| <<< #001 | Home | #003 >>> |
Heads up. I haven't played Palworld yet (as of the time I'm writing this, anyway). I am going to be making some fairly rough assumptions based on what I do know (based on other folks' experiences). Honestly, Palworld just doesn't seem like my kind of game, and I'll be going off the general vibe along with some personal feelings in this post. PLEASE KEEP THIS IN MIND.
Palworld... is having one hell of an Early Access launch, to say the least. I thought it would make a good writing topic, so here goes. The current level of popularity/hype is simply absurd. It will almost certainly diminish, but whether Palworld stays relevant is anybody's guess.
I suspect the reason for the absurd number of players is a combination of Palworld releasing on non-Nintendo hardware, alongside the Pokemon series having fallen off a cliff in recent years, particularly with regards to the recent(ish) Scarlet and Violet game bug releases.
Comparing Palworld to Pokemon's general "family-friendly" nature with its more mature plot points being somewhat less prominent (e.g. the Slowpoke Well from Gen2), is also playing a role - albeit probably a lesser one.
As for whether Palworld is of any real concern for the Pokemon series... almost certainly not. While I wish this game's popularity would implore Game Freak to make at least some attempt to make better games (especially after the shitshow that was Scarlet/Violet), I doubt Game Freak really cares about the game.
I'm guessing Nintendo's only really showing any interest in the game for as long as unauthorized Pokemon mods are being offered. Gotta protect your copyright if you wanna keep it, you know. If Palworld's Steam Workshop dries up, any sort of response from Nintendo will probably dry up as well.
Sadly - as I see it - Pokemon is starting to become one of those series that just exists to print money. Kinda like The Simpsons.
Back in the day, Pokemon used to be centered around the games - the mainline games, specifically. There was always a big aspect about trading, battling your friends' Pokemon, actually completing the Pokedex, that sorta stuff.
Everything else - the anime, the manga, the trading cards, the weird spinoff games, and of course the merch - was strictly a secondary aspect of the games, something to get you to play the games.
In present times, "The Brand" has appeared to put a chokehold on the entire series, where any and all focus is strictly directed on how much money can be made off the series. This (presumably) involves cutting the games down to the lowest common denominator (the usual collection of towns, creatures, trainers, 8 gyms, the Elite Four, and finally the champion battle), then maybe adding some extra content as paid "Expansion Packs" (DLC).
Whew. That's a lot of complaining about games I've never really played that often. (Or at all, in Palworld's case.)
Originally this blog post was going to be even longer, and was going to discuss things like "My feelings about AI/LLM-generated stuff in creative activities" (there was a now-disproven rumor about AI being used in Palworld's creature models). I don't feel like getting a bunch of annoying messages in my Fedi-Verse DMs tomorrow, thanks.
I'm going to go take a break and do something I actually enjoy: Baseball junk.
Fun fact: The first Pokemon game I played was Crystal... on the 3DS Virtual Console. I later played Alpha Sapphire. I never really got into the series as a child.