Let's Play! Orange Islands Plays: The Rebirth

[Jimera0]

A Brief Introduction and History...​

So some of you who've been around for a while might remember OI Plays, which was a short lived but well received weekly community event, where members of the community got together in #orangeislands and Skype to play a Pokemon game together. It ended up falling through due to Deinosaur, who was running it, getting too busy. Later it was briefly revived for a single session before yet again falling through due to the leadership getting busy.

Well, I have a bit of a history of hosting regular events here in the Orange Islands, and I love hanging out in Google+ Hangouts (which are better suited to this than Skype ever was). So I think it's time we brought back OI Plays, and hopefully this time it can stick around for good! There'll be a few tweaks to the format to make it open to more people, but I think I should be able to keep the spirit of the original event intact.

What it is and how it works​

Basically, every Sunday at 2pm EST we get together in a Google+ hangout and play games (mostly Pokemon games) together until everyone has to go. If you don't know, Google+ hangouts work kind of like a group Skype call, only it has easier screensharing and doesn't require a big download and signup. Every week I'll have a certain suggested challenge for people to tackle; this challenge is replaced with a new one every few weeks. You don't have to play my challenge if you really don't want to though; there's always a few people just doing their own thing, myself included sometimes . The main idea of this is just to get everyone together for a bit of community bonding! In order to join the the Google+ hangout you should just join in the #oi IRC channel and watch for myself or others to post a link to the hangout room. You just click on that link and if you have a Google+ account, all you need to do is quickly download the hangout plugin if you haven't already and click to join. Alternatively you can follow my twitter account, since I'll usually tweet out when hangouts have started. Everyone is free to join in; don't worry, we won't bite!

Next Hangout details​

See this post for details: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/orange-islands-plays-the-rebirth.3511760/page-3#post-5868049

 

[Hulavuta]

Our IRC community and forum community seem to be very different so I'm hoping something like this can get some of the forum members into community events. Unfortunately, I'm going to be away from home that weekend...I'll be back on Sunday evening so if it's still going on then I'll be sure to drop by. Whether I actually do the challenge or just play on Battle Spot or even a different game entirely, who knows. I'm sure it will be fun regardless.

 

[PSDuckie]

I would love to do this...but it's on the one weekend in July that I have to work. :-(

Working weekends sucks.

 

[Kadew]

I will be attending this. Might be fighting the elite four in my red version nuzlocke, horribly horribly underleveled. Might be grinding those underlevels. Most likely will be drawing pokemon relevant to everyone else's runs.

It will be fun times for all.

 

[cant say]

I wanna get involved with these things, even if I'm just watching / lurking but it'll be at like 2am Monday morning for me so probably a no go unless I for some reason have Monday off (sleep is for the weak anyway). If I do make it it'll be via the text chat otherwise you'll all get a cameo of one of my family coming in to tell me to shut up lol

 

[PSDuckie]

Since I finished the project that I had to do for work this weekend, I'll be able to make it! In honor of my very first Pokemon (way back in Blue version), I'll be doing a mono-Grass run of FireRed. Yup, I picked Bulbasaur in Blue.

EDIT: I'm probably not going to be finishing FireRed due to time constraints, but I'll get as far as I can!

 

[Jimera0]

OI Plays for today has officially started! Hangout link is https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/gx5olrbojshpso5ckbtvwhymoqa. Everyone is free to join in and play some Pokemon! You can play any in-game thing you want to while you're there, but if you don't have an idea this week the suggested run to start is a mono-type run in any game! For those who don't know, a mono-type run is a run where you can only use pokemon that have a specific type. You basically start a game and get a Pokemon of that type ASAP, then deposit all your Pokemon that aren't that type and only use Pokemon that are that type from then on. I'm currently at the elite 4 on my Mono-Flying Crystal run I'll be playing during the hangout!

Everyone is welcome so come on in!

 

[Ullar]

Was hella fun, despite the enormous technical difficulties. Merisiel the Zigzagoon shall return next week!

 

[PSDuckie]

I had fun with this too! I started a mono-Grass run of FireRed and look forward to continuing the adventures of Flower, RprtdIssue, and SkunkCabbg next week!

 

[Jimera0]

OOPS. I forgot to update the topic with the announcement for this week's hangout earlier. Well, that's fixed now. Same time and day as last week, Sunday at 12pm EST. Well be doing monotype runs again, most of us continuing the ones we started last week. If you missed last week or didn't start one for whatever reason and want to start one now feel free to. You're allowed to play it in hangouts even after the rest of us have finished ours if you want to, so there's no reason not to start one this week! I'll see you guys there!

 

[Karxrida]

We need to do some iSketch or CAH on Sunday since I can make it!

