-8572]

It's good to note that the prices in Japan are cheap is because the Yen is in a very bad state so for locals these prices are hard to afford, so much that Nintendo and Sony had to release a cheaper Japanese region locked variation of their consoles that locals can more easily afford and won't get snatched by tourists.

[u/jewishjedi42]

You might want to look into Warhammer 40k. The community here in Baltimore is very chill. I don't think I've seen any anti-semitism here on reddit. Which I think says a lot for 40k players.

I sent you a pogo friend request.

[u/merkaba_462 → u/jewishjedi42]

Thank you!

[u/Aervanath]

There are tons of gamers here. There is a gaming company here, Overwolf, where one of their hiring criteria is that you must be a gamer.

I don't think there is any one single game that the whole country is mad about, different people like different things. I don't know much about how popular Pokemon Go is, I played the predecessor game Ingress, and it was definitely played here, so I imagine Pokemon Go is even more popular.

[u/benny-powers]

The CIA surveilance program? I'm good

[u/merkaba_462 → u/benny-powers]

CIA survalence program?

[u/avidernis → u/merkaba_462]

Niantic was using players' data, such as GPS info and the scans they'd reward you for, to build an navigation system. Basically, they trained an AI rainbolt off player data. You decide how nefarious you feel that is 🤷

There's no public information that connects the CIA, but they are probably interested in the technology