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How far does your personal line go?

raz1337

Miju Miju!
Granted, I've been into Pokemon since the summer of '99, I only got seriously interested in the games last year. I can tend to get severely stuck on "This is how it should be done" mentality. A year ago, in order to complete my Platinum National Dex, I bought 2 GBAs, a GameCube, Colosseum, R/S/E and D/P to do it mostly on my own.

Before anyone responds with, "well, you're just too casual or not hardcore enough," that's not true. I've paid too much attention to the intricate details of this game, not as much as Serebii or some others, but I'm always constantly scanning through the attackdex/itemdex/pokedex/game pages on this site or others.

With that, I find I'm having an issue in regards to ethics. I've found I've held back in respect to:

- IV Breeding
- RNG Abuse
- Masterball Glitch abuse
- Changing DS clock for events

To me, IV breeding is just a matter of how much I think I should put into perfecting a Pokemon. I just won't do that. I hatch 6 of the right nature, IV battle and pick the one I like the most.

RNG usage to me just seems like the opposite of playing an actual game. It's getting down to the game's coding and showing that you can achieve something by abusing it. I just won't do it. I'd rather chalk what happens to randomness.

With the master ball glitch, it's just that, a glitch. It's unintended gameplay. We know we don't know if the master ball in a trade was cloned, but if I can help it, I will.

Changing the DS clock for me, is something small to others, but I just feel uneasy doing it. I know it sounds stupid to wait a week for an event, but I also feel uneasy at the same time resetting my DS just to change the clock for something that's supposed to be more naturally occurring.

I know I'll likely get some flak about this. This was just meant to air my opinion and see how others feel. I'm not looking to start some movement to say, "OMG STOP ALL THE TOO HARDCORE POKEMON PLAYER" Just...no. People can do what they want.

Anyway, that's it.
 
To me, IV breeding is just a matter of how much I think I should put into perfecting a Pokemon. I just won't do that. I hatch 6 of the right nature, IV battle and pick the one I like the most.

that is iv breeding ._.
 

foxyman1167

From Zero To Hero
I go for perfect IVs in the stats I care about, but I don't bother with RNG, or PokeRadar for that matter. They both take the fun out of finding good surprises. As for the Masterball Glitch, I did that in Emerald to have some around just incase I ran into a Shiny. As for Changing the DS Clock, I do that because I don't have the time or patience to wait until a specific time of day to call a certain Gym Leader for their number, only to have to wait again to call for a battle, its insanity.
 

Swiftrz & Milotic

Feed me a stray cat
Pokemon are pixels, if I have to go through 500 to get the IV's I want, that's what I do. And those other 499 won't care, because they're just pixels.

The other three things I don't do, but not because or any moral code, lol. Too lazy to do RNG'ing, don't need Masterballs, and changing the clock all the time is more of a hassle than a convenience.
 

Prozart

Teh Proviet
I do IV breed a bit, I'm obsessed with getting the best pokemon possible. But IV breeding is something that was put in the game purposely. I don't change the clock, exploit any bugs, and I don't abuse RNG. It makes a rare thing common, completely defeating the point of it. Those kinds of things take the fun out of the game for me.
 

Iristle

I make no sense
I've only recently got into things like EV training and chain breeding for movesets that I want. I'll breed 6 at a time for the right nature, then IV battle with the ones that are the right nature and use the best. The only exception with IVs is if I get a shiny pokemon with the right nature and ability but rubbish IVs, the shininess is good enough for me. :p

Even then I'm not into serious competitive battling, it's just too... serious. I'll use the pokemon I've raised in a team I picked, with the movesets and nature that I have picked(mostly). If I don't have a specially trained pokemon for the specific type, then I'll use one from my ingame team.

Anyway, I started all the way back with yellow, and I sucked at it. I remember that I had raised a Nidoking all the way up into the eighties in Yellow. I only started to improve and use more than one pokemon when I kept failing at Emerald, and asked for advice. The first time I beat one of the games, properly, was with a team of Gardevoir, Flygon, Ludicolo, Mighteyena and Blaziken. Yeah...
 

