Introduction to the Deutsche room
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Introduction
Have you ever joined a room on Pokémon Showdown! and wondered "How many people in here speak German?" or have you been looking for a place where you can easily expand your circle of friends? Then there is no need to look further! Just like most other rooms, the Deutsche room revolves around chatting with friends and rivals about various topics, from teambuilding and battling to everyday life hiccups. But wait! There is more! You are not required to speak German fluently to participate in the chat, as most users are able to speak English. Therefore, it should not be hard to understand each other, avoiding the language barrier that usually surrounds language-specific rooms. Other users will not hesitate to involve you in their conversations once you showed interest in any of the subjects discussed. The Deutsche room also offers a variety of interesting and entertaining activities in which you can participate, including several types of tournaments. In general, it attracts many nice people and is therefore filled with overall nice and friendly users and staff. It also has an extremely soothing and relaxing atmosphere to it, which is pleasing for pretty much all users to stop by.
Room features
- Dubtrack
Once Plug.dj was shut down, Dubtrack was introduced to a lot of people. And the Deutsche room did not let this opportunity slip by. They created a Dubtrack community and that is now the new Plug.dj. It works about the same: it's a website that allows you to share YouTube videos or SoundCloud tracks with your friends. As the viewing or listening is synchronized for everyone, it is turned into a community experience. The Deutsche room has an equivalent at https://www.dubtrack.fm/join/ps-deutsche-community, with meetups to show off each other's favorite music and videos being held regularly. Whether you want to share your favorite songs with your friends or just want to be introduced to some music you might now know about, Dubtrack is your place!
- TeamSpeak
TeamSpeak 3 is a downloadable software that allows people to talk to each other over the Internet easily. It is well suited for groups of people and enables quick communication, especially during coordinated group activities. For instance, users play MMORPGs and Yu-Gi-Oh together or host games of Mafia and Pen and Paper RPGs there. This is a place where you really get to know other users better. There is no need to be shy, as everyone is welcome!
- German Room League
The Deutsche room features its own Gym Leader Castle, where you have to prevail against various users and prove yourself as the champion of the German League. This league is hosted on the forum, where you can find in-depth explanations of the rules. However, you will be given a quick rundown here. You choose eight Pokémon with six moves each that you can use to battle the Gym Leaders. After beating all of them, you may pick a new team consisting of six Pokémon with four moves each to challenge the Elite Four as well as the Champion. If you manage to overcome them, you will be awarded the title of Champion along with an exclusive rank on the forum! Currently, the documentation is only available in German; however, various users are working hard on translating it and are nearing completion. So look forward to that!
Tournaments
Just like any other public chat, the room staff will host scripted tournaments every once in a while in which you can participate. If no staff is available to start a tour, anyone who is willing can host their own tournaments using Challonge or a similar service. Keep in mind that the Deutsche room does not center on tournaments — if a tournament ends, don't expect another one right away. The room is currently working on a rating system that keeps track of the points you get for winning a tournament. If a user wants to request a specific tournament to be held in the room, they are free to PM a Room Moderator (@) active in the room for it. The non-standard formats will be explained thoroughly below.
- Themed Tournament
During a themed tournament, the host gives each of the participants an individual theme, which they have to build a team around. If, for example, your theme is ''Household'', you could use Rotom-W as a dishwasher, Garbodor as a trash bag, or even Heatran as a grill. This really gets users to use their creativity and building capabilities, and showcasing the team is often already fun on its own.
- Catch & Evolve
Catch & Evolve tournaments are not a Deutsche room-exclusive format, but they are hosted rather often in there. At the beginning of the tournament, every participant receives one Pokémon from the host. Every time you defeat an opponent, you get to "catch" one of their Pokémon. You may also evolve one of your own Pokémon, with the exception of the one you just caught. This is a fast and simple tournament that is easy to host but nonetheless enjoyable!
- Writing Contest
The writing contest is a contest held on the Deutsche Room forum. It is held in different rounds during which the participants choose one out of three topics they want to write about. What they write is up to them, everything is allowed as long it follows the topic and the Global Pokémon Showdown! rules. After submitting their text, they get rated by a group of five judges, which are selected prior out of the Deutsche Room users. Each judge can give 10 points per rating criteria, and one time three extra points for particularly good submissions.
Rating criterias consist of: spelling, grammar, plot, content, and writing style.
After every round the points get counted, adding up to a total of 50 per judge (53 with extra points). The participant with the most points combined wins the round. The winner of the most rounds will be declared Deutsche Room Writing Champion! Any questions? Feel free to ask Cori, one of the many friendly mods of the Deutsche room.
Did this catch your interest? Do you want to read or write awesome stories? Then feel free to check the Deutsche Room Writing Contest out!
- Moscup
Moscup is a draft-style tournament that was created by Moskito, a former driver in the room. The goal is to assemble a team by buying Pokémon in auctions and by buying items in the item market. During the auction phase, auctions are held every day for one week. A private groupchat will be created, and all participants will be invited to join it. Once the majority of the participants joined the room, the auctioning starts. The host of the auctions will announce a Pokémon, and the users may bid on it. Every player gets a base budget of $300.000, which they can spend on Pokémon and items. Items have a set price in the market listing. Once everyone has bought a team, the battling starts. Moscup takes place in the OverUsed format, unless specified differently. The battles are held in two rounds: first the group stage, where you play against all players of the group, and then the playoffs, in which the winners of the group will participate. The winner of the playoffs will be the winner of the cup. This is a format that appeals to a lot of users, and not only German ones. A lot of competent players attend this format. Even though Moscup tournaments are not quite consistent, they are a lot of fun for a variety of players, from casual to competitive, so they're worth checking out!
