What Nintendo Should Do With Pokemon

[Harms]

Pokemon the MMORPG (stuff I thought up while zoning out in Physics)

Why Should Nintendo Venture into the MMO Genre?
1. Financial Benefits
The MMORPG market is where the high rollers play. The market is littered with broken dreams. However, one only has to look at that 10 million subscriber behemoth called World of Warcraft to see what kind of money a successful MMO can make. WoW is a bonefide cashcow. Each one of those subscribers pay 15 bucks a month to Blizzard (company who made WoW). We are talking about 180,000,000 of cash flowing in every year, combined with all the retail sales of the game. There are of course fees associtated with maintaining the game servers, hiring developers, etc, but the number clearly speaks for itself.
2. The MMO Market Has Grown Stale
MMO gamers are looking for something new. It seems that every month a developer is pulling a world filled with pixies and elves out of their ass. Every new MMO claims to be the WoW killer. Unfortunately, none have managed to knock the king off his throne. The lifecycle of a new MMO

Huge Population at Beginning(usually bored WoW players)-->After two months they find the MMO is the same ol' stuff of dwarves and swords ---> Huge Population Decline after players conduct an exodus back to WoW

A Pokemon MMO is new. It's innovative. If Nintendo does this right, gamers will FLOCK to it. Just look at the popularity of Hunters in WoW, a character class that can "tame" and battle with wild pets.

3. Pokemon is Just Meant To be MMORPG'ed
You have to admit, the game is just asking to be made into a MMORPG. Go out into the world with your starter, explore new areas, capture Pokemon, train them, meet new trainers, earn gym badges, compete in a worldwide tournament, etc. The formula is GOLDEN. I mean, the handheld games are basically single-player MMO's already.

Now that the reasons for making a MMO is out of the way, there's one thing Pokemon has to change in order to be succesful in the MMO market.

1. The Current Battle System Needs to be Revamped
I know, it sounds like blasphemy, but the current system is will just be too frustrating for the average gamer. If a player is able to sweep away a whole team with a Sword Danced Garchomp with a Sub up, that just isn't fun. Nor is it realistic. When a player fights another player of equal level in WoW, they have to use a wide variety of skills in order to win. Battles typically last one to two minutes. Even players of a lower level can kill higher level people if they have the skills. Here's what I propose.

- Battles will occur much like they do in the games via random encounter.
- Instead of trading turns till something died, a Pokemon is given an "action gauge." It serves as a sort of cooldown timer. Everytime the gauge fills up, the Pokemon is able to make a move. After every move the gauge empties and will start to fill up. The higher a Pokemon's speed, the faster the gauge fills itself up. If any of you played Final Fantasy 8, its the exact same system. This system offers a much faster-paced style of gameplay, which is vital for a MMO.
- Increase the number of moves a Pokemon has to 7. This allows people to have moves such as Growl to counter Pokemon trying to set up for a sweep. More moves=more versatility=more strategy=more fun.
- Increase the durability of Pokemon. Increasing hitpoints into the thousands is an easy way to solve this.
- Have the effects of evasion moves only last a short time.

How Will the Game Work?
Much like how that horrible T.V show depicts it. There will be multiple starting towns. Give people more choice in selecting their starter. Cubone, Ghastly, Wooper, they all can serve as cute lvl 5 starters. From there, the possibilities are endless. They earn exp by defeating wild Pokemon. They sell the "loot" of the Pokemon they defeated (Spearow droppings?) to NPC vendors/other players for some start-up cash. Trainers can get quests from people in town. "Collect me 10 Pidgey Feathers and I'll give you something nice." "Defeat 10 Rocket Grunts at Silph Co. and I'll reward you handsomely." More difficult quests will require a group of people to complete. "Hunt down Articuno and get its tailfeathers." Now that basics are out of the way, it's time to deal with specific aspects of the game.

