Room Suggestion Spotlight: Breeding

By shaymin and Darnell. Art by Magistrum.

Introduction

Hey, everyone! shaymin here! As you're reading this article, I already know that you might be thinking of several questions, one of which might be "What the heck is Room Suggestion Spotlight?" Well, to answer that question, Room Suggestion Spotlight is basically a series where I will showcase a really good room suggestion that has been approved by the Pokémon Showdown! staff! This is something that I'll most likely do once every few months in order to give you guys sort of a window as to what makes an excellent room suggestion (and a future successful room, as outlined in my last article) possible! So, at any rate, what's on our radar today? Glad you asked, curious reader!

Our Spotlight Today: The Breeding Room!

I gotta say, when I personally laid eyes on this room suggestion, I didn't think much of it. Truth be told, I was actually pretty cynical, because in my mind, I was questioning whether something like this was truly necessary. However, as soon as I read the suggestion and got a more clear understanding of what the room was really about (thanks to one of my friends, shoutout to Blitzamirin!), I began to see the room for the gem that it really was: a way to separate a particular popular discussion topic from Wi-Fi into its own room.

The Breeding room is interesting to me because, let's be honest here, actual discussion can be hindered by all of the trade requests that flood Wi-Fi's chat 24/7! Therefore, I can only assume that the Room Owner, Shgeldz, saw that it was time to take action and for discussions to have some breathing space.

What made this room suggestion shine in comparison to others is that Shgeldz laid out a comprehensive solution to an ongoing problem in his room. It wasn't just one sentence for a room suggestion and calling it a day, heck no! He put significant effort to present his case to the PS! staff that all of the trades going on in the Wi-Fi room were significantly hindering the progress of Breeding discussion, and he laid out an elaborate explanation of how it would benefit both rooms! At any rate, let's get into what the Breeding room can really offer, shall we?

In a nutshell, here's what the Breeding room can offer YOU:

Breeding Contests

Staff in charge: Osiris

The Wi-Fi room used to do this. However, it quickly died out, similar to our old Wi-Fi League idea. Anyway, they had competitions in which the users of the room were asked to breed Pokémon and then show the staff of the room the proof of the specific challenges of the Pokémon such as learning a specific egg move you wouldn't normally see on the Pokémon or the amount of IVs the Pokémon has. Users vote on the new project at the end of the contest. Prizes such as room Voice or recognition by having their name placed in the roomintro of the Breeding room are being discussed between the staff currently. The room staff believe this will work much better than when it was hosted in Wi-Fi due to the whole room being focused around breeding unlike Wi-Fi where there were other activies such as the tournaments. We plan on motivating our users with prizes which is something that was lacking when doing it in the Wi-Fi room.

Suggested Breeds

Staff in charge: Smelliott and Cranham

This is a specific area lead by two of our room Moderators in which users suggest something to breed for other users that are in the room, something that they would find interesting, worthy of cloning and sharing in the room but they don't have time to breed for themselves. There are often unique things that you wouldn't normally see. They don't even have to be competitive but rather a trophy Pokémon. This is NOT to be mixed with a breeding request form.

TSV

Staff in charge: All staff members

TSV stands for Trainer Shiny Value. This is something which can be found when people check a hatched Pokemon with their OT. People need to match the Egg Shiny Value to their own TSV, so that if they hatch it in their game the Pokemon hatched will be shiny.

The staff of the Breeding room are currently in discussion of whether or not we will allow discussion of TSV in the room, as well as hatching using TSV. There will be no chance to implement a TSV swap system, as that pretty much belongs in the Wi-Fi room rather than the Breeding room.

Breeding Bot (D.A.Y.C.A.R.E)

Staff in charge: Cranham and Shgeldz

As you know, many rooms have their own bot instead of boTTT that has extra features the room it's in may need. For example, the Roleplaying room has the Roleplaying Bot, which allows you to do commands linked to roleplaying. D.A.Y.C.A.R.E (Digital Automaton You Can Ask Really Anything) is our room bot, which Cranham is currently working by installing it with custom commands, which will be beneficial in the long term to both users and staff members.

Lists and helpful websites

Staff in charge: The Most Brute and smelliott

With the room, we had a quick question: did we really need another room website when we can simply add onto the Wi-Fi room's? This is the response we got from TheMostBrute:

"There is a huge need, as things need to be organized and sectioned. The /roomintro is starting to stack up with buttons, and there are still external links to sites and tools to be added. I'm aware this is still a work in progress and ideas are blooming everywhere, but putting the yet-to-be-created website link and throwing everything in there will save a lot of space, extra space needed for contest announcements, recent breeds from users, and other miscellaneous stuff."

Well put, and straight to the point on why we decided to separate the Wi-Fi website and the Breeding website! With the contribution and effort from TheMostBrute, this should be going up soon. smelliott did an excellent job of creating a form in which people can easily send their suggested ideas for Pokémon to breed, which may show up in future competitions or when a random user has the time.

So how did Shgeldz think of this idea?

Well, I've been in Wi-Fi for a long time, and frankly, it's a HUGE room, the second largest besides the Lobby. Oftentimes, people get discouraged because, well, there's a set way of doing things that has evolved over the years. Which of course is great! The services the room provides are indispensable, and its a great one stop shop. However, I started to notice a trend,

said Shgeldz with a sigh as he explains his ideas behind the overall creation of the breeding room.

Many people began to want to have in-depth conversations about breeding in the months after XY was out and settled, and people built up their own collections. However, there was a distinct lack of a place to really "settle down," focus, and chat.

It seems that, for the majority of people that wanted to discuss breeding in Wi-Fi, that was a distinct problem, as Shgeldz seemed to already acknowledge:

So oftentimes, people got distracted or flat out ignored, especially when the chat hit the peak. I made this comparison to battling: Everyone loves to battle, but just as those who want to discuss different tiers would go to a tier room, those who want to just focus on breeding would go to a "breeding room."

Conclusion

I really hope you guys enjoyed this first edition of the Room Suggestion Spotlight series! Keep in mind that if you want your room suggestion to be featured in a future article, be sure to read over the room suggestion guidelines very carefully, and to suggest a room that you know will contribute to the overall growth of Pokémon Showdown! Maybe then it'll get noticed and, who knows, perhaps it'll be showcased to our audience much like the well-thought-out Breeding room! If you want to take part in the breeding discussion, keep in mind that Breeding is a private room and will need to be joined manually by typing in the command /join Breeding.

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