I thought this topic was thread worthy simply because I express so much negativiy about fad like things and felt I should give my thoughts about it after some use.  Also, my opinion is more important than anyone elses.

If anyone here has read my posts about this app you'd know I was quite skeptical and negative about it.  Well this was before I actually got the thing to work properly and thought it was all hype.  

Holy balls is it awesome. Like seriously, it's genius.

I went for a 30 minute walk to try it out for the first time about 2 hours ago.  It was pretty simple to get working and ran without a hitch.  As I exited the residential area I live in, I noticed that while walking past real life landmarks, I could tap on them in app and see a picture of the real life location.  This gave me some experince and the RPG player in me started getting excited.  More importantly, there was a Metapod nearby just hanging out.  So I caught it and all those stats came up, granting me more experince.  I thought the catching of the pokemon themselves was a weak spot as it's overly simple but it's still fun to stop and engage each one you see.

I saw two gyms and upon clicking them I was greeted by professor leggings that  I needed to be level 5 before I could go to them.  But it was a Scyther gym.  Scyhter!  Let me go get sword hands professor leggings!

Anyway, it's great because it makes locations useful, it's a social ice breaker("Hey, go to the supermarket on Fake Rd, there's a Archanine") that adds this depth and FUCK I can't wait to go back out and catch some more.

I was wrong about Pokemon GO.  It's the best app I've downloaded all year.  If you haven't tried it, try it and love it.

Do you need a mobile device with a contract plan to play it? Or can you say for instance just get a layout of your area via Wifi connection and then have some RNG mechanics work with the game to keep pokemon popping up around you indefinitely?

Uses GPS and a data/wifi connection.  To preserve battery life you can download the map area though.

You need data roaming or some sort off Internet connection to play it. Oh and OP those real life monuments give you poke balls in game ( tab on symbol and spin it)

Glad you're enjoying it. Sounds like you're pretty lucky to have some pokestops and a gym by your area. I have to drive out to those places to find them. I do think Pokemon Go is a pretty great app. It encourages people to go outside and you could end up meeting and having conversation with like-minded people. And you can catch pokemon while just being out. I've enjoyed the time I've had with it as well. It's more exciting when you find one of your favorites too. : D

Despite the server issues and the random Eevee evolution, I think its a good game, am playing it in Colombia and I thought that because of that the poke-stops or gyms would suck, but they really put an effort in that. I have 2 pokestops where i live AND where i work :D.
What i love the most is the leveling system you really feel a progression, each time you level you gain access to better items, better CP pokemon, and rare ones also.

Sounds good.  How big of an area can you download for a single area?

What? How do you do this?!  This thing chews through battery  life.

Go into Google Maps, open the menu, and go to Settings.  Go to Offline Maps, and then click through til it gives you a map screen.  Pinch/push to your desired map area, and then click OK.  It will tell you it will take up to 500MB to download.  I did most of Massachusetts and it only took about 80MB on my phone.  It auto updates over Wi-Fi, and if it can't, it expires after 31 days and you have to redo it.  From what I can tell, the download limit would be based on how much space you have on your phone.

Edit: A link for the how-to that is probably better than my explanation: https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6291838?source=gsearch&hl=en

You should be ashamed of yourself. Start as a hater for no reason, and now you love it? Shame.

And I still can't play it. Shame.