Games For Girls

This entire notion that video games are for specific genders only enforces the lame stereotypes that we, as a species, should be discarding by now. Yet I see the question come up so often it's verging on becoming an epidemic. Girls are just as capable of problem solving, hand-eye coordination, and enjoying great art as much as boys, so why delegate games that are "for girls" at all?

The flaw many game developers have is their who misconception that a girl needs to be driven to the gaming market. Now, in the 80s and 90s parents were not buying video games for their girls, but were buying them for their boys, that does not mean girls do not enjoy the same games, just as much, that's the parents' faults. However, in recent years we have seen a huge increase in female gamers, of all ages, into the video game market. So why are they still doing the "for girls" nonsense? Parents.

Again, the parents are to blame for this total nonsense. They will buy only specific "girly" games for their girls, and everything else for their boys, thinking that's what their children like without even asking them. My very first favorite game was Final Fantasy, the original, the very first one made. I loved that game from day one, it was challenging and had a decent story. For the time, the graphics were pleasing. But Final Fantasy was never considered a "girls game."

So if you find this post while trying to find tips on what to buy for your kids, I offer some real advice, and suggest you ditch the 18th century ideas when walking into the future with us.

1. Find out what the child likes. Games are classified as genres, which will loosely describe the type of challenges the player will be facing. These genres come from real life interests, such as puzzles, card games, or strategy. That is your starting point, your first list of games.

2. Show the child videos and images from the game. What they like in imagery may not be what society has tried to tell everyone else what they like. Let them decide. Some girls may prefer the fancy dragons, well drawn and sculpted models of fantastic beasts. Others may prefer the cute animals of Pokemon, well, most of them are adorable. See what sparks their imagination, what captures their attention, not what you think should capture their attention.

3. If possible, let them play the demos. Demo versions are becoming exceedingly popular, devs have found that people who are unsure whether to buy a game are often persuaded by the demo, so you will find plenty of them in the download markets for most game systems. Nintendo's eShop has almost as many demos as they have games now.

4. Do not make suggestions of any sort. You do have the power to say "no" to titles you may find inappropriate, like GTA should not be played by anyone under the age of 18. Just don't say "hey, this looks fun." Kids' opinions should develop on their own, and you injecting your opinion will prevent them from becoming their own person. Let them say "this looks like fun." Make note of what they say, how they react, that is your key to finding them the best game ever for their first experience.

5. If all else fails, read the reviews and discuss them with the child.

The first video game for a child should be a memorable one, one that they can look back on with fond memories of a time when everything was right in the world, when they actually appreciated their parents. Yes, it is a lot of work when done correctly, but then, everything that's worth doing takes a lot of work. Do not rush the process, let them decide on their own pace, let this be the first grown up thing they ever do.

I could go on and on about how parenting today has to change, but that's not the purpose of this article. What I want to encourage parents to do is spend the time to do this right. We have so few such events in a person's life now, a side effect of modernization, video games, especially the first one, offers us opportunities that we have never had before.

The Pokebank Letdown

Game Freak, I will always be a fan of the Pokemon games, until the day I die. But seriously, all the hype and delay of the bank was for naught. The app is lacking in so many ways, the lack of stereoscopic effect was barely noticeable in light of the control scheme ... well .... sucking.

What I expected when I heard about the app was some nice, easy, and clean method of organizing and storing my pokemon, as well as transporting them between cartridges for later generations. A nice touch screen control scheme, like Pokemon X and Y have, where you can do a lot with just a few taps of the screen. I expected a nice display of the boxes, and clean icons for the pokemon themselves.

What we got, far less than we deserved. You made us wait, delayed the release, to update your servers. That was understandable, however, the application we finally get is clunky, and dirty looking. Let's start with the interface, since that is the biggest letdown of the entire thing.

Rather than having the boxes accessible by touch, like in the current games, you have to use the control buttons on the system, each move taking more button presses than a drag and drop method would require. You have to navigate across the screens as well, going through each place for a pokemon to get to the bank or game box.

