Greenlit: A history of Pokémon's fan made challenges, and their importance to the community

A history of Pok?mon's fan made challenges, and their importance to the community

I've discussed it with Rabinov a little bit, but I was thinking of writing a longform opinion article on the history of Pok?mon's user imposed challenges, and why they are the lifeblood of the community.

In short, my line of reasoning is that due to the barebones nature of the game itself, the only way the games have had longevity is due to the creativity and inventiveness of the fans giving the game depth. What are your thoughts?

So Diego and I talked about it a little, and I think this is a good idea. I'm wondering though, will you explain why usual Pok?mon's gameplay is shallow when compared to the community's challenges?

Also - do you have a list of challenges that you'd be planning to talk about in the article?

I will explain how the community's challenges are deeper than normal Pok?mon gameplay. I will talk about challenges like the Nuzlocke, the Monotype challenge, the Solo challenge, and variants such as the Wonderlocke and Wedlocke. I might touch a bit on filling the Pok?dex as well.

I might be talking a bit more about how the longevity of older Pok?mon games has been extended due to Nuzlockes. If Nuzlocking didn?t exist or never came to be, people would still be playing the Hoenn games, but would it have ever been to the level that it currently is? Nuzlocking has brought this to each game in the series, and it will extend the lifetime of the current Pok?mon games as well.

Now, to my arguments. Due to the nature of Nuzlocking itself, it offers a different experince with the same game every play though while adding previously there difficulty. This is an extremely personal example, but I personally beat White as an 8 year old with simply an overleveled Emboar. Mind you, Pok?mon was the first RPG I?d played at the time, and I blazed through it with a simple Pok?mon. If that is possible, playing that same game again after the first time could quickly get tiring, which is when Nuzlockes randomizing element comes into play.

As for structure, I am pretty set on starting off by providing the situation for the original Nuzlocke, talk about the history and spread of such challenges, and segue into why exactly the existence of such challenges is so important to lengthening the natural lifespan of each Pok?mon game.

If you?ve got any more questions, go ahead and fire away :D

Edit: I intend to make it a single long form piece.

Hi im just going to +1 this and say Monotypes are fun.

Sounds good to me, Diego. +1

Greenlit!