So, it seems a lot of people want a pokemon MMO, but how do you translate pokemon into MMO - the games don't exactly facilitate group play, but I thought of something...VERY rough draft, don't be too harsh.

You make a character, like any other MMO pick gender, hair color, hair style, clothes, ect.

Then you pick a starter continent, Kanto, Jhoto, Hoenn, sinnoh or Unova. You can only pick a starter from that continents game(IE, if you want a charmander to start you HAVE to pick Kanto) as well as pokemon unique to them.

Other places such as orre, orange islands, Fiore, and the like would be in the game as either "high level" areas, areas used in minigames or future content, ect.

Because NO pokemon game would be complete without adding new pokemons/continent, there would be places, gym leaders, pokemon and such ENTIRELY unique to the MMO.

wild pokemon exist in the form of MOBS, and trainers in the form of NPCs that can be fought or even traded with.

you have an action bar with 4 slots, how those slots fill are dependant entirely on what active pokemon you have out. For each pokemon in your party. You set the 4 "active" moves it has all other moves it knows are set in a menu to be swapped out - You never have to "forget" a move, only change them out - this cannot be done during fights NPC or otherwise.

you're given 2 levels, the level of your current pokemon(if you have one) and the level of your trainer. Pokemon level effects how much HP it has, how much damage it does, evolving, ect. Your trainer level effects what items you can use such as pokeball, great ball, potion/super potion but also what pokemon you can use

surf and swim fuction how flying/swimming mounts do in current MMOs - Rather then flying instantly to your location, you have to manually fly there. In addition, you do not have to make each pokemon learn HMs, once you own them all pokemon that can learn the ability automatically have the passive abilities - IE, even if fly isn't one of the "actives" for charizard, you can still fly on him. But a pokemon with that ability has to be out, if you're using parasect and tryto use fly, it'll give you an error IE:that pokemon can't do that!

Gym leaders would function more like instances in most MMOs, where as legendary/powerful pokemon would function more like raids - it'll take more then one trainer who grinded a full team to level 100 to take down a literal GOD, lets be real.

I have played it, and it was decent.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/368/Shin-Megami-Tensei-Imagine.html

Originally posted by GTwander

I have played it, and it was decent.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/368/Shin-Megami-Tensei-Imagine.html

I was not aware that even existed. Looks P2win though so..

If it just involved the first 150 pokemon, I would be tempted to play it just for nostaliga purposes.  

If I'm honest I couldn't really get into a lore that I worshiped when I was 8.  It would feel weird - too childish.

Originally posted by azrael466

Originally posted by GTwander

I have played it, and it was decent.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/368/Shin-Megami-Tensei-Imagine.html

I was not aware that even existed. Looks P2win though so..

The Aeria version was 100% so. I remember them posting 'limited edition' weapons at 80$ a pop at one time, but now the game is run by Atlus. No idea how it looks these days, but I might just try it back out sooner or later.

Originally posted by QuicklyScott

If it just involved the first 150 pokemon, I would be tempted to play it just for nostaliga purposes.  

 

If I'm honest I couldn't really get into a lore that I worshiped when I was 8.  It would feel weird - too childish.

Well, I can't say about the anime(Refuse to watch anything passed the kanto seasons), but pokemon black/white actually had a pretty well written plot, and the orre games are VERY dark for a game rated E If they make it with the older crowd in mind, make it for the people who grew UP with pokemon and it would be amazing, I think.

Play it? I would re-live my childhood through it. Just imagine travelling through a fully realized Safari....

In regards to your ideas, I think they are very good. However, I think that instead of restricting which pokemon you may use depending on your Trainer Level, it should just restrict the max Pokemon Level that your pokemon may reach. In addition, you could have mini-instances like Beauty Contests, Bike Races and other mini-games that you could queue up for and win rewards by competing against other players.

Needless to say, there should be Player-ran Tournaments as well as an Official Pokemon League with Monthly and Yearly Tournaments.

Oh and Pokemon Breeding of course, maybe in a personal instance where you (and any invited friends) can interact with all your stored pokemon?

Originally posted by azrael466

Well, I can't say about the anime(Refuse to watch anything passed the kanto seasons), but pokemon black/white actually had a pretty well written plot, and the orre games are VERY dark for a game rated E If they make it with the older crowd in mind, make it for the people who grew UP with pokemon and it would be amazing, I think.

Yeah, unfortunately a pokemon MMO would be incredibly simplified for the younger generations.

One can dream though, a full-fledged pokemon MMO would have incredible potential.

Originally posted by fundayz

Seriously though, a full-fledged pokemon MMO would have incredible potential.

Yeah, but do you seriously think they would let you have Mewtwo or Snorlax without a CS pokeball?

Originally posted by GTwander

Originally posted by fundayz

Seriously though, a full-fledged pokemon MMO would have incredible potential.

Yeah, but do you seriously think they would let you have Mewtwo or Snorlax without a CS pokeball?

