Stuff I've figured out
Jun. 7th, 2016 06:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dmxratedSent an email to Brian and Jake yesterday morning, and later to Marie when I happened to spot her on Gchat and bring up this whole issue as the main thing going on right now.
Just wrote in my notebook this morning about why the player's guide for Black/White was the only one for any Pokemon games I never played in depth to actually engage me; why it did, and why nothing subsequent did (including that for X/Y, which introduced its own region and all its own mons as did B/W).
At the time that I read that particular guide (May 2012), I was still more interested in writing Parasitic Trio, even eight months after mostly abandoning the games, than I had ever been since. It was in October that year that I would finally get down to the until-then-untitled Starbound, and from there, PT pretty much took a back seat behind that. Even though I was mostly focused on Kanji in Context between our trip to Virginia during September '11 and Marie's college graduation all those months later, I wasn't dealing with anyone fictional through that. And despite how much I had dreamed of writing Monster Collection Chronicles at the time, I intended to actually begin that after discussing my plans for it with Chelle, which only happened during the summer of '12 and revealed the plot I thought up over many years to be incredibly broken.
At this point, I don't think it's any coincidence that my interest in PT and what was left of MCC both waned when my attention shifted to Starbound. I think both of those still held my interest at the time because I didn't have Starbound or anything else to focus on, which is exactly why I was so interested in writing a sequel ficseries to Mon Colle Knights despite lacking much interest in most of that show's canonical mons or events (most of my interest in MCK itself was in its main characters and how cute they were).
But, moving on, one of the reasons I wish* I never abandoned the games to begin with, is because my old way of playing the games was unique. But then again, the purpose of games is to entertain me, games themselves are by definition lifeless (compared to prose or full-motion), I never planned until late in Pearl (2008, nine years after entering the fandom itself) to actually breathe life into anything through novelizations, my planned way of writing Parasitic Trio, naturally, would drop certain aspects that I liked from the games, and no one worth any self-respect considers anyone or anything that cheats (in this case, by skewing probabilities of different things in their favor or against the player's) worth playing against. (Pulling Ice Beam to coincide with a switch to something particularly vulnerable when there's no reason to use it without knowing what the player would even do? Bullshit!)
Anyway, I hope either of you understand my point with all that, and if you have any feedback you could give me, I would appreciate it.
(*Emphasis added in, because Brian obviously misread that part and commended me for "never" doing so for the reason I specified. Speaking of him, he also praised the writing as legitimate, while also critiquing the fourth paragraph in whichever fic he read as one long run-on sentence. Just checked all three fics, though, and I'm gonna need him to specify which one next time I speak to him, but in any case, I did reply that Jake was the one whose writing actually went through, and I would need to show him what my own version looked like before presenting to him to elaborate on.)
Last night, I pretty much concluded that, if I really did still see Pokemon as anything special, I would not have made it my backup project in the first place. I remember thinking about it constantly all those years ago, and the following events in particular:
The Pal Park: Even though this was the reason I went back to play the remaining Gen III games between Pearl and Diamond, I would have done away with it if I hadn't learned about an old video game promotion called SwordQuest. Here, the mains would have participated in this after all challenging the Elite Four of Sinnoh, and the event itself would take place as a five-day contest to see who could catch the best six Pokemon each participant had yet to own each within a virtual environment corresponding to the elements of Fire (representing FireRed), Water (Sapphire), Earth (Ruby), Wind (Emerald), and Life (LeafGreen), as well as throughout the event overall.
While everyone scoring below would obtain a regular item of value corresponding to their place, those scoring 2nd or 3rd in each event would be awarded one of twelve items canonically obtainable only through past events (one of which would be absent). Normally, that is not something I would have gone out of my way to implement, but considering what happened to the SwordQuest campaign in real life, those are pretty much justified by those scoring 1st getting the prizes that were held then and, naturally, were never even canon to Pokemon.
