The Mainline Games

Pokemon is arguably the best games series of all time. Not necessarily through its game mechanics but through its charm and connection to people. In fact, though highly popular, the games haven’t been good for awhile now. The monster designs are getting more and more outlandish. They lock away certain Pokémon and their move sets behind trading, events, and breeding. Much to the inconvenience of its player base.

The games that used to be a staple amongst kids in the playground has restricted itself to the online sphere, where there are other games more intricate and rewarding. Why play a game that looks like PlayStation 2 graphics when games like Palworld are being released? The later is a similar concept except is providing more of an experience to the fans.

The bad graphics and cute demeanor of Pokemon really caters to a subset of person these days. I buy the games because of the old generation of Pokémon that I can still use and for the few news ones that look cool. That concept is apart of the games continued success. You can use the Pokémon you like and disregard the ones that you don’t. Which is a great feature for Pokémon to profit off. However, I find my love for this repeated sales tactic to be waning, mitigated by the constant price gouging of the games and their lack of quality.

Pokémon Scarlett & Violet sucked. Before you can even play the game you have to go down an hour of mindless cutscenes that aren’t animated or feature any voice acting. The story is dull and lifeless and the supposed investment they believe your character to have in it is cringeworthy. This is a billion dollar franchise we’re talking about here.

This game was honestly embarrassing for me to play. The frame rate drops every two seconds and the Pokémon that exist in the overworld are lifeless. It’s cool to see them for a while until you realize that the formula is utterly lifeless. I was a hostage victim trying to pretend that what was happening was fun because I wanted it to be. Even though games from Xbox 360 look better, are more intrinsic, and feature vastly more content, Pokémon Scarlett outsold just about any game ever.

You may be saying that Pokemon is for kids, and that is partly true, but if you look at the majority of people who play Pokémon consistently, I guarantee that they’re at least teenagers. There’s no excuse outside of less work and less thought for why the games are created to be the way they are. 

The only redeeming quality of Pokemon is the battling aspect. Playing by yourself in story mode is about as easy as a game I’ve ever played. There is no challenge here. Even if you lose, you can retry and nothing matters. If you want any kind of enjoyment from battling then you have to play against other human players. Which means that you need to play this horribly lifeless boring game for a ton of hours.

To create the ideal team, Pokémon requires hours upon hours of dedication. Collecting items, farming raids, breeding for perfect IV’s and natures. This stuff will take you literal days worth of time to complete. When you instinctively want to try out another Pokémon or strategy, you’ll have to do it all over again. It’s the definition of wasting your time. What ends up happening is that players go to online Pokémon simulators to get the full experience without needing such investment.

The Pokemon Simulators

Pokemonshowdown.com is the most well known simulator. Here you can pick your team, easily adjust stats and moves and get into battling other human players within minutes. It removes the fluff and barrier of entry that the mainline games reinforce. On that note it’s a positive.

Players quickly realize that the mainline games are mostly single player forums. If you want to actually battle and experience something challenging, then you’ll play on the simulators. Ultimately ending with players choosing to play on the simulator and leaving the mainline games on the shelf or not even bothering to buy them.

Once you make that shift, you realize that the simulator is governed by different Pokémon councils. Councils represent the different power tiers of Pokémon, valued by a combination of stats, typing, abilities, and movepool. For instance, Charizard is considered weak, so he’s not used by enough players to be ranked alongside Mewtwo. The council takes it upon themselves to govern what’s competitive or not.

Players have felt the barrier of entry to the mainline games and how frustrating that experience was. Unfortunately, in the simulators you’ll experience something similar. These councils, depending on what tier you play in, are supposed to act in the best interest of players. Usually this would mean that the community would vote for what’s fair or not. Nothing would be changed without the majority of fans approval. Unfair things such as a Pokémon being too powerful and needing to be banned or a strategy that is un-sportsman-like being removed from the game. However, what happens is that these council members become ‘big pharma’ and strips the rights from average players.

What they’ll do is value your skill in the game. If you’re not good enough or refuse to play by sweaty tactics, you won’t have a say in what’s allowed or disallowed. Likewise, if someone doesn’t have a following as big as others, their opinion can be drowned out and overruled. Ironically, if they feel something is uncompetitive in their bubble, the councils will outstretch their power to ban stuff without the say of anyone else. All of this is done through the veil of doing what’s right for everyone. Well hallelujah.

I need to mention the hypocritical nature of these people for a second. While I appreciate that they take time from their lives to try and organize the game into something everyone can enjoy, they don’t own Pokémon. What they’re primary objective should be is to provide competitive Pokémon to the average person. Offer insight and guidance on how to get started.

