I don't know why, but this is just something I've been thinking about for a while lately. Alot of people have always fantasized about how awesome a Pokemon MMORPG would be, but after playing a few MMO games, I've started asking myself "Could it even work?".
Think about it. In Pokemon, you have a team of 6 Pokemon. There's really no need for forming any parties, except for doubles battles. Even then, you only have a party of 2 people, which really isn't a group. The only way I could see larger groups happening is if you modified the rules of Pokemon and made it so you could only carry 3 Pokemon per person, and have a group of 4 people. Most of the content in the game would be soloable; there'd really be no reason to ever join a group. I suppose there could be puzzle elements in dungeons that require more players, but that's pretty much the only thing I can come up with. For battling, I can't really imagine any teamwork other than doubles battles.
Then there's PvP. This is one of the main things I can see people wanting an MMO Pokemon for, but after my adventures on a WoW PvP server, ganking has become a real concern of mine. In Pokemon, you've always been able to just walk up to another person and immediately force them into battle with you, and many people would expect this to remain unchanged in the MMO. However, this raises obvious problems with level difference. You'd have people waiting outside the professor's laboratory with a team of 6 Lv100 Legendary Pokemon waiting to beat the crap out of a newbie with a Lv5 starter. WoW has also given me a few solutions to this problem, such as making it so you can't do PvP in the first few towns, but that doesn't do anything to stop people from waiting at the edge of the first PvP-enabled area. Without factions like WoW has, you can't put high-leveled guards there to scare away gankers, so now you've got another problem. A solution I came up with was to make it so you can't PvP with people that have fewer badges than you, and make it so that even your own non-traded Pokemon would stop obeying you after a certain level with a given number of badges. This would help keep everyone within about 10 levels of each other, and keep things pretty fair.
Endgame content. What would there be to do at the end of the game once you have a team of Lv100s? Sure, there's PvP, but as I mentioned earlier with the party stuff, you can't really make any endgame raids or anything like that. Most of it would just be soloable content, for Legendary Pokemon, I guess. One thing I came up with was to allow people who have completed the Elite Four to go back and re-fight their way through the 8 gyms, but all the restrictions on the trainers in the gyms have been removed. This means they can use whatever types and levels they want. If you're a WoW player like me, think of it as being sort of a "Heroic Mode" gym. The Elite Four and Champion would also be affected by this, allowing more soloable endgame content. However, there still isn't any content that would require cooperation, which is what most MMORPGs are about. And even if it did have raids, what rewards would you get from these things? The only things I can come up with is Legendary Pokemon and maybe a few hold items. Other than that, how could you really motivate someone to want to run the endgame content?
Trading. All of us who have Diamond and Pearl have seen the offer of Bidoof for all sorts of rare and Legendary Pokemon, so how would this really work? The best thing I can come up with would be to make a sort of "Trade Showcase" place, where people could put up a limited number of Pokemon they want to trade, as well as a note saying what they want for it. The place itself wouldn't actually do any of the work with the trading, it's just there so that you could search for what people are willing to trade. When you find what you're looking for, you send a message to the person who is trading it and you do the trade the old-fashioned way. This way, you can specify whatever you want on the note; you just type it in. It can be Pokedollars, items, Pokemon, or something else entirely (obviously that would have to be policed a bit). This idea could probably be expanded to include showcasing items as well.
Professions. One of the things I've loved about WoW is that you get to choose two professions which allow you to craft all sorts of useful things for yourself and others, as well as giving you a source of income. While not necessary to a Pokemon MMO, it would be really nice if there were some professions that you could pick up. I've thought about this one alot while waiting at the bus stop on weekday mornings, and so far I've only been able to come up with 3 professions that would fit in the Pokemon World: Ball Engineer (Makes Pokeballs. Starts out making balls that are only slightly more effective than normal Pokeballs, but can eventually make much more powerful balls at higher levels. Perhaps even be able to make Masterballs as their sort of "profession epic".), Nutritionist (Starts out making simple recovery items out of berries and such, and can later make stat-boosting items such as Iron, Calcium, HP Up, etc. Eventually can make Rare Candy as their "profession epic".), and Accessorizer (Mostly makes hold items. Haven't really thought too much about this one.). I thought about having a few gathering profressions, but I just didn't think it'd fit much with the way Pokemon works. I mean, it'd seem kinda odd seeing a 10 year old kid slaving over a metal ore deposit, and then taking the ore to a blazing hot forge to smelt so he could get materials for crafting his Pokeballs. I figure it'd just be easier to make it so you could find the materials being held by some Pokemon when you catch them or just have them laying around the world waiting to be picked up.
