What would it take? A Pokemon MMO

[mr_pikachu]

A few points I'd like to make, some more relevant than others.

The way I see it, a Pokémon MMORPG can't be made on the current base. It would have to be upped from E to at least 12+ or something. Only then could you insert the action and hidden sexuality that attracts the most audience.

I'll get you, Pokémon!

For example, in fire, in water, in grass, in forests
in earth, in clouds, in that girl's skirt (eek!)

-Mezase Pokémon Master (translated)

1)
The battles so far are all based on turn-based game play (except Ranger and Snap), while it should be possible to just send out a Pokémon and have it attack in any random direction.

I'm picturing a wide open plain, on which PC's can send out any number of Pokémon (up to 6) and have it follow them around.

I'm not sure maintaining a turn-based system is necessary. Personally, I've long envisioned it sort of like the 3D Legend of Zelda games in terms of free movement. And while I'm a little averse to MP meters for a Pokemon game, something similar could (should?) probably be employed to make things more realistic. That would get past the artificial "you can't use more than five Fire Blasts!" limitation, which would be more suitable for getting people involved in the world.

As you said, not all Pokemon games these days rely on that counter, so why should an MMO of Pokemon? Decreasing the "energy loss" from using a powerful move could, in my view, be a valuable reward for levelling up.

2)
The leveling system as it is might be less than fit for an MMO. Maybe Pokémon should be able to grow in more than the present 3 ways: level, stats and content stats. Maybe they should be able to become better at, for instance, 17 stats, one for each Pokémon type, it might be better.
As such, you could train your Rattata until it learns Hyper Fang, while it doesn't necessarily have to know Bite yet. Or maybe you could train the parts of your Pokémon's body, have it grow better fangs while it claws may remain undeveloped.

No offense, but this seems a little overcomplicated to me. A few adjustments wouldn't be bad, but only to add to the realism of the world. Easy example regarding the "MP bar": it no longer wears me out to throw ten consecutive roundhouse kicks, but it was a little tiring when I started martial arts. In contrast, it's impossible to throw a double roundhouse until you can do a single roundhouse, and the advanced double jumping snap kick must be preceded by learning a single snap kick.

It would make a little more sense if, say, a Pikachu could learn Slash before Thundershock; just as some people learn certain kicks before punches, a Pikachu might learn claw strikes before honing its electric powers. But I think you'd have to be very careful to avoid overcomplicating matters; at most, maybe you'd have separate stats for Physical and Special moves.

The question still remains how you'd accumulate Exp. points for each one individually. Would the game keep track of the moves you used of that type, or something? What about Pokemon who only know one type of move but might learn the other later... how would one accumulate Special Exp., for instance, if it knew only Physical moves?

3)
What is a successful MMO without a good marketing strategy? Booster packs might make it easy for you to customize your game as you want it, while railing the money in for the "suits". And so, you could keep playing the same game, while being able to go to new places.
They could make, say, a "Kanto Pack", where you can go to Kanto and beat the Gym Leaders, catch the native Pokémon, and so on.
Or, Booster Packs could influence which Pokémon the NPC have. Say, based on the inserted region, they have other Pokémon, while keeping the same "genre" of Pokémon they train, e.g. based on Breeding Groups.
And, if they really make low-level Packs, you could make it so you never have to battle "that yellow rodent", or the box-filling uselessness that can be Unown.

Totally agree with packs to unlock new lands. Not so sure about influencing NPC's Pokemon, but maybe there would be sufficient appeal in, say, dodging Zubat.

4)
... All that aside... It should be a 3rd Game for the Wii, IMO. And in any case, more cut scenes are needed. The game, and anime, suffers from static dialogue at some points: too much text (and "!" signs), and too little action (including sudden changes in scenery and unexpected yet unavoidable sidequests).

Does the Wii have the proper capabilities to handle an MMO? People have had enough trouble with Super Smash Bros. Brawl battling; I worry about what might happen if dozens, even hundreds of trainers were in close proximity with one another in one location. When the movements of three human players are significantly delayed, what would happen with an MMO? This is one of the central obstacles for this project... the developers would almost certainly have to make use of computer hardware rather than that of a Nintendo product.

[classy_cat18]

Does the Wii have the proper capabilities to handle an MMO? People have had enough trouble with Super Smash Bros. Brawl battling; I worry about what might happen if dozens, even hundreds of trainers were in close proximity with one another in one location.

Let's see...493 Pokemon if legendaries are allowed to be caught (which would present a problem with the balance of the MMO), millions of fans in Japan alone...

The size and complexity would put WoW to shame. And putting it together might take a few...years.

[mr_pikachu]

I can think of two ways to get around the legendary "problem."

1. Restrict their use in battles. Maybe they would only be allowed in specific, elite tournaments or something with stringent enough qualifications to ensure that all competitors would pretty much have to have legendaries. Like "The Pokemon MMO World Championships" or something that big.

2. Make every legendary encounter an extremely rare "event" that almost never happens. Then, either have the legendaries unobtainable (i.e. you have to KO them for massive experience; catching them doesn't work) or follow idea #1.

Also, your post reminded me of another wrinkle in the "hardware capability" problem... if trainers are allowing their Pokemon to roam free in a crowded environment (or if they're battling one another), that multiplies the number of simultaneously displayed characters up to seven-fold. Talk about a server crash waiting to happen... particularly if it's being done with the questionable Nintendo Wi-Fi network.

I'm not sure creating working models for 493 Pokemon would add that much development time, though. If anything, it would probably shorten it; most modern RPG probably have monsters that number in the thousands.