Contributing
Where there is a will to contribute, a way will be found. Be it suggesting new chat-related activities or just keeping the chat flowing, all ideas are welcome. If you want to contribute behind the scenes, this is how and where:
- German Room Forum
The Deutsche room has its own forum, which consists of a variety of subforums. Are you new and do you want to introduce yourself? Feel free to write an introduction. Seen something funny in the chat and want to share it with others as well as save it? Post it in the "Macken" section. Suggestions and complaints are also welcome and can even also be posted anonymously. Of course, the forum has other features as well, such as subtopics for easy planning of chat events and a place to post Rate My Team threads.
In the "Your Project" section, you can present your plans and endeavors. Examples include featuring your YouTube channel, hosting and streaming tournaments, and even making your own Gym Leader Castle! Just submit your ideas in the forum and they'll be looked at. We are open-minded and support your project!
- Suggestions
Just like most rooms on the simulator, the Deutsche room is open to suggestions that could improve the rooms atmosphere even more. Whether you want to introduce a new mini-game or have an idea for Deutsche room specific bot commands, you can always PM one of the room auth online at that time.
The Owners
Did we get you curious enough to find out which people are in control of this room? As Room Owner, their duty is to take care of promotions and similar policy issues while making sure everything runs as smoothly as possible. Although they might appear to some as immemorial figures shrouded in legend, all of them are quite human. Here is a little bit of background information on the two room's owners:
asgdf
Let's get started with asgdf. He is a young guy living in eastern Germany. He was promoted to Leader on the 5th of September. This means he knows many things about policy and related stuff. He also bears the responsibility for the roomintro, hopefully keeping it in better order than the letters in his name. At times, he will not respond, but do not fear, he is not ignoring you. He has to deal with people in PM as well as users in a range of other rooms. Apart from the aforementioned activities, he also tends to sit on his ass. Let's have an interview with this wonderful organism, shall we?
Kasumi
Hello, asgdf!
asgdf
hey
Kasumi
Thank you for allowing me to interview you
Let's blast it off with a question everyone is thinking but not everyone has asked
What is the origin of your username?
asgdf
man if I had a penny for every time someone asked that question then I could at least buy some ice cream from that money this started out as a random testing alt hit the keyboard, with the only limitation of "let's mix it up a little so people will misspell it" and they did! and now here we are
Kasumi
I commend you on the fact you've stuck with this username for so long and haven't had the urge to change it
What do you like the most about the German room?
asgdf
well, I've found quite some friends there
which is a plus
it's pretty chill in general, not a whole lot of topic limitations
I always get bored with single-topic rooms
Kasumi
But what makes German room special?
asgdf
who says it's special?
Kasumi
well, you join it on a regular basis, what draws you back to the room besides having friends there? what off-sets this room from all 50+ other rooms on the simulator?
asgdf
that it's a german room with no set topic, basically
Kasumi
there is nothing that stands out of the room that most other rooms don't have?
asgdf
apart from its premise, not really
Kasumi
What would you change about the room if you could change anything you'd like?
asgdf
I mean, as a RO, I could get the ball rolling for whatever changes I'd like to see
I wish there would be a way to please everyone, but there's not
Kasumi
That is true. Do you have any funny or positive memories about the room that you feel like sharing?
asgdf
for me, the humor lies in the moment
in a way that doesn't really work well through logs that you read later
Kasumi
I can respect that. What would you most likely be doing right now if Pokémon Showdown! did not exist?
asgdf
I'd probably hang around some other online community in order to procrastinate
PS has been a part of my life for three years now, it's hard to imagine
maybe I'd even do something productive
Kasumi
Haha, where do you see yourself in 10 years if you eventually manage to leave Showdown behind you?
asgdf
no idea to be honest ten years are a long time
Kasumi
Where do you hope you are in 10 years?
asgdf
travelling around the world with friends, maybe
to be honest if PS stays around that long, I see myself still being here
you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave
Kasumi
Let's hope for another 10 years of Pokémon Showdown then! Is there anything you would like to tell the people that read this interview?
asgdf
(for the sake of a good interview I should probably say something insightful here, but I really don't have anything)
Kasumi
Alright then! Thanks for letting me interview you, and I wish you a good night in case you decide to sleep today
asgdf
likewise
Marshmallon
And last but not least, there is Marshmallon. He is a 19-year-old student who lives in Germany. He has been a great asset to the room for a long time, in both moderating and policy, which eventually led to him being awarded the position of Room Owner and even gaining the position of global Driver on the 11th of June. Staying in close contact with the room's userbase, Marshmallon provides invaluable assistance with decisions regarding pro- and demotions. He also helped build up the league from the room. Marshmallon is an extremely friendly and talkative person who you can always go to for questions!
Conclusion
The Deutsche room has been around since late October 2013 and has accumulated quite a dedicated userbase over the course of time. Whether you are looking for someone to battle, just want to participate in tournaments, or aim to learn the language, your visit will be equally welcome. New faces are always appreciated, no matter if you are just stopping by for a quick conversation or if you want to make this place your new home. Neither the staff nor the regular users are known to bite, so don't be afraid to introduce yourself! By all means, drop by in the Deutsche room and give it a shot yourself to see how much you like it. See you there!
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