Competitive Pokemon is a REALLY serious, obsessive business for a lot of people though.

And battle sims accelerate everything as a blinding rate.

Before too long, a single Pokemon, or a combination of Pokemon and moves and discovered that completely destroy everything, and then it gets banned. And then a new Pokemon moves in to take its place.

And then that gets banned, and then eventually some new moves are added in an event or a new game or something, and the whole thing shifts again.

I dunno, I'm kind of happy to get away from it really. But a lot of people take it very seriously.

There's definitely a rift between the really hardcore competitive plays and the people who just like the game they bought for their console.

A lot of competitive players forget the video game even exists; they're too busy plugging very specific numbers into their Pokemon Simulators.

It ends up more like a sprawling, inelegant game of chess than a game about catching monsters. The overworld is completely forgotten. So are the characters. Even the Pokemon are just stat vessels.

So I think it's hard for the two sides to talk as they don't really have a lot in common, and tend to look down upon how the other plays the game.

The non-sim people are seen as noobs, and the sim people are seen as people who have freakishly distorted a video game and imposed their own weird, cultish rules over a game that already has them.

Anyway, that's what I think.

I believe most people do purchase the game who play it on sims. I think every got into Pokemon through... actual Pokemon, and I assume most people keep a lingering interest.

But yeah, it'd be interesting to see what would happen if the meta game was allowed a bit more space to breath.

I prefer to play on an actual system too! I like to feel like I actually 'have' the Pokemon, rather than just invent it out of a load of numbers.

I think being able to change everything so fast isn't necessarily good for the game, and the excessive banning is really a result of that.

I find simming a pretty heartless experience, really.

I think I agree with you about not having Smogon be quite such an obsessive and all-powerful organisation.

People defending Smogon, OMG you guys can't play online or something? I whooped so many Mega-Kangashkan it's not even funny and my Mega-Blaziken got its own share of defeat. You...

...guys just can't play REAL Pokémon, do you.

There's also something that I find outrageous with Pokémon sims in that they encourage these kinds of "banning" and all the BS. It takes a few clicks on to make your perfect team, ...

...while IRL it takes HOURS. That means in a few seconds, you can come up with a brand-new strategy unknown to the fight that gets easily copied, which leads to Pokémon teams on...

...Pokémon sims being roughly the same copy-pasted stuff.

Meanwhile, REAL Pokémon gamers, who actually BUY the game and play it go on to train the Pokémon they love and to find ways to make them successful on the battlefield. That's how...

...people actually come up with innovative non-C+P'ed strategies. I wish most of you guys on Pokémon Showdown and Pokémon Online would have the balls to train some official Pokémon.

@Therlu, Battle sims are blueprints for the main team. Cheaper, less time consuming, and you can see if your final product has flaws. Tell any architect not to use a blueprint and he'll laugh in...

Your face.

I'm going to agree with David here.

Lots of comparison.

David = Right.

No, building blueprints and Pokemon team blueprints are completely different things, meaning you'll need different materials.

You can at least put a future team on it so you can see what it'll exactly be in an organized fashion.

@Jason, Then tell me what the differences are and I'll tell you the similarities. Deal?

"A detailed plan or program of action" Don't try to avoid it because you know you can't do it.

"As in serving as a model or providing guidance"

@Lux Planning everything about a team can make things kind of...boring. Sure, i've planned out teams for a Pokemon game before, heck I did it for Y. But, for example, seeing halfway through...

Doesn't the word "Simulator" itself fit this description pretty well?

...the game that Hoppip could be found in Kalos I just threw my original plan (Venusaur) right out the window. Same kind of thing happened in Emerald, with me replacing Aron with Minun (quite ironic)

Am I the only one that plans on making a ton of viable Pokemon, picking one that I want to battle with, and making my team around that competetively?

@Aaron I look at the entire Pokédex.

Definition of simulator: "A device that enables the operator to reproduce or represent under test conditions phenomena likely to occur in actual performance"

@Blake Yeah, I kinda want to do that too.

@Lux I like surprises as part of a game. Like when N revealed he was part of Team Plasma.

@Lux: I mean, it'll be a lot of work, but I feel like it'd be worth it for fresh teams and unpredictability. Oh, and hows the Nidoran?

I don't like N... :|

Why haven't I bred that thing yet? Ugh.

Why not?

(About N)

Ralts. That's all it is. Ralts. So many of them… why? Why RNG? ;_;

Oh, that was to Hope. Whoops.

Because I can... You see I'm kinda weird. I will have this random feeling that tells me if I like hate or like someone. xD Plus, in my eyes he betray Team Plasma. :| And I like Team Plasma...

...(Well, Neo Team Plasma pretty much...).

In my view, he just finally stood up for himself. And I didn't like Team Plasma.

@Lux: What are you trying to breed?

That's basically what it's come to... Down with Smogon without a real reason that can't be countered...

Oh yeah, that. Down with Smogon's extreme followers.

@Blake Arcticuno.

No, like one set up for a Gardevoir or a Gallade?

@Jason What did the Smogonites do to you to make you hate them so much.

@Jason, That's prejudice.

What I don't like is that their terms seem to have become pretty common around trainers. Even on a random pokemon generator it had an option whether or not to include ubers.

@Blake It's Timid. That's all I'm saying.

And I see things like OU, UU, and whatever and for SO LONG I had no idea what the heck it meant.

@Lux: Well, you must be doing a series of egg moves or need one with 6 perfect IVs then.

@Jason There are plenty of people that don't obey them, but you hate them more than anyone.

I agree with a lot of what Mr. PKRSTherlu has said. Simulators are fickle and don't encourage an investment of creativity. The applies to the majority of people, who are just looking for a quick win.

I also agree with David. The risk is becoming sucked into them and leaving the real game behind. This was my experience, and I believe that of many others.

The convenience of sims, and the ability to run hundreds of games back to back make them appealing; even if they cheapen the game in doing to. Once you get used to throwing out tens of games at a time

going through all the effort of playing the real game seems like an undertaking.

I think it's quite clear I'm undecided on the entire thing. There are a lot of attractions beyond the game itself, but balancing those attractions is tricky.

Judging wisely is always hard when convenience is an option...

@ Aaron, Terms like OU, Uber and UU were around years before Smogon was even a thing

Smogon for ubers.

Eh, not exactly. I still think Evasion Clause and such is still in-tact in ubers.

Oh, yeah.

Whether Nintendo acknowledges it or not is irrelevant to my and his posts; I was just just correcting him that Smogon didn't come up with usage tier names for Pokemon