Decrease the Level Cap to 70
This seems like a random change, but it will make sense later. Make it so that a person can easily level a team of Pokemon to 70 in a few months of casual playing.

How Pokemon Gets "Gear"
If any of you played WoW, you know that chasing dragon armor and demon swords was a big part of the game. Of course, that probably won't work in Pokemon. Instead, I propose this.

Lets assume a Pokemon reaches 70 through just the use of rare candies. Its stats are not nearly up to its true potential. Every stat can further be raised 64 points through the use of EV training. A further 30 points can be inputted in every stat through the use of poffins. A "defense" poffin will give 1 defense point, etc. After poffins become ineffective, raising stats will start to become difficult. Perhaps to further raise your Pokemon's attack by 10, you need to have a special potion. This special potion requires a special flower, which can only be found in a special cave. Getting there is difficult because of the mobs of strong Pokemon that stand in your way. You defeinitely need a group for this, and a trainer who has the skill to pick that flower (high herbalism skill)

The basic idea is that in order to make your Pokemon stronger at lvl 70, you have to explore different areas, find special minerals/flowers/etc. This creates an incentive to keep playing, and gives hardcore players a chance to seperate their Pokemon from the rest.

Tradeskills/Gathering Skills
You need Herbalism to gather special plants to use for stat-raising potions. To make potions, you need Alchemy. Sometimes a Pokemon needs poffins to raise its stats. That's where Cooking comes in. Maybe the poffin recipe requires a special mineral that only Mining can get you. Whew, that's a lot of work, you can relax by Fishing for treasure chests/materials near Lake Valor.

I'm just skimming the surface here.

Gym Battles
Make all gym leader Pokemon be at a level 70. Make them well-trained. Who says gym battles are suppose to be easy? Who says you need a gym badge after your first 20 minutes of playing? Gym badges are a sign of mastery, and require months of playing to get. To prevent lines of trainers lining up for a crack at a leader, make all gyms instanced. Also, increase the number of towns who will have gyms. Perhaps 20 gyms a region?

Tournaments
Of course, tournaments are a major part of the Pokeworld. Instead of having one big tournament every year, there should be tons of mini-tournaments littered throughout the year. These tournaments require badges to enter, sometime 2, sometimes 8. You get rating points depending on how well you do. At the end of the year, the people who possess the highest ratings will be invited to Indigo Plateau for a showdown. Top 3 players on the server is determined. These players are then invited to a worldwide tournament that has all the top players from every U.S/European/Japanese server competing for nice cash prizes.

OK, I'm done typing.

 

[Fish]

I've thought about the prospect before, and I am certain if they were to make a such a game my life would effectively be over. A lot of your ideas are pretty generic, and there's a few I don't particularly like. However, there are two big issues that immediately come to my mind as to why a Pokémon MMORPG wouldn't work:

1. Age group
Most of the people who would want to play this game do not have a credit card to pay the monthly fee. While World of Warcraft may have made MMOs more mainstream, I still think there's a difference in acceptance between elves, ogres and the like as opposed to cute little battle pets.

However, I will say that while years ago the age thing would most certainly ensure the project was unsuccessful, the timing is as right now as it will ever be. The huge amount of people who got into the games/cards at the intended age around release (8-13?) are all 18+ now, so the nostalgia thing could possibly just be enough.


2. Grouping
Probably the biggest thing that keeps people playing MMOs is the community the people feel they're a part of. Even after the game has grown stale, people still shell out the bucks to have adventures with the friends they made in game. Hell, some people pay the monthly fee just to have an insanely interactive chat room.

I can't think of any plausible way to make grouping work in this (most MMO groups are 5-8 with the ability to huge battlegroups for raids and such) short of turning it into a cookie-cutter MMORPG, which would likely mean taking out all the Pokémon elements that make it unique.

Without the grouping element, people could grow tired of the game very quickly for various reasons. Considering the time and resources that go into developing this type of game, it requires its patrons to subscribe X amount of months on top of the retail sales before it becomes profitable. I don't see that happening without a good grouping element.

