A Pokemon MMO; a way to solve all of the series's problems.

[Mad1Cow]

Oh-ho-ho-ho-hooooh this is brilliant. The reason I took to studying games design was so I could improve some of my favourite series...Pokemon being the most important one. In fact the reason I chose multiplayer games design was so that I could either make this happen, or at least make something of similar mechanics into an MMO. I've already sat down and figured out how it can work, now I just need to pass university, get the funding and make this reality!

 

[GeorgW]

If you retain the current battle system, what would happen once your whole party is lv100?
The problem with pokemon is that it's only fun to collect pokemon. The rest is just grind. Its combat isn't deep enough I've played pokemon games my whole life, so don't lecture me on the complexity. I know all that. But there's one way to get the most out of your pokemon, and that is just grind. In the endgame, there is no challenge at all. Battle frontier was awesome, all the rest sucks. And to fully enjoy that, you need a team of lv100s, and once again, simply grind. An MMO would help that a lot. But how would you collect pokemon and how does it affect you? And what about legendary? Would you raid for them? Would you be several, and if, who would get the legendary? What if you miss it?

 

[GBlair88]

The game would have to be heavily instanced though to avoid capture steals and would end up more like a CORPG.

It wouldn't really need to be instanced. In LOTRO the first player or fellowship to attack a mob gets the credit for the kill and the loot rights. Or in the case of a Pokemon MMO, the ability to capture a new Pokemon.

And what about legendary? Would you raid for them? Would you be several, and if, who would get the legendary? What if you miss it?

I would say keep the Legendary as endgame boss battles, but have them so they cannot be captured. Or maybe have them as incredibly rare encounters or possibly only during events.

Whatever happened they would need to be incredibly hard to get.

 

[aradin24]

I doubt we'll see a Nintendo MMO for a very long time. http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/02/nintendo-shuts-down-fan-made-pokemon-mmo/

 

[hyperdrachen]

How can they milk you dry with an MMO? It's not as easy.

??? WHAT ??? So you're unsure of how the MMO format can milk you dry. A little math for you.

New pokemon game, we'll say every 6 months. $40
MMO Subscription Fee $15 dollars a month.

What you will be doing in a month after starting an MMO - killing boars.
What you will be doing in a month after starting Pokemon - cracking out on endgame minmaxing and teambuilding to play against other players or the battle tower.

Nintendo doesn't like the online multiplayer space very much. Pokemon loses some of it's youngster appeal if kids can easily run across foulmouthed poke'masters.

Though I'd play the hell out of it for the record. Furthermore no the Japanese release does not have an english language setting on it. Friend of mine has Japanese SoulSilver, as he speaks japanese, but they use alot of BS japanese in pokemon games and memorizing all the new names is hard. So he checked for a english language setting. No dice.

 

[Buizel91]

An MMO would not work, however a 3D game on the 360, PS3 and Wii would be awesome...

Think about it, you start off in what ever Region you choose (Kanto, Jhoto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova (with more being added as expansions or something) Then you can choose your starter by either choosing the Region Starters (get your Pokemon by the Region Professor) or a Personality test for your starter (Which would be a childhood pet/friend or something) for example Caterpie, Buizel, Houndour etc.

ALL Pokemon are able to be found, however some require extensive searching and some (Like Jirachi, Mew etc) can only be found at certain times, or with certain items, maybe even getting your Pokemon to fully trust you. And like the DS versions, their are different versions of the game, so you will need to trade.

Levels work differently, Experiance is now Happyness, winning battles, grooming, giving the right food, will make your Pokemon happy, and this allows it to grow new levels(thats how it is done in the anime i believe, not just by battling) And once a Pokemon has learned a new move, it wont be very powerfull, the Pokemon must use this move a few times before it can Master the move (Just like Pikachu with Iron Tail)

It would work!

OT: The games are fine, the reason why Japan gets the game first is because the game is completely different there, The Pokemon Company (i believe) do that for us to make it child Friendly, they think of the English Pokemon names, without them, Pikachu would be called Sparkle Squeak...i kid you not.

Plus, do you know how hard it would be for Nintendo to have SEVERAL Events all over the world?
their is a reason they do that you know.

Other than that your complaints are nothing new, if your fed up, move on, and leave the Pokemon games to people who enjoy them...

Like me! XD

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

The game would have to be heavily instanced though to avoid capture steals and would end up more like a CORPG.

It wouldn't really need to be instanced. In LOTRO the first player or fellowship to attack a mob gets the credit for the kill and the loot rights. Or in the case of a Pokemon MMO, the ability to capture a new Pokemon.

Yes but the fights would need to beinstanced or completely locked out from others to avoid interference.

 

[FernandoV]

I imagine a Pokemon MMO like this:

1. Condense the entire list of pokemon to only the chunk of good ones (aesthetic wise, as well as combat effectiveness) and then take the not so good combat pokemon and rework their stats so they are more combat effective, we'd still only be left with a good chunk instead of the daunting 400+ so that's good.

2. The gyms and the like could be grandmaster missions, where, you couldn't defeat the first gym with a level 5 starter. You supplement the gym missions with others like getting quests from towns people to clear caves or building of enemies or pokemon infestations, at the end you'd get loot such as battle accessories that you can see on your pokemon.

3. Instead of just making wild battles ridiculously easy there will be certain areas of the map where you face challenging wild pokemon such as beedrill swarms or packs of Arcanine and pokemon in packs have special moves that they all use in unison that can devastate a player without a strategy, you'd get better exp and item rewards the more challenging your enemy.