What it should have been is the two boxes, bank and game, next to each other on the touch screen, then use a drag and drop method with the stylus. This would make transferring them much easier, as it is transferring even one pokemon is too much of a chore. So please, work on that, improve the app so we can see a reason to pay for the service, other than when a new generation comes out.

The transporter is even worse, having to place them in the first box on the target game to send them to the bank is rather annoying, considering the control scheme of the last generation was severely lacking. Of course the transporter and bank have the same control scheme as the previous generation anyway, so at least you were consistent, just not in a good way.

The graphics I expected to not be great, but to be clean enough to tell which pokemon is which in the icon view. This was not the case however, as many of the miniature icons used looked the same for different species. This means having to navigate to each individual pokemon to see which it was, so you didn't move the wrong one. We already have the games, and should therefore have all the icons in the games, why not use those?

Okay, so this is the beginning of things, let's hope things will improve. If the service was completely free, I would have no reason to complain, but that is not the case. Though 5 dollars per year is a great price for the service, you could have had your dev team working on improving the app during the delay for the server upgrades. It doesn't need to be perfect, just .... useful.

Pokemon: The Tactical Advantage

Many players will often assume that the most amount of damage is the ultimate factor in who wins, however that is not the case at all. This is why various status moves exist, to shift the advantage. Also many abilities can do this, like prankster or gale wings to take the speed advantage. There are a lot of moves and abilities that are overlooked though, because they offer no obvious advantage.

Luck based tactics can be very effective, but require the correct setups to work at all. Instant KO moves have very low chances of success, they are luck based. but with the correct build, a highly defensive pokemon that has defensive boosts, for example, will benefit the luck based tactic, offering you a lot of chances to use the high risk moves. But if you fail to build the pokemon correctly, you will fail.

Defensive tactics are overlooked a lot, turning everything into glass cannons. Sure, the glass cannon may be capable of sweeping another glass cannon who has lower speed, but you will lose that glass cannon. If your opponent is smart, you will lose that cannon quickly. Mega Kangaskhan is the perfect example of something many players turn into a glass cannon, my Sableye scoffs at those using foul play to bring them down.

So when you boost up the offensive ability, you lose out on a massive tank. Mega Kangas should be utilized as a wall more than a cannon, take advantage of those high defenses and use it's ability to make up for a lack in offensive, because one or two hits from foul play will bring it down if you don't.

One move that can give you a huge tactical advantage is power split, one of those highly underrated moves. Take a pokemon with almost no offense but massive defenses, power split with the toughest opponent. That opponent is weakened and your power swapper becomes invincible, possibly even a sweeper with the right damage moves.

There are also many moves you can use on an ally in doubles, like guard split for a highly defensive pokemon, use it on your glass cannon and that cannon becomes massive, while the user of guard split only suffers a little. This offers you a tactical advantage, which can win the match.

One other tactical advantage is the force switch, keep hitting your opponent with hard status effects in doubles matches and force them to switch their pokemon into attacks, with the right predictions you will easily win the match. Predicting your opponent's actions and builds is another way to claim the tactical advantage.

The most important tactic though, be prepared for anything. It is possible to build a team that is ready for any situation, in spite of claims to the contrary. Go through the moves and abilities of your teams, build a team that is capable of dealing with status and damage moves, plan on things like sleep, confusion, and poison. Expect the common ones, but do not forget the uncommon builds.

What brought this topic up was the fact that a lot of players who are cheating others out of rightful wins by disconnecting are either mega Kangaskhan players, or Smogonites. So I will take this last moment to add this, Smogon does NOT control Pokemon, if you cannot take the heat, change kitchens. Smogon has their own arena to battle in, those of us on Battle Spot are not interested in your rules, and most of us don't even know your rules, the few of us that even know you exist. So stop trying to force everyone to think like you do, in other words, stop cheating.

Effort Values: The Once Hidden Power of Pokemon

NOTE: Portions of this article are out dated, however the basic concepts are still valid. EVs are no longer logarithmic.

Once people discovered the system of what are commonly called EVs in Pokemon, they began keeping track of them meticulously. As a result, competitive battles rose to a new level. Now Game Freak has decided to just let us see them, and give us an alternative method for training them.

