Jackpot on PS! Game Corner
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Art by BlueberryBlanket.
Introduction
Have you ever been in a situation where you are searching on the ladder for a battle on an unpopular format for 10 minutes, only to find no such battle and ask yourself "Damn, why did I waste my time like that? I could have wasted those 10 minutes better!"? If you answered yes, then there is a thing you could have used those 10 minutes on, and that is the Game Corner room on PS! Game Corner offers a variety of games of different types, ranging from pure typing skills and pure luck to strategy-based games. So, if you want to spend time chilling and playing games, then come to Game Corner!
Room Activities
Game Corner has 2 primary types of games: scripted and user-hosted games. Scripted games are the ones that are hosted by the Room Bot Lady Monita, which can include more complex concepts like card and map games. This makes some scripted games go on longer than other games. Scripted games either require players to sign up for them or they can be freejoin, thus only requiring one to start playing along. The other type of games is user-hosted, which are games that are manually hosted by a human user. They are notable for the possibility of bending their rules in order to create a more challenging or funnier version of the game. This is known as a "twist." They are also more prone to mistakes, but when pulled off correctly, they might end up even more enjoyable than scripted games!
After a game is over, "chill time" comes in, which allows users to take a little break and socialize with other users, mainly through Would You Rathers (where you choose an option that you would rather do) and Monita's Questions (a more open version of the WYRs). After it's over, another game will be played!
Challenges
Challenges are something like games that run in the background, as they can be played any time as long as they are running. All of those challenges are games meant to be played with the help of the formats Challenge Cup 1v1 and Hackmons Cup, and they run for 2 hours. In general, those challenges require you to find something specific in a battle in one of those formats. When you have found what is needed, you can PM Lady Monita the command .check [link of the battle] so it can check it and store you as a winner. There are the following challenges:
- Challenge Cup Chase: Find a specific Pokémon on your team in CC1v1.
- Challenge Cup Move: Find a Pokémon on your team that knows the given move and use it in the battle.
- Challenge Cup Pokédex: Every time you load up a battle on CC1v1, you can PM Lady Monita .check [link], and it will register all unseen Pokémon into your "Pokédex." After 2 hours, the one that has recorded the most Pokémon wins!
- Challenge Cup Streak: Once you find a battle, you can make Lady Monita join it. If you win the battle, you get a point to your streak, but if you lose, your streak is lost. The one that has the highest current streak at the end wins!
- Challenge Cup Alphabet: Find [X] number of Pokémon that start with a given letter.
- Hackmons Capsule: Find a Pokémon on your team that has the given ability in a battle of Hackmons Cup.
Additionally, a roomstaff member can host a "Super CCC," which is essentially a more specific and rewarding Challenge Cup Chase. It could be something like "Ryota Mitarai is hosting a Super CCC! Find a Rotom forme with its special move in order to win 1000 bits!." The host will give instructions on how to contact them if you meet the requirements.
However, challenges haven't been run a lot recently due to lack of interest in them. Therefore, you are more likely to encounter a Super CCC than a normal challenge.
Other Room Activities
Game Corner Battle Frontier
Game Corner Battle Frontier, known shortly as GCBF, is a 24/7 event that happens only in our subroom, Game Workshop. There are 7 different categories of games, with each having a specialist known as a Frontier Brain. Other users can challenge one of the Brains in an attempt to beat them and get their medal. Every Frontier Brain has set games. Lady Monita will pick at most 3 games to be played with the winner of the challenge being the one that first wins in 2 of the games. If the challenger wins, they obtain the medal and are 1 step closer to the "final win." If the Brain wins, nothing happens. No matter the outcome, after a medal challenge, the challenger will receive a 24-hour cooldown that prevents them from challenging another Brain. Additionally, users and Brains can challenge other Brains to a friendly match where there are no medals involved. The cooldown for friendly matches is 4 hours.
As stated earlier, every Brain has set games from which Lady Monita picks randomly during challenges. Every Brain, bar the Speed and Reaction Brains, has 5 games. The Speed and Reaction Brains instead have 4 games. There are the following categories:
- IDENTIFICATION: Games where letters are used to get the answer.