4. The story could be fixed so you take a lot of the "magic" out of the series and give proper explanations for what happens. Make sure that pokemon make biological sense so you can build a believable lore.

5. Cel shading, toon style.

 

[robinkom]

No, Pokemon does not need an MMO.

1. The MMO Market is over saturated with several horrible cookie-cutter titles and doesn't need another franchise thrown into it that's better suited to single-player adventure games.

2. Nintendo makes their money on each pair of new Pokemon games just fine. In fact, they're guaranteed to cash in big time the minute they announce a new game and the die-hard fans wet themselves over it all the way to GameStop for their pre-orders.

Nintendo doesn't try to fix what isn't broken. As long as the formula works as is, they'll continue using it. If you continue to buy the games, they'll continue to release them as usual.

 

[Les Awesome]

well pokemon is always geared towards the younger audience so i doubt they could grasp an
MMO so it would be really simplified and crappy

 

[FernandoV]

well pokemon is always geared towards the younger audience so i doubt they could grasp an
MMO so it would be really simplified and crappy

They're young not retarded o.o I'm sure they can grasp the concept of training pokemon and going on quests...

 

[gigastar]

Ok, in the short term it would be good. You get a wide open area and regular interaction with humans, something that i realised has been missing from pokemon as soon as i figured out what an MMORPG was.

In the long term however what would you, the player, end up with? Even if someone could nolife to the extent that they collect all lvl 100 pokemon including all shinies and variations and special edition sprites (and this being a MMO, there probably will be) what will all that accomplish? Other than some internet recognition and many, many wasted hours of life. Which is actually the common outcome of every MMO no matter how often its updated.

Which reminds me, updates. Updates are an MMO's lifeblood and the one true way to know when one is dead is when it stops expanding and improving. Gamefreak have already stated that they have trouble creating new pokemon for each generation. Due to influence from the Animation Age Ghetto of the Pokemon anime they can only approve of pokemon that look nice to kids and look original enough to not invoke lawsuit.

And i dread to think what would happen to the series if Nintendo fully took it over.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

1: The JP versions of the games don't have an English language option. As far as I know, Black and White was the first one to include an option for kanji

2: Based on what I've seen with Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Heart Gold and, Soul Silver, every major Japanese event has been redone in the U.S. At month's end, Toy's R Us will be giving away Ash's Pikachu for example: It was a promo done in Japan quite a while ago. They also did the shiny, legendary dog give-away but they did theirs at movie theaters since the Pokemon movies are theatrical releases there.

As for other event only Pokemon, an MMO wouldn't stop Nintendo from having them: If anything it would likely cause the events to come up less often than they currently do. I can see the argument for importing your save game...it would have been nice taking my Diamond character to Johto.

I'm surprised you didn't mention a lack of multiplayer as being a drawback. I guess it was implied since you want a Pokemon MMO. That's one of the things I like best about Pokemon: playing on my own. It's probably just Nintendo's way of getting me to buy both cartridges for each new release though since it's much easier for me (personally) to just trade with myself as opposed to finding new people to trade with...not sure where I was going with that...I'm going back to sleep.

A Pokemon MMO already exists [http://www.pokemonworldonline.net]

There it is! I knew someone would post that. Enjoy your game while I enjoy mine.

 

[Omega Pirate]

A pokemon MMO would be a godsend....

However I would be happy if they put all the regions into one game, even a Wii game would do.

 

[FernandoV]

You know how in the games the random trainers you fight have gradually tougher pokemonm so that they're never too much of a challenge. Imagine replacing that with other random players. Or imagine adding encounters with random players into the mix.

I foresee balance issues.

Or you could just certain areas designated for certain level players? An MMO world would not be as linear as a single player game for OBVIOUS reasons.

 

[RatRace123]

People have been clamoring for an MMO version of Pokemon for years, Nintendo just doesn't seem to want to make it happen.
And Nintendo's not likely to publish a game on the PC and the Wii's online feature is, well kinda piss poor.
MMOs are easily done on consoles (in theory) due to the ease of online connectivity that most of them have. Maybe if Nintendo takes off the online training wheels and decides that, yes people can actually play games online with eachother without the need of "friend codes" and not get molested or whatever, then maybe they'll make a more streamlined online connectivity thing with their next console.

I believe I got off topic, the point I'm trying to make (I think) is that a Pokemon MMO, while unlikely, is not impossible, but it wouldn't be done in this console generation.

 

[Cheesepower5]

A Pokemon MMO already exists [http://www.pokemonworldonline.net]

In stark contrast.... http://shoddybattle.com/
If a MMO was to be made, it needs to be regulated so shit will be balanced. Or just use the tier list that Smogon has made to regulate the uses.

Except Smogon is bullshit and they'd have to massively redo the mechanics for an MMO to work anyway.

 

[Crazie_Guy]

Done right, I'd play it. Probably one of the few theoretical MMOs that could stand up to WoW.

Not gonna happen though, or at least not for many years.

 

[ccggenius12]

They'd have to simplify it for an mmo to work, more or less gutting the system. IV's, gone. It's not balanced to have one persons magikarp just be better than someone elses. Add to this the fact that a select few pokemon are simply better than the rest, and you've got a game that punishes the target audience for playing favorites. Plus, what incentive is there for raids or whatever? What possible loot could there be? Pokemon? Nah, then you're replacing your favorites. Equipment? Why are you playing a pokemon game if you want to farm equipment? Nintendo WILL NOT do a cross console release, because pokemon is a nintendo exclusive franchise, and they will not do a solo release, because they could care less about online play.

If you want something simmilar, roll a hunter in WoW. They can have ~30 pets now, not to mention the copious quantities of non-combat pets.