I love this new change, because tracking the EVs was always a pain for me so I never did it. Now I tailor the EV spreads to each pokemon and what job they will do in any battle. But a funny trend has happened, people think putting a maximum number of EVs in one stat actually benefits that stat more than say half in two stats.

Bulbapedia shows why this is not a good idea, the effect of Effort Values is logarithmic, meaning that the smaller amounts of EVs in a stat will have a greater impact on the final stat's value. Basically, if you just max out two stats you are wasting at least a quarter of those points. The reason for this is the square root of the value, when something is square rooted it takes more to gain an increase at higher values. From 0 to 4 you gain a +1 to most stats, depending on the IV and base value. For a +2 you will need about 36 points for most stats. That +3 is above 100 EVs .....

You see the pattern now. Though I used estimations on the actual values the general idea is that to get to the next increase you need even more than the previous one. There are some players who have gotten the brilliant idea of optimizing the EVs, which doesn't usually result in maxing anything out. For those who do not have the patience for this, I offer some quick advice.

In the super training screen, increase everything by 12 at a time, you're more likely to hit a squared number that way. Increase one stat until the graph point noticeably "moves," that's about when you will see a difference in most stats. Once a stat you really need is up to that first line, just inside the edge of the graph, consider that high enough.

Other stats that you won't depend on most you can usually go to a point about halfway to that line, and if you don't max out any stats you will find you can reach that halfway point with almost all the stats for the pokemon in question. Another way to make sure you get the most value for the points is to keep track of them and increase to each square value, in other words: 4, 9, 16, 25, ... etc.

I hope this helps with the mystery of how EVs work, and happy gaming.

The Game Of Numbers: Failed Pokemon Strategies

One trend that I have noticed in rating battles is players relying on the best numbers instead of a strategy that can secure a win. While I do find some players who have pretty interesting tactics and strategies, the majority are all just "hit them with the hardest moves you can." Brute force can work in many games, but not in Pokemon. One reason are abilities.

I have been playing around with a Sableye and Klefki lead, both with prankster, giving them first move on status abilities. Loki, my Sableye, is a tough nut to crack as it is. He's highly underrated and his small form is misleading. With EVs evenly spread in both defenses and HP he has a lot of bulk for something so tiny, but most of all, only one weakness and several immunities.

But his move set is the key, same with the Klefki, they are 3 status moves and one damage move each. One of the pair alone will neuter most heavy damage causing opponents, but the two combined will reduce all the biggest, most powerful, pokemon into dead weight. Loki burns the opponents who pose the biggest threat, taunts other status users, restores damage he takes on his own. The damage move he has .... foul play. Foul play uses the target's attack stat for the damage, which is devastating to the heavy attackers.

Klefki has both screens and drain kiss, the fourth move I have yet settled into and it keeps changing at this time. If the Klefki sets up both screens, I usually start with reflect because most teams I have faced are mostly physical attackers, then all damage my team receives is halved. Even fire damage from a mega Charizard to my Klefki is only an inconvenience.

Leading with them both is kind of a cheap trick, but it's loads of fun, only because most opponents I face have almost nothing but heavy damage moves. Many of the overlooked, underrated, and generally scoffed at pokemon have benefits like Klefki and Sableye, their abilities and move pools can disrupt an opponent's primary strategy very easily. I also notice a lot of players running damage calculations, expecting the opponent to be as predictable as they are. This is cool, because when you run damage calculations it makes you even more predictable and anything I do will disrupt your tactics without much bother.

Now, the truly unusual pokemon I often run with, Galvantula. His name is Tallit, and yes, he's a glass cannon, but one of the more buff ones. Often my Gavlantula manages to take down two or three opponents before getting squished, which surprised me as I only expect him to take down one. The reason for this are the EV spreads. Putting maxed EVs in anything is a huge waste, optimized EVs tend to work the best. I have battled someone who optimizes their EVs and they are one of the toughest opponents I have ever faced.

