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The PGL: A nonchalant short story view



The good:

Pokemon with Dream World abilities and moves they would otherwise not have access to (in any way possible) or would be difficult to get are a nice touch (even though there's a few I either don't like or make me scratch my head in confusion). Overall a good idea and breaths life to a few Pokemon who were stuck with poor abilities.



Something that surprised me a bit was the Trade Shelf. Unto itself it allows you to place items on the shelves and when friends visited your place for whatever reason (notably to water your berries), they could trade items with you. All in all it's another good move that gets a thumbs up from me (mostly because it doesn't require having to trade pokemon with them and getting your item).



The bad:

With the mini-games remaining consistent on all the realms (Forest, Sky and Sea) and with only four to choose from it's no surprise it gets boring after a while. They're not only boring at times but it's also frustrating.



Let's also throw out the FPS corruption bug that plagues a lot of the games. While not very annoying it does lag the game significantly and sporadically, and as any gamer knows any kind of lag can take a good game and make it unbearable.

Most if not all the mini-games also lack a border. This causes it to be too easy for your cursor to fall out of the window and screw up your match. Granted, this is more annoying than deadly and I'm probably being nitpicky that these Flash games lack one of the most basic things any programmer should do.



The ugly:

With only two events on the RGL total, compared to the JGL's 15+ and soon to be two expansions, RGL users feel left out and I don't blame them. While I do understand there's a bigger fan base in Japan I wish companies would realize there's a significant fan base overseas too (this falls to Capcom also).



On a side note. You used to be able to register people on the PGL simply by having their friend code, but now it was changed where you need to have that and have traded with them in order for them to crop up. Bad move in my opinion.



It falls somewhere around here:

I've noticed that the Dream World dries up quicker if you play in the expansions than if you play in them normally. Not really saying it's an issue, but my JGL account did fall behind my RGL account when it came to total points earned that day.



TL;DR:

Nintendo needs to release more events on the Regional Global Link. The Dream World is repetitive and stale.



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Side Segments:

Mini Game Chart: Seek > Ice Cream Scoop = Sky Race > Serving Beverages > Wailord > Befriend a Friend (RGL version)



I've written the following on a rough draft of this view. I'd figure I would humor people and throw it on for shiggles.

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First up is Pokemon Seek; Overall not too bad of a game.

I've seen my FPS (Flash Player Profiler) run at a steady 30 FPS throughout most of the game. The game has you searching for a lost Pokemon. This becomes nearly trivial if you can find the lost Pokemon's dropped berry (which signals that it's two squares away from that point), not to mention you get a nice boost to your total point score for finding the berry. Certain maps like the Sea make it difficult to see the sparkles the berry give off, not to mention both the Sea and Forest make it difficult to find and click on shaking objects (which yield Pokemon).

Not too many complaints or ideas to fix about this one.



I had some trouble debating what's next, but it's going to have to be Ice Cream Scoop (you'll see why next). Not too glitchy but very frustrating at times. Another con against this mini-game is the fact that it requires a berry per game. This isn't much of a problem some time into playing on the PGL however, so it's not considered a huge argument against the game.

Quite frankly this is a decent mini-game. Again not much to complain about outside of whining about bad luck when a scoop of ice cream doesn't stick or when a rogue scoop takes out an entire tower (I've had it happen before...). Not much on suggestions either.



Next up is Sky Race.

When I first began playing on the GL (both versions) this was my all-time favorite mini-game to play. I adored it; Whenever I got the chance to play it I took that chance. But over the course of a few months I noticed the game degrading more and more in performance and quality. It was enough where I think nothing of the game and only if the Pokemon who was requesting me to play was worth it.

The game rarely peaks over 20 fps, with it idling around 10-17 fps. It's not so much an issue if it's stable, but it's constantly fluctuating throughout. Combined with the significant lag I get (whether that's from the game's haywire FPS or not I don't know) and you get the reason why people aren't excited over this game.

It's overall not a bad game (better than the Ice Cream Scoop game I have to say), but this degradation in FPS and the lag chock it on as number two on the list. If the FPS issue can be alleviated or even fixed this would be a more enjoyable game.



This leaves one last mini-game to talk about. This abomination of a game has people avoiding it like a plague (I'm not joking when I say this either). That's right; it's Wailord's Water Spout!

What makes this game so abysmal to play you ask? Lots of things really.

The game takes too long to load up and end (tallying the score). Wailord moves significantly too slow compared to the speed of the Pokemon you 'spout' (despite Wailord taking 1/3rd of the field). To me it feels like it lasts too long and becomes drawn out. It's also very easy to lose a Pokemon that clips past your spout.