Skydra

Well-Known Member
I' every once in a while use the Emerald cloning glitch to create a Pokemon to migrate. Also, I'll create a clone of the Pokemon I use in the Emerald Battle Frontier because of the Level 50 All needing your Pokemon to actually be Lv 50 (thats how I justify the glitch...you HAVE to be lv 50). That way I can train one how I please with a lv 50 one in reserve.

I don't believe in RNG because GameFreak gave us this great little method called chaining. Anyway, whats so good about having a shiny if you hardly worked for it?

IVs are just too much of a hassle. I get the right nature and be done with it. So what if my Blissey has 713 HP as opposed to 714?

EDIT:Oh, I forgot changing the clock. I don't have a problem with it. And it has so many uses-
1.Getting the swarm you got yesterday or earlier today.
2.GL rematches in HGSS.
3. Getting the right season in BW.
4. Making it night or day for catching Pokemon or evolving.

And Gamefreak could've pulled an RSE and made an internal clock.
 
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Drippy Miltank

Journeyman Breeder
I started playing Pokémon Yellow, but since I couldn't read english it wasn't serious. In fact, the only Pokémon game I actually finished was Pearl, which I had to have beacause of wifi implimation. After finishing Pearl, I was hooked and I wanted more. I have since learned about IVs, Evs, natures ect. and beaten HeartGold as well.

I agree with everything you said about the ethics of pokémon. I don't RNG, nor change DS's clock. The only exception is IV breeding, I believe it was placed there on purpose.

Examples:

1. Gamefreaks made an in-game character that hints on which stat has a higher IV.
2. Gamefreaks gave us the power items (hard to get too) to pass IVs down through breeding.
 

loz4

Mmmm, Dragons
Agreed with everything on original post, i'm not an IV nerd nore a RNG nerd, takes the fun out.
 

GilligBoi

Well-Known Member
Sometimes I use the walk thru walls cheat because I don't feel like switching pokemon or learning a useless move like cut or rock smash.

Sometimes I'll use AR codes for fun but never to get "better" than anyone else. If I want a shiny to look at and keep for myself thats fine but anything I'd trade would be LEGIT. I do things for my amusement, not my own profit.

(My ex left me an AR so I figure why not?)

As for EV's and IV's I think thats silly. Pokemon is a game and its supposed to be fun. I would be bored to tears defeating 50 of the same kind of pokemon to earn points.

I only care about natures to a degree, if something really hinders a pokemon then I'll catch another one. For example I like my Ampharos to be fast so if she had a nature where it hindered her to be fast, I'd catch a different mareep before even thinking of rasing it up. I'm not the kind of person who catches 8534858570 of the same pokemon to find that perfect nature. To me that takes the fun out of it.
 

HeadOverHeels

Not enjoying AutumnF
Man I so agree with you on rng abusing. It takes all the fun out of the game when you can get a perfect Pokémon in a couple of minutes. A little off-topic but this is the only reason I don't visit Smogon - so many rng-***gots over there, I feel ill every time I visit.

IV breeding is kinda fun, the feeling you get when you calculate the IVs of a Pokémon and get the results you aimed for - just amazing. It's also something Nintendo put in the game to separate the kids from the older players, so that's cool.

Changing the clock is totally fine in my opinion but I try not to do it. I don't mind waiting for the weekly and daily events. Waking up a friday morning and knowing Lapras will be in the union cave makes an already awesome friday even more awesome.

I do clone master balls and rare candies in Emerald, but I only use the rare candies to iv check (I have never used a rare candy on a Pokémon in HG, except if I needed to check its ivs) and the master balls, well I have a few extra on my HG but I have only used one (yet), I try to catch Pokémon with other pokeballs. so cloning in emerald feels right for me.
 

Zepton

Member
I love Pokemon, but I've never really played up the stradegy angle all that much. Heck, I don't even used any moves that don't do damage, usually ('cept poison or sleep). I never IV/EV breed or whatever, I just pick a pokemon I like and roll with it, I don't even bother with natures most of the time. Mind you I don't do online trading and battling, so there's really no need most of the time. The only time I really bothered with that sorta stuff was when I wanted to evolve a Tyrogue into a Hitmontop, so I needed to make sure Attack = Defence.