- KNOWLEDGE: Games where given descriptions or attributes are used to get the answer.
- PUZZLE: Games where given hints (such as parameters) are used to get the answer.
- SPEED: Games where typing fast is the most important.
- LUCK: Games where you need to be the luckier one to win.
- REACTION: Games where fast reactions are used to win.
- SKILL: Games that involve battling in Pokémon Showdown! formats.
Also, as stated earlier, anyone who beats a Brain in 2 of their own games receives a medal. If someone manages to collect all 7 medals, they become a Champion! Any Champion is allowed to (re)challenge a Frontier Brain for their spot. If the Champion wins, they become the new Brain in that category! However, if they lose, they lose all of their medals and cannot challenge them for their spot again until they obtain the 7 medals again! There can be multiple Champions. The Champions also have the added benefit of being immune to all medal resets as well.
A feature called "1v1 challenges" was recently added that functions in a similar way to GCBF. A user can challenge another user to a specific game (assuming they have their consent before doing so). They will be promoted if they are not already a Voice or higher, and Modchat + will be set, allowing only Voices to talk. Then the specified game starts and the players will play it. However, this is more of a casual format, and there are no rewards (other than the fun!) for winning or playing.
Sunday Workshops
Sunday Workshops are events that can happen any Sunday. Workshops are typically used to test games on our forums (and possibly revamp them a little bit) and get the community's opinion on the game. Another event to host during a Workshop is brainstorm. Brainstorms are events in which the host and the participants work together to create a new game. Recently, approved games on our forums (to be covered later) have also started being tested in workshops for potential official status. However, note that Workshops do not happen every week.
Leaderboard
As a gaming room, Game Corner is accompanied by a leaderboard to encourage competition. The currency used for our leaderboard is called "bit." Bits are generally obtained by winning and participating in games along with other side events such as winning special tournaments, Super CCC, obtaining achievements, or participating enough in a workshop. Each cycle is 15 days long, and in the end the one with the most bits is declared the winner and can get a temporary custom intro that Lady Monita will play when they join during chill time.
Other Notable Features
Approved Host
Approved Host is a rank given to users that excel in their hosting. People with this rank can host themselves without asking roomauths and host games from the "Staff Approved" section on our forums. Approved Hosts are also Voices in the subroom Game Workshop. However, Approved Host is not a real room rank and is not represented by any symbol.
Forums
Game Corner has a forum site where other users can submit games. Once you post the game, the auth will review it, and it will be either accepted, rejected, or tested in a workshop. Approved games go to the "Staff Approved" section. Creators of the accepted game can host it in the room along with any other Approved Host and roomauth. It is possible, in fact, that your game even becomes official!
Achievements
Some games have achievements. In order to win an achievement, you must fulfill some conditions. For example, in Axew's Battle Cards, there's a small chance your Pokémon is a shiny one! If this is the case, you will win an achievement for that! Most of them also award you 1000 bits!
Game Formats
Typical freejoin games like Trivia or Anagrams can be played in more than 1 game format, including:
- Freejoin: First to [X] wins. First player to guess correctly wins a point!
- Survival: One by one, players are given prompts, which they must answer before time is up. If you answer correctly, you go to the next round. If you time out, you lose! If only 1 player survives, they are the winner—although no winners is completely possible! With each round, the timer decreases.
- Tournament: Every player is paired against another player to play in a 1v1 format against each other. Whoever wins continues on and eliminates the other. Last player standing wins!
- Group: Players are split into 2+ teams and play at once. The first player that answers correctly wins a point for their team. The winner is the team that reaches the scorecap. In scripted variants, only Hangman is playable under this format, while only Approved Hosts and above can user-host games under Group format.
- Team: Players are split into 2 teams. 1 player from each team will be picked on random and face off in a battle. The winner wins a point for their team. The first team to reach the scorecap wins!
- Team Showdown: 2 players are picked as captain. The first one picks 1 player to join their team, and the other picks 2. Then, both start choosing 2 players until all players are picked. A category will be picked and captains will send a player from their team to fight. The winner eliminates their opponent. The winning team is the team that survives!
