Balian’s Worldview

Dear Mr. Okubo,

     I cannot tell you what an honour it is to write a letter to the Pokemon Corporation. I have been a fan of your games ever since the first ones came out. I began playing Pokemon Yellow when I was sixteen in 1997. I have watched the anime, including the first movies in the cinemas, and I have also played the card games for many years. Pokemon has truly become a big part of my existence. That is why I am so pleased to write to you personally. Thank you for your involvement in bringing pokemon to me and many more worldwide. You may not think so, but you really are part of something special.

     There are many amazing qualities of the world of pokemon and the games set in it.

     Firstly, it is possible to make many, many friends through these games. I often visit a fan-made pokemon website that uses calculators to help in developing strong pokemon. At the bottom of each page is a chat box where pokemon fans who visit the site can interact with other fans and players. I have made so many friends through this site from the U.S. and Canada to England, the Netherlands, and Australia. There are people aged 12 to 48 there. We have all visited the site initially to discover our pokemon’s strength. We have afterwards gravitated back time and time again due to our mutual love of pokemon and because of the fun and supportive community that has grown up because of it. In fact, you could easily say that I am writing this letter for myself and on behalf of my community. There are actually several large online communities that have gathered around your games.

     This particular series of games is—out of all the games out there—very unique because it transcends age, gender, culture, and language. In a world divided by religion, political affiliations, history, class, and differing interests, everyone everywhere can come together over pokemon. There are few games ever made that are able to do that. It truly is a unifying fantasy world anyone can enjoy and immerse themselves in.

     It is also enjoyable on many different levels. The games stress battling, but it is also possible to enjoy contests, breeding, the new poke-athalons said to be in HeartGold and SoulSilver, cooking, trading, the underground in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, and Platinum’s wi-fi plaza. In fact, the wi-fi capabilities, such as the plaza, are yet another way to expand the community. Through the plaza I have been able to interact with many Japanese players, which is an opportunity I don’t usually get due to the time difference. Many people have actually come together over the complex competitive battling pokemon offers.

     Perhaps the biggest benefit of the pokemon games is the simplicity of the hand-held games. Anyone can pick them up and enjoy them whether they are beginner or expert. This means that new players can enter the pokemon community whether they have previous experience or not.

     I have not played the Pokemon Ranger games personally, but from what I hear from my online friends, it is a particularly note-worthy series within pokemon for its fun gameplay and full use of the DS and DSi’s touch screens.

     Pokemon Platinum especially deserves praise because of its bold storyline. The episode with Giratina and the Distortion World was perhaps the best part of any of the games. I also thought Cyrus from Pokemon Platinum was a truly vivid character—a villain that stood out from the pokemon world’s other villains. It was a very good job. Many players consider Gold, Silver, and Crystal to be the best in the series, but I personally consider Pokemon Platinum to be the definitive pokemon game.

     Please do not take all my praise to mean the pokemon games are perfect. They are not. There are many flaws which detract from complete enjoyment of the world of pokemon. I know you are not the proper person to address these concerns to, Mr. Okubo, but I sincerely hope you may be able to direct my and my community’s worries on to the appropriate person to read them. Or perhaps you may be able to give me the proper address. The pokemon

games are wonderful as they are, but my community and I feel these flaws prevent the series from reaching a much wider audience of gamers and from the respect and grandeur it is destined for. Correcting them could also satisfy more fans, ensuring greater profits for your company.

     The first problem I need to mention is the fact that the games focus too much on younger, newer players and often dismisses or ignores older, more veteran players. While I said earlier that having hand-held games able to be picked up and played by anyone was a benefit—and it is—you shouldn’t want to focus too much on attracting newer players. This risks alienating the older players who have endorsed the games for over ten years since they themselves were children. The original players were a big part of the reason pokemon has succeeded so long. I and many of my friends online are beginning to feel like we are being forgotten in favour of newer players who may or may not stick around. We have remained loyal to the franchise since 1997, and yet we feel that we are considered little more than an afterthought. We think it would benefit everyone to have a pokemon game geared toward older players. After all, it isn’t as if pokemon fans stop playing the games as soon as they become a teenager. If they are truly dedicated fans, they’ll continue to play the games into their teen years and even into their adult years.

     Another problem is that the story of the main hand-held games such as Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum has not changed much since the series began. While the characters, setting, and villains change, it is essentially the same story in each game—10-year-old X must save region Y from Team Z while completing the pokemon league challenge. There are rarely even any deep themes to interest older players. Platinum’s deep themes are another reason it was so successful. As the games are now, they are somewhat monotonous. In fact, I feel it is safe to say that the only real innovation from game to game is the features. One member of my community even felt that the games aren’t even challenging. It’s easy to beat the game as long as you’re of a high enough level. You don’t even need strategy to beat any of the gym leaders or common trainers.

     The games are also often too battle-oriented. In an interview I read online, the director of Game Freak said that battling is for boys and contests are for girls. Firstly, I know many skilled girl battlers. Secondly, if this were true, shouldn’t there be the option of defeating gym leaders through contests? Even after you beat the game, there is nothing for you to do but endlessly battle at the battle tower or breed strong pokemon to battle against other players. There is little replay value in the games—little reason to keep playing after you have beaten the games. I believe the reason Pokemon Gold and Silver were so popular was that after you beat the game, you had another game to enjoy. In effect, Pokemon Gold and Silver were two games in one. There are also too few mini-games in those times you want to play the games without battling.