 

[Olie]

Gym Battles
Make all gym leader Pokemon be at a level 70. Make them well-trained. Who says gym battles are suppose to be easy? Who says you need a gym badge after your first 20 minutes of playing? Gym badges are a sign of mastery, and require months of playing to get. To prevent lines of trainers lining up for a crack at a leader, make all gyms instanced. Also, increase the number of towns who will have gyms. Perhaps 20 gyms a region?

Ya, I agree with this. Just like in the Smogon community, Badges should be a sign of TRUE achievement, not something that you just do to beat the game. Although, I'm also wondering if this is really the best plan. Many kids that play the Pokemon games are just like 12, so doing this would likely be quite a turn off, that they must work so hard, to achieve so little, but a Godsend for older gamers imo.

 

[Bourbon]

Yeah, gym battles are a pushover in the pokemon games. I swept the ghost gym with a carnivine, just because it had faint attack. And they're too stupid to do anything back to you.

 

[Mizuno]

Also, increase the number of towns who will have gyms. Perhaps 20 gyms a region?

You know, iirc, in the first season (Kanto league) of the Pokemon anime Gary had some different badges than Ash, meaning there were more than eight gyms in the region. I could be wrong though, since that was a long time ago.

It could be interesting (the Pokemon MMORPG idea), but they are going to have to try hard to find a way and make a game that works around the issues Fish mentioned.

 

[McGrrr]

A Google search for "Pokemon MMORPG" leads you here.

Apparently it is free.

 

[CardsOfTheHeart]

That's only the beginning, I think. Right now, the Pokemon MMOs I see in the works just seem to put a bunch of users in the handheld game environment. (Ekaiyo is promising a lot, though.) It's definitely not the ideal as far as I'm concerned, but it's a start. Whether MMOs will be able to evolve from that and into what we're thinking, however, remains to be seen. It seems SOOOO far off...

 

[gsumbreon]

I've tried that one. Its very buggy. Its a great idea, and its just begging to happen. However, Nintendo is very opposed to the concept of MMOs, and the current demographic for Pokemon is below the age of other MMOs, so its not likely to work.

 

[Harms]

I think you guys give 12 year olds less credit than they deserve. Yes, a lot of them will cry and whine when they get their ass handed to them, but many will just take their lumps and move on. Unless they are a complete newbie to the MMO genre, they will know that achievement takes time.'

I think that it took me a week of playing 40 vs 40 battlegrounds in WoW to get enough "points" for my godly armor set. I have to assume that there are 12 year olds amongst my teamates who are trying to do the same thing.

As for grouping, I don't really see what's the issue here. The Final Fantasy games show that multiple characters can be in a turn-based environment. This is why Pokemon needs 7 moves, so that they can have group oriented moves like Helping Hand and Heal Bell.

Now, to encourage people to group, make the best items available only in the deepest darkest of dungeons. The Pokemon of these dungeons will have INSANE amounts of HP (10K HP Tyranitar in one encounter, 3 5k HP Onixes in another encounter). Also, make the capture of these Pokemon impossible to prevent imbalance.

The Pokemon MMO's we see by the amateur developers are appluadable, but most of them soon die out through lack of interest, lack of funding, or the Nintendo Copyright hammer. This project needs the full backing/money of Nintendo in order to succeed.

 

[Squarehead42]

Oh man, I've got problems with making Pokemon an MMO. Pokemon is more of an "RPG" with some extra multiplayer elements added in. Because of that fundamental distinction, Pokemon will try to do different things and appeal to different people than an MMO would. My general concerns with making a Pokemon MMO are: it's more of a combination of two seperate things, things change too much, the storyline is for noobs, and who this game will appeal to.