- Time Attack: A prompt will be given, and players can answer it. The faster they answered, the more points they win. First to the scorecap win(s)!
- Baton Pass: One player will be selected at random and will be given a prompt. If they answer it before time is up, they win a point and can choose the next person to play (either by directly choosing them or at random). Winner is the last standing player. More points = more bits.
Popular Games
In order to get a better grasp of the room and its flow, it is important to start from somewhere. These games are generally the most popular games in the room; they are easy to learn, play, and, most importantly, are enjoyable even by new users! If you are interested more in any of the games, you are free to come in the room and see how the game is played. After all, they are easy to learn, as I mentioned above!Scripted
- Axew's Battle Cards: Each round, players can play a card that's super effective against the top card. Action card descriptions can be found here.
- Delcatty's Hide & Seek: Each round, the host will give a param that determines Pokémon that players can hide behind (by PMing the host). One player will be chosen to seek one Pokémon. If anyone hid behind it, they are eliminated. If not, the seeker is eliminated.
- Landorus' War: Players try to identify the other players' randomly chosen Pokémon by using moves against them to discover their type. Players may only use moves that the Pokémon they have been randomly assigned to is able to learn.
- Lost Letters: Players guess the missing vowels to find the answers!
- Ekans' Edges: Players guess answers with the given starting and ending letters.
User-hosted Games
- 20 Questions: The host will choose either a Pokémon or a real world object, and players take turns asking yes/no questions to figure out what it is. The game ends if no one guesses correctly after 20 questions!
- Battle Maison: A tournament style game where each player is given a Pokémon to battle with in [Gen 7] OU. Defeating an opponent allows the player to add the opponent's Pokémon to his or her team. This continues until there is only one player left standing!
- Russian Rowlet: Players pick a number between 1-7 and gain points based on what number they pick. If you pick a lower number, the higher your chance is of winning but the lower your points. 7 is an auto-loss.
- Unown's Pokémon Chain: Players answer each round with a Pokémon that starts with the last letter of the previous Pokémon (no formes and no repeats in a round)!
- Paras' Parameters: Players search for possible /dexsearch parameters that result in the given Pokémon list!
Most of these games are playable under both formats. If you are wondering if a game is only scripted or only user-hostable, feel free to ask a room auth member and they will happily help you! You can use .[game's name or alias] to get descriptions like this on other games from Lady Monita!
Meet the Upper Staff
When and how did you join Game Corner, Ceteris?
I joined Game Corner back in around 2015, I believe this was while the first ever UGM (Ultimate Gaming Month) occurred, since I remember having a few points on the leaderboard under my first alt, Prof Ash Ketchum. I don't remember how exactly I stumbled into the room, since it was such a long time ago now lol, but it wasn't the first room I started to chat in regularly.
What made you stay in Game Corner?
The community in the room and the people you hang out with along with a plethora of interesting games to get to know about is what kept me in the room. The first room I joined was Tournaments, and the community there wasn't as close, and that would probably be due to it being such a large room on the sim. With Game Corner being a smaller room, it's like everyone there knew who you were every time you hopped online, regs and auth alike, I found that to be an amazing experience, and to spend time with people playing games with one another was the cherry on top of the cake.
What do you like the most about Game Corner?
The thing I enjoy most was being able to host all these great games that I could never even imagine people could create on a Pokémon battle simulator, as well as GCPL (Game Corner Premier League), it was a great experience to have formed a team with some of veterans and newbies alike and be able to work together to come out on top as the best team. I was a part of the Floaroma Cherubis and we unfortunately just missed out on the finals, but it was good experience overall.
What is your favorite game?
I have quite a few games I like so I couldn't really name a favorite game, but there is a game I enjoyed called Weak Spot; it was a game where you'd get a list of maybe 3 or 4 Pokémon that had a common weakness, and the first person to say that type would get the point. As for which category of games I liked best, I would definitely say reaction type games are my jam such as Chain Fishing, Ambush, Precise Timing etc.
How do you see the room in, say, 2 years?