-Fire: The chalice would summon a Pikachu-colored Pichu to bring to Ilex Forest in Johto and summon a spiky-eared Pichu.
-Water: The crown would summon Jirachi, who would unlock the PokeWalker route Night Sky's Edge, but more importantly, be able to grant wishes and befriend the wielder for one week before returning to its slumber. (At one time, it was specified on Bulbapedia that only an event Jirachi could unlock that route, but that was cleared up since then.)
-Earth: The philosopher's stone would summon a Regigigas, with which to access three different ruins throughout Sinnoh in which each of the lesser legendary golems reside.
-Wind: The talisman would summon a Shaymin that, unlike the one in Flower Paradise, could assume its Sky forme with a special Gracidea flower from someone residing in Floaroma Town. (Even though both forme and item were introduced only in Platinum, it did turn out at some point that even one caught within Diamond or Pearl could change forme when traded to Platinum, HeartGold, or SoulSilver.)
-Life: A shield (my own invention) would summon a Celebi, with which to go back in time. Should any of the mains receive this, they would travel back to the past where they are to confront Cyrus at Lake Verity and battle him during the events leading up to those that began the story.
-And in the end, whoever scored the most points overall would receive the sword, with which to summon Arceus to bring to Sinjoh Ruins. (In the games, an Arceus obtained from the Hall of Origin from Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum and traded off to HeartGold or SoulSilver was just as viable to unlock certain events at SR as one obtained directly in a real-life promotion, even though the Azure Flute never was distributed to enable legitimate access to the Hall.)
As I had based my former experiences with the games on luck, whatever the mains end up winning would be decided through various algorithms to determine everything that ends up happening.
The Battle Frontiers: Even though I didn't spend much time with the one in Emerald before starting my first playthrough in Diamond, this would become one of my favorite parts of the series between aborting said Diamond run and obtaining SoulSilver for my following birthday, in which I would seek mainly to raise points with which to exchange for stuff to bundle whichever mons I'd migrate from that game to SS and my second playthrough of Diamond with. (And to think that the Pokemon can't hold anything upon being migrated from gen IV onward, leaving my only purpose of the Frontier in SS left being to buy any TMs for which I land a double-5.)
As I sought only to see how far I could get in each facility (along with the Battle Towers in Ruby, Sapphire, and Pearl for a perfect 10 with the seven comprising the gen III Frontier) during only the time that I intended to spend at each Frontier, the mains would only be given a week for each of their Frontier visits before they'd have to pay to continue battling there, and the actual outcomes are not set for them to ultimately win all the gold prints. Originally, while all three mains would take on the gen IV Frontier during the final chapters of the story, only May would have taken on the one from gen III before travelling to Sinnoh. However, then came Black and White to introduce the Battle Subway, which, while much simpler like the standalone Battle Towers in Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Diamond, and Pearl, appealed to me as a nice concept to supplement the gen IV frontier with, but I could only think of to double as a means between both Frontiers, essentially making them into just one. (Isn't the actual purpose of a subway to commute? Wouldn't it have been practical in canon for there to be multiple places at which to access or leave, moving to the next stop after each battle, which I gather it was in the anime?)
More importantly, these were where all the focus would be on battling all manner of other Trainers' Pokemon, to be decided via RandomInteger. Also adding to this would be the potential for the mains to run into and team up with any of the five characters that join you at different points in DPP, and unlike in the games (where they can only aide you in the Battle Tower), the mains could enlist them (as well as eachother) to fight double-battles in any facility of their choice.
-----
While those two whole things were what I looked forward to the most, they would have been pretty meaningless were they to stand alone, apart from everything else that would have happened throughout the story. Nowadays, though, they seem kinda meaningless anyway, since this whole thing is about material gain and reflecting how I used to play the games. Brian even did once describe such stuff as happens after the Elite Four in each game as anticlimactic (first paragraph in cut).