First, this almost like you're trying to combine WOW with Pokemon. I still play Pokemon because it is STILL Pokemon, it feels like a giant extension of the original game. I play Pokemon because I enjoy the challenge of building a strong party with such limited resources. People will come back and play Pokemon when a new one comes out because it reminds them of the old days, or they genuenly enjoy playing this specific game.

Secondly, Pokemon needs changes to become a MMO. After the changes occur suddenly it's not Pokemon, but Pokemon crossed with something else, something dark and sinister that warps the entire original concept. I could go out and play an MMO similar to this, but I don't. I still play Pokemon because I enjoy this specific way it plays.

Third, the badges and stuff are pretty much just to get through the storyline, it's a chore to complete, but not essential to the function of the game. I treat the gyms as a kind of check to see if I'm building a balanced team for that point of the game. The whole point of playing through the game is to get first time players confident with team building and general strategy while introducing them to better play styles of Pokemon.

Finally, what demographic are you appealing to? The bottom line is Pokemon needs to sell games. With the changes you suggest, the target demographic for sales becomes: "Nerds who do nothing but play games." and osticizes the casual player, the heart and soul of Pokemon. Pokemon sells most of it's games to little kids, not to you and I.

It's just too much for Pokemon to become an MMO for people to really enjoy. Pokemon probably could exist as an MMO, I can't dispute that considering the aparent ease with which you created your version of one, but Pokemon won't last as an MMO. WOW is a succesful MMO, but look at the failures of other games that go along with it. Unless your game is all that and the kitchen sink, people will compare this Pokemon MMO to WOW and say: "WOW has so much more for me as a player, why should I play POkemon?" and go back to WOW. Pokemon itself could never compete with WOW as an MMO, so it stays as it is, attracting casual gamers, little kids, and the grizzeled veterans who remember the good old days. Pokemon has survived for more than 10 years, barely altering the basic style, and to make Pokemon into an MMO you need to overcome that thought, and convince others that it could make large ammounts of money, which is what Gamefreak and Nintendo care about in the long run.

I know you mean well Harms, but Pokemon will need a lot more than what you propose to actually succeed as an MMO.

 

[S0crat3s]

Sounds like a good idea, but what I also think would be cool is a Smash-esqe Pokemon battlan game...I know it's impossible (500 Pokemon), but it's fun to imagine...

 

[Not Scicky]

Only problem with this, it's Nintendo... and internet... =/

 

[Bluekikatana]

WoW is an amazing game, that I really think takes the best aspects of RPG and Action gaming and puts them all together in one world. Pokemon *can be a successful MMORPG that would be a good successor to the original games, but stuff would need to change.

It can still be Pokemon, but I would say push up the rating to Teen. It most likely won't happen, but just look at Zelda. It was successful with a T rating.
I think realistically they need to start thinking about that too, it has been 10 years and the majority of their strategic Pokemon battle fans are older than 12 now.

Everything that happens in WoW is a possibility to add to Pokemon and still keep it a Pokemon related world. Even raids and dungeons are possible. How about having a raid to catch Lugia under water? Something like that would be pretty epic, much more so than the linear Pokemon games they have been releasing lately.

If I could praise anything in the Pokemon games, it would only be the strategic formula and the Pokedex type lore of the actual monsters, but that is *all. Usually the Pokemon story lines you play through and characters are pretty crap compared to other main stream games imo. So there can be definitely be changes in this genre to make it better, and it would still be successful.

 

[Sableye]

I remember having a discussion with a long time friend and poke-strategist about the idea of a Pokemon MMO.

It would be sweet if it went through all four generations. This would be similar to WoW in that as your NightElf Hunter or w/e progresses he/she can access different parts of the world. As you get stronger and become a better trainer you can move from Kanto to Johto to Hoenn to Sinnoh and as the next gen of Pokemon comes out (and my blind faith says it will) you can enter that world as an expansion of sorts. This also beefs up the storyline, which could be expanded hugely during the transitions from region to region.

