Unpopular opinions

[Magcargo]

Just wanted to apologize for some pretty hasty things I said on the topic of genning, I agree with a lot of points you guys made I just think that my priorities in the conversation are different. If you want, feel free to DM me and I can explain what I meant in more detail.

I probably will not talk much more on this subject myself, but what do you guys think about this?

(2) Brady Smith - VGC Corner on Twitter: "Anyone else down to go on strike this upcoming season? If numbers of competitions go down, they might try to come up with a solution to increase player attendance. What we want is genning to be legal. We know that Pokémon can’t do this with the primary genning method being a…" / X

As someone who doesn't go to VGC tournaments, I will do my part in this protest and not compete like I've never not competed before.

Overall, this protest might have some merit if it was initiated by someone else who doesn't gen, but because its being done by someone caught with their pants down, it comes off as really petty. I do agree with the goal, but I doubt this protest will gain much, if any traction. There have been a number of other issues that players are protesting against too iirc, so another one would mumble the conversation a bit.

If a mon is able to be legally obtained in-game, then idgaf if it's genn'd or not. Genning is 10x more efficient in terms of time, resource management, and actually spending time competing in a tournament instead of doing a 20h+ grind that will require more hours spent on tweaking parameters like Tera type, EVs, building new Pokemon, applying PP Ups if possible (though tbf PP doesn't really matter in a 3v3 or 4v4 env all that much barring some fringe cases), etc.

I think the TPC will probably introduce an easy to earn currency in the DLC to make it easier to build mons, which likely won't be as efficient as genning, but will still make it more efficient to build teams on the fly with random mons you catch. Players will complain they are paywalling this feature, which is fair, but a one time purchase of 30$ for a game competitive players will be spending 100s hours isn't that big of a cost imo. Then again, for me, the value of money isn't that high in my current position so I am 100% in the minority here.

 

[Bakugames]

For people to understand why I talk about the price a lot:

 

[Karxrida]

You know, this is fair and all, but you speak as if people playing the various TCGs don't have to spend significant money to keep their collection up to date, on top of having to deal with banlists suddently invalidating cards you may have spent several hundred bucks on.

Like, I get that most other videogames don't require monetary investment other than "buy the current videogame", but having to invest money to keep up with collectible competitive games isn't *exactly* a new concept and Pokemon isn't isolated in it.

Not that the system for TCGs is justified or should be, but at least getting cards efficiently just involves a quick trip to TCG Player to buy them all and waiting on the mail. You can still do your life or practice on sims or with proxies until then.

 

[ant4456]

"SS" is a fucking terrible acronym for sword and shield that is literally deadass only used by smogon players


everywhere else I see people use SWSH, especially because "SS" means "Soulsilver" to 99% of people who play shit outside of Smogon

"I'm playing SS" "oh cool did you pick cyndaquil" is how I see people talk about soulsilver

speaking of, four letter acronyms are already used by smogon

"ORAS", when technically "OA" is a unique acronym for the games and therefore is also a valid two letter version. You'd just never see someone use that ever, just like SS outside of Smogon.

SWSH has no possible other meaning, no ambiguity, four letter acronyms are clearly acceptable, SWSH > SS and I will not be taking questions

 

[Blue glass]

Hide

For people to understand why I talk about the price a lot:

View attachment 542116
View attachment 542117

And?

One dollar is about 4,90 reais so base game is about 61 dollars and DLC is about 36 dollars. Pretty much the same price. It could be argued that comparatively it's more money because in general people in US earn more money than Brazilians but being able to maintain a specific hobby isn't a human right, if it's too expensive do something cheaper. Capitalism is bad and DLC should be free but this is a poor argument to justify genning.

 

[Bakugames]

One dollar is about 4,90 reais so base game is about 61 dollars and DLC is about 36 dollars. Pretty much the same price. It could be argued that comparatively it's more money because in general people in US earn more money than Brazilians but being able to maintain a specific hobby isn't a human right, if it's too expensive do something cheaper. Capitalism is bad and DLC should be free but this is a poor argument to justify genning.

