January 21, 2007

• Pokémon Online?

  I was thinking about something as I was driving home from
  work last night. Where is the massively-multiplayer online Pokémon game? I
  mean, really now! The Pokémon franchise is still (surprisingly) alive and
  kicking, and is just begging for this kind of treatment. I mean, the Nintendo
  DS has these awesome WiFi capabilities, and only maybe four or five games make
  good use of it. I was planning this all out during the thirty minute drive (I
  only hit three pedestrians, I’ll have you know), and here are just a few of the
  ideas I have come up with. Lets hope Nintendo and Game Freak don’t drop the
  ball on this one.

  • You
    can have multiple classes, or jobs, which can potentially include:
  • Trainers
    ~ the regular guys that you have played in every single game. Go around
    and fight gym leaders and try to make it to the top of the League.
  • Gym
    Leaders ~ you can apply to create a gym that trainers will go to in order
    to get badges. The application test will be tough, but you will to design
    your own badge, gym traps, and even hire your own gym thugs (actual
    players). You can even set up an AI so trainers can face you even when
    you are not playing.
  • Healers
    ~ these fine individuals work at pokécenters and, well, heal pokémon. The
    only problem arises when everyone who applies for this class will have a
    username that is some mutant form of Nurse Joy (ex. Nur$3_J0Y,
    X_NurseJoy_X, NurseJoy1023, etcetra).
  • Gang
    Member ~ wish you can form your own Team Rocket? If you become a member
    of this class, then you can! I didn’t plan this one out too much. I was
    pulling into my driveway during this one. Sorry.
  • Ranchers
    ~ picture it: an entire meadow filled with your own herd of captured
    Miltank. Then, you can sell the milk, which acts like a Super Potion, but
    you can sell it for less and earn gobs of cash (or whatever the heck the
    currency is in the series). Or maybe, you can have a herd of Tauros,
    which you can slaughter and sell the meat.
  • Idle
    trainer mode: if you want to, you can set your player to idle trainer mode
    when you are away. This will set your character up at a random point
    depending on the pokémon in your party with the highest level. Then you
    will essentially become one of those NPC trainers that are so frequent in
    the other games.
  • Dynamic
    Pokémon League: The members of the League actually change as actual
    trainers win against the current members. To keep it fair, members of the
    league do not actually level up. They will act like gym leaders until they
    are bested.
  • Blind
    Rage Mode: when your rage meter fills up, you can hit a certain button and
    become a killing machine. This rage spreads to your pokémon, and they
    become momentarily invincible and their attack power goes through the
    roof. Wait, I’m thinking of another game. Never mind.
  • Cell
    Phone: You can gather friend codes and put them on your in-game cell
    phone. Then you can send text messages to your homies on your network.
    “Where you at?”
  • No
    online fee: Please? Okay, pretty
    please?

  I probably know why this hasn’t come to fruition, though.
  Pokémon players are generally younger kids, and most MMO-game players are
  generally young adults. I think, however, that if I saw this game on a shelf, I
  would seriously consider buying it, and then return it to the shelf when I
  realize that I am dirt poor and hardly have the time for it. Let me know if
  this sounds like a good idea. I might try and use my influence on the internet
  (cough) to start a petition.

  • 10:07 am
  • 2 Comments