The best way to explain it is this: The increase from 1 to 127 EVs is at least 4 times what the increase from 128 too 252 EVs is. The effect is logarithmic, and my pokemon are nearly optimized, as in the EVs are spread to the stats I think they need most but only a few are maximum. Not only do I get more of an increase from this, but the pokemon are more versatile. By sacrificing a small increase in one stat, I can put a huge increase in another.

This makes the entire team unpredictable, you could, in theory, catch opponents off guard with any member of the team. Other ways are to use moves that you never see, like soak on a Lanturn, it's very effective but rarely seen. Soak an opponent then strike them with a mega Ampharos, even those with lightning rod will go down.

Happy gaming to all, I hope you find this helpful in planning out strategies for not only Pokemon but any other PvP game.

Cheaters: This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

A while ago, Game Freak had to shut down the ranked battles because of a program that was made which allowed people to cheat during the battles in game breaking ways. Recently a patch to the game fixed this, thankfully, and they restored out ranked battles to us. But there was something that got caught in the crossfire, something that I didn't use but liked it being in existence. The trade checking program.

Knowing your opponent's decisions before you make yours is certainly cheating, though I don't blame the hacker who actually figured out it. But knowing what you are getting in a trade is not really cheating. There are players of all games who are dishonest, the battle program is proof of that, and sometimes something crops up that looks like a cheat but really makes dishonest people more honest.

The trade program was one of those tools, trade cheaters, thieves basically, were unable to get away with cheating someone out of a legitimately obtained pokemon. So these thieves faded into obscurity while the program was popular. This made trades much better, we were able to trust more players who said they had something for trade that you wanted. Sure, shiny pokemon became more common, but those are nothing more than a fancy palette swap anyway.

Shiny collectors must remember one thing, there are a lot of players and way more pokemon caught or hatched than there are players everyday. Some of us just toss the shiny if it's not good enough for battle, we have no interest in them at all. Others prefer the standard look. What makes something valuable is when more people want it, correct? Well, most players don't care about shiny pokemon other than as a novelty.

I have one shiny, it was given to me by a friend just because I said I never got a single shiny in this gen. It is not battle ready, it doesn't even have any egg moves, it sits in my box looking different, and that is all. The only value this Bellsprout has is that it was a gift from a friend who I enjoy battling, which is a lot of value but the fact that it's a shiny only makes it stand out enough to remember it.

Anyhow, back to the main topic, enough about shiny values. Game Freak patching to break that battle cheat was a great thing, I am so glad it happened, but the backlash of them having to do that so quickly is that paranoia is already setting in the trade communities. I participate in an IRC channel, in which many members there have said they won't trade with anyone that they do not already have in their friends list except for junk. I don't blame them though.

Actually, the people who are at fault for this whole mess, the return of the paranoia, the power given to the thieves, and a neat little toy that some people enjoyed having, the ones who are to blame are those who would use a program to actually cheat at the game. The checker for the pokemon during trades is not a cheat, because it doesn't actually alter the rules of the game or give you any edge in the portion that is ranked. But the battle analyzer broke the game, literally in many cases, and ruined the fun of the most important part of the game.

So those of you who would have used this "battle analyzer" program, it's your fault, you are the scum that is ruining everything for everyone. Cheaters are, to put it more simply, no better than Adolf Hitler.

Pokemon Breeding: Generation VI How To

Unlike the plethora of information sites detailing the mechanics of breeding, I will present the new mechanics in a "how to" style as a means to, hopefully, help those new to the game, and those unclear of how it works understand it better. First you will need a lot of patience, unless you're one of those who managed to find a perfect breeding Ditto. It's also good to have one or two boxed in the PC empty so you can fill them with eggs for a less tedious method of hatching.

You will need a few things in the game, first you need access to the stat rater in Kiloude. You will have to wait until you are past the E4, Kiloude is also where the power items are. You will need a destiny knot as well, this is your most valuable item if you are going to be a breeder so make sure you don't lose it. The other items are the power items, their names all start with the word "power" and you can get them all in Kiloude using Battle Points earned in the Battle Maison or the Battle Institute. The exchange desk on the left is where you can trade the points for the items.