90% of my points in thus convo have been about accessibility and pricing out people/that just because something is innacessible doesnt mean it should be made more innacessible and that there should still be attempts to bridge gaps that the company can easily fix. Genning is a product of its environment but also something im not even focusing on.

also it is only the same price if everything in brazil just converted exactly in usd, which is not true of wages, nor electronics themselves. these games are 1/3rd of a minimum wage, and many can spend a long time saving for them and also saving to participate in the community itself.

but also i beleive there are no poor excuses to genning because genning doesnt need an excuse. I treat it exactly like piracy LOL

 

[Blue glass]

SV for sure should have its own teambuilder and more power to everyone that pirate and gen but to do a surprised pikachu face when you get a DQ doing those on a official VGC championship is silly. The price is irrevelant because unless it's free it will always be too expensive to some people in the world.

 

[Sonikku A]

Speaking of accessibility, would be REAL nice if they made a move/ability almanac that goes fully in depth of what each one does, along with a practice sim post game that's customizable (EVs, IVs, items, mons, moves, etc)
You know, like practice mode in fighting games letting you change P1 and 2. Would be neat
Would also cut out a lot of time experimenting

 

[ZB7]

Breaking away from the VGC stuff for a bit, I wanted to voice why I think Raging Bolt is a very well done and clever design. Two things though:

1. Is that I understand why this design isn’t liked, taking Raikou, a generally well liked not just Pokémon but Legendary Pokémon, and making it into this thing isn’t gonna go down people’s throats in one go.

2. Is my own personal complaints with this design: I think the head should’ve been changed. It’s kinda jarring to see this supposed dinosaur Pokémon and it still has the fangs of a saber tooth tiger. I also think the body could’ve been bigger. I also kinda think the feet look like slippers, and not in a good way.

So onto to why I like it:

I believe that the head being above its mane and in the obviously intended to be thunderclouds is just a simple nod to the phrase 'Head in the clouds'.

The neck being so long is meant to invoke the imagery of a thunderbolt coming from those very same thunderclouds (I like this one a lot cause it’s very easily noticeable and charming imo). It also leads into the point which is it’s dinosaur inspiration.

Raging Bolt seems to be just generally based off of sauropods, and in the sauropod group of dinosaurs, there’s that was called the Brontosaurus (key word: was, nowadays it goes under a different name because the dinosaur it was thought to be was actually just a more underdeveloped one compard to what it actually was). Brontosaurus’s etymology comes from Greek, where the words it pull from mean 'thunder lizard'. Raging Bolt seems to just be generally be a sauropod with its long neck, and so if they wanted it to be more directly a Brontosaurus they probably should’ve made its body bigger.

I really like this thing and the more I learned about potential inspirations the more I liked it. It’s a very different take on a beloved mon so to that degree I understand the disappointment/disgust. I just wanted to post in this thread because I’m fairly it’s written somewhere that liking this thing is sacrilege.

One thing is for sure though:

With that neck and body, this guy is never beating the giraffe allegations.

(Re: the VGC stuff though, I think we can agree that the format for worlds including Pokémon that aren’t obtainable in the game the tournament is taking place in is very silly and bad)

 

[doipy hooves]

So, in terms of getting optimal mons that are purely legitimate, the old sources of variance are still all there but now you've added on new sources of variance through the dependability of your source. (Case in point, at least one of the players who got DQ'd claims they tried to get legit PLA/SwSh mons from a reputable source and those mons failed the hack check.)

In contrast, if you gen it all yourself you don't have to worry about that variance.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1689855619187007488

I want to add that the source seemingly did nothing wrong and it was just the hacker's fault for being lazy. This tweet explains what happened in more detail and Brady himself liked the post. He was traded legitimate mons originally, and afterwards he modified them for some reason when his Landorus and Urshifu didn't even need any 0 IVs, and managed to taint perfectly good legit mons to fail a hack check afterwards.

As an aside I also found it strange that he kept saying that buying "Legends of Arceus" was his only option to get a Landorus, a staple of VGC teams for over a decade now and a mon that he himself previously used in SWSH competitions, which would be available from HOME even if he didn't have his SWSH copy anymore.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1689848521296609280

 

[AztecCroc]

(key word: was, nowadays it goes under a different name because the dinosaur it was thought to be was actually just a more underdeveloped one compard to what it actually was).

False. Brontosaurus has been a separate thing again since 2015.
Also it (not actually) being the younger version of Apatosaurus wouldn't have affected which name was kept, it matters which name was officially recognized first not which name belongs to the older member of the species.