     As for the pokemon themselves, there are problems to solve. For one thing, there are too many running pokemon to chase down. This is not quite as fun as the game designers may have originally imagined. There were at least five running pokemon in Platinum, and I found it annoying having to hunt down each one.

     Then there is the fact that there are sometimes legendary pokemon from one game thrown haphazardly into another game without any reason for those pokemon to be present. With this I’m referring to the inclusion of the major legendaries of Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum being included in the new HeartGold and SoulSilver games. As the game has not yet debuted in America, I can only hope there is a story reason why they are included. Otherwise it would make little sense for them to be present. I have heard little or nothing of legendary pokemon that belong in those games such as Mewtwo. I find the foreign pokemon confusing.

     As for battling, it is frustrating to sometimes find that a pokemon’s available moves don’t suit the pokemon’s attributes. For instance, the pokemon Flareon is a very strong physical attacker, but most of its strong moves are not physical attacks. Most of its physical attacks are

actually too weak to seriously consider. There were some new physical attacks, such as flare blitz, in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, Mr. Okubo, which would have been perfect in this case. I’m not sure of the process by which the game creators decide which pokemon gets which attacks, but in some cases the result isn’t too desirable for players.

     I also find the breeding mechanics are perhaps too difficult or unpredictable. This has led to many players to resort to cheating to get the results they want such as using the action replay for the DS or manipulating the game’s internal random number generator. I doubt this is what the game creators intended.

     The last pokemon problem I wish to bring to your attention is the puzzling fact that there are rarely any fathers present in any of the pokemon games I have played. I can recall only two: Norman from Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald and Palmer from Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. The problem with these two men is that it seems they prefer to stay away from their families. It teaches children that it is normal for there to be fatherless families and perhaps fathers are unnecessary. I am not a father, but if I was, I would hope to be a positive and active part of my child’s life. Why do the pokemon games seem to ignore the important role of fathers? I hope it is not because fathers in the pokemon world readily abandon their families for the slightest reason. Many parents actually play pokemon with their children, including one father from my online community. It might disturb them to some degree that the role of father is largely absent from the games.

     After all that, you may be wondering what ways may help improve the games to raise their marketability while ensuring veteran players and loyal customers remain satisfied. My community and I talk about pokemon often, and I have asked them for some ideas. While some of them may be only wishful thinking, some of them may be worthy of serious consideration.

     One thing I hear occasionally is the desire for character customisation. While it may be difficult to have too much customisation in the main hand-held games, it may be possible to allow some limited amount of customisation. This may include skin tone, hair type and

colour, eye colour, and height. This may allow players to create characters like themselves for greater immersion. The amount of customisation in Pokemon Battle Revolution was good, but I do not expect it to be possible to allow age customisation since it may affect the character’s origin too much.

     Another topic which is hotly discussed is the strong desire for a serious console RPG with deep themes for older players much like those present in Pokemon Platinum. Perhaps you could delve deeper into pokemon history or lore. Pokemon is a role-playing game, and there is absolutely no reason why it cannot become as grand and amazing as the Legend of Zelda or Final Fantasy. As far as I am concerned, the pokemon games are a deep mine of largely untapped potential. I want to see it grow into one of the gaming world’s most important franchises.

     Many people have wondered why there have been no more console pokemon RPGs since Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness were so successful. It would be a wonderful idea to have older players and deeper, more dynamic characters and villains. After all, most characters in the pokemon world are one-dimensional.

     One idea that continually returns is a desire for a console game spanning the entire pokemon world. A simple title for this could actually be Pokemon World. My thoughts on this are to have a multi-parted story spanning over many games. The main hand-held games could serve as part of each region’s history. A new hero could rise to move through a new pokemon legend affecting all of the regions we have explored so far. I feel it may be a good idea to use Cyrus as a returning villain from the Sinnoh region. After all, with his final words in Pokemon Platinum, he did vow the main character would one day awaken to find themselves in a world of Cyrus’ creation. That was a chilling prophecy—and a great premise for a future game. Might it also be possible to have a multi-player RPG?

     I would also like to see fewer regions with similar environments in future pokemon games. So far no region has stood out from another except for cities and gym leaders.

     My last suggestion would be a pokemon channel for the Wii. It has recently has come to my attention that some people are unable to access wi-fi through their DS. The problem is that they cannot access the internet through high security settings. They can access wi-fi through their Wii, however. Perhaps you could create a pokemon channel for the Wii—much like the Mario Kart Channel—in order for those players to download event pokemon and access other pokemon events or news through the Wii to their DS.

     Thank you so much, Mr. Okubo, for taking the time out of your busy schedule to read my letter. You have my humble gratitude. I have many more ideas I would love to share with you, including ideas for future games. I actually wish I could work for the Pokemon Corporation so that I may contribute to its flourishing.

     I really am gracious for your time in reading this. I don’t know if you can help me, but I truly believe the issues mentioned in this letter may be of some use to your company and to the continued success of pokemon. If you cannot help, I hope you can at least provide an address where I should direct this letter for better results.

     As a final note, I would like to invite you to visit our online community at http://www.metalkid.info/default.aspx . It is a humble community, but it is a place where dedicated pokemon fans gather. I would be honoured if you could visit.