Are Pokéballs irrelevant?

[SprSncConzor]

Are Pokéballs irrelevant?

Imagine this:

You're in the Pokémon world and its 2013. With recent technological developments, you can be connected to the internet anywhere in the world, with access to Facebook, YouTube, and of course, your PC Box. Trainers wouldn't have to travel to the Pokémon Center to reach their team anymore- they could just press a button on their internet-connected Smart Pokédex and bob's-yer-uncle, Swampert and Charizard are there to help, no need for faffing with Pokéballs or PCs.

Do you think the world of Pokémon needs a tune-up? Let's face it, if magical creatures that could be digitally transferred to a storage system in real life, we probably wouldn't need to carry around red and white tennis balls to keep them in.
I know such a change to the formula would be outrageous throughout the fanbase (and I certainly wouldn't like it), but it's just fun to postulate these ideas. My questions are thus:

If Pokémon existed in the real world, how would they be handled, and would we need Pokéballs?

Should developments in the real world affect the game mechanics we take for granted?

 

[octoboy]

There might not be any need to carry the balls on hand, but I'm pretty sure they'd still be needed for capture even if this could be done. Though considering the Hoenn Safari Zone had balls whose catch rate increased by how close the ball was when it was thrown, it's possible that battling pokémon for capture could become obsolete so long as people can let their pokémon carry the ball straight up to the wild pokémon and tag them with the ball.

 

[The Benmeister]

You'd still need Pokeballs. The Pokeball is what is transferred through the storage system after all. You don't just send through entire Pokemon.

 

[Crystal]

Just think about this issue in this way: The Pokeball is a storage device on its own like a USB flash drive or SD card, but with extra function that can recode the stored Pokemon data inside such that you can always called out the Pokemon.

However, the Smartphone-like Pokedex doesn't have that function, and its own storage is not as large as the Pokeball storage. So, Pokeballs are still required.


...... And just another comment. This concept make Pokemon Digimon-like.

 

[zapto369]

You'd still need Pokeballs. The Pokeball is what is transferred through the storage system after all. You don't just send through entire Pokemon.

Pretty much, yea. It is still fun to think of such things though.

 

[octoboy]

I suppose when you think about it, how pokémon work involve a level of phlebotinum that means what's possible pretty much depends on what you want to be possible. It's possible to create data directly into a laptop and use the internet to transfer it wherever you please without a USB ever being involved. If the idea of a monster ball is to turn a pokémon into data, in theory, the pokedex could be made to function kind of like the laptop and hold a limited amount of data, and wirelessly transport some data to the PC like some big internet base, eliminating the poké ball as the middleman. But it's possible that this wouldn't work for reasons pretty much made-up in universe. I don't recall seeing pokémon transported wirelessly on the show, from what I remember, the machines that did the transferring were all built into the buildings, and transporting a living organism wirelessly seems kind of odd somehow, so perhaps that's why that doesn't happen.

And in any case, as long as a capture device must work by being hurled at its target, it's probably more convenient to make it something that can survive being used that way. I can't quite picture a pokedex looking too nice after being chucked at a wild pokémon.

 

[PKMNinja]

To answer the first I don't think we would use pokeballs. I think it would be like now days with dogs and cats. Also other kinds of pets too. We would sell them. Plus we would never run out of pokemon. If we could keep them in one place we would never black or white out. So pokeballs are still mandatory.

 

[Ausgirl]

If we don't have pokeballs then how would we capture the pokemon?

How would we get around with everyone having huge pokemon walking next to them? Just imagine seeing a Snorlax down the street. It would crash into everything and steal all the food, lol. It wouldn't be able to fit into busses or trains. You wouldn't be able to take it to school with you. It would be a nightmare. And what if after eating everything it had gass? I sure as hell wouldn't want to be there when that happened.

 

[Enjolras]

Isn't the reason they can turn into data and sent to your computer because of said Pokeballs?

 

[ParaChomp]

It's a net, storage device, and leash all in one! What's not to love?

 

[thecutecelefable]

if pokemon were real there would be huge laws against keeping certain pokmon and some might even be against the law to capture but yea i believe we might have pokeballs they would be important

 

[Dragonicwari]

Imagine the kind of impact this would have on battling, you could use quite literally every pokemon you caught with this system. So I highly doubt Nintendo will include this in a game

So no, I don't think we would need a tune up

 

[happinas]

I woud still carry my pokeballs everywhere, they look good.
Nowadays it would more likely be who's got the swaggiest balls, not necessarily whether they are practical or not. Customised pokeballs would be pretty much everywhere.

 

[☭Azimuth_055☣]

You'd still need Pokeballs. The Pokeball is what is transferred through the storage system after all. You don't just send through entire Pokemon.

I agree with this.

 

[Excitable Boy]

Also I should point out that many of the prime Pokemon catching/training locations, such as dense forests, remote deserts, active volcanoes, underground caves, underwater caves, islands in the middle of nowhere, snowy mountain peaks, and other dimensions probably don't have Internet access (or Internet is shaky and you risk having it cut out and slicing your Bidoof in half).

 

[Acdog]

Putting the debate of how their data is transferred aside, I still think you'd need Pokeballs. They are powerful creatures unlike dogs and cats and we would need a way to contain them if the situation arose. You wouldn't want a Mamoswine getting loose in an urban area.

 

[*~Silver*~]

- Imagine having to get a license to train certain Pokemon. xD

As for PokeBalls... I agree that they'd probably a major object of customization. We'd probably go around judging people based on what their PokeBalls look like. xD

 

[Dark Ventriloquist]

I don't think Poke Balls would become irrelevant if only because of tradition. It's the same reason why even with modern technology, people will always have the desire to be with others.

 

[Mr Dragon]

To answer the first I don't think we would use pokeballs. I think it would be like now days with dogs and cats. Also other kinds of pets too. We would sell them. Plus we would never run out of pokemon. If we could keep them in one place we would never black or white out. So pokeballs are still mandatory.

Um... In real life people don't have dragons, or sea serpents, or giant squid or gods for pets, do they?

 

[Mew The Gato]

If Pokeballs are not present, people would not require strategy. Opponents can just withdraw any Pokemon from the PC that they require as per the circumstances of the battle.
However, Ash actually did just that, using Snivy against Elesa in the Anime, it did not work out well, though...