09.15.07

World of Wonder

Posted in Gaming at 7:31 am

You know, one of the most interesting parts of the DS Pokemon games was always the potential offered by the Global Trade System (GTS), which opens up the trading of critters to be more than just among your local circle of friends– or, if you’re obsessed enough, among your own cartridges. It does pretty much exactly what it says– it allows trades over Nintendo WFC, so people from different parts of the world trade as if they were in the same room. For example, let’s say you were in Victoria, Australia and looking for an Unown; a guy (you may not know) in Alberta, Canada has him and wants your Pichu. Bam, done. 8,600 miles is a hell of a long way to throw a Pokeball, son.

I only know of this very, very long distance exchange because of the GTS monitoring site that Nintendo launched last night. (Be aware the site takes Flash 9, so you may need to upgrade.) Left idle, the site will replay trades that have happened over the last 24 hours– real-time trade monitoring is a bit much to ask, I guess, but this is still oddly fascinating. You see the Pokemon under trade, and watch their path as they traverse between their destinations over a 3D globe. (The effect is somewhat lessened when viewing on the Wii’s Opera browser– there’s a notice to “enjoy this site on your computer”, but you can still watch trades over a flat map.) The big draw, of course, is the trade data.

A ticker runs at the bottom of the site with advice on the most desired, most traded, and most popular Pokemon to come across the service. Over the last 24 hours, it seems evident that most people chose Piplup as their D/P starter– he’s the least wanted of the three. In any event, the ranking data becomes a great tool to use when you want to make a quick trade; I’ve been hesitant to use the GTS simply because I didn’t know if I had anything people wanted, but the popularity of Abra should not be underestimated, it seems (currently ranked 10th on the most wanted list). While it doesn’t alleviate the most obvious problem of the GTS– that is, you can’t trade for Pokemon you haven’t seen before, which makes my getting the Johto starters still a near impossibility– it does make targeted trades a bit easier. At current count, there are 83,000 Pokemon listed for trade. That number baffles me… there’s still 83,000 people playing?!

Although, I can’t really say that. Last night, on the way home, I stopped into a bookstore for a research tome (related to the short story ‘verse). I gravitated over to the manga, where I saw an 11-year-old boy (guessing on the age) poring over the D/P strategy guide, and the section on Mt. Coronet. He was just about to go after Palkia, and we chatted for a few moments. It was a remarkable moment, I suppose, to nobody but myself, but still the fact that it did happen gives me pause. It won’t end now, will it? I mean, the game is too far along, and too many people– myself included– have been playing for it to just end, right? It has done good; as cynical as you may be, it’s evident that it’s brought some people together. It makes our world a little smaller to know that someone in Germany took the time to grind a Machamp up to 70. Or that a Turkish Milotic is still as impressive a feat as a British one.

I don’t know, maybe I’m just being overly sentimental… but it does make one think, doesn’t it?

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