#LatiasArt

 

[Jimera0]

Uhhh things came up and I'm gunna be somewhere between very late and super late for tomorrow's hangout. If someone else wants to host a hangout at 12 PM EST in my place you're welcome to. Otherwise it might not start until 2PM EST or later. Sorry!

 

[Ullar]

Heya! We've started without Jimera (tho we wish him godspeed in getting here). Hangout link is here!

Pls join!

 

[Celever]

OK well I'm going to turn in for the night morning but I just wanted to post here first that that was one of the best OI Plays we've had in a while. Kadew glitched up a game legitimately, SuperJOCKE played Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze and LightningKimba came and played Punch Out!! for a little while. We watched Jimera create a stir fry and PSDuckie eat a chocolate bar.

And I was there in the chat the whole way through, making useless jokes and giving updates on my XD nuzlocke. 3 deaths, but good progress! :)

Looking forward to next week guys, but it was fun even tonight!

 

[Kadew]

This was a great OIPlays! Anyone who sees this and hasn't joined in on the fun yet: please come, it really is a blast! Celever's post above mine is just the smallest peek into the all manner of shenanigans that hangouts will cause.

In other news, my nuzlocke reached its thrilling conclusion tonight, so for next week's stream I may actually be playing the variety of run that everyone else is! Either that, or drawing comic pages. Both are good options.

 

[PSDuckie]

Yes, I really did eat a chocolate bar on camera. :)

But seriously, I got to the beginning of Silph Co. on my mono-Grass run of FireRed. RprtdIssue the Parasect is my LVP right now due to being stuck with Bullet Seed as his only STAB move; my other two mons (Flower the Venusaur and SkunkCabbg the Vileplume) are tied for MVP.

 

[deinosaur]

Oh how I miss this.

 

[DHR-107]

Might be around for a few hours on Sunday depending on when things gear up and start. I (might be) am leaving for a business trip Sunday evening at some point, so don't know how that's going to tie in with you guys in Americaland...

 

[Jimera0]

I forgot to announce the next hangout again >.>. Same time and day as last week, Sunday at 12pm EST. Still doing monotype runs, though you're free to play whatever type of Pokemon thing you want if you don't want to start a brand new Monotype after all of us are already half-way through ours. Come in and join us, we'll probably keep the hangout going for 6+ hours again. Everyone is welcome so feel free to join in or invite friends. Ideally we'll all be playing Pokemon though, try to keep other games to a minimum.

 

[Jimera0]

Crap, I set my alarm wrong (PM instead of AM... whoops) and I JUST got out of bed now. I'm going to need like and hour to an hour and a half to do the things I need to do every morning, so start without me again. Don't worry I'll jump in ASAP, I just have some things I need to take care of first (like basic hygiene). Sorry to do this to you guys again!

 

[Jimera0]

Ack, I keep forgetting to announce the time and date earlier. From now on just assume that it'll be on Sundays starting at 12pm EST unless I say otherwise. Anyway, this week will still have a monotype theme so people can finish up their runs. I think next week will be a good time to introduce a new theme (though if you aren't finished with your monotype run feel free to continue it next week even if we do a new theme). Anyway, I hope to see you all there!

 

[PSDuckie]

I will down the E4 this time. I don't want the run to end uncompleted!

 

[Stellar]

I guess Jimera overslept again , but there are some people still ready to go on #OI if anyone wants to join!

 

[TheMantyke]

BELIEVE​

 

[PSDuckie]

Well, I finished my FireRed mono-Grass run during yesterday's OI Plays, so here are my MVP rankings. From MVP to LVP:

God Object is my MVP. Although I caught him late in the game, I knew that he was my only chance to defeat Blaine, and leveled him accordingly. Also, he was the only mon on my team that knew Psychic; that move was extremely helpful during the Elite Four.

As my starter, Flower ended up soloing Brock, and with a moveset of Strength, Sleep Powder, Leech Seed, and Razor Leaf, was a one-mon wrecking crew against the Elite Four.

Only slightly lower on the rankings than Flower, Skunk Cabbage (written as SkunkCabbg in game due to lack of space) was the only mon on my team that knew Petal Dance. Giovanni, Bruno, Lance, and Blue all had to deal with that, and only Blue had anything close to success.

Reported Issue (written as RprtdIssue in game) was a strong mon in the early game, but as Bullet Seed was his strongest STAB move, his usefulness faded as the run continued.

And finally we come to Spaghetti Code (written as SpghtiCode in game), my LVP. Spaghetti Code was caught close to the same time as God Object, but unlike God Object, Spaghetti Code never got a chance to shine, as the run was over before I got a chance to get him to a decent level.


This run would also have been impossible without the HM Team.