What ends up happening is that they have a clear bias towards what’s fun and unfun, competitive and not competitive, which are opinions, and make decisions based on their biases. If they want a Pokemon banned, they can simply quick ban them without a vote. If they don’t want a Pokemon banned they can never issue a poll for players to vote on. If they do offer a poll, then they can choose not to advertise the polls and/or propagate for the decision they want.

I don’t feel that these people are pure evil, but I feel that they believe themselves to be saviors of some sort. I could play a tier a thousand times, more than anyone else, and if I don’t have the political power, I don’t have a say in anything. They can decide for me what’s good and tell me what’s right and wrong, in a game they don’t own and whose opinion isn’t concrete. I’ve been told many of times to start my own simulator if I didn’t like something, which directly pertains to them owning Pokémon, more or less.

When I initially started on showdown, the game was stall heavy. Stall being where teams are made to absorb any hits and heal the damage off. Turning a Pokémon battle into a hundred turn snooze fest. That was considered competitive and fine by these saviors. Completely disregarding that most would-be-players consider that unfulfilling. These Pokémon weren’t banned or a limit made to their stall moves, no, it was everywhere for the entire generation. Essentially they would let you know that your opinion doesn’t matter and that they felt it was fine.

Which is okay, maybe I was in the minority. Just use their own logic and don’t force their opinion on an entire community and would-be community because there are equal as many times as something is banned that I never hear much fuss about. The mainline games are already pretty bad for competitive Pokémon and the simulators have become equally bad because of the supremacist mindset these people have. They’ll pretend to be politicians and taking everyone’s concerns in hand yet they’ll act on their own accord. It’s actually hilarious.

These simulators have chat rooms and the higher ups have special symbols and avatars that differentiate them. The npc gamers flock to them like bees to flowers. It’s pretty cringe worthy to see from my perspective. Mods get put on a pedestal by these people. Which, in turn, causes these council members to become power hungry and control the game that many people love. They control the simulator so it’s their way or the highway. That’s their words, not mine. Such a neutral entity.

Much of the advertisements and voting processes are done on the Smogon Forums. Which is an internet forum that talks about Pokémon’s strategies and viability. Something so dated as an internet forum is the perfect place to slide stuff past a general audience. If you’re not checking it regularly, and why would you, then you can’t possibly keep up with the voting processes. Really only the mods are there consistently, which means their friends and themselves are the main ones voting on anything.

Apart from decision making, the mods and councils police political beliefs in the chat rooms as well. They are in favor of left wing ideology and spout their beliefs to those in attendance. If you were to disagree or hold a different belief, you are privy to getting banned. There isn’t a ‘no politics’ ban either, there is simply a moderate to conservative view ban. I don’t think this needs to be understood but holding players hostage to certain political beliefs in order to enjoy something they love is wrong. They will ban those who have certain political beliefs and work to silence those who speak out against them.

Palworld is a-cummin’

So we have the mainline games and simulators out of the way. How else can Pokemon hurt its reputation? Well, by suing the most popular game in the world, Palworld. The basis of the suit is that Palworld stole Pokemon’s designs and concepts. Which I agree, are very similar. However, after thousands of Pokémon, I think its fair that something will eventually look similar. They’re based on real world animals and mythos at the end of the day.

Though that issue may have merit, Palworld is harmful to Pokemon for another reason – because it exposes Pokemon for everything it hasn’t been since its inception. A game with masculine and feminine elements, new-end concepts, and up to date mechanics. Palworld features weapons, a nice world, and frequent action. You interact with the world much more intrinsically than you ever could with Pokémon.

Why is this such an embarrassment? Well because one is a multi-billion dollar corporation and the other is a random assortment of people. The lesser team built a vastly superior game that features similar concepts to Pokémon. Raising the already raised question of “just how much has Pokemon been resting on its laurels?” We’re witnessing how much.

Everything that Palworld is, is what Pokemon could have been and then some. Not so much the gun violence but the harsher tones and multiple different aesthetics that appeal to different types of people. I wouldn’t need to be embarrassed to play Palworld because it doesn’t force me into a world of being an 8 year old whose still attached to mommy.

I know many of my geekier friends who stopped playing Pokémon have started to play Palworld. Pokémon banks itself on it’s historical relevance to children and the monopoly it has over the creature-possession genre (Lol). This is a wake up sign for Pokémon to stop playing around. They’ve been surviving on nostalgia for far too long now. Despite its continued success, questions are being asked. Instead of making better games, it seems they’re content with silencing games that out do them.

How long until the players in the Pokémon community grow weary of the politics and barrier to entry? How long until the nostalgia bug is depleted? At which point does Pokémon implode itself by exposing their ruthless business tactics to the world? I bought my nephew Pokémon cards the other day, and he didn’t give two shits. You know, I’m starting not to myself.