#mobas

Years ago, a game developer attempted to argue that their game “wasn’t for critics.” This was rebuked - in part by critics, which is perhaps a bit circular - as a ludicrous argument; one made only because the developer wanted to be immune to critique.

As I’ve been looking at the critique of systems in Pokemon Unite, I’ve been considering this argument anew.

Pokemon Unite is a MOBA - a genre focused heavily on very competitive people generally teenaged to 40s. It’s also running the Pokemon license, which is aimed at being enjoyable to all ages but has a bent in graphical design, storytelling, and marketing, that points it at ages 6-15.

Pokemon in general is in this weird place, where it’s aimed largely at the young but itself is now a property over thirty years old. This means some of those folks in their early forties were actual children when Pokemon first came out. I don’t think it’s either kind or wise for a product to demand its fan base move on from it as they age, but I do think it’s fair for a product to keep doing its own thing and if people drift away from it because they’ve changed that’s fine.

So back to that old argument of “It’s not FOR you.”

I see Youtubers complaining about poor play in their matches, and I’m like, “Have you considered that there is a high chance your fellow players are literal children?”

I see complaints about the ranked bot system. This system breaks losing streaks (usually), by discreetly (though easily caught) putting the player into a match where they are the only human involved. This is seen as condescending, a waste of time, and a muddying of the waters for the higher ranks by permitting lower-performing players to reach higher ranks just by continuing to play a lot. But again, suppose the player is an actual child. Will they spot it happening, or will they just think they did better (and also get a chance to practice their fundamentals again without getting stomped for a whole game) and get their morale back? If they do realize it’s happened will they think it’s bad - assuming they haven’t absorbed the Youtuber opinion that it is - or will they take it as intended: A chance to turn their streak around and start progressing again? And as far as the Master Rank of Pokemon Unite...SHOULD it be an elite title only held by a few? I think players used to MOBAs would say yes, pointing to poor players who’ve ground their way to championships in certain titles and then performed embarrassingly on the world stage. But, like...how many Pokemon players became Pokemon Masters? Every one of them that finished the game. Until Unite announces a big money tournament scene, their Master rank is just a marker of dedication and consistently pretty-good play, and that should be enough.

Saying nothing of the actual playability of a MOBA on the Switch, it’s just hard for me to believe that it’s going to get as big of a reception on only the Switch and mobile (LOL’d when I saw that). If it does, great I guess, but it undoubtedly would’ve gotten an even bigger reception on PC, no contest.