Pokemon Battler Natures Article

[jireh the provider]

Afternoon to the staff of the Smog Forums. After picking up ideas and aided guidelines from sandshrewz, for a first time writer here in Smogon, after having about a two year practice writing various threads from serebiiforums, I share to you my first article idea for the possible upcoming Smog Webzine: a Poll-centric Article to be precise (I'm not exactly sure which prefix article will it fit though. I just Guessed General). I just hope I'm doing it right and putting it in the right place.

Concerns: For the article that I wanted to write, all I need to know is where can I post my very first survey thread on Smogon forums. You see, I need the research done first. But I do have plans on using Survey Monkey just to contribute to the research and answers that I will need for the featured article. And, if you have other free online questionnaire making sites that you can share, tell me then. It helps a lot.

So here is the topic of my research: The different Nature Mindsets of Smogon's Pokemon Battlers.

Put it in detailed terms, we do know that every member of smogon's battling community has their own way of establishing their teams and philosophies depending on the kind of pokemon battling they are participating: OU, International VGC's, local friends, and many others. This is like my social studies not just for me to study the social life and community of Smogon. It is also for me to at least try to share some things that I may learn as a game designing student and an English Major student in college. After playing competitively both in DOTA and pokemon for about four to five years, I became interested in the social nature of different players when playing the more challenging aspects of a video game.

Writing Style: I'm more of a freelance writer. In fact, I'm a novelist kind of writer which is one of my traits. But I do know featured news writing since I wrote a few in my high school days. When it comes to this one article, I will always give the answer and opinion of the replier, the results of the data I gather, and my own opinions and analysis an equal ground to the possible best of my writing ability. I'm just neutral in my stand for the most part. I will of course add a bit of my humor to the article whenever possible.

Categories and Groups: You see, the groups of players that I find most of the time in Smogon are the following (these play a role in this Poll centered article. I am certain there they may be more groups that I'm missing:

a. The Analyst (the researchers in other words)
b. The Battle Hungry (those who always want a great challenge. Give them a boring challenge, they'll rant about you. Nothing much else)
c. The Thematic Battler (think of OU Monotypes, Certain Generation teams, and Ash Teams as a basis)
d. The Simplistic (those who really cling to their favorites in game, and their beliefs [like the saying of some casual players, "No legendaries`allowed!"]. Not much else)
e. The Visionary (battlers that can make a pokemon / battle style / set rise in the high ranks. Like let's say that I suddenly built a Vivillon set that just became XY RU S rank threat)
f. The Teacher (Think of the moderators of the Mentorship 101 and their role in this community)
g. The Freedom Mason (people that promote a completely free for all pokemon battle. No clause, no restraint. Except for hacked pokemon that is. You know those people that see the tiers like racism as if OU pokes are the whites, NU pokes are the blacks as to how they could compare it. Get the gist of it?)

So I would be asking some questions like these to various smogon battlers of various skills (whether a rookie, an apprentice, or a veteran, or an admin): More questions will come up once I post the full set of questionnaires. The way the replier can answer will involve two ways in most of the questions: Multiple choice, and free essay form where they can be as detailed as they could for their answers and stand for it.

Examples:

a. What would you consider in battling a stigma to the community? To yourself? To the casual battler? To the professional?

Reasons: _____________________________________________________________________________

b. What does pokemon battling give and share to you?

Reasons: _____________________________________________________________________________

c. How much do you pursue your competitive edge throughout your battles in smogon's community?

Reasons: _____________________________________________________________________________

Now after getting the results, I plan on writing article in a category basis (see: Categories and Groups) in a chapter basis. Like, one group on one article. Then another on the next article. Depending on the results that I can get and write, I may slip another category in the same article if either there's still time, or that the one I place is not enough for me to fill in.

I just hope that I covered just about everything up for the confirmation of this Smog Article that I plan to share here. So good evening to you (I finished this one tonight)

 

[Bummer]

First off, sorry for the late reply. The release of our current issue is at hand and thus we tend to neglect to approve the material for the next issue. :M

Secondly, this seems to be a solid article pitch, where you've decided what to cover, what to ellaborate upon, and so forth. Now, by default, we are very wary of new users making article applications, as we don't have much to go by in terms of writer credibility since the number of posts on the forums are so low. But seeing the structure of the above post, I'd feel confident approving this. However, you said that you'd liked to cover this topic in a series of articles, which is not something we typically allow for new contributors. First we want to see how you manage with your first production, so that regardless of how glorious the first application was, we don't want to sign up for something that in the end is left unfinished or unfeasible to continue.