I couldn't really imagine it changing drastically in terms of how it operates, switching between scripted games and user hosted games. As far as the userbase goes, only time will tell.
How do you spend your free time outside of Pokémon Showdown!?
I spend a lot of time doing sports, must admit I'm also a fitness geek, as I like to keep myself in shape to go about all my daily activities. I also like to chill with friends, explore places with them, and try out different kinds of food.
What do you look for in potential Voices?
A potential Voice should first and foremost always be a good, fun presence to have in the room and be someone who's well respected by users. Consistent activity also a good trait to have, not to say you must be online 24/7 but at least be online when you can be, frequently interacting with people in the chat.
What aspect of the room are you best at? (Playing games/user-hosting/hosting workshops, etc)?
As I mentioned previously, I enjoy hosting, although I don't do much of this anymore, so with regards to what I'm best at currently it would be probably be playing reaction-based games. Although I'm way past my prime at this point, I seem to have gotten rusty over time lol.
Thanks a lot for the interview, Ceteris, any final comments?
My last words are to just enjoy the room and everything going on in there. If you ever need help or assistance with the games and how the play them, I would either just observe or ask any of our auth members, I'm sure they'd be willing to help explain how it works. Above all else have fun and thanks for having me.
When and how did you join Game Corner, Elgino?
I joined it in the summer of 2017 I think. I don't know how I discovered it really, I was just scrolling through the room list at Game Corner seemed like a nice room to me.
What made you stay in Game Corner?
As I said before, I didn't know what was happening in any room really, and GC looked nice, so I joined and decided to stay for a while, and I really liked the room, so I stayed!
What do you like the most about Game Corner?
I like a lot about GC actually: The room itself, the games, but most importantly, our staff. Our staff are a bunch of happy and friendly people and friends, always ready to help out users and the room.
What is your favorite game (and explain how it works)?
Params. Basically you get a list of Pokémon with either 2, 3, 4 or 5 params added to it. Then you have to use the /ds command to get the exact same Pokémon as shown with the number of params given.
How do you see the room in, say, 2 years?
I doubt I'll be around then, I might but idk yet we'll see. Anyway, in 2 years we will have improved, with new but still as friendly staff who will try their best to improve the room even more. We will also have a lot of new games that were made by some amazing people. I also hope Dono will still be around by then.
How do you spend your free time outside of Pokémon Showdown!?
Outside PS!? lol
What do you look for in potential Voices?
I'm not gonna leak our policy here >:l
What aspect of the room are you best at? (Playing games/user-hosting/hosting workshops, etc)?
Probably keeping the room under control, I mean that's why I'm staff. I'm also decent at the games, but I get outclassed by a lot of people.
Thanks a lot for the interview, Elgino, any last comments?
Not really a comment, but I'd like to thank all of our staff and auth to make the room as it is now. The room right now is amazing and we got this far together. I'd also like to thank sirDonovan for his amazing work and efforts for our room!
When and how did you join Game Corner, moo?
I joined Game Corner in April 2015. I had previously only interacted with the Trivia room, and people there recommended Game Corner as a good room to try out.
What made you stay in Game Corner?
I've always really enjoyed games, especially competitions, since I'm a very competitive person. I originally stayed in Game Corner to try to improve in as many games as possible, but over time I became good friends with many of the users and enjoyed the community in general.
What do you like the most about Game Corner?
Its consistency—if I'm ever feeling stressed out and need to relax, I know that I can always spend time in the room and play some fun games.
What is your favorite game?
My favorite is Anagrams—in Anagrams, you are given the scrambled letters of a Pokémon Item/Move/Ability etc., and you have to unscramble the letters to uncover the original answer, e.g. move: Ground Rash can be rearranged to Dragon Rush. I've always been a big fan of word games (such as Scrabble) and doing various things with letters, and Anagrams is a natural extension of that.
How do you see the room in, say, 2 years?
I think Game Corner will continue to get a larger variety of games, but I think the fundamental mechanisms of the room will continue to stay the same.
How do you spend your free time outside of Pokémon Showdown!?