Anyway, I've been into Pokemon since Pokemon Gold not sure exactly when. Maybe sometime around 2000s. I was about 7 or 8 at the time... ah, good times...
 

Pikawho?

(five15)
IV breeding: I don't breed for perfect ivs, but I don't take the best of 6 either. I breed until I have the nature I want then check the ivs until they are 28-31 in the two stats I care about the most. But that's as far as I go. I could go the distance and get high ivs in all stats, but I don't have that kind of patience.

EV Training: It's the only way to get a solid team, really. Otherwise, you've got pokemon with anomalous stats that may or may not do well in competetive play.

RNG Abuse: I've got nothing against it. Yes, manipulating the games inner code is really cheap, but it's still not technically cheating. I'm all for randomizing ivs and whatnot, but I'm perfectly fine with the hardcore nerds who participate in this stuff. I might use it once to get an unchainable shiny, but otherwise I'll stick to chaining and random breeding.

Emerald Cloning Glitch: I abused this glitch, but not on masterballs. For awhile (before Gen4) Mew, Deoxys, and Celebi were only available to the people who actually made it to the events so I cloned these guys then traded them off to people (who legitimately needed them) for Bidoof or whatever. I could always clone more so it made sense to trade them away for scraps. Sure, I cloned a few masterballs, but I don't really use them. I only clone and pal-park rare items that I'd need in Emerald.

Changing the DS Clock: My OCD doesn't allow me to do this. I'm willing to wait for the events/swarms to actually appear. However, I did change it back a day once in SS cause they only have fire-stones at the pokeathalon place on Mondays and it was Tuesday when I was ready to evolve my Vulpix for the e4. I did not want to wait a week so I changed it. Otherwise, I can wait for stuff to show up.
 
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Purple_BlitzXD

♥Heart of Ice♥
I only go so far when it comes to pokemon. I do battle competitively, so I do all that IV breeding/nature breeding and Ev training. I also have 2 ds's to trade with myself if needed lol and also pokemon that contain Pokerus. I only use AR when needed such as getting the tms/items/berries I need, Never for cheating in a battle though because that is just wrong.. :/.
 

cannibaleyes

Holier Than Thou
I RNG, so I pretty much break every moral code there. XD

But I do it because that's how I enjoy playing the game. If someone is against RNGing, or doesn't want to spend time and effort IV breeding or EVing, then that's fine. It's just a game. People can play it however they like.

Sure, I may roll my eyes at my roommate, who is completely lost when I start telling her about IVs, EVs, and Random Number Generators... But honestly, if that's not her cup of tea, then that's that. She's probably a smarter person than me for not wasting her life exploiting the programming of a child's video game...

I used to be mad at people who RNGed, but it was more because of their mentality than anything else... I didn't like that people treated me like a complete casual n00b just because I couldn't exploit every facet of the game's programming... Which was actually due to the fact that they hadn't yet come out with a RNG program that worked on my computer, rather than a lack of knowledge. -__-
 

Mr.Brightside

You will evolve too!
I do ev train and search for the most suitable iv's and natures for each Pokemon, but i'm relatively new to it. I can see why one won't like this whole iv/ev thingy, some times it is too much of a trouble and a bit tedious trying to find and battling the same Pokemon over and over again but at the end, you have an awesome fighter utilizing its best traits. So, i am fine with ev training but iv's are a bit of a pain and i have to start learning about this but i find it interesting so i will do so.

I don't have or played the Emerald version neither did i know that Emerald had this glitch till now but i used to clone a lot of Pokemon in Gold, i had 3 Ho-oh xD. I guess i didn't clone Master balls because i found out about the glitch after i used it on one of the Legendary beasts. But i don't think i would use it, at least a lot since i prefer catching Pokemon with less reliable catching devices :p

As for changing the DS clock and RNG, well, i am patient enough to wait for certain events -plus this way i have a reason to play the game at that certain day- while i have to admit that i had absolutely no idea about what RNG was, or that even such a thing existed before reading this topic so i can't exactly express an opinion on it.
 
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