Pokémon Unite

Oh no, it's happening again

"What if you play League of Legends- and you're immediately hooked?" Said the lady with the pretty voice in that advert I've seen so many times it's burned into my retinas. Just like that damn Nevercake advert, I feel like I've seen more ads for LOL than actual gameplay through Youtube marketing efforts alone. And why won't the algorithm just drop it and see the obvious; I'm not a MOBA player, never will be! I just don't have it in me to play a heavily competitive team-based arena grudge that's heavy on the moment-to-moment strategy and mastering 'mains'. The last competitive game I got down with was Overwatch, and even back in those days I never liked playing ranked for more than a couple times a month. I'm just not that competitive type game player. I mean sure, I played a little Battleborn when it first launched but we all remember what became of that game, don't we? (It died. Horribly.) I just don't have a MOBA heart in me. Or so I said to myself.

Seems that maybe the lady from the ads knew what she was talking about a lot more than I ever gave her credit for, because here I sit with a confession to make: I may have fallen for Pokémon Unite. Yes, the MOBA. Turns out all it took was for a brand I have some sort of nostalgic connection with to take the plunge and I would just end up falling into the trap hook-line-and-sinker. (I'm weaker willed than I thought) To be fair, it started under duress! They dangled a limited edition Zeraora at me and I just couldn't let that pass me by. That's a literal Mythical Pokémon which is part of this game's base lineup for some asinine reason; I wanted him! And so like the Pokémon rube that I am, I logged onto the game to see what it was like, acknowledged that the controls felt a little better to play then I expected, and now I'm an addict who's letting his Pillars of Eternity II playthrough quietly slip to the wayside so that he can play more Unite. Do you know how messed up that is? Probably, it should be fairly clear.

So long story short, I'm a hypocrite. Pokémon Unite has been a lot of fun and I'm starting to really get the appeal of this whole MOBA thing, it's a lot more accessible than I originally thought. (Or maybe I only think that because it's still the introductory weeks and this game is literally being marketed to Children. Whatever the case, I don't feel too proud of myself when I score another MVP badge.) I find the hand-holding built into the UI rather comforting, (It'll tell you how tough a Pokémon should be to play as well as what lane they're typically best for.) the maps are familiar and bright (Though I'm slightly upset that only Quick Match has multiple maps right now) and the idea of sticking Pokémon in a MOBA space fits so much better than I realised. They have literally over 900 different Pokémon to throw into various roles, be they mobs, bosses or new playables; this game could have growth potential indefinitely! Whether that potential will be readily met, however, is anyone's guess.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, Pokémon Unite plays like any MOBA you've played before with some small Pokémon twists. Once you've picked your Pokémon, equipped their utilities and placed your chosen item, you are sent off to the races as a level one weakling. From there you can feast on mobs to increase your level and get access to more abilities, as well as gain points which you can then 'bank' at the enemies' goal. (And if you're playing an applicable Pokémon, certain levels will 'evolve' them as you might expect) The struggle becomes a back and forth of defence and attack as you try to protect your own goal and pick off your opponents, the MOBA dance of death. Here and there some special mobs will spawn that grant bonuses upon being slain, such as the basic specials who will give you a boost to an attribute, the bigger specials that might buff the entire team or throw themselves hurtling towards an enemy goal, or the centre special (who tends to be Zapdos or Regigigas right now) who will give all the team 20 points and temporarily make all enemy goals insta-score zones. (So no more waiting around to bank points all vulnerable-like)

For my part I happen to think that the core gameplay, however appropriated from it's contemporaries it is, can be endless fun all on it's own, but I do think that right now the game has a serious lack of driving force for the more achievement-focused player out there which is going to become slowly more apparent once this game moves out of the honey-moon phase. What are the things that are going to keep bringing players back beyond the thrill of entering the arena again? Right now there are some challenges that are limited for the first few months and exist mostly just to get new players to try out all the different modes, and I'm sure new challenges will role in decently regularly, but that's just the fluff ontop of the cake; what about the core progression? You can't expect character level to be the only thing people grind for, can you? (That would be crazy, right?)

