What do y’all think of those “.TV” giveaways?

[ItalianBaptist]

I hope this is okay to post; I checked the rules before I made this thread.

When I was trying to get into competitive battling seriously I remember freaking out about anything to do with hacks; being a frequent wonder trader I of course had quite a few of those hacked Pokémon from groups like Auslove and Sakati and I did my fair share of releasing them in the interest of “fairness”. Ultimately there were a bunch in a box that I let dissolve away infinity-war style with my old save file after starting a new game.

Since I never got to go to tournaments and life has made it very clear that I’m never going to be a “professional Pokémon trainer”, I’ve softened my stance on these guys somewhat. I wouldn’t battle someone with them without getting their okay first and I wouldn’t con anyone out of a legit shiny, but I still enjoy having them on my system for stupid fun. Also the Love Ball is one of my favorite Poke Balls so I love that that’s AusLove’s special gimmick.

Also, I don’t know if people can put non-standard abilities/moves on them or not but it would be fun to play a Hackmons match on an actual game rather than just in Showdown.

What do you think about these gifts? Do you release them right away? Do you keep them even though they don’t have the same kind of value? Are there any really cool ones you got in a wonder trade?

 

[Max. Optimizer]

In summation: They're flimsy hacks being distributed by bots for the sole purpose of advertizing YouTube channels.

In my personal opinion everyone is free to keep or release them as they please for personal in-game use.
I'm not sure why people would want to keep hacked Pokémon with no time or effort put into them, but "to each their own", as they say.

The important thing is that you comply with the infidivual rulesets of each trading forum that you frequent and that you refrain from distributing them further in places where their presence is not desired, nor tolerated.

Battling with them doesn't seem like an issue, but I think informing your opponent prior for transparency reasons is the least you can do.
It's all about the mutual transparency and respect between trainers and collectors.

Fortunately there exists a plethora of alternative sources for battle-ready Pokémon for trainers with limited time and resources.
A lot of communities, including Smogon's Wi-Fi sub-forum, host continuous giveaways with 100% legit competitive Pokémon for forumgoers.
In this case you wouldn't even have to feel paranoid, let alone guilty, about using them in competitions.

Wi-Fi'nd flawless competitive Pokémon anywhere else if you can have "the real" from a trustworthy source without much effort?

 

[Zelen]

When I was a kid I used to play around with Action Replay for GBA to make very interesting impossible pokémon for my own amusement. It was fun for some time. It was like messing around with Missigno glitch.

I agree with Max. Optimizer that everyone is free to do whatever they want with their ingame save file as long as they let others know if they don't use "legit" pokémon.

Still honestly, I wouldn't use these pokémon for any kind of online battling or trading. Iirc there was some drama about people getting banned from online battling from using these bad hacks. It must have sucked for those people who got pokémon that looked like normal just to get banned in the first match.

So yeah, if someone wants those pokémon in their game and they acknowledge the risk they take, that's fine. But personally I still dislike these people who distribute hacked pokémon.

It's like what those malicious hackers did with Dark Souls Remastared when they dropped hacked armor and weapons to ground for other players to pick up. The moment they picked those hacked items up, they got banned from playing with normal servers and where redirected to play with other cheaters even though they didn't even do anything wrong.

 

[Max. Optimizer]

It's like what those malicious hackers did with Dark Souls Remastared when they dropped hacked armor and weapons to ground for other players to pick up. The moment they picked those hacked items up, they got banned from playing with normal servers and where redirected to play with other cheaters even though they didn't even do anything wrong.

While we're on the topic of both "Twitch streamers" and "harming other peoples' savefiles", in July last year, there were also people that distributed hacked Zeraoras via the Wonder Trade function after having removed the event ribbons that would normally prevent it from being traded over the GTS and/or Wonder Trade. The problem was that they didn't just spread to USUM games, but also to regular SM games, turning into glitched Bulbasaurs that you weren't able to release, unless you traded them over to USUM games.

The only thing you can do in the face of these things is spread the word and raise awareness, in order to keep the entourage for you and your fellow members safe and clean.

Communities like this and Pokémon Showdown!, for example, also have a database of notorious hackers, OTs, IDs and Twitch streamers, that can help newer trainers spot and identify these Pokémon easier. Alternatively, people can hack check the Pokémon for their fellow forumgoers if in doubt.

But yes, the general consensus of trading communities, like the one in Smogon's Wi-Fi sub-forum and in Pokémon Showdown!'s Wi-Fi channel, is:
"Don't trade hacked and manipulated Pokémon, period. If you battle with "legal hacks", be transparent about it and inform your opponent prior."

Finally, I conclude by listing a few useful sources for future reference that can help newer people with the matter at hand:

1. Smogon's "Tips for Simple Hack Checks"
2. Smogon's "Wi-Fi Forum rules"
3. TheMantyke's "Gen 7 Ball legality guide"
4. Reddit's "List of hacked Event Pokémon"

Ultimately, "communicating and sharing" is the fertile ground of every successful community. See something? Say something.