Exploration Of PokeCommunity

[someguy.fromnevada]

First off, my apologies if I have posted this in the wrong forum section, I wasn't entirely sure where to post this, since it is relating to Pokemon, but also relating to Pokemon hacks, so if it can be moved to the right forum, then please do so, otherwise, let me continue...

...so, I'd say for about an hour and a half now, I've been slowly browsing all of the Pokemon Hacks listed, first starting with the Hacking Hub, then going through the Showcase and now I'm on Processing section. You know something... it makes me wonder... whatever happened? I've come across many hacks and so forth which seemed so amazing to read, and then I notice they're at least 2 years old or more. Of course, none of these hacks are 721 or 650+, but at the same time, many of them have greatly caught my attention.

Sadly, most of these forums no longer have active links and many searches have brought up no results but PokeCommunity itself, which would once again direct me to a dead link. In the end, I'm just curious about a few things from the rest of you:

1) How many of you occasionally or sometimes browse through the older posts?

2) What hacks have you found which now contain nothing but dead links/pictures/etc that you are genuinely interested in trying still? (even if they're so beta that only 1 gym is available)

3) Not to get super personal or anything, but have some of these people passed away to your knowledge? In other words, are any of these hackers deceased and that's why their posts have died off?



As always, my apologies if this is in the wrong place or if question #3 is offensive, just genuinely curious as to what happened to all of these posts. Many of them have gone very far, but never continued. I've seen a few so far which look really unique and worth playing, all of which are at 30% to 80% completion, but then they suddenly just died off.

In a way, I find it sad, sitting here and scrolling through all the dead threads and posts that seem to be from a time long ago... a time when things were probably easier. Anyways, just had this on my mind and felt like asking, as well as sharing. My curiosity gets the better of me and when I notice something has just suddenly disappeared, it catches my attention with the utmost curiosity.

 

[Winter Wonderland]

A lot of the times, life just gets in the way. Things get thrown at us that need our immediate attention, and after a while, we sometimes just forget we even started this thing.

My hack took a two year pause because I had family problems, followed by a car accident, followed by my laptop getting robbed from me. I actually forgot I did this for about 10 months or so, then came back around, but felt so deeply out of touch with my original vision that I felt I couldn't do it justice by returning. For a while, I didn't want to come back.

But, here I am. I found my way back eventually. But, most people don't.

 

[chrunch]

Hacking is difficult and time consuming and you're getting nothing tangible out of it so it's no surprise most people end up abandoning it. A lot of people are attracted by the idea of making their own game the "easy" way. If you actually stick with it for a while you soon find out the truth. Only the most dedicated end up finishing them, so even if most finished hacks aren't the best quality I actually have a lot of respect for the people who actually have the willpower to do it.

 

[Bulbadon]

Hacking is difficult and time consuming and you're getting nothing tangible out of it so it's no surprise most people end up abandoning it. A lot of people are attracted by the idea of making their own game the "easy" way. If you actually stick with it for a while you soon find out the truth. Only the most dedicated end up finishing them, so even if most finished hacks aren't the best quality I actually have a lot of respect for the people who actually have the willpower to do it.

This.

 

[LilBueno]

From what I've gathered, the dead links are because of a hacking issue the entire site had and when it was reset/fixed, ALL of the links stopped working. The more active/current threads had theirs replaced, but not the dead threads.

 

[Deokishisu]

Hacking is hard, and ROMHackers realize that their hacks will often never be as good as their vision. We mostly work alone and the work can be frustrating, boring, and downright daunting at times. Pokemon hacking in particular also requires a bit more dedication than some other hacks, because of story, balance, etc. In games that are more like old Mario or Sonic, the most basic hacks are just level edits. You can't really get away with that in the Pokemon community, as Pokemon is much more involved than a sidescroller whose story is in the manual. Real life always must take precedence, and there really isn't any payoff to hacking other than personal satisfaction. That is why hackers quit. They have a vision and start hacking, but it oftentimes ends up more grueling and dull than they anticipate and then stop.

 

[Chronosplit]

The situation is more than you think. What it comes down to is that the group is different from other circles.

Most big hacking groups are older/more experienced than the average Pokemon hacker. A lot of people come here to cut their teeth on ROM hacking or to learn a bit of programming. As such, it's more than it's hard and takes a long time; a lot of people run into motivation or bug issues handled by most translators or hackers, and don't really end up getting to the first step to figuring out the issue.

Hacking is about doing what we want, but Pokemon also tends to limit itself to tools with not everyone even learning how to compile readily available ASM. As such many projects tend to hit a brick wall and never continue.