A single Ditto is all you may need, though having a few with some maxed IVs can help a lot. I used this method to get a Garchomp with all six IVs perfect, using only a Ditto with no maxed IVs and about 100 eggs. So a "perfect" Ditto is not required at all. If you want to breed egg moves, and your first one is a female, you can do that now. If you don't have a female then just breed with the Ditto to get one, the number of eggs will depend on the chances of getting a female. Those without a gender cannot get egg moves so don't bother looking for that information in such a case.

Egg moves are the same and there is a ton of information on how to breed them into the pokemon. But make sure that both parents you choose to continue on with have the egg moves you want your perfect Pokemon to have for the next portion of breeding. Now you are ready to breed for the IVs in generation VI. First, check the IVs for the parents, make note of those the rater says "can't be beat." If both parents have the same ones then you will need something to breed the female with for adding more, otherwise you will need a lot of luck and patience. If neither have any maxed IVs then breed just those parents with no items held, do not worry about the nature yet.

Breeding whil the parents hold no items will ensure that a few stats will be completely randomized, giving you a chance to get one or more maxed IVs in the offspring. Having two parents with different maxed IVs is your best outcome, even if it's only one each.

Now that you have a base pair, you can begin the controled breeding process to improve each new generation. If you have a parent, or Ditto, with three maxed IVs or more, then you will want to skip this next part. If all you have are one or two maxed for each parent then attach the power item corresponding to the stat you want to ensure gets passed to the next generation. For example the power anklet will ensure speed is passed to the offspring, it's the stat that grows when held. At this point, about thirty eggs will guarantee you get one that you are looking for, possibly even a better pair. Again, try to get a pair with different IVs, even if that means one won't be better than the parents.

Now you are ready to use the destiny knot in your breeding, so I will attempt to explain how the destiny knot works now. The destiny knot will ensure that five stats are inherited from the parents, however, which stats are inherited and from which parent are random. This means that HP, attack, defense, special defense, and speed may be inherited, maybe three will be from the mother and two from the father. Combining the destiny knot with a power item does not change that much, but does offer some control over who the stat is inherited from. For instance, if a parent is holding the power anklet and one of the stats inherited by the destiny knot is speed, the speed will be inherited from the parent holding the power anklet.

This also means you will need to change the parents a lot, often going through your boxes to find a compatible male parent with a stat you want to add to the maxed ones. This is when things can get frustrating, the key is patience, you will need at least thirty eggs per generation untill you get one, or two, that are exactly what you expect. If at any point you end up with two parents that each have three or more maxed IVs that cover all six stats you can move on to the next step.

Now you should have two parents which, if combined, cover all the stats you want, exactly how you want them. If one has the nature you want as well then you're almost done. Only one parent will need the destiny knot, and it does not matter which parent you give it to. If one of the parents has a nature you want for your final result then they have to be given an everstone now. If you have no interest in either nature then do not use the everstone at all, just the destiny knot. The next generations you breed should present a breeding pair that is at least one better than the previous parents, again make sure that the stats for the pair are different and cover all the ones you need maxed. Keep an eye out for one with all six stats exactly what you want, in a batch of thirty eggs you have a good chance of that happening, in a batch of sixty eggs you will have a perfect breeding pair and a great chance of one being all six stats exactly what you want.

If you are still trying to get the perfect stats and nature then just keep repeating the last step in the process until you do, it should not take much longer now. I should mention hidden abilities now, though you may already know about this. The female of the parent, if they have a gender, has the best chances of passing a hidden ability on. The male has almost no chance of passing it on, even with a Ditto for the other parent. That means it's best to keep only the females with the hidden ability through the entire process if that's the ability you are interested in, or keep one on the side to breed it back into the final generations if you want it to move along faster.

I hope this helps some players breed more competitive play pokemon for interesting battles. Happy breeding, and I hope to see you all on the rating lists.

It's Pokemon!

Yes, I am a huge fan, been one since the first generation. Of course the games were redundant for so long, the few changes often seem forced or were hit and miss on how good they were. However, I love the series for the gameplay, and nothing else. The monsters are so cool, pokemon are like your best friends, pets, that accompany you on your adventures, but these pets like to battle with each other.