While I'm sure that you have plenty to say about each category/group, would it be alright if you could cover a-g in one article? Our average reader probably cannot stomach, or perhaps even read, a whole article dedicated to a single player profile, so having several types covered in a single article feels easier to justify. I'm not really on the clear if the questions you'll be asking to various players will be part of your category/group analysis, but as far as I'm concerned, that questionnaire could serve as a foundation for another article, and it'll be easier for the participants to cooperate imo if you have an earlier article to link to (as opposed to a complete stranger asking them sudden questions).

Please get back to us with your thoughts about my above porposition, but if it is alright with you, then I can see myself approving this.

 

[jireh the provider]

Personally, putting all the categories into one chapter, I agree with that prospect so far (in fact, that is the one thing I'm worried about in the first place that you might want me to split it into separate articles). Right now, I just registered on survey monkey using the basic questionnaire formula.

Overall, I agree with your proposals and advice. Look, I'm not rushing things too fast okay. I would probably get the questionnaire finished either by April 27, or on the last day of April. Then I will post my questionnaire on the forums (which I still don't know where to place it yet)

 

[jireh the provider]

Now that I completed the article, here it is for you to check.
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Know Your Battlers​

Hello to all fellow trainers. While you are polishing your skills as a pokemon battler, have you ever consider knowing the different personalities of pokemon battlers? If you ask me, I don’t really mind if you play the battles within smogon rules, tiers, and sets on Pokemon Showdown or on the actual cartridges of Pokemon X and Pokemon Y. What this feature will talk about are the different kinds of Pokemon Battler Personalities. Throughout my experiences of playing Pokemon Showdown competitively, if you ask me, I’m just an average competitive battler. Yet here I am taking interest on the social nature of Smogon Pokemon Battlers, and others, as well. What are the things and factors that the Smogon community and other groups consider “Cheap Tactics” and stigmas in competitive battling? What are the most dominant groups of players? Some popular playstyles picked by different kinds of battlers? In fact, it could be applied to other multiplayer competitive games like DOTA (I’m a fan of this competitive gaming as well since I play it a lot on the internet cafes too), League of Legends, etc. But we’ll stick on competitive pokemon battling for this article.

First and foremost, I find through observations both in smogon’s forums and pokemon showdown, and others alike, that there are seven categories of pokemon battlers that currently exists. While this is not official and solid, there are battlers that will have a combination of any of the six kinds of battlers. Yet, even if you belong to like two or three groups, there is that one battler that shines bright like a Diancie’s Diamond. Before we head there through, in this community, you should expect that there are a lot of young male players participating couple with some from the age of twenty and above. Of course let us not forget the few female players that play competitively too, with the touch of other genders I won’t mention as a way of showing respect. So show each other some respect. Now let’s start with the various kinds of battlers.

The Analysts​

I’m not sure if there are any Ace Attorney fans here on Smogon shouting ‘OBJECTION!’ and ‘TAKE THAT!’ somewhere during an important debate like the previous Turnabout Swagplay and the ongoing Turnabout Baton Pass Team cases. Anyway, The Analysts are the pokemon battlers that researches about the pros and cons of any team core, pokemon roles, and other factors during a battle. In fact, the analysts must go hand in hand with The Challengers (more about that later) since these kinds of battlers are the brains finding answers to different questions concerning the best of various battling situations within a virtual pokemon battling simulator laboratory. They would be suggesting things like these analytically.

“Here in XY OU, Terrakion has all the requirements for being a late game sweeper because of its STAB moves. The 108 base speed lets you outrun base 100 speed pokemon, etc…” (more technical stuff)

Another nice thing is that The Analysts is also working with its little sister group called The Visionaries (more below) from time to time. Yet these two groups tend to bicker with one another. When The Challengers join in though, it becomes quite a drama tale ending either in peace or great Smogon style word wrestling. Yet when the three of them combine their strengths, sometimes, they created a revolution that becomes game breaking.

The Challengers​

If The Analysts are the brains and strategists, The Challengers are the muscles and athletes. The former and this group are like bread (Challengers) and butter (Analysts). This is one of the ways that most rookie competitive battlers start by using their beloved in game pokemon; only to get swept by someone with competitive experience and knowledge. In fact, The Challengers group has the biggest melting pot of people of all kinds of battlers. In this group of people that all of us go through, it is always a rise or fall topped with both good and bad intentions. For this one, we’ll mention just a few divisions of this group.

Like Manny Pacman Pacquiao in his World Boxing career, there will be days of defeat and victory throughout our competitive journey. You may have built what you thought and tried as the ultimate team at first. But these guys have to adapt to the changing times lest they keep losing again and again out of ignorance. Some battlers see this as a challenge to overcome with sentimental value. For some, the value of sportsmanship is a transition that a new player must go through after exhausting its experiences in the RPG play of the Main Pokemon Games.

