SnorlaxMonster

The Dream World was a good concept. At first, I really enjoyed it and went on every day. Then I missed a day. Then two. The I started playing about once per week (what I do now). The first stage lasted the longest though.

When I used to play daily, I was getting 1-2 pages of visitors per day, with probably 1-2 Dream Pal requests per day. I had trouble finding other people's Berries to water because everyone was watering everyone else's Berries. Now I visit once a week and I have 1-2 visitors, and my Berries are constantly drying out. Nobody plays anymore. I would be very surprised if this page ever displayed anything but quiet anymore. This is because there is no real motivation to keep playing.

Now, my issue with the Dream World is not the one hour time limit at all - in fact, I don't see why you would want to play for longer than that at a time anyway.

Firstly, it is too difficult to find your friends on the Dream World. Ideally, I would have Game Pals who I can easily convert into Dream Pals. Instead, I am randomly placed on one of four servers (which I am not informed of), and left to find my friends by chance, who I only have a 1 in 4 chance of being on the same server as. Yes, bluesun did create a workaround to befriend specific people, but it is not something that was intentionally put in the game; rather, it is someone trying to fix a broken system without changing the source. Even then, you need to be on the same server. Their way of connecting to your friends is going between networks of random strangers until you accidentally come across someone that you know.

My second issue is the lack of updates. As a non-Japanese player, the only thing in the Pokémon Dream World that has changed since I first gained access to it is when I got the extra Berry plot and 10 more Dream Pal slots after the extended maintenance. Japanese players have had the Pokémon Café and Eindoak, promotional Décor, and soon the Old Mansion (which we will hopefully get soon too). I have bought all of the Décor. Now I'm just gathering excess Berries and sending them to my White. The worst thing is that once you buy everything in the Plain Catalogue, there is nothing else to buy even for Japanese players. The other stuff is all free.

What also annoys me is the way that the Dream World areas are handled. To visit a specific one, I don't get to chose - it just randomly selects one of three which I unlock without being told that I have. I should be given a list of visitable locations and be able to select one, like the Pokéwalker. I should be told when I have unlocked a new area, and what the requirements are to unlock the others. Also, I should be able to view my Dream Points in the Dream World itself, not need to go out to the PGL website and into my account, causing me to be kicked out of the Dream World if I do it in another tab. Ideally, it would also hint at what I should do to gain more points, but this is not anywhere near as important as my other issues.

Likewise, more minigames would be nice. Pokémon.com has a large number of minigames, and those could be ported to the Dream World without too much difficulty. Then I wouldn't be playing the same games over and over and over... What would also be nice is high scores for the minigames. Whether they would be personal, Dream Pal only, Game Pal only, or universal, I wouldn't really care just as long as there were high scores.

The Dream World is nice for a little while, but after playing for a few weeks it just gets boring and has no real motivation to keep playing. Yes, there are rare items and Pokémon with Hidden Abilities, but it is still not really a reason to continue playing for casual players. I kept going for the Décor (which I now own all available types of), and have now shifted my focus to Hidden Ability females, but I still have to play the same four games all the time. The Dream World feels as if they put a lot of effort into making it, then just let it sit to rust, occasionally adding a little bit more for Japanese players.