Of course, the real progression train they want people to get on board with is the acquisition and boosting of held items in order to provide that little percentile boost which starts to make all the difference in the later levels. The only problem with this being the problem pointed out by MoistCr1TiKaL (I hate typing that name and I know he does it on purpose) wherein you can literally buy the boosts for these items, thus creating a pay-to-win atmosphere. In fact, this has been a big topic of debate over the last few weeks, sparked by Charlie, (Mr Moist) which some are saying has the potential to kill this game, and I concur. The biggest mistake someone can make in these companies is operating under the impression that their name gives them immunity, because unless they've spent decades fostering the exact type of community that will put up with their machinations (like sports games have) they're in for a rude awakening.

You see, nothing turns a relationship more sour than talking about money, it's like the shortcut speedrunner route straight to rocky grounds, and if someone who loses a match of Pokémon Unite is steaming, thinking about the money their opponent must have spent to get that boost- well, you can see the seeds of discontent being laid, no? Marvel's Avengers is a game that thought it could get away with flooding microtransactions just on the strength of it's name alone, and that game didn't even have pay-to-win Microtransactions! What was the result? An awful first impression that has irrevocably tainted the game so that even after a straight year of substantial free content, that game is struggling to justify it's existence due to poor player numbers. That isn't the sort of future I want for Pokémon Unite, because I kind of like it.

Of course, I would throw in other suggestions such as character progression trees to encourage players to specialise, and maybe a little bit more general customisability in the vein of how League does things, because those cosmetics have sailed many a fan-led crusade over in that community. But for humble beginnings I suppose that Pokémon Unite is doing well enough, considering that I can't get enough of the game and it's starting to seep into my psyche. I love seeing these little Pocket Monsters expand their horizons into newer fields and would love it even more to see them excel, the more diversity that hits this franchise the better for everyone in the long run. Just- be that little bitter better, guys, you're so close that it would be a tragedy to let it all fall apart now. If by this time next year Pokémon Unite is a ghost-town, I'm going to be distraught.

Pokemon Unite

Aha hahahaha. I can't, I gonna die.

I can't remember the last time I've been so inundated with blog topics, but trust me when I say that this takes priority over them all! So a while back there was this little impromptu stream from The Pokemon Company which, whilst not technically a Pokemon Direct, drummed up a sufficient amount of excitement and hype to pass as such. There were some Pokemon Go updates, some new mobile Pokemon games announced, and a really cool challange for Pokemon Sword and Shield that coincided with the release of 'The isle of Armor' wherein community to had to have 1000000 players slay a special raid-den Zeozora in exchange for a free shiny Zeozora if we hit it. (And we did, by-the-by, so we can expect that boon in our Pokemon Home apps come next Monday) But there was one topic on Which The Pokemon Company were less than forthcoming, a secret announcement that they wanted to push forward to a week later stream. To yesterday, in fact. What could it be, the crowd wondered... Maybe even that Generation 4 remake that some people apparently really want and I can't comprehend why. (I got my Gen 3 remake, that's all I want.)

The days were tense in the leading week to this second stream; filled with naught but wild speculation and the dying cries of golden mythical Zeozoras. (Because I refuse to believe anyone legitimately killed the shiny silver ones; those guys were on a whole other level.) People wound themselves up so tight in anticipation for some impossible announcement that all the enthusiast Pokemon boards were alight. What could be so important that the Pokemon Company sought to separate it from all the other announcements from the other day? Why did it deserve a stream of it's own? Is this the next mainline entry? A deep-dive into The Crown Tundra? Whatever it is, it must be something incredible to be worthy of all this build up!

And then we got 'Pokemon Unite'. 11 straight minutes, of 'Pokemon Unite'. "But what exactly is 'Pokemon Unite'" I here you ask. Well, dear friends; let me illuminate you. Imagine an incredibly overcrowded genre of games that's taken up by the dominance of two big titles. Well call these games, MOBAs. Now imagine Pokemon up in there. That's it, 'Pokemon Unite' in a nutshell. It's  a MOBA. That's what everyone was waiting for and losing their minds over in anticipation. This is what The Pokemon Company felt was worth delaying an announcement for! Dedicating 11 consecutive minutes to! A battle MOBA. Now I'll be honest, initially I found this incredibly funny, (and I still pretty much do) but time has matured me a little and now I'll only laughing at the idea instead of also laughing at the fans who got their hopes up. (But seriously; you think they'd announce the next game during the content cycle of their current one? Get real!)

