VG Weekly Poll #41 Are you content with Pokémon's online capabilities?

Hello Everynyan! Welcome to the forty-first installment in the Video Games Forum's new weekly series of polls!

Centered around the Pokemon series of video games, these polls will be based on the various different aspects of the popular video game franchise. Every Monday, a Video Games staff member will post a new poll that'll remained stickied up on top of the forum. Suggestions for polls and questions can be sent to Joshawott or Zeb and they could possibly used for new polls (credit will be given, of course).

With that out of the way, here is the poll: Are you content with Pokémon's online capabilities? Are you perfectly fine with the way Pokémon's online mode is handled, or do you think it could be improved? (and please say how!).

Past Polls of the Week

01) Was Black and White a step in the right direction?
02) Did you agree with N's ideals?
03) Favourite Generation?
04) Do you EV train?
05) Favourite Grass-type starter?
06) Was the Battle Tower/Subway too hard?
07) Favourite Spin-Off Series?
08) Favourite Fire/Fighting type starter?
09) Who was the hardest Gym Leader?
10) Primary, Secondary of Tertiary Version?
11) Do you use the Pokémon Global Link?
12) Do you like the Pokémon Dream World?
13) Creepiest Pokémon Resting Place?
14) Favourite Regional Professor?
15) Favourite Legendary Trio?
16) Favourite Early Bird?
17) Favourite Unova Gym Design?
18) Favourite Ice-type Trainer
19) Favourite Dragon-type Version Mascot
20) Initial Reaction to Pokémon + Nobunaga's Ambition?
21) Favourite Male Playable Character?
22) Favourite Villainous team?
23) Favourite Early Rodent?
24) Favourite Fossil Pokémon?
25) Most Anticipated 3DS Feature?
26) Favourite Female Playable Character?
27) Thoughts on the Doctor and Nurse trainer classes?
28) Do you nickname your Pokémon?
29) Do you use sacrifical moves?
30) Which Kyurem form is your favourite?
31) Should Black 2 and White 2 have been on the 3DS?
32) Do you participate in official VGC events?
33) Which type needs more attention?.
34) Would you like to see Pokémon + Nobunaga's Ambition localised?.
35) Will we see any new pokemon in B2W2?
36) Do you like the changes to the EXP system in Black and White?
37) Are you willing to pay the price for Pokédex 3D Pro?
38) Which currently released Mythical Pokémon do you want the most?
39) Would you agree with paid DLC in Pokémon?
40) Do nature and IVs matter to you?

Thank you for voting!

-The Video Games Forum Staff

When it comes to GTS, no. So many unfair or impossible deals on there, it's a nightmare to accomplish anything.

Global Link... Dream World doesn't float my boat. Only one Pokemon per day, excluding promotions, the amount of Dream Points before any good item or Pokemon shows up is too high...

Other than that, I don't do anything else online.

Online Battling is awesome.

Online trading is... less awesome.

GTS trades are ridiculous and Global Link and Dream World are far too tedious.

Wow I hate online battling. It seems like every person I've encountered on Random Matchup had EV-trained, super duper uber Pokemon. >_>

Trading is only slightly better, only because I learned how to navigate through all the troll requests on the GTS. GTS definitely needs a revamp, though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by smalllady

Trading is only slightly better, only because I learned how to navigate through all the troll requests on the GTS.

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How? I'd love to know.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Deox-Y

Quote:

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Originally Posted by smalllady

Trading is only slightly better, only because I learned how to navigate through all the troll requests on the GTS.

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How? I'd love to know.

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Patience, young grasshopper. Lots and lots of patience.

Also, refining your search by gender/level helps a little.

I don't understand why people have so much issues with the GTS... I've never had any trouble with it. Impossible and unfair trades can easilly be ignored with some patience.

But battling is a complete mess. No way to differenciate the different "types" of players (casual, competitive, non-competitive, UBERGODHAX...) except in tournauments and rankings... which, to quote @Joshawott, are a load of balls.
The way the games connect is an obvious example of greed at the players' expense: The two games connect and only the result is sent to the server. That's why they can't track who disconnects. A disconnect causes the battle to end and it's aborted, putting both players in a negative note despite one of the players being suffering from their poor design already.

