I never disagreed with your core statment there. If you hadn't claimed more than once the game never changes I wouldn't have said word one. I can quote you again for the exact lines if you need.

Okay, but don't decontextualize it.

By the way, I always say this after I get into fierce pointless video game arguments on forums: sorry if I came off harsh, I just love a good debate. No hard feelings and you had a lot of points that I agree with.

 I am arguementative by nature so no worries. I'd have kept it going if it wasn't so obvious we were going in circles. I also wasn't attempting to decontextualize anything. The statements were quite mis-leading if my interpretation wasn't right. They only apply to single player, and you kept them more general.

Yeah, my wording was a little clumsy. And no kidding about the circles thing, I think we both said the exact same thing, just rephrased, the past few posts.

Of course the worst part about all this it that I'll probably break down and buy Platinum in a few monthes

@OP
Simple, becuase Pokemon is aimed at a certain child at heart audience. Be they older or younger. After a while much like Disney the individual grows up. Tastes change. You forget about Disney and Pokemon. Then When you have your own kid. S/he will be playing Pokemon and watching Disney and you will remember those day and enjoy playing with him/her. Then you will buy not 1 copy of Pokemon, but 2. Insidious isn't it.

I wish that someday the series returns to that point where anyone can enjoy any aspect of the game without having to feel repulsed or devote insane amounts of times to doing repetitive tasks. You know, where the multiplayer was a fun, rewarding extra that anyone could play reasonably and where competitive play meant an amount of work proportional to the thought you were giving the team. Honestly, right now I see Shoddy Battle as a superior and more enjoyable incarnation of the game, instead of the quick testing ground it should have been.

Don't play the game then.

In a game with such a complex battle system like pokemon (I dare you find a turn based RPG moreso complex) small changes for you are actually big changes for the hardcore fans.

From Red to Platinum

- Breeding
- Genders
- Special Att / Sp. Def Split
- Online
- Abilities
- Happiness
- Day and Night
- Weather
- Battle Tower
- Physical / Special Split
- Hidden Power
- Contests
- Doubles
- Hold Items
- Dark and Steel

This may sound weird, but Pokemon is really a game for the hardcore, and a case where the newest game is always the best. The series instead of major overhauls, focuses instead on incremental improvements,and keeping their fanbase happy. Those maybe just bells and whistles to you, but those are true godsends for a lot.

Also take into account that Pokemon is a competitive game. You can only do so much before you alienate your original fanbase.

Also when has a series really changed it's core gameplay? Most especially an RPG series?

Kooties, blaydcor is actually a competitive player.

He's saying that that doesn't justify the rest of the game's formula remaining the same - the feel of it, if you will.

This I agree with.

You can finish the main quest and you're only doing 10% of the game.

The whole breeding and min-maxing were completely too 'hardcore' for me, lol.