I feel that this game suffers the same degradation in FPS that also affects Sky Race (which might also explain why Wailord feels so slow to move across the screen). All these things combined just make this the most abysmal game to play, enough to where if I see the word Wailord written on my screen I avoid whatever Pokemon is asking like it's a diseased carcass.

What can be fixed about this game you say? My only real request is that a border is implemented (as I've managed to slide my cursor out of the window and lost time in retrieving a Pokemon) and that the lag is fixed (or increase Wailord's speed a bit if the game isn't checkered by FPS lag). These two things combined could probably make the game more enjoyable.



Drink Carrying.

If the precision and frustration from the Ice Cream Scoop game and the issues that plague the Wailord game ever combined, this would be a damn good result.

While it's not as annoying as the two I mentioned earlier, it is up there on the list. There have been times where the plate I use to carry drinks tips unexpectedly at a speed I normally go, or I can go 2x faster than normal and not spill a thing. It's highly possible I haven't grasp the mechanics for this game completely although I probably will never master it since I've stopped going to the Cafe.

What plagues this mini-game are three things; Lack of a border (albeit not as game breaking (for lack of a better term)), the speed it takes between delivering a beverage and when a new Pokemon crops up is too slow, and lack of a return policy (while this is usually my own damn fault for trigger fingering a lack for an option to return a drink is strange).

These three things combined make it an overall decent game, but it's a nice breath of fresh air nonetheless.



Eeveevolutions/Befriend a Friend/Brick Break.

Whatever you call it, it's well agreed upon that this was the worst game Nintendo could conjure up (and that's saying a lot). The first few rounds were simple enough, however the same couldn't be said for the third and final round.

Something must have gone horrible when this game was programmed. There's no logical way that a game is easy the first two rounds (there was a slightly more difficult map one could get in round two though) and incredibly difficult on the third. If I can remember each round has three maps that have a chance of spawning. Two of the three maps in round three was incredible. We're talking about the distance between the peddle and unbreakable blocks being marginally small, alongside speed increasing horrendously fast after a short amount of time. I should also mention this game didn't have any borders (see a pattern here?) and with a game like Brick Break, your cursor leaving the window could be cataclysmic.

If applied with enough patience this game could be overcome. Despite this, the excitement and contentment after accomplishment was short lived. Just when you think salt to the wound was bad, there was a glitch that plagued the game where it didn't save your results (meaning the Global Link acts like you never did the game and never befriended a Pokemon).

It was indeed that bad. I have heard of success stories of people getting Nintendo (or is it Game Freak that does all this and I'm just pointing the bird at the wrong company?) to give them an eeveevolution but I've also heard horror stories of Nintendo giving the cold shoulder. I can't offer advice on this situation besides saying it doesn't hurt to try and ask about getting your eeveevolution (which btw I hate saying that word).

A poorly programmed game. A bugged up ending. An even angrier fan base. If this wasn't temporary this would top the **** list indefinitely.



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Editorial Notes:

I experienced the FPS lag on both Ubuntu 10.04 32 and 64 bit, Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows Vista Business (the last two both being 32 bit). All the operating systems used 32 bit firefox with 32 bit flash. I was never running any other Flash products at the same time I was playing on the PGL and I was monitoring FPS/Memory Usage using the Profiler. I've even used a clean Flash cache so build up or degradation of Flash as the cause for FPS lag was thrown out the window.



This went through a few revisions before I was decently satisfied with it. I just decided to stick with short paragraphs as that gets my point across easier than writing blocky wall of texts. If people ask for my original works then I'll post it.

I never talked about Global Union because I don't have the patience to level up a team (meaning, Charr does not do competitive play).

After wandering aimlessly on a friend's server I came upon quite the large gravel pit.

Sometime after excavating it (which took about an hour total, maybe less) I decided to see how many arrows I could get from this catch...



6 columns X 9 rows

Gravel -> 64 stacks per node

Plus the 48 unfinished node of gravel

Times Four for the amount of arrows made per single flint yielded from a single block of gravel



(((6*9)*64)=3456+48)*4=14016



Flint -> 64 per node

Plus the 55 unfinished

Time four per arrow made



(((64*7)+55)*4)=2012



14016 (gravel blocks which can become flint) + 2012 (flint already obtained) = 16028 arrows



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493 gravel (individualistic of the gravel pit catch) -> 493 flint + 62 flint = 555 flint * 4 (arrows made)



(493+62)=555*4=2220 arrows



16028 (catched) + 2220 (pre) = 18248 arrows



I'm going to probably go for the 20k mark for no reason whatsoever.