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Originally posted by: Kairon
Actually, I don't really put stock in what Reggie says. He's a PR guy, he's from marketting, he's just there to say whatever gives Nintendo good PR and makes us feel good.
Just like how he suggested that adding Rev support to TP would be "truly magical" and then a few months later they announce Rev support for TP?
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And I did actually know of Toon town. It's just that Pokemon has gamers who are older and more hardcore as well, and they'd be outraged to be handicapped in an MMORPG to the extent that ToonTown handicaps you. I mean, you see all the hubbub they make over friend's codes and no voice chat, imagine that amplified through Pokemon's popularity, through the expectation of text chat, and through the genre of "RPG."
Then the parental control option would have to be in there to unlock full-blown chat, but I still wouldn't see it as an issue even if that option didn't exist. Pokemon isn't a social RPG, it's a battle RPG, and as such, battles are what truly make the game enjoyable, especially with other players.
The franchise could still work online with or without free chat.
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BUT, there are still MANY other issues.
For instance, Pokemon is a PvP game. Can you imagine the sadistic griefers, ages 7 and up, who will ruin the experience for anyone they bully into a duel through vicious name calling? And Pokemon emphasized levels, it's not exactly a lowbie-friendly game. AND Pokemon would need an all new monetary system, the only way you earn money now is to beat the **** out of other hapless trainers who willingly fork over thousands of Pokedollars at the drop of a hat. AND Pokemon has never been a super-balanced game, they'd need to make huge advances on that area as well.
So are you discounting Nintendo's ability to adapt a popular franchise to work in a MMO setting? If Blizzard can do it with Warcraft, I fail to see why Nintendo cannot do it with Pokemon.
I cannot imagine sadistic griefers because all of PvP in Pokemon is consensual. If communication is not permitted unless they've opened it up or used a friend code, then no name calling will ever happen. There could even be an option saying "_____ wants to speak to you. Will you talk to ____?" if name calling would truly be that bad.
A monetary system would be more than easy enough to do, as would balance to ensure players only fight other players around their same levels.
Seriously, do you think such simple alteration and game design is beyond HAL Labs or whichever dev would design the game?
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Up until now, Pokemon has been a one-player experience, shielding players from the essential inequality and brutality of the Pokemon world.
I absolutely have to hand it to you: I never thought I'd see the words "brutality" and "Pokemon" in the same sentence.
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AND they'd need to have seamless interfaces, seamless experiences, and servers...
I'm sorry, but there are so many daunting aspects of a Pokemon MMORPG that I doubt it should be attempted at this point: it would prove to be a headache and a sales success but an online disaster.
"Daunting" would be designing a console and controller which elevate gaming with a completely new and unique user interface and place it in the hands of people who would otherwise never DREAM of owning a console, yet Nintendo is tackling that task full-on.
THAT is daunting. Redesigning an existing franchise into a MMORPG is not.
Have you ever even PLAYED a MMORPG? The game concept itself is rather simple. It's not even something which I would consider to be a hurdle in Nintendo's development of a Pokemon MMO.
And as for popularity, a while back, I found an online web-based Pokemon game which was shoddy and horribly designed. It took me two hours of searching, google and all, before I stumbled across it by luck.
Keep in mind the game was terrible, using a click interface which didn't often work, and yet this craptacular little game had 180,000+ players.
If a silly PoS web-based Pokemon game which barely even works and is difficult to find can garner over 180,000 players, I'm quite confident that the real-deal running on a Nintendo platform on Wifi would be
immensely popular.