What? Pokémon is Evolving!

Hey everyone--sorry for the lack of updates.  College "Hell Week" has just come to a close for me, with finals right around the corner.  That said, I scraped together this written "translation" of my presentation on Pokémon, first seen at ScoreCon1 in Franklin, TN.  This is for those who could not be there, as well as those who were there but couldn't understand me due to my sudden and incessant "koffing" (see what I did there?). Enjoy! (P.S.:  There is a tl;dr version at the bottom!)

                                      Pallet Town (1996)                                                  Castelia City (2010)

It's easy to compare these two pictures and recognize that Pokémon has come a long way in the past fourteen years.  We've gone from monochrome to full color; 2D buildings to fully 3D cities; link cables to local wireless. As long as the game series has been around, it still continues to climb in popularity.  In the first two weeks after its release, European Pokémon Black and White sales topped three million.  Obviously the series isn't going away any time soon, yet there remain some misconceptions about Pokémon that I felt the need to address.

The first misconception is, "All the Pokémon games are exactly the same.  There's no point in buying the new ones."  I can understand why gamers think this.  Nintendo has a track record of finding a formula that works, and holding onto it for dear life, seldom straying from the things that made that game so successful.  Upon closer examination, however, only the basics of Pokémon have remained the same--and honestly, I would expect such cohesion in any long-standing game series.  It's the sometimes overlooked intricacies of the games that have been tweaked and that keep the series "fresh."  This is one misconception I hope to dispel by the end of this post.

The second is, "Pokémon's just for little kids.  Anyone who plays those and is over the age of twelve has problems."  It's another misunderstanding that is vaguely rooted in truth; indeed, the games, especially those on the GameBoy, are simplistic in their design and tone, and therefore are very accessible to children.  However, Pokémon is still a strategy role-playing game at heart, and particularly later on in the series, it has grown to appeal more to adults as well.

Don't be like this guy--embrace your inner Pokénerd!

First I should establish what people mean when they say "it's all the same."  Here are the standards that were set by good ol' Red and Blue versions in 1996, and have persisted throughout the games' collective life span:

• Choose your very first Pokémon.
• Capture wild Pokémon to form your own team of six.
• Defeat eight Pokémon Gym Leaders, Elite Four, Pokémon League Champion.
• Thwart the plans of organized crime groups who want to use Pokémon for evil!
• Fill up that Pokédex--gotta catch 'em all!

What many critics of the series are not aware of is that there is more to the series than this archetype.  A good way to illustrate this is to show the numerous changes to the games and to explain how they were important game-changers.

As most of us know, Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal (GSC) succeeded Red and Blue (RB). GSC actually made the most changes in gameplay.  The new internal clock/calendar is impossible to miss as you start up a new file.  Certain 'mons are available only at certain hours, and specific events happen only on specific days of the week (e.g., the Bug Catching Contest on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays), giving players an incentive to turn on the game on a given day.  Also new to the "Second Generation" is the ability to breed and hatch Pokémon eggs, a feature that would become more crucial to competitive battling in the later games.  Newly introduced "shiny" Pokémon, which are super rare and unusually colored (e.g. a red Gyarados), played into the "collector's instinct" that appeals very well to those same players trying to catch 'em all.  Held items and Weather effects (Rain, Sun, and Sandstorm) were other new enhancements to the battle system.

Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald (RSE) offered fewer updates, but were still monumental in increasing the games' strategic depth (and therefore appeal for adults).  The Effort Values (EVs) mechanic was added; it basically gives your Pokémon hidden points to stat-ups depending on what and how many monsters they defeat; for instance, defeating a Gastly gives you one Special Attack EV whereas defeating a Gyarados yields two Attack EVs.  Natures and Abilities also debuted in "Advance Gen" (comprised of the GBA games).  The former grants your monsters a boost and deduction in one stat each, depending on the nature.  The latter is just what it sounds like--it gives your 'mon a unique skill that is applied in battle, such as Koffing's Levitate, which makes it immune to Ground-type attacks.  Natures and EVs allow for precise specialization with your monster while Abilities made the experience of battling more intricate.

A Quiet nature indicates +Special Attack, -Speed.

And let's not forget Emerald's revolutionary Battle Frontier, containing a series of buildings where trainers can tackle rigorous battle challenges based on different themes.  This is a massive area that is unlocked upon defeating the Elite Four, and is the first example of replayability in Pokémon if you're not feeling up to the task of completing the Pokédex (which, by this point, had increased to almost 400 monsters).  These new complexities made for the most diverse and strategic metagame (system of trends in what human players use) of any of the prior games. More strategy equals more adult-friendly fun.

Now we arrive at "Fourth Gen," Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum (DPPt) versions.  Like the generation before it, only a few changes were made, but how important those changes are!  Most notable is what players often refer to as the "Physical/Special Split."  Pokémon can deal two basic types of damage, and have two basic types of defense stats:  physical or special.  Before Fourth Gen, whether a move was physical or special was based entirely on the move's type.  DPPt removed this method of determining a move's basic damage type.  Bite, a Dark-type contact move is one example of one that was altered by the "split."  What this did for the game was open up new possibilities for Pokémon that previously were not at all viable, competitively.  Gyarados wasn't useful in player-to-player battles due to its low Special Attack stat, with only special moves with same-type attack bonus ("STAB").  Waterfall, a new, physical, Water-type move, made Gyarados a force to be reckoned with in standard Fourth-Gen play.

Wi-Fi battling was the other important addition to the series.  Pokémon players worldwide could now play each other without "battle simulators" like the once popular Netbattle program.  Despite said simulators, Wi-Fi capability is what truly popularized online competitive battling, expanding already existing online battling communities (such as my personal favorite, Smogon).  Indeed, this battling "scene" is more complex than most people are aware of; members of these communities spend a lot of time play-testing, researching, and discussing the ever shifting metagame.  Aside from battling, Wi-Fi also enabled trading with players anywhere in the world, making team-building much more quick and painless.  This was truly Pokémon's transition into the "Information Age."

Fun for all ages at the Pokémon Video Game SE Regional Championships (2010):  Grace Arnold (age 9, Junior Division Champion), brother David (age 13, Senior Division Champion), and father Glen (age 44, Senior Division Runner-Up)

Last but not least, there's last month's Black and White (BW) versions.  The world of Pokémon now experiences the four Seasons, for starters.  Wi-Fi battling now has an option for "random matchmaking" much like in other online multiplayer games (though this was first done in Pokémon Battle Revolution for the Wii), so you now don't have to use Nintendo's less-than-desirable Friend Codes system to get a battle.  The Dream World offers mini-games as an opportunity to get Pokémon with unique Abilities, and Triple and Rotation battling have been added as a change of pace from the potential monotony of repeatedly fighting NPCs.  Finally, BW offers a more challenging series of battles and a more mature storyline.

In conclusion, (tl;dr version):

• RB versions were the "bare bones" of the series
• GSC were the only true "sequels"; made the most changes
• Third Gen. greatly deepened strategic quality; increased appeal to adults, still accessible to children
• The DS games have helped to unite Pokéfans worldwide; keep the games “fresh” with smaller tweaks
  
  

The Pokémon series is dynamic and has come a long way!

Questions/comments?  Sound off in the comments section below!