But let's look at this honestly for a moment; A Pokemon MOBA. From a franchise built on the back of accessibility and pick-and-play fun, to a genre of games characterised by their taxing gameplay demands and tactical leanings. Any other franchise and I'd call that a curious step forward but here I'm just left thinking that TPC have severely misunderstood their audience. Add onto that, the fact that the MOBA genre is almost synonymous with gatekeeping and toxicity (Yes, I've heard that LOL has been working on that recently but the reputation is set in the bedrock by this point) and you have such a puzzle match for a kids series that it's honestly just comical. Maybe that's just me, however, as it seems everyone else was just plain mad. Afterall, there's got to be some reason why the footage within which this reveal was made (Which amusingly still isn't even titled 'Pokemon Unite', meaning people had to actively learn about this elsewhere and then seek this video out) has been downvoted to the phantom zone.

Even now, I can't rightly say what in the heck must have been going through anyone's mind at the time of imaging, deciding, planning and then marketing this missed-swing of a game. (There were failures seemingly at every stage of production) Pokemon has always been a franchise that has ridden off of providing the sort of gameplay experience that you can't really find elsewhere, which is what has allowed them to pull off honestly egregious practises for so long without anyone really batting an eyelid. (Selling two versions of essentially the same game, anyone?) But this time they were jumping head first in the big leagues, likely with limited knowledge of what they're getting into, and they're likely expecting to scoot by on name recognition alone. And you know what; it just might work.

Pokemon is big, guys, I mean you already had an inkling of that but until you actually look into the topic it's hard to really understand how literally globe trotting it is! If there were any brand capable of roping in a plethora of kids to joining the contentious MOBA community, it's this one. And honestly, I can't blame them. I'm curious what a Pokemon MOBA is going to look like and I'll bet you've scratched your heads during this wondering something similar. Additionally, the team made the choice of labelling this title with the eyebrow raising label they've invented called 'Free to Start', which means there's nothing to loose from just a little precursory glance. (It always starts with just a look.) They also certainly won't be running out of characters to add anytime soon so it won't be lacking in potential. Yeah, maybe fans are just upset about the presentation and the idea itself isn't entirely awful, maybe we should give this a ch- wait, they partnered with who to make this happen?

Obviously Gamefreak have no involvement with this latest attempt to squeeze the dusty teat of the Pokemon cashcow, they can just about make the same game for the past 20 years, throw them a MOBA and the entire studio might collapse in on itself in a singularity. Instead, The Pokemon Company, decided to work with a team called TiMi Studio who specialise in making online mobile games and, crucially, are Chinese. (You can probably see where this is going.) Which means that in order to make the partnership work, and to sell it in China, TPC have entered a working partnership with the Chinese government's most poorly concealed propaganda machine; Tencent. Yep, Tencent is the outreach program that China uses to sanitise anything going into their country and subtle influence elsewhere. They've censored movies, video games, and seeing as how Pokemon is a fictional kids series there's probably nothing to censor th- Sike; China has already got the name of one Pokemon changed so that it's translation features no roman characters because that country is that desperate to limit western influence that it wants to ensure it's citizens won't even recognise other languages at a glance. (Bet they're really bummed that Japan literally nabbed their alphabet now. Full isolationism denied)

Let me put you under no delusions here, Tencent is a tool for an autocratic government and you can argue about whether or not that makes them literally close to the Chinese government (Epic games certainly seems adamant on insulting everyone's intelligence in that regard) but you'd be a liar to claim that there's no connection whatsoever. So does that mean disastrous things for the Pokemon franchise now that Tencent has a direct line? Of course not, China don't need a partnership to make demands off of Pokemon; they've caved from mild suggestion in the past anyway. But it does represent an enabling of a frankly gross element in our industry that reflects badly upon the Pokemon brand. Anyone who does business with Tencent is promoting something sordid, whether directly or not, and that's not the sort of industry that anyone want's to cultivate. So let me leave you with one simple message, one directed at The Pokemon Company; think harder about the future your paving towards with the roads you blaze today.