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Forum Games / Re: "What Are You Thinking Now?"
« on: March 18, 2011, 08:16:36 AM »All franchises sooner or later, have to evolve. I can't see Pokémon keeping the same appeal forever. Transformers and GI Joe have both evolved ALOT by keeping up with the tastes of the people, while Mario has evolved in his own way, setting up trends. Pokémon is a game which has got to evolve, but Nintendo are being very stubborn about it. But a franchise might stop dead in its tracks at any moment. It's doing very well now, but it's pretty much keeping up its number one spot in the "only RPG everyone plays" place. Get a franchise more interesting than it, for all ages, and Pokémon is done for. Currently, it's in a WoW-like position, enjoying its victory. It has the promise of always giving us the same thing over and over and over again, because it simply makes money from that. But all big things can fall.
I'm not gonna lie. I'm honestly hoping something absolutely horrible and terrible happens to the franchise. Because that's when generally shake-ups and changes happen. And change = good. Heck, Nintendo aren't making a Pokémon MMO, purely because of the same old tired restrictions they put on every single game, with the "everyone is a pedophile" logic. If they actually made a good Pokémon MMO, and marketed it in the right way, with an amazing online setup and stable servers, it would have an oportunity unlike any other before: It could dethrone WoW. Maybe a change in the anime. New cast, more interesting plot, make it so everyone's talking about it once more and not "oh, that's the thing I quit watching when I was ten". Kids are always going to watch it, and adults would be interested in it once more.
Something horrible needs to happen. Not for anyone's sake. But for the sake of keeping things interesting.
You know, you did a wonderful job of actually proving my point!
Like I said, Pokemon hasn't evolved yet because it doesn't need too. It's not stubbornness, it's just simple business. Why change something that works so well already? It still sells millions based on the essentially the same, primary formula from Red & Blue with a few tweaks here and there, and it has ZERO, repeat, ZERO competition. I mean, if I were to properly define the genre of game it is, it's essentially an Adorable Battle Collection RPG (an ABCRPG if you will), and there's no other game like it that's out or even comes close to dethroning it. It has what we in the board game industry call a Monopoly on its genre and audience, as well as has a marketing campaign second only to YuGiOh in sheer brilliance. (second because you spend a fuckton more on YuGiOh cards than you do Pokemon). But Pokemon is not like Metroid, Zelda,, Final Fantasy, WoW, or any other game franchise because it has nothing to stop it or really take that much money away from it.
Honestly, I'm glad a Pokemon MMO hasn't come out yet, cause as proven by their lack of online functionality for their systems, it wouldn't do well. However, what I hope is with their next system, it will have the capability & dedicated servers (and I can't [tornado fang]ing stress enough how a Pokemon MMO will need it's own dedicated servers) to fully support a Pokemon MMO. If and when they do though, it will make them billions, cause again, it'll have no competition. But this is why it can last forever. Because they haven't even tapped the franchise's full potential yet.