Other groups like The Remnant Nomads and The Free Masons see some of The Challenger’s mindsets as nothing much more than an elitist division (more on those later). Hence, these Challengers often have conflicts with the other groups, except for The Analysts at most since arguments with each are much more visible during serious metagame debates.
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Now that we covered the two major groups, the following will be the others that could belong as subdivisions to the two previous groups.

The Visionaries​

Oftentimes, most readers would be saying that The Visionaries and The Analysts are one and the same. You’re right in a way. So, what’s the difference? Simply, The Analysts collect data and analyze various trends from previous results that are successful, tried and true. The Visionaries however are this group of battlers that experiment and create new trends in the competitive battling. Whether the chosen pokemon experiment succeeds or fails, these kinds of battlers have a bigger habit of making new, at times radical and crazy, battling trends.

Speaking from my current DOTA competitive experience, one hero named Clockwerk is originally played as a carry in the past. A few years ago, the professional DOTA players played the same hero in a support role in a big way that made them win the tourney. I believe it is shown during the finals between NaVi (Sweden) vs Invictus Gaming (China). I’m certain that most of you remember Lucario from Fourth Generation where he is often used as a mighty special attacker in its early inception. Then the Physical Lucario set came to fruition months later as a solid and important set in Pokemon’s competitive field for various teams.

Simply, these battlers like to experiment with new sets and roles for certain pokemon. I don’t know if Vivillon could end up being either an A Rank or S Rank in either UU or RU in the upcoming months due to its Hurricane Spam. Maybe we could have a visionary test this on a virtual lab and show us a next revolution. Like how Steve Jobs change the way we live today.

The Thematic Battler​

Question for this theme is which thematic battler do you currently belong?

Scenario 1:
“Hey! Are you using that team with dumb Ash in mind? Hey Smogon bros! Let’s fuck ‘em up!”
Team Ash couldn’t escape Team Smogon’s wrath!
Team Smogon used Play Rough! It’s super effective!
Team Ash cries and attacks smogon members in hurtful rage!

Scenario 2:
“Uhhh. Oh gosh. Dragons dragons dragons! All of your pokemon are dragon type.”
Team Monotype reveals its all dragon type team to Team Smogon!
Team Smogon used Follow Me!
Team Smogon suggests to Team Monotype to use that team in OU Monotype instead!

Scenario 3:
“I see. A Weather based team huh? Well, let’s settle this.”
Team Legal Tier reveals its legitimate OU team established by Smogon!
Team Smogon uses Work Up! Team Smogon’s mind and skill rose by one stage!
Both teams said Good Luck and Have Fun!

There are plenty more of these kinds of scenarios for this group of battlers. Think of the three scenarios like the Blue Birds from Angry Birds. Whenever you launch “the one” and tap the screen, one bird sinks down, another stays on course, and the last flies even higher. In the end, the three blue birds land in different locations. The three sub-categories of this group consist of the Smogon Tier Players, the Monotype Players, and the Character Team Players.

The Thematic Battlers are the cousins of The Challenger mingling in the huge melting pot of battlers. Since Smogon’s system is currently the world’s most used Pokemon Competitive tiering system, the Smogon Tier Players wanted the rest of the battlers, both newcomers and familiar faces, to use and create teams that are familiar to the community. While they want new trends to rise, the expectations for success and laddering are extremely valuable and crucial to those groups of people. Hence, they have a sharp eye to the Visionaries and Analysts. The unique thing about them is that they have the respect of the higher commissions of Smogon’s community. Scenario three shows up to these types of players most of the time. Yet most of the time, neither team says the “glhf” (seriously, why acronym it instead of saying it good luck have fun word by word? Are you a C++ programmer pokemon battler?). And of course, if you are a casual player reading this, you may even comment on this that these players are pretty mean and too serious at times.

Thanks to the mindset of those former Thematic Battlers, the Monotype Players and Character Team Players often face the criticism and animosity of the higher Smogon commissioners and recognizable Smogon Tier Players. A couple generations ago, early Monotype Players did not have the respectful privileges that it now has today. The crux of monotype is that a team of six pokemon shares one specific pokemon type, you’re bound to lose to a certain pokemon. Have a Grass Monotype Team? Better hate Heatran, Infernape, and Talonflame a lot and kill them pronto lest you lose the fight 6-0. Yet, during late fourth generation up until fifth generation following scenario 2, after continuous persistence by the disrespected Monotype Theme Battlers, the Smogon Community decided that the OU Monotype tier should be established in order to avoid any future pestering. It is tested as an experimental tier at first if this tier has value or not; turns out that in the end, it is just as good as the official Smogon Tiers that they established. With Excalibur Aegislash