 

[Worldie]

"SS" is a fucking terrible acronym for sword and shield that is literally deadass only used by smogon players


everywhere else I see people use SWSH, especially because "SS" means "Soulsilver" to 99% of people who play shit outside of Smogon

"I'm playing SS" "oh cool did you pick cyndaquil" is how I see people talk about soulsilver

speaking of, four letter acronyms are already used by smogon

"ORAS", when technically "OA" is a unique acronym for the games and therefore is also a valid two letter version. You'd just never see someone use that ever, just like SS outside of Smogon.

SWSH has no possible other meaning, no ambiguity, four letter acronyms are clearly acceptable, SWSH > SS and I will not be taking questions

Sir dont get me started on how much it tilts me to see people use "ScaVio" instead of SV...


Back on the VGC stuff, I think the main issue people have with hacking specifically in this moment and why there's such a shitshow about it is that GF for first time took a extremely weird and unpopular decision:
They made a Worlds format where you cannot obtain all the available non-breedable pokemon in the games of that generation

This is I believe a *FIRST* as so far non-native Legendaries were generally not allowed until the 2nd games (2nd DLC for SwSh), and they were *catchable in these games* via the various gimmicks (Hyperspace holes in gen 6, Ultrarifts in Gen 7, Dynamax raids in gen 8).
This is also not helped by the fact that several of the actually breedable mons coming from Legends Arceus *cannot evolve in SV*

I am honestly baffled at this decision.
I want to believe this is just a terrible oversight. It's clear that they did receive the complaint that metas were pretty "stale" during previous Worlds, where they've tried to shake it up with progressive introduction of new mons. But allowing a bunch of pokemon not available at same time of Worlds and most importantly with nearly 0 time to prepare for it (Home was released in May, people had barely 2 months to get a idea of the new meta on top of actually getting new mons in first place) was a REALLY REALLY POOR DECISION.
Even more of a horrible decision if it was intentionally made to force people to buy Legend Arceus. Even as GameFreak apologist myself, this is something I would be really disappointed to if it was the case.

 

[pika pal]

Sir dont get me started on how much it tilts me to see people use "ScaVio" instead of SV...


Back on the VGC stuff, I think the main issue people have with hacking specifically in this moment and why there's such a shitshow about it is that GF for first time took a extremely weird and unpopular decision:
They made a Worlds format where you cannot obtain all the available non-breedable pokemon in the games of that generation

This is I believe a *FIRST* as so far non-native Legendaries were generally not allowed until the 2nd games (2nd DLC for SwSh), and they were *catchable in these games* via the various gimmicks (Hyperspace holes in gen 6, Ultrarifts in Gen 7, Dynamax raids in gen 8).
This is also not helped by the fact that several of the actually breedable mons coming from Legends Arceus *cannot evolve in SV*

I am honestly baffled at this decision.
I want to believe this is just a terrible oversight. It's clear that they did receive the complaint that metas were pretty "stale" during previous Worlds, where they've tried to shake it up with progressive introduction of new mons. But allowing a bunch of pokemon not available at same time of Worlds and most importantly with nearly 0 time to prepare for it (Home was released in May, people had barely 2 months to get a idea of the new meta on top of actually getting new mons in first place) was a REALLY REALLY POOR DECISION.
Even more of a horrible decision if it was intentionally made to force people to buy Legend Arceus. Even as GameFreak apologist myself, this is something I would be really disappointed to if it was the case.

I also doubt it helps that this update dropped in the middle of a Worlds Season, as noted on the 0-prep time. Usually if this drops between/early in the season people have time to see the Meta develop casually or experiment with/trade for non-native Pokemon if they matter. Now here it's "Urshifu is a big deal so better find someone willing to part with the one-off pick-one-of-two-forms Legendary from LAST GEN's DLC campaign" while the competition is already underway.

For reference I play Pokemon Go in part because it gives me a way to collect a few Gen 7-8 Pokemon I never got due to dropping USUM/skipping Galar. I imagine there are other players who similarly passed on the other entries and have relied on trading to get their non-native non-breedable Pokemon before. Here though the time table with an active competition to prep for was WAY too short.

 

[ant4456]

the DLC content looks good its just built on a shitty engine and will be laggy and look bad because it is DLC for an unfinished game

 

[Worldie]

the DLC content looks good its just built on a shitty engine and will be laggy and look bad because it is DLC for an unfinished game

Eh I think it may run fine.