(And, at this point, I'm feeling a bit burnt out to go on about what actually appealed to me when I read the player's guide for Black/White through and what I proceeded to imagine from there. So, maybe later today, so that I can show Brian both these entries on the same page.)
Just wrote in my notebook this morning about why the player's guide for Black/White was the only one for any Pokemon games I never played in depth to actually engage me; why it did, and why nothing subsequent did (including that for X/Y, which introduced its own region and all its own mons as did B/W).
At the time that I read that particular guide (May 2012), I was still more interested in writing Parasitic Trio, even eight months after mostly abandoning the games, than I had ever been since. It was in October that year that I would finally get down to the until-then-untitled Starbound, and from there, PT pretty much took a back seat behind that. Even though I was mostly focused on Kanji in Context between our trip to Virginia during September '11 and Marie's college graduation all those months later, I wasn't dealing with anyone fictional through that. And despite how much I had dreamed of writing Monster Collection Chronicles at the time, I intended to actually begin that after discussing my plans for it with Chelle, which only happened during the summer of '12 and revealed the plot I thought up over many years to be incredibly broken.
At this point, I don't think it's any coincidence that my interest in PT and what was left of MCC both waned when my attention shifted to Starbound. I think both of those still held my interest at the time because I didn't have Starbound or anything else to focus on, which is exactly why I was so interested in writing a sequel ficseries to Mon Colle Knights despite lacking much interest in most of that show's canonical mons or events (most of my interest in MCK itself was in its main characters and how cute they were).
But, moving on, one of the reasons I wish* I never abandoned the games to begin with, is because my old way of playing the games was unique. But then again, the purpose of games is to entertain me, games themselves are by definition lifeless (compared to prose or full-motion), I never planned until late in Pearl (2008, nine years after entering the fandom itself) to actually breathe life into anything through novelizations, my planned way of writing Parasitic Trio, naturally, would drop certain aspects that I liked from the games, and no one worth any self-respect considers anyone or anything that cheats (in this case, by skewing probabilities of different things in their favor or against the player's) worth playing against. (Pulling Ice Beam to coincide with a switch to something particularly vulnerable when there's no reason to use it without knowing what the player would even do? Bullshit!)
Anyway, I hope either of you understand my point with all that, and if you have any feedback you could give me, I would appreciate it.
(*Emphasis added in, because Brian obviously misread that part and commended me for "never" doing so for the reason I specified. Speaking of him, he also praised the writing as legitimate, while also critiquing the fourth paragraph in whichever fic he read as one long run-on sentence. Just checked all three fics, though, and I'm gonna need him to specify which one next time I speak to him, but in any case, I did reply that Jake was the one whose writing actually went through, and I would need to show him what my own version looked like before presenting to him to elaborate on.)
Last night, I pretty much concluded that, if I really did still see Pokemon as anything special, I would not have made it my backup project in the first place. I remember thinking about it constantly all those years ago, and the following events in particular:
The Pal Park: Even though this was the reason I went back to play the remaining Gen III games between Pearl and Diamond, I would have done away with it if I hadn't learned about an old video game promotion called SwordQuest. Here, the mains would have participated in this after all challenging the Elite Four of Sinnoh, and the event itself would take place as a five-day contest to see who could catch the best six Pokemon each participant had yet to own each within a virtual environment corresponding to the elements of Fire (representing FireRed), Water (Sapphire), Earth (Ruby), Wind (Emerald), and Life (LeafGreen), as well as throughout the event overall.
While everyone scoring below would obtain a regular item of value corresponding to their place, those scoring 2nd or 3rd in each event would be awarded one of twelve items canonically obtainable only through past events (one of which would be absent). Normally, that is not something I would have gone out of my way to implement, but considering what happened to the SwordQuest campaign in real life, those are pretty much justified by those scoring 1st getting the prizes that were held then and, naturally, were never even canon to Pokemon.
-Fire: The chalice would summon a Pikachu-colored Pichu to bring to Ilex Forest in Johto and summon a spiky-eared Pichu.