There would also need to be some sort of development of the trainer him/herself. In the games so far, other than bages, money, and access items, your powers as a trainer don't increase as you go through the game. Sure, maybe your strategy improves, but that is qualitative, not like in Wow. A fully armed and armoured level 10 would get raped by a naked level 70, because it is not just the weapons and armour (equivalent to the Pokemon you would have) it is the power of their character him/herself.

This would also patially get around the problem of having your team pwnd by all the new threats of the new generation as your progress. Sure, your Alakazam instills fear in Kanto, but as soon as you progress to Johto some noob with a Heracross kills you. You would then have to craft a completely new team, which is counter to the adventurous nature of Pokemon. I love building team, but the best part is using and developing them, not simply creating them at the beginning.

Take the definition of MMORPG. Multiplayer? This site exists because Pokemon IS multiplayer. Online? Wifi. RPG? Pokemon IS RPG. But massive? Not each gen separately, but if strung together, and expended, and with region transitions, I think you could call Pokemon pretty Massive.

 

[Layell]

To shift away from the MMO talk I always thought nintendo should make a pokemon game for wii that uses a more interactive battle system but could still trade and use the regular old DPP pokemon games.

 

[Mr.378]

I'm not sure about it for the reasons Fish gives. However if whoever the maker is works around those issues than it would be amazing.

 

[Shinryu]

You're off by 1 zero, it's actually $1,800,000,000, presuming all 10 million plays for 12 months.

Personally, I think a Pokemon MMORPG would be cool, but there are too many hurdles to it.

 

[Saraform]

Um, if I may acquire, HOW exactly do you expect Gamefreak to shift a slow-turn-based game into a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game without altering the battle system to an unrecognizable, one-on-one format.

Unless you expect me to believe a battle system as slow as Pokemon's could somehow exist in the realm of online gaming without causing massive lag, then I simply laugh at this huge gap of logic on the part of many fans.

 

[Darth Meanie]

My thoughts are a little, (well, very) different on what would make a pokemon MMO successful.

Number 1: I do agree somewhat on your mechanics changes, ie. increasing player HP, but not the move list increase. Also, experience should be slower to come by.

Number 2: Where I really disagree with you is that you ask for pokemon to become WoW, with grind quests, huge bosses, and "equiptment". I don't see that ever working. Every MMO is trying to be WoW, and they can't be WoW because WoW was WoW first. A Pokemon MMO wouldn't try to be, or shouldn't be an MMO like any other. Empahsis should be on training, not loot, strategy, not equipment.

Number 3: Quests should be involved, but in limited ways. NO standard fetch quests, but things such as Iron Island or Wayward Cave should exist, as well as storyline quests and Rocket etc. battle to gain access to rare or legendary pokemon, which should be true badges of honor to gain.

Number 4: Instead of making your living on the fallen of others, economy should be player based, with pokemon (and trainers) taking jobs, creating items for their pokemon and to sell, and, of course, battling. Also, no mention of multiplayer pokemon contests is strange.

Number 5: This game should reward players for training their pokemon to become top dog, and should allow every caught pokemon equal play. Therefore, I would propose the removal of IVs and Natures, making egg moves the only purpose for breeding and making the game easier and fairer for all players eg. no player should have a discernable advantage over another from playtime alone. Skill over grind.

Number 6: The game should also reward players for bonding with their pokemon, with expressive models, complex relationship system (that would have a hand in battle!), and encouraging you to say, buy/build a house and let your pokemon run free in your yard. An emotional aspect that WoW cannot possibly claim advantage over.

Number 7: Increase the size and scope of the game. Bigger land masses, huge cities, maybe even new areas eg. Orre. Player-run gyms accessible after a series of quests and proper turnout in tournaments. Theme teams (eg. Dragon, Trick Room) would have to be used, the system checking for a few mandatory requirements (but allowing leniancy like Gyarados and Aerodactyl in dragon, Drapion in bug etc.) Two gym challenges: a pokemon league qualifier (what we already have, levels weighted by badge number) and a League Trainer Challenge (6 v 6 lvl 100). League Champion Tournaments. It would be unlike any game before it.