That's the whole premise for the entire series, monsters that enjoy battling each other, but they never kill each other, even if they are mortal enemies. The newest generation had such a wonderful story, far more enthralling than the previous gens because it moved along faster and had a wonderful ending, very moving. So I was inspired to write about it a bit.

There is only one major flaw in the game, the lack of stereoscopic effect for most of the game. This makes the few parts with it available seem out of place, and sometimes the constant switching between the parts with and those without will cause headaches or dizziness. Now when I say that's the only flaw, I'm talking major and unavoidable flaws.

One of the minor flaws is the movement in the signature city, Lumiose. The camera angle and movement are not synchronized, it feels like you're actually stumbling around the city. Without the stereoscopic effect the city also made me very nauseous, yes, that's why I like the stereoscopic effect for the 3DS, it's the only way I can play games with dynamic cameras for long. Normally such cameras will give me vertigo after only a few minutes, and I can't focus my eyes right during camera movements without there being actual depth to the image.

The rest of the game is pure gold. One of the pleasant surprises are the pokemon character models, they turned out even better than I expected. You can now get a feel for how big they are, and many of those that looked kinda lame in 2D sprites now look really awesome in the 3D models, like Raichu, who looks adorable now. Super training is the best mini-game any generation has ever had, and it's useful. Aimee is just fun, Togepi is so much fun in Aimee.

The map graphics were expected, they're not much better than fifth generation but now all the characters are done with 3D models as well, making them fit in better. The changes they made to the battle system balance it out a lot, which brought competitive battles online to a new level. Finally, player character customization is great, though more clothing options would be nice, it adds a lot more color to the trainers' appearances.

Now that the general review is done, let's look at what really makes Pokemon a phenomenon and why this generation was such a keystone for the franchise. Pokemon is more than just battling monsters against each other, there are so many different challenges to face in the game, and so many niches that a player can become a part of. Everyone has to be an explorer at some point, to find everything and finish the story itself. But once the story is complete, you have the in game championship title, and your PC is filled with a bunch of different pokemon, you can now focus on your niche.

Perhaps you are a hunter, you seek to complete the pokedex by going to every point on the map and every safari, seeking out anything you don't have and catching it, then trading for others on the GTS or with friends. Hunters are the ones you can ask for any particular pokemon, and chances are they'll be able to breed a quick one for you. You can describe a pokemon to them, and they'll know the name of it, as well as where to find it. The hunter is base niche, also the most popular. Though it takes a while, it's not as intense as the other niches, even a casual player can be a good hunter.

Then there are the battlers, you train the ultimate teams, move sets designed to meet any challenge presented. You have all the TMs in the game, and you know how to use them. Competitive battling requires intense training, testing, and lots of things to memorize. You have to know the types of each pokemon, and the weaknesses for those. You have to know the moves, what they do, their priority, their power and accuracy, and when the best time to use them is. Strategy and planning is key to winning battles, being ready for anything. I will eventually cover some of the strategies on this blog.

The final niche are the breeders. Pokemon breeding is a game on it's own, the breeding system has been tweaked and developed for a while and it finally feels stable. Breeders have to have a lot of patience, and a little luck. Breeding the perfect pokemon takes a lot of time, collecting and hatching eggs then evaluating their IVs and natures. Sometimes you want to breed moves into the pokemon too, that takes even more work. This means you have to also know which stats are most important, which moves they will learn when fully trained, and what parents to use.

Regardless of the niche you get into, you can test your fully trained pokemon in the Battle Institute or the Battle Maison, to see if they are versatile enough and earn points for items and other goodies at the same time. Then, when you're finally ready, you can dive into the competitive battles online.

Competitive battles have gone to a whole new level, with strategies that were not possible before, and pokemon that can take a hit from the strongest moves and still be ready for more. Thus I will spend several posts to discuss those, and the strategies involved there. I welcome and encourage discussion, clean and nice though. But to help anyone new, here are a few resources that will help out:

Bulbapedia Wiki A community driven wiki.
Serebii  Massive online Pokemon resource.

The Pokecommunity Great forum to discuss Pokemon on.