SwSh had a similar issue with the wild area being a huge disaster, but the DLC wild area performed MUCH better and in fact it was 99% open areas.
THere's hope COPIUM

 

[ZB7]

False. Brontosaurus has been a separate thing again since 2015.
Also it (not actually) being the younger version of Apatosaurus wouldn't have affected which name was kept, it matters which name was officially recognized first not which name belongs to the older member of the species.

Thank you for the correction, I try to do my research on these types of things and I do recall seeing that - I just wasn’t sure on how to put it into words. As long as I’ve got the whole 'Brontosaurus = Thunder Lizard' thing down, I think the intention behind the post remains the same (seriously though Ty for informing me)

 

[TerrickTerran]

Simple unpopular opinion from me....I'm good with the amount of Eeveelutions and hope they never bother bringing another to the game. I think if they hadn't created the Fairy Type that Gen 4 would have been the finish so unless they create another new type (feeling unlikely at this point) that they're never going to create another one.

 

[ant4456]

Simple unpopular opinion from me....I'm good with the amount of Eeveelutions and hope they never bother bringing another to the game. I think if they hadn't created the Fairy Type that Gen 4 would have been the finish so unless they create another new type (feeling unlikely at this point) that they're never going to create another one.

ayeee I had this take too lets fucking go

though looking at my pfp... let's just say I don't wanna live in a world without Sylveon

 

[QuentinQuonce]

So, not posting this to start a fight, but when the Pokemon Company themselves are tacitly admitting that yeah maybe our last few releases have been rush-jobs, perhaps we could stop defending the yearly release model and admit that recent games haven't been anywhere near as polished as older ones?

My actual unpopular opinion is this: if there were a 3-year break between this year's release and the next main series game, I think we'd all be much the better for it.

 

[Bakugames]

I'm gonna be honest I don't like this. Between bad games where workers at least have decent work life and good games where the workers are crunched to hell to make due the release constraints, I'd rather take the former. "keeping up their release cadence" is a scary notion

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I'm gonna be honest I don't like this. Between bad games where workers at least have decent work life and good games where the workers are crunched to hell to make due the release constraints, I'd rather take the former. "keeping up their release cadence" is a scary notion

Does it have to be either/or? Call me a utopian but I think it should be possible to live in a timeline where we have good games and workers who aren't nose-to-grindstone.

I'd rather they weren't keeping up their release cadence.

 

[ant4456]

I'm gonna be honest I don't like this. Between bad games where workers at least have decent work life and good games where the workers are crunched to hell to make due the release constraints, I'd rather take the former. "keeping up their release cadence" is a scary notion

well there are two ways

the current way where devs have 2-3 years to make an open world jrpg

the world where they get more ILCAS to fill year gaps

there is no universe where TPC solves capitalism

I'm not experienced but from my short time in the world of Computer Science, splitting up more projects and giving them more time to ensure quality would imo be better for the devs.Only issue would be a larger lack of direction.

i dont disagree with you necessarily but you can interpret this as better for the workers

 

[Bakugames]

Does it have to be either/or? Call me a utopian but I think it should be possible to live in a timeline where we have good games and workers who aren't nose-to-grindstone.

I also want that, but I'm going off what's actually being talked right now: making the games better and keeping the same schedule. Brother if life could be a dream i'd have pokemon games release once per 6 years and everyone would work 4 hours a day with paid healthcare etc. I think gamefreak should unionize

well there are two ways

the current way where devs have 2-3 years to make an open world jrpg

the world where they get more ILCAS to fill year gaps

there is no universe where TPC solves capitalism

I'm not experienced but from my short time in the world of Computer Science, splitting up more projects and giving them more time to ensure quality would imo be better for the devs.Only issue would be a larger lack of direction.

i dont disagree with you necessarily but you can interpret this as better for the workers

I think this is the more optimistic result of this, which can be a net gain (or at least a sidegrade?). I'm just fearful of how easy crunch can be picked up as an industry standard for quality

 

[Axiemeister]

tangent: maybe ILCA would do a better job with not-remakes? not to defend a universally panned pair of games i haven't even played yet, but maybe they'd do well with an original title with less at stake (but still core series please my extent of interest in spin-offs is pokémon go)

 

[ant4456]

tangent: maybe ILCA would do a better job with not-remakes? not to defend a universally panned pair of games i haven't even played yet, but maybe they'd do well with an original title with less at stake (but still core series please my extent of interest in spin-offs is pokémon go)

maybe it'd help if they didnt have 1 to 1.5 years of dev time