Snorlax's aren't THAT rare but yeah I could definitely see Nintendo selling out like that.

I remember just one in Red/Blue, but that could just be old age creeping up on me.

Originally posted by GTwander

I remember just one in Red/Blue, but that could just be old age creeping up on me.

I think there are 2 or 3 in blue/red

Of course, for SNORLAX, long respawn.

Shinys take the form of VERY VERY rare respawns in place of a regular pokemon.

As for the legendary pokemon, make those extremely rare "drops" or otherwise just very hard to get.

An open world Pokemon MMO that started with the original 150 and expanded from there would be awesome IMO.

Social gameplay could include player vs. player duels, team vs team matches, gym vs. gym (guild) tournament PvP, as well as certain PvE areas that are crammed with hostile pokemon that require players to group up and battles against powerful pokemon that require multiple players to take down (thinking like Mewtwo here).

Because you're leveling up your individual pokemon rather than yourself, casuals can still compete with a small team of trained Pokemon while hardcores obviously will work on training their entire collection.

There are a number of quality ideas from the handheld games that could be expanded upon as well.

Actually, that there is no official Pokemon MMO is to me pretty mind-boggling, except that they're probably still making a lot of money off the handheld games and the MMO would make the handheld versions obsolete for a number of players.

Originally posted by Rockhide

Actually, that there is no official Pokemon MMO is to me pretty mind-boggling, except that they're probably still making a lot of money off the handheld games and the MMO would make the handheld versions obsolete for a number of players.

Nintendo being Nintendo.

The world of pokemon is so fleshed out and so many of the RPG features already fleshed out that translating it to an MMO would not be much of a problem. Not only that but since it's got such a huge fanbase, a Pokemon MMO could muster a huge budget in order to pack as many features as possible.

Originally posted by Rockhide

An open world Pokemon MMO that started with the original 150 and expanded from there would be awesome IMO.

 

Social gameplay could include player vs. player duels, team vs team matches, gym vs. gym (guild) tournament PvP, as well as certain PvE areas that are crammed with hostile pokemon that require players to group up and battles against powerful pokemon that require multiple players to take down (thinking like Mewtwo here).

 

Because you're leveling up your individual pokemon rather than yourself, casuals can still compete with a small team of trained Pokemon while hardcores obviously will work on training their entire collection.

 

There are a number of quality ideas from the handheld games that could be expanded upon as well.

 

Actually, that there is no official Pokemon MMO is to me pretty mind-boggling, except that they're probably still making a lot of money off the handheld games and the MMO would make the handheld versions obsolete for a number of players.

They could always find some way to intregate the hand helds into the MMO, I'm not talking anything MAJOR of course, maybe mini games sort of like the dream world? I really have nothing for that but it would keep the hand helds a live and relevent for a bit longer.

Junichi Masuda has an explanation.

"At this point, we're not thinking of going in that direction," says Masuda. "Trading is a core concept of Pokémon. So when you're trading, you meet with a friend and decide which one you want and which one they want. I would like to emphasize real-world communication. You don't see each other online."

So yeah, that would be why.

Originally posted by lifesbrink

 

Junichi Masuda has an explanation.

"At this point, we're not thinking of going in that direction," says Masuda. "Trading is a core concept of Pokémon. So when you're trading, you meet with a friend and decide which one you want and which one they want. I would like to emphasize real-world communication. You don't see each other online."

So yeah, that would be why.

 

wifi trading, lolwut?

Originally posted by lifesbrink

 

Junichi Masuda has an explanation.

"At this point, we're not thinking of going in that direction," says Masuda. "Trading is a core concept of Pokémon. So when you're trading, you meet with a friend and decide which one you want and which one they want. I would like to emphasize real-world communication. You don't see each other online."

So yeah, that would be why.

Does anyone else see how that Junichi guy needs a good smack?

"Trading is a core concept... but we want people to meet in person for it, for no particular reason."

~Even Japan, as a country, would rather do this over wifi if possible. Dude is a tard.

So...basically not having an offiical Pokemon MMO is for our own good?  ^_^

I started with Silver. Hell, i got my first Gameboy along with it. Then went Yellow and so forth. Stoped with the Ruby timeline. However, we porbably won't see a Pokemon mmo.

Nintendo's whole playerbase is using Gamebow/DS. They don't have much, if any, experience with mmo's. Also, year after year after year they keep using the exact same formula, only improving on general elements. Why risk millions in making this game, when they already have a winning strategy?

I would still play the sh** out of it. Players battleing each other, becoming a gym trainer or master. League champion of course. Also, if i can become a Team Rocket member and the theme song plays whenever i make an entrance, i'll pay a LTS for it :D

My standard response to would-you-play: "I don't care about IP, tell me about your game."

Many games have a hunter/tamer class that scours the land with a "gotta catch 'em all" attitude.  It seems to work best as a minigame.  As the focus of an entire MMO, it feels a little shallow.