 

[False [old]]

There are a fair number of people that seem to be obsessed with this whole 'Pokemon needs to be an MMO' idea, and I honestly have no idea why. The last thing I want when I'm running around trying to train my pokemon is 50 people clogging the same patch of grass, at least 45 of those people from Brazil, and all of them yelling at me to change channels or go somewhere else or whatever.

Pokemon DOES need more online capabilities, and they're making baby steps in the right direction with Platinum. The only issue is that some of those steps involve getting out of the comfort zone of Friend Codes, so they probably are never going to happen ever.

 

[UberMunch]

I have also often pondered the seemingly endless possibilities of a Pokemon MMORPG. I planned it out with some friends during a semester of PE class. There have been some good points brought up on both sides, but in the end, I doubt Nintendo would ever do anything unless it became blatantly obvious to them that it was the smartest (economically) move. There was a time when I thought that, maybe if I become one of Nintendo's higher-ups, I would be able to influence the possibility of this.

I also agree with most of Darth Meanie's points. This should NOT emulate WOW. Rather it should seek to differentiate itself from all other MMO's.

 

[Bluekikatana]

My thoughts are a little, (well, very) different on what would make a pokemon MMO successful.

Number 1: I do agree somewhat on your mechanics changes, ie. increasing player HP, but not the move list increase. Also, experience should be slower to come by.

Number 2: Where I really disagree with you is that you ask for pokemon to become WoW, with grind quests, huge bosses, and "equiptment". I don't see that ever working. Every MMO is trying to be WoW, and they can't be WoW because WoW was WoW first. A Pokemon MMO wouldn't try to be, or shouldn't be an MMO like any other. Empahsis should be on training, not loot, strategy, not equipment.

Number 3: Quests should be involved, but in limited ways. NO standard fetch quests, but things such as Iron Island or Wayward Cave should exist, as well as storyline quests and Rocket etc. battle to gain access to rare or legendary pokemon, which should be true badges of honor to gain.

Number 4: Instead of making your living on the fallen of others, economy should be player based, with pokemon (and trainers) taking jobs, creating items for their pokemon and to sell, and, of course, battling. Also, no mention of multiplayer pokemon contests is strange.

WoW was not really an original game. WoW built off the success of Everquest and Everquest built off the success of Ultima Online. These MMORPGs were all around the same formula. If you play Everquest (which was much older than WoW) you will see how they thought of many things first, only WoW made it much better. With each generation of MMORPG they bring their own tricks to the table that either made the game better, or made a failure MMORPG. Which obviously no one has beaten WoW's winning formula yet.

Though I know Pokemon has the ability to beat WoW if it went MMORPG.
It would have to sell prepaid cards that were available to the masses easily though, that way more kids could get into it. And if you don't think that kids would have enough to pay the $9.99 or $14.99 a month to pay for the game look at Pokemon card players. I'm sure they buy more than 3 packs a month at competitive levels (I know because I used to play).

WoW is really popular for a *reason. So saying that if Pokemon made an MMO it should abandon the formula that makes WoW popular just really shows that you probably are not that experienced in playing MMORPGs. WoW is really a masterful multiplayer game. To beat WoW at its own genre or to even compete with it you gotta work off of it, then improve it, by a lot.

Also there is no way Pokemon could beat WoW and still be rated E. A Pokemon MMORPG would have to require some actual face to face fighting that looked better than WoW for it to beat it. And the ESRP would most likely rate that good fighting (even without blood) teen like they rated smashbros. So for good action, and for good war like scenarios that actually make the battles worth while it has to be rated teen. For Pokemon to be a good MMORPG it would play like a totally different game, only with the lore of the pocket monster world left in tact.