-Water: The crown would summon Jirachi, who would unlock the PokeWalker route Night Sky's Edge, but more importantly, be able to grant wishes and befriend the wielder for one week before returning to its slumber. (At one time, it was specified on Bulbapedia that only an event Jirachi could unlock that route, but that was cleared up since then.)
-Earth: The philosopher's stone would summon a Regigigas, with which to access three different ruins throughout Sinnoh in which each of the lesser legendary golems reside.
-Wind: The talisman would summon a Shaymin that, unlike the one in Flower Paradise, could assume its Sky forme with a special Gracidea flower from someone residing in Floaroma Town. (Even though both forme and item were introduced only in Platinum, it did turn out at some point that even one caught within Diamond or Pearl could change forme when traded to Platinum, HeartGold, or SoulSilver.)
-Life: A shield (my own invention) would summon a Celebi, with which to go back in time. Should any of the mains receive this, they would travel back to the past where they are to confront Cyrus at Lake Verity and battle him during the events leading up to those that began the story.
-And in the end, whoever scored the most points overall would receive the sword, with which to summon Arceus to bring to Sinjoh Ruins. (In the games, an Arceus obtained from the Hall of Origin from Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum and traded off to HeartGold or SoulSilver was just as viable to unlock certain events at SR as one obtained directly in a real-life promotion, even though the Azure Flute never was distributed to enable legitimate access to the Hall.)
As I had based my former experiences with the games on luck, whatever the mains end up winning would be decided through various algorithms to determine everything that ends up happening.
The Battle Frontiers: Even though I didn't spend much time with the one in Emerald before starting my first playthrough in Diamond, this would become one of my favorite parts of the series between aborting said Diamond run and obtaining SoulSilver for my following birthday, in which I would seek mainly to raise points with which to exchange for stuff to bundle whichever mons I'd migrate from that game to SS and my second playthrough of Diamond with. (And to think that the Pokemon can't hold anything upon being migrated from gen IV onward, leaving my only purpose of the Frontier in SS left being to buy any TMs for which I land a double-5.)
As I sought only to see how far I could get in each facility (along with the Battle Towers in Ruby, Sapphire, and Pearl for a perfect 10 with the seven comprising the gen III Frontier) during only the time that I intended to spend at each Frontier, the mains would only be given a week for each of their Frontier visits before they'd have to pay to continue battling there, and the actual outcomes are not set for them to ultimately win all the gold prints. Originally, while all three mains would take on the gen IV Frontier during the final chapters of the story, only May would have taken on the one from gen III before travelling to Sinnoh. However, then came Black and White to introduce the Battle Subway, which, while much simpler like the standalone Battle Towers in Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Diamond, and Pearl, appealed to me as a nice concept to supplement the gen IV frontier with, but I could only think of to double as a means between both Frontiers, essentially making them into just one. (Isn't the actual purpose of a subway to commute? Wouldn't it have been practical in canon for there to be multiple places at which to access or leave, moving to the next stop after each battle, which I gather it was in the anime?)
More importantly, these were where all the focus would be on battling all manner of other Trainers' Pokemon, to be decided via RandomInteger. Also adding to this would be the potential for the mains to run into and team up with any of the five characters that join you at different points in DPP, and unlike in the games (where they can only aide you in the Battle Tower), the mains could enlist them (as well as eachother) to fight double-battles in any facility of their choice.
-----
While those two whole things were what I looked forward to the most, they would have been pretty meaningless were they to stand alone, apart from everything else that would have happened throughout the story. Nowadays, though, they seem kinda meaningless anyway, since this whole thing is about material gain and reflecting how I used to play the games. Brian even did once describe such stuff as happens after the Elite Four in each game as anticlimactic (first paragraph in cut).
(And, at this point, I'm feeling a bit burnt out to go on about what actually appealed to me when I read the player's guide for Black/White through and what I proceeded to imagine from there. So, maybe later today, so that I can show Brian both these entries on the same page.)