They're doing what most other franchises are doing right now, or even above average in terms of information given out prior to release. I mentioned it earlier, but Sonic is the only major video game franchise to reveal new things in upcoming games to about the extent Pokémon has been doing. SEGA got called out on it too, including revealing major spoilers, and they've dialed it back bit by bit since, culminating in
Sonic Mania revealing comparatively little (albeit presumably still more than
Pokémon Sword and Shield, proportionally speaking). Sonic fans are infamous for having hair-trigger tempers, but they were actually pretty calm through that whole thing.
Perhaps the better thing to do would have been to do that too--reveal less and less, gradually, as long as there aren't a lot of screams and complaints.
Passion does not really have any correlation to profit, so I would half agree, but think it is a non-sequitur. What you were driving at with your last line (basically) is that Pokemon is a franchise and I think GF has been approaching it like that ever since R/S, probably in no small part because Nintendo is standing behind it's star child with two hands firmly on its shoulders. What I meant by passion project was to simply stop thinking about everything in terms of franchise economics and try to make the best game you can possibly make, and swing for the fences while you are doing so. This does not mean they have to throw anything out or do a 180 from where they are at, nor does it mean they have to forget that it is a series and will continue into the future (so do not gas yourselves in the attempt basically). They demonstrated with Sun and Moon that they will at least touch (if only aesthetically) the foundational elements of Pokemon, so it does not seem like too much of a stretch for GF to get together and distill the essence out of their stable of Pokemon games and universe, and then look at how they can make a phenomenal game drawing on the inspiration of the evolution of game design across the years, their own creativity, improvements in technology, and... well, passion, ha ha.
I make my language poetic for the sake of interpretation sometimes, and I honestly have written too many epic length forum posts only to have my soul crushed by indifference, so I have become accustomed to just rolling the dice with vaguer language to save myself a thorough explanation, ha ha. "Endless high note" was just meant to capture the feeling that the game should evoke, not necessarily a description of the litany of features it should have. You make a good point about how widely the opinions of fans, let alone just game players in general, can vary regarding feature lists for video games, and Sonic is a good example, although one I am not very personally familiar with, outside of tidbits I picked up reading Game Informer and good ol' Nintendo Power (rip) back in the day.
I do not think Pokemon is precisely in the same position however, because Sonic has been trying to re-invent itself (as far as I can tell) while Pokemon has been more liberal with its offshoots. Stadium, Let's Go, Mystery Dungeon, the weird free-to-play Cubivore rip off, etc. Pokemon is like a leviathan dragging a lot of detritus in its wake, but the core games have always had a pretty crystal clear focus. The stuff that has been thrown in and taken out has mostly been related to connectivity, until they introduced Mega-Evolution. I think as far as mainline games go, GF is in the clear to make the "best" version of those games because they have not iterated on them overmuch. That will change as they keep juggling around Mega Evos, Z-Moves, Dynamax, and on and on, but even those things are all just different flavors of an overpowered mode or move, which is a common video game trope. For most people, I would think, it would be easy to simply pick one and move on, if it would be conducive to the gameplay to keep them in at all. Maybe that would be one of the more difficult/unpopular decisions they'd be forced to make, but that is one of the few that strikes me off the top of my head.
The rest of the features they have had across games they could easily bring back and integrate, and then keep building the game, game play, features, and content. I think there is a strong illusion of developers being backed into corners in game critique and discussion, because we have all been so conditioned to not expect great things, but planned obsolescence has more to do with that than anything. And as I said, I would not expect them to give me EVERYTHING, because I know they need to plan for the future, but I think as they keep making games on a platform that hosts games of the scope and depth of Dragon Quest 11, BotW, and the Witcher, and ESPECIALLY because they are branching off into simpler mobile versions of their games to appeal to different players, they need to step their game up. I fully expect Sword and Shield to be transition games, but GF should be looking toward how to evolve their flagship games now that they have so many other avenues to work in.
I can tell you are quite driven to see this ideal game of yours! The problem is that in any complex and/or large projects, things are not going to go as planned, even when there is no one you have to follow orders from. People who work for you will leave, and you need to find replacements. People get sick and have to take days off, including those critical to your project's success. There will be creative differences. Computers might break, the power might go out for a while, the ceiling of the office may undergo structural damage from too much rain. Supplies you've bought regularly may undergo a price spike or become unavailable. People may misinterpret what you mean. A glitch or bug may be discovered that will require much of your project to be undone. Someone close to you may pass away along the way and dramatically affect your temperament. Someone you need to exchange information with may suddenly go quiet for months or years, forcing you to continue whatever parts of your project don't require their help or even to finish without them. (This has been an ongoing problem when woring with Nicalis as a company, for instance, and is why
Kingdom Hearts III took so long to make.) One of your business partners may demand something unreasonable and won't understand why you can't just give it to them by the following Monday. You may discover something you're doing is actually illegal and you have to correct it. Someone may sue you for something that sounds irrelevant, or for plagiarism even though THEY ripped off YOUR ideas, but either way, you'll have to go find a good lawyer so your project doesn't just run out of money right then and there. The bank that loaned you the money needed to do your project may double its interest rates. The backers that gave you money from your crowdfunding campaign will get impatient and demand you wrap up your project already.
Game Freak has long had a problem of adding more things in, because Pokémon runs on design-by-accumulation. They were barely able to get every Pokémon into
Sun and Moon, and I think this problem would have happened even if they had all the moeny and manpower needed. (Time, however, is another problem, and it's probably their biggest bugaboo.) There is a saying from a Native American tribe, though I forget which: "Other people's work is not as easy as it looks." If you've worked for clients, you've likely experienced this yourself. You've probably had to do complex, tiring work that people on the outside think could be solved just by pushing a button or flicking a switch.
