Pokémon Sword And Shield Will Fall Short of Expectations
Why PokeMMO thrives and why Pokémon Sword and Shield won't
Pokémon Sword and Shield released today with mixed fanfare: IGN and The Verge laud the new games while Reddit and Twitter communities — for a plethora of well-founded reasons — strongly criticize the game. As I write, the midnight lines are as long as ever and people are hyped for the games. I have no idea what to think until I play the game.
My favorite quote about the whole ordeal goes something like this:
I finally realized why the new Pokémon games are called Sword and Shield. Half the internet attacks the games while the other half defends it 😂 - Reddit user whose post I cannot for the life of me find
I talked to one of my best friends — who goes by the moniker, Vaw, and remains an avid fan of the franchise — to get his thoughts on the matter: why he still plays today and what keeps him from purchasing Sword and Shield at launch (and also to understand better the #GameFreakLied trend on Twitter) He currently plays a game called PokeMMO, which is an online, user-generated spin-off of the original Pokémon games, and writes the following:
The Pokémon Sword and Shield games are increasingly looking like disappointments. Some critics have praised the games but fans all around the internet are dismayed. Many features near and dear to the hearts of long-time fans have been cut and new promises were not kept. GameFreak, the developer behind the core Pokémon games, is under fire for claiming that limitations on these new games are due to the need to re-animate hundreds of pokémon, but leaks have demonstrated that the models are almost entirely reused from older games. The most significant limitation is the cut of the Pokédex, the first time GameFreak has removed pokémon from a core game in 23 years. Leaks indicate that Sword and Shield will only include 400 Pokémon (including many of the newer generation), slashing hundreds from the previous generation’s whopping list of 809.
PokeMMO is an excellent way to scratch the Pokémon itch instilled in us despite the negative hype surrounding Pokémon Sword & Shield. While the newest iterations of the Pokémon franchise are shaping up to be nothing special, the PokeMMO project is a brilliant addition. The age-old desire of the Pokémon community is a user-published Pokémon massive multiplayer online (MMO) game. While Nintendo has not supported this game, the 112,000 user strong forum attached to the unofficial, player-made game is a testament to the fans’ desire for a Pokémon game in the MMO format.
PokeMMO, live since 2012, focuses on bringing ROMs of official Pokémon games into a true multiplayer. It leaves the stories and mechanics of the games largely alone while letting you tackle them with friends. Mechanics like swapping rare catches on the run, battling, exchanging crucial items, and solving puzzles as a team bring new excitement to games that are already classics.
It’s worth noting that this game, while three generations behind today’s release, includes nearly 150 more Pokémon. - Vaw
There are a couple things Vaw writes that are important to unpack.
(1) PokeMMO is unsanctioned by Nintendo. This is a Pokémon game created by the community, for the community. And it’s for this reason why their community is so vibrant. It’s the community that dictates the direction of the game. It’s the community that perpetuates the life and the interactions on the platform. It’s the community that gives existence and meaning to the game, playing it even after seven years. They’ve set a high bar.
Today’s release of Sword and Shield represents an iteration of Pokémon that isn’t community-driven, a product that, propelled by the strength of the brand, may or may not live up to people’s expectations.
(2) Unlike Sword and Shield, PokeMMO is in its DNA a social game: users can play and talk, party up and battle, explore and train. It’s a platform that lives and breathes through socialization and evolves as more content is added — a third place outside of the home and work to hang out with others, digitally. This is extremely profound.
(3) PokeMMO isn’t necessarily creating new content. It's layering content on top of IP that already exists. Why hasn’t Nintendo shut the game down due to copyright infringement? No idea. My guess is that it hints to Nintendo a future direction in which the game needs to grow. Keeping it alive informs future product decisions.
(4) 112,000 people are active in the PokeMMO forum community! I don’t have insight into the specifics of MAUs; however, the fact that people are active in this supplemental sphere of the game is telling of the strength of the IP and community.
(5) It’s Free-to-Play!! Sword and Shield are both getting a $20 price hike to $60 for a reportedly shorter storyline. PokeMMO touts 3 regions (essentially three games in one, with rumors of another coming soon) for no price other than suggested donations. This (and subscriptions) are the monetization models of the future. Why hasn’t GameFreak taken note?
(6) Pokémon Sword and Shield are limited in scope; that is, it has one storyline, a certain number of available pokémon in the actual game, and no potential to update. Contrast this with PokeMMO, where updates and new aspects of the game can easily be pushed to users, there isn’t the same continuous development. The fact of the matter is that Sword and Shield are still riding the laurels of previous games. This complacency is dangerous.
Why will Pokémon Sword and Shield fall short of expectations? To bottom line it, there’s a large disconnect between how games are being produced and thought about vs. GameFreak’s latest product. Games are increasingly social, they’re incubated and marketed by influencers who can play with their friends, they’re powerfully adaptive to consumer preferences, and they’re malleable to how consumers want to shape their playing experience. From what I’ve seen and heard, Sword and Shield haven’t quite reached this point. Perhaps this is a shortcoming of the Switch — its processing power, weak internet connectivity, etc. — but that’s a discussion for another time.
A disclaimer: I haven’t yet played Pokémon Sword and Shield, but I don’t intend to buy it unless I hear positive reviews from the community. Still, I have no doubt that fans will buy the games and they’ll be a huge success from a revenue standpoint. In transparency, my criticism comes from a place of love and nostalgia for the franchise. I want to see the series to fill its potential. PokeMMO clearly has great product direction, and GameFreak should take note. At any rate, I’ll always be hyped for a new game release.
Thank you to @Vaw for the comparison of PokeMMO to Sword and Shield. It speaks volumes about the larger trends in the games industry that incumbents like The Pokémon Company haven’t yet necessarily taken to action. I personally cannot wait to play PokeMMO over the upcoming few weeks to fully understand why this user-generated mod continues to bring in thousands of players. - Fawzi
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