[Approved Idea] History of Pokemon Multiplayer

[PoryKid575]

I haven't seen any articles about this online and figured it would be an interesting subject to cover. Trading and battling with friends, and multiplayer in general, is a crucial part of the Pokemon franchise that has nevertheless changed with nearly every generation.

I would likely start the article with a short explanation of why trading/battling was included in Red/Blue to start with and how it contributed to the blowout success of the games, and then proceed to cover changes like Mystery Gift in Gen 2. How the Gameboy games were cut off from Gen 3, online functionality and the GTS being introduced in Gen 4, Dream World in Gen 5, Pokemon Bank, PSS and Friend Safari in Gen 6, Festival Plaza in Gen 7, Pokemon HOME and not all Pokemon being included from Gen 8 onwards. I'm also thinking about covering how transfers between generations have worked in the article, but I'm not sure about it.

This would likely be a fairly long, in-depth article with the general throughline being how multiplayer has become more and more central to Pokemon's identity over time. From Gen 1's simple trading and battling fundamentally being sideshows to a mostly single-player game, to SV seemingly being designed with multiplayer and competitive battling as a central focus. Possibly with an aside mentioning how the Legends games, with their comparatively extremely limited focus on playing with others online; could be GF's way of assuaging people's concerns that the franchise is becoming overly focused on multiplayer at the expense of the single-player experience. Thoughts?

 

[Delta Crowned Sword]

Sounds interesting. Because the multi-player in earlier generation was solely for evolving certain Pokémon and having battles.
Then it included HOME, as people got interested in filling Pokémon Dex because national dex was no longer a thing in later generation.

Then came Pokémon Go, and the Era of raid battles where people got shifted into PvE mode.



There is certainly not much bad, but it had taken away the feel of single-player, as people now cannot do certain things in the game which requires friends to do the things.

Earlier people use to grind for certain things like shiny, dex entry, etc. But now it had shifted to mode where having friends increases probability. I remember that I had seen people talking about shiny Sandwich or Herba Mystica related things which increases chance of finding shiny when finding/adding ingredients together or something like this. Never a fan of this concept, and neither it appeals about why/how shiny rate gets affected.





On other hand, due to this shift in focus, the battles had got significantly easier as people nowadays don't enjoy Pokémon battles hence the Company utilized their views and brought the change. The only tactical planning comes into effect when making teams for raid battles. Apart from that, one can finish the main line battles fairly decently if my knowledge regarding gym leaders is correct.



Instead, to keep it simple and light-hearted, the Company could have chosen Pokémon Contest as multi-player thing where people compared their Pokémon, and it would have added a different flavor to the games.



Personally asking me, I am not a big fan of playing with friends together just to complete certain things. Rather I want to play with friends for fun, not for fulfilling my motive of obtaining certain things, hence asking to play together. Because of which my views are heavily biased, indicating that the shift is negative. But this is how I perceive all of this, hence said it accordingly.





And asking me, all these things came into existence because the games where people play together, kill together, shoot together, etc. Are on rise, hence to enter the multi-player market, the Company changed it direction. Which is definitely negative, as it is taking away the charm which established Pokémon.

The only bad now they can do is to introduce open-world play, which is of course terrible considering that regions are based on countries, and countries are not open-world but are systematic arrangement.

 

[Nah]

Could also make it a series of articles. Not completely sure if it's necessary or a great idea to make it into multiple articles, but it's a thought I had

 

[bobandbill]

Apologies for the delay! I missed this.

I think it's a great topic for an article. Mystery Gift was a great thing when I discovered that I could fight friends' teams via it.

Would this article have personal (or other people's) opinions/anecedotes in it, or do you feel it would be a more factual article?

Also, Nah did raise an idea there. Imo it could be an article series (say 2-3 gens an article)... or a multipage article. Both are viable! Any preference on your end? [Third: one of those rare longform articles, with fancy formatting.]

 

[_confused_piplup_]

I like this idea! Also, pretty much what both Nah and Bobandbill suggested about making it a series of articles.

The only thing imo is the PLA part, because it's a different game at the core. I don't personally see in the same way as you wrote. I don't think GF cares much about the multiplayer vs single player experience. It's just a different "take" on the series, so it doesn't really count. But it's still worth mentioning it as an example of limited multiplayer experience and some sort of "experiment".

 

[PoryKid575]

Apologies for the delay! I missed this.

I think it's a great topic for an article. Mystery Gift was a great thing when I discovered that I could fight friends' teams via it.

Would this article have personal (or other people's) opinions/anecedotes in it, or do you feel it would be a more factual article?

Also, Nah did raise an idea there. Imo it could be an article series (say 2-3 gens an article)... or a multipage article. Both are viable! Any preference on your end? [Third: one of those rare longform articles, with fancy formatting.]

I've never played Pokemon much with friends myself (especially the earlier generations), so I have little to offer in terms of my own anecdotal experience. I'm very receptive to the idea of including anecdotes from others though (for example, I could use a story of someone making friends from other countries/backgrounds through playing Gen 4 online, which would play into the larger theme of multiplayer becoming a larger and more accessible part of the Pokemon franchise over time). I've also considered possibly including a meta-narrative about how online communities and forums have also played a big part in connecting Pokemon fans and making the series into the massive, interconnected community that it is today, although that's more of a spitball then anything.

As for the format of the article(s), I'm not against an article series by any means, but my personal preference would be for it to be one of the fancy longform articles, similar to the Black/White analysis one from a year ago. Preferably there would be 5 parts total, with one part for every main system the Pokemon franchise has been on, so Gameboy, GBA, DS, 3DS and Switch. This is because the hardware these games are running on has played a major role in how GF has approached multiplayer mechanics (like, secret bases wouldn't have been viable with the extremely limited ROM space on GB carts, concepts like Friend Safari work far smoother on the 3DS then they would on the DS due to features like streetpass and a system-level friend list, etc) and they serve as fairly neat dividers for different eras of the franchise (for example, the GBA era is when forums started to really take off as more people got internet access, DS era is when people were first able to play with the people they met on said forums, the 3DS era is when social media like Reddit and Facebook started to blow up and allowed people to share their experiences far easier, and the Switch era represents the continuation of that trajectory).

I like this idea! Also, pretty much what both Nah and Bobandbill suggested about making it a series of articles.

The only thing imo is the PLA part, because it's a different game at the core. I don't personally see in the same way as you wrote. I don't think GF cares much about the multiplayer vs single player experience. It's just a different "take" on the series, so it doesn't really count. But it's still worth mentioning it as an example of limited multiplayer experience and some sort of "experiment".

That's a fair point, PLA is fundamentally a different game to the main series; and it would probably make more sense for it to have been an experiment instead of a way to calm down the fanbase. Thanks for the encouragement too!

 

[bobandbill]

@CoolKid575 Happy to include annecdotes where relevant/wanted in that case. =)

We can go for the long-form, multi-page article approach then. The word of warning is that this will take some more work to set up. But you can start with the plain draft and we can turn it onto a longform later during editing.

Please DM/PM me a desired username and email address to make an account for Daily/WP. Pitch approved!

 

[PoryKid575]

@CoolKid575 Happy to include annecdotes where relevant/wanted in that case. =)

We can go for the long-form, multi-page article approach then. The word of warning is that this will take some more work to set up. But you can start with the plain draft and we can turn it onto a longform later during editing.

Please DM/PM me a desired username and email address to make an account for Daily/WP. Pitch approved!

I've sent the DM