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View Full Version : Why on earth do people want a Pokemon MMO?



Exflar
08-02-2013, 10:25 AM
As someone who doesn't see the appeal in a Pokemon MMO, I would like to know the opinions of those who do.

Firstly, an MMO would completely deplete the purpose of playing for plot. As a long time player and Gen I veteran, I have always loved the games for their storylines. The supporting cast and gym leaders were endearing and the villainous teams always had odd motives, some for terraforming while others for temporal/spatial destruction. I don't see how they can keep a linear and comic/dramatic plotline when everyone is off fulfilling a subquest or waiting in queue to challenge a server gym leader.

Secondly, an MMO would force everyone to have to play and train competitively. How would the game regulate trainers with varying levels of pokemon? I EV train and IV breed as much as the next guy but sometimes I just want to play for fun. I normally do my first runthrough of each game without any type of special training and just focus on completing the league. In an MMO, in order to be a viable trainer who can hold their own against others, one would have to have a good understanding of the metagame and competitive training. Casual players will have absolutely no chance against competitive players.

Online. Yes, I understand that the current games are really pushing (well, for nintendo's standards) the online capabilities of the handheld series. But that's an option that many players forgo. Option being the operative word. With an MMO, players will have to have decent connectivity to the internet at all times during gameplay. The pokemon main series games were created on the premise of portability in order to spur social interaction. Having an MMO would render the game unplayable in situations when a pokemon game is most handy: roadtrips/long car rides, airplanes and airports, university libraries with cruddy internet connection, etc. I like being able to whip out my 3DS whenever and wherever I want to play. In an MMO setting, I'm at the mercy of the internet connection as well as the mercy of the server. If the server goes down I can't play.

And just for clarification, what battle style does everyone expect to see in an MMO for Pokemon. Turn based? Real time Click-to-attack? Because if it's anything other than turn based (which has been a key characteristic that's been instilled in the pokemon franchise since its inception) then that would completely negate the meticulous and extensive battle system that was built around turn based battling.

I hope I've made my points clear enough and possibly shed light on some of the drawbacks of having an MMO style pokemon game. I would certainly love to see the responses of those of you in favor of an MMO and hope that you can come up with possible solutions to the problems I've proposed. Maybe we can see a compromise.

tl;dr - No plot, extreme disparity amongst players, general online problems and limited playability, battle system. But seriously read the post, I go into detail.

Alfier
08-02-2013, 04:16 PM
MMO are not necessarily Warcraft-like games. GF could easily create a persistent world where people can physically walk and search opponents in ways different by the current ones, and still keep the classic combat system. Plot and stories exists in every MMO, they are just in form of quests. They give you a goal to achieve and you can do it even alone, without multiplayer interaction, exactly as happens in current games. They can say "go beat that Gym", "oh no, team plasma has arrived, beat them", with the difference that in an online persistent world Gym Leaders can be real people (like our Gyms :P ), with second, third or fourth in commands if anyone can't battle at the moment, and evil teams can be composed of players that joined their forces (much or less like in a guild).

A game like this can be potentially a killer app for every system, no matter what. Moreover, single-player games like the ones we all know can easily be developed alongside the MMO, so whoever doesn't want to go online can just buy them.
Unfortunately MMOs are the most expensive and time-consuming games a studio could do, so if one is not in develop (and I doubt it is) a lot of time will have to pass to see anything about it.
However, with the new 3D style of the upcoming X & Y, the chance to see one in the near future are not that low...

UltraSound
08-02-2013, 09:53 PM
There doesn't have to be a storyline that you must follow. You like having a story in the game, I don't mind it missing if it's a good game.
Well, there could be servers for those who want to play competitive, those who want to roleplay and for those "casual" players. Nothing forces you to become competitive really...and NPC's can help beginners if there's a huge like...talent distance between most of the players and beginners.
That's pretty much the same thing in all MMO's so I don't really see that as an argument...that's kinda the idea of it, right? :P To play it on computer or some non-portable platform? And what stops from making the game into a mobile version as an example? "It would suck", well, yes, probably. But it's better than nothing.
It'd be simply stupid to make it click-to-attack. Why change the turn based one which works a lot better? "Because it looks like it's from the anime", the attack animations can be made to look like they're from the anime.
I still think a poke MMO would be awesome.