Discuss. I want to hear some opinions on this, whether you think it could work or not.
Think about it. In Pokemon, you have a team of 6 Pokemon. There's really no need for forming any parties, except for doubles battles. Even then, you only have a party of 2 people, which really isn't a group. The only way I could see larger groups happening is if you modified the rules of Pokemon and made it so you could only carry 3 Pokemon per person, and have a group of 4 people. Most of the content in the game would be soloable; there'd really be no reason to ever join a group. I suppose there could be puzzle elements in dungeons that require more players, but that's pretty much the only thing I can come up with. For battling, I can't really imagine any teamwork other than doubles battles.
Then there's PvP. This is one of the main things I can see people wanting an MMO Pokemon for, but after my adventures on a WoW PvP server, ganking has become a real concern of mine. In Pokemon, you've always been able to just walk up to another person and immediately force them into battle with you, and many people would expect this to remain unchanged in the MMO. However, this raises obvious problems with level difference. You'd have people waiting outside the professor's laboratory with a team of 6 Lv100 Legendary Pokemon waiting to beat the crap out of a newbie with a Lv5 starter. WoW has also given me a few solutions to this problem, such as making it so you can't do PvP in the first few towns, but that doesn't do anything to stop people from waiting at the edge of the first PvP-enabled area. Without factions like WoW has, you can't put high-leveled guards there to scare away gankers, so now you've got another problem. A solution I came up with was to make it so you can't PvP with people that have fewer badges than you, and make it so that even your own non-traded Pokemon would stop obeying you after a certain level with a given number of badges. This would help keep everyone within about 10 levels of each other, and keep things pretty fair.
Endgame content. What would there be to do at the end of the game once you have a team of Lv100s? Sure, there's PvP, but as I mentioned earlier with the party stuff, you can't really make any endgame raids or anything like that. Most of it would just be soloable content, for Legendary Pokemon, I guess. One thing I came up with was to allow people who have completed the Elite Four to go back and re-fight their way through the 8 gyms, but all the restrictions on the trainers in the gyms have been removed. This means they can use whatever types and levels they want. If you're a WoW player like me, think of it as being sort of a "Heroic Mode" gym. The Elite Four and Champion would also be affected by this, allowing more soloable endgame content. However, there still isn't any content that would require cooperation, which is what most MMORPGs are about. And even if it did have raids, what rewards would you get from these things? The only things I can come up with is Legendary Pokemon and maybe a few hold items. Other than that, how could you really motivate someone to want to run the endgame content?
Trading. All of us who have Diamond and Pearl have seen the offer of Bidoof for all sorts of rare and Legendary Pokemon, so how would this really work? The best thing I can come up with would be to make a sort of "Trade Showcase" place, where people could put up a limited number of Pokemon they want to trade, as well as a note saying what they want for it. The place itself wouldn't actually do any of the work with the trading, it's just there so that you could search for what people are willing to trade. When you find what you're looking for, you send a message to the person who is trading it and you do the trade the old-fashioned way. This way, you can specify whatever you want on the note; you just type it in. It can be Pokedollars, items, Pokemon, or something else entirely (obviously that would have to be policed a bit). This idea could probably be expanded to include showcasing items as well.
Professions. One of the things I've loved about WoW is that you get to choose two professions which allow you to craft all sorts of useful things for yourself and others, as well as giving you a source of income. While not necessary to a Pokemon MMO, it would be really nice if there were some professions that you could pick up. I've thought about this one alot while waiting at the bus stop on weekday mornings, and so far I've only been able to come up with 3 professions that would fit in the Pokemon World: Ball Engineer (Makes Pokeballs. Starts out making balls that are only slightly more effective than normal Pokeballs, but can eventually make much more powerful balls at higher levels. Perhaps even be able to make Masterballs as their sort of "profession epic".), Nutritionist (Starts out making simple recovery items out of berries and such, and can later make stat-boosting items such as Iron, Calcium, HP Up, etc. Eventually can make Rare Candy as their "profession epic".), and Accessorizer (Mostly makes hold items. Haven't really thought too much about this one.). I thought about having a few gathering profressions, but I just didn't think it'd fit much with the way Pokemon works. I mean, it'd seem kinda odd seeing a 10 year old kid slaving over a metal ore deposit, and then taking the ore to a blazing hot forge to smelt so he could get materials for crafting his Pokeballs. I figure it'd just be easier to make it so you could find the materials being held by some Pokemon when you catch them or just have them laying around the world waiting to be picked up.
Discuss. I want to hear some opinions on this, whether you think it could work or not.