This is what I'm talking about. This is also only scratching the surface of what might go wrong. It's impossible to account for everything, no matter how much experience you have. I used this example before, but
Animal Crossing: New Horizons got delayed for a few months, undoubtedly because problems arose such that they couldn't finish in time, even though the people running the whole thing have had decades of industry experience. Having experience doesn't mean there will be fewer problems. It just means you are more likely to know what to do when it happens. Even then, I'm sure there are plenty of things they would've wanted
New Horizons to have that just had to be scrapped because it wasn't workable.
I don't think there's been a single video game ever made where everything went according to plan and everything the creative leads wanted got put in it. Not even during the days of the Magnavox Odyssey or Atari 2600. The games praised as the best games of all time had many compromises happen within them too.
I will give it to the leaker, they have good ideas. And those ideas make sense, too, for the most part.
With Sun and Moon constantly giving us reveals and trailers, it was easy to discern fake leaks from real ones. Sword and Shield aren't making it easy. I cannot wait for the datamine to set everything on the table.
Me, I never trust a leak, at all. Some game companies have come up with ingenious ways to plan for leaks though, which I figured Game Freak would adopt sooner or later.
"Ramabam" seriously? Two letters away from Ramadan? Yeah no...
Reminds me of that fake leak with a pokemon called "Twinkape"
Well, there's the chain of motels known as Ramada Inn.
Until we get a datamine of ALL the available Pokémon, any leaks that we get can't be proven to be true or false. And we can't even properly decide who to have on our teams either because of it.
Some people don't want to decide who to have on their teams until they play the game though. Admittedly, they do have the option of ignoring all pre-release information when a lot of it comes out, though it's become harder and harder to do as YouTube and social media now have cultures in which people freely display spoilers out in public.
This
Basically it's in a news sites or newstube channel best interest to not leak information. The company will get a lot of views from these previews. Every time they get invited to a preview this will keep happening, those helping to bring in views and revenue for the company. Ultimately it's in the companies best interest to stick to the NDA.
Also if they were to say go on 4chan and post about the new pokemon they show the ip address can be easily tracked. Or if they used a vpn then nintendo could just not do previews, which hurts the news companies more then nintendo.
Yeah, there is a HUGE difference between these people getting preview copies and the leakers. People who get preview copies are trusted not to spoil things or leak information; they have had a history of being honest, so they're given these preview copies. Leakers, on the other hand, are nonprofessionals who snuck their way into positions in game testing (and likely got the job because they have no experience), and with nothing to lose but their jobs, could go ahead and leak information, ready to deal with any consequences just for their fleeting time in the spotlight in small fan circles.
That is, people who get preview copies care very much about following NDAs; people who leak information from the inside don't care about NDAs at all.
Couldn't that "7 unrevealed Pokemon" just refer to older Pokemon that haven't been confirmed for the Galar dex yet?
That's what I took it to mean anyway.
Not everyone consults the list of confirmed Pokémon, nor would I expect them to have memorized them all. Rather, I think they really are new Pokémon, or at least Pokémon the players don't recognize.
Another thing to consider is that the people that are reporting on it pretty much only had like what 90 minutes to play the game, meaning they didn't have time to really explore as there were likely trying to hurry and get as far as they could in the game within the time limit. So it's quite possible that there were some brand new pokemon that they missed just because they were either extremely rare or they are in optional areas that they might not think to look in as their rushing through the game.
For instance when you look at the locations for Rockruff, Turtonator, Sandygast, and Mimikyu in Pokemon Sun and Moon they are in completely optional areas or parts that you might not to visit while Dhelmise is only in one exact fishing spot in Seafolk Village and in that spot you normally have only a 1% chance of encountering it and that goes up to 10% if you get it while it's bubbling.
Also then you have Mareanie, Passimian, and Oranguru which can only be caught by SOS chaining and with Mareanie you have to specifically SOS chain a Corsola which itself only has 1-5% chance of showing up unless the spot is bubbling then the chance goes up to 20% chance. Also the fishing spots that Corsola can be found in are only in specific areas in Melemele Island and one area in Akala Island
So looking at all this they could have easily missed a pokemon or more while they were rushing through the game.
Wait, weren't Passimian and Oranguru the opposite, namely that they don't do SOS calls at all?
Otherwise, yeah, I think most commonly, people will try to get as far into the game as they can because they're curious as to what is available. They'll have to keep it in for another four weeks.
Hard to say. In the past, fans complained that too much was revealed and they really should have held back. Now they're doing exactly that and getting flak. What they need to do is find a happy-medium. Don't reveal everything, but when you do reveal stuff, do it at a more steady pace. 24hr livestream for 1 pokemon, a trailer showing off Gigantimaxed forms for pokemon that are so recognizable at this point that infants are born with the inherent knowledge of who they are, and 'reveals' teasing a leisurely stroll through a village town just doesn't cut it.
This was a more experimental style. They're seeing what works and what doesn't. (And what works or doesn't work here isn't necessarily indicative of people watching as a whole. The Generation I Gigantamax video, for instance, would likely be a hit with fans of
Pokémon GO,
Let's Go!, or folks who grew up with the initial hype in the 90s and 00s and are getting their feet wet. Recognizable Pokémon make a good jumping point.)