I have a full-time job as a software engineer, so I don't have too much other free time; most of it playing other video games, especially ones from the Super Smash Bros series (SSBU HYPE).
What do you look for in potential Voices?
One of the main questions I ask for a potential Voice candidate is: if everybody in the room behaved like this user, what would the room look like? Voices are model users in rooms, and many users emulate the behavior of Voices, so having a Voice that is immature can be very detrimental.
Finally, what aspect of the room are you best at? (Playing games/user-hosting/hosting workshops, etc)
Playing games.
Alright, thanks a lot for the interview, moo!
When and how did you join Game Corner, ptoad?
I believe I joined Game Corner around two years ago, though I'm not exactly sure how. I suppose I was just surfing rooms and came across this gem, I dunno.
What made you stay in Game Corner?
The games really grabbed my attention. Many of the games in Game Corner are fairly easy to learn and really fun to play. The userbase was also very welcoming even though I didn't know a thing at the time.
What do you like the most about Game Corner?
I love the sheer diversity of our room. We have such a high variety of games and users, so every day feels different.
What is your favorite game?
I've always loved Portmanteaus, a puzzle game where you string Pokémon/moves/etc. together using two letters or more (ex. Hoopalpitoad = Hoopa + Palpitoad). I love puzzles and things that make you think outside the box.
How do you see the room in, say, 2 years?
Gosh, it seems impossible to think about where the room could be in two years; it's always changing and growing in so many ways; new games and ideas are being brought to life almost constantly. Nonetheless, I'm so excited to see the room expand in the future.
How do you spend your free time outside of Pokémon Showdown!?
I enjoy hiking and camping, and I'm involved in my school's extracurricular activities like Drama Club and Knowledge Bowl.
What do you look for in potential Voices?
Voices are supposed to be the role model users of the room. And as roomauth, I recognize that they do have an influence on the regular users in the room. There are many things that are basically required for Voice such as high activity, but a personal value that stands out to me in potential Voices in kindness because, as cliche as it sounds, a little bit of kindness really does go a long way.
What aspect of the room are you best at? (Playing games/user-hosting/hosting workshops, etc)
One thing I got into early on after joining the room was game-creating. Many of the games I made have been approved, and some of them are even fully scripted, and it's pretty cool seeing people play or host your game and being able to say "I made that."
Alright, thanks a lot for the interview, ptoad!
When and how did you join GC, sirDonovan?
I joined in February 2014 as a Global Moderator just helping to staff the room after it was revamped from WYR to Game Corner.
What made you stay in GC?
The focus of my major at the time was game development, so I enjoyed brainstorming new game ideas, presenting them to the staff, and testing them out in the room.
When did you start coding for Game Corner and why?
I started coding Luig-E in July 2014, soon after I got TOURN-E (the original Tournaments room bot) up and running, because I felt that having a bot run scripted games would be more efficient and make it possible to use more complex game ideas.
How do you see the room in, say, 2 years?
I see the room as active as it is now, if not more, with a catalog of all new games that we can't even imagine thanks to Gen 8, our very creative userbase, our forum submission process, and improvements to Lady Monita (or its successor).
How do you spend your free time outside of Pokémon Showdown!?
I play video games (mainly Nintendo franchises), work on personal coding projects, and watch movies (mainly Sci-Fi).
What feature have you enjoyed the most implementing?
One of my favorite features to implement was Parameters, because it was one of the most complex things I had coded back then and a real challenge to get working correctly. It was also fun to rewrite various parts to make it faster and more configurable as I learned more about programming over time.
Thanks a lot for the interview, SirDonovan, I hope you know how much we miss you :(. Do you have any last comments? *sniff*
I hope you check out Game Corner whenever you get a chance and thanks for reading!
Get Out There!
Now that you know what we do, have an idea of what are the more popular games, and how you could enjoy yourself, why not come to Game Corner? You could want to put luck on the stake, show off how fast you type, or rely on your own mind and logic in a strategy-based game. Maybe you could want to host games and become a popular host among users or create new game ideas for the room! I'm sure you will get the hang of these once you spend some time there!
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