It's almost like if the only way you can have enjoyable online battles is through friend codes.

Both battling and trading (particularly the GTS) could do with some major tweaking.

It could be just my connection, but the battles take way too long and are in constant danger of disconnecting at any moment, which happens even when I'm losing, so it can't be the opponent being scared of losing. Mario Kart 7 has very little lag, so why can't a much slower game like Pokemon be the same?

The GTS, meanwhile, is full of utterly ridiculous and unreasonable trades, plus I'm terrified of accidentally getting a hacked Pokemon that will harm my game. If they could ban hacked Pokemon from being used in the GTS, I would be far more willing to use it.

I absolutely hate the GTS. It has allowed people to use it unfairly and ask for impossible trades they know full well they cant actually receive or ask for things that just arent fair to ask for for what they are offering. Game Freak really needs to fix this. It is a great concept when used correctly but rarely is used in the way I think they originally planned for it. Battling could also use some work as people that disconnect intentionally during a battle makes the person that they were battling with lose. They need to make it so they track who disconnects and have the disconnector only be penalized by losing.

Battling: For the most part it's decent, I only have a few problems with it.

1. You can't use all your Pokemon in singles, doubles, and rotation, although this isn't a huge deal if it's with random people.

2. It can take a very long time to find an opponent in random matchups

3. If someone disconnects on you on purpose, they don't get penalized and you don't get a win. Granted, there has been a few times where my Wi-fi failed me during battles....

Trading:

The GTS is terrible, people offer things and demand near impossible/impossible to get Pokemon, like level 9 and under Reshiram/Zekrom. I've had some success with offering Pokemon for trade, but I don't do that much. There needs to be more restrictions on this stuff, which prevent people from asking for ridiculous Pokemon.

Trading with friends is okay, though.

Trading:

GTS - a failure from start to finish. Other posters summed it up pretty well, so I see no point in repeating what has already been said.

Trading via FC - mostly okay. It would be nice if there was an in-game chatbox, but I guess the hardware limitations prevented it from happening.

Trading with randomers - even worse than the GTS IMO. The main problem being that you have no control over who will you trade with. How can, say, a competitive player like myself make a meaningful deal with a 9 year old looking for a Zekrom? She can't, of course, which is why 90% of my trades ended up in a frowny face spamfest. An ideal solution here would be a server where you can choose who do you want to trade with + a chatbox (with some heaaaavy censorship to ward off trolls).

Battling:

Random Match-up - one word - terrible. It's not even that the ruleset sucks (I actually enjoy it very much), but as many already said, the disconnections ruin any fun you could possibly get. Same goes for the PGL tournaments too.

Battling with friends - severely lacks autoleveling (outside of Flat). I actually had to drop 6 vs 6 this gen because of this. I hate it when a poor game design forces people to cheat, which is basically what happens here, and I refuse to use battle sims. Other than that - custom rules ala PBR would be a welcome addition, same with some sort of tournament builder tool and 2 vs 2 (as in people) battles like in the wireless play.

Other:

Dream World - the exact opposite of fun. Dull, repetitive, overly simple. Also the only place where you can grow berries. Shame that we will have to put up with this thing till 6 generation.

Seems like I'm lucky that I haven't met any rage quitters in Random Matchups, but I do agree that the GTS is disappointing. No one the Game Overthinker keeps telling us why physical multiplayer (playing with your friends at the same room) over online multiplayer.

I'm okay with battling. But trading...now that needs some fixing. It is possible to get what these idiots are asking for, but only through hacking. (I have my friend Nick for that. :D) And you technically do have a chat box while trading with friends; it's called the Voice Chat in B/W.

They really need to fix the GTS, maybe by making it so you can't ask for a Pokemon that's impossible to get. I've never done a Wi-Fi battle, so I'm not sure whether that's okay or not.

Battling is OK, not great. It doesn't really need improvements though. Trading, on the other hand, is seriously messed up. I can't trade you a Lv. 9 and under Zekrom for your Lv. 50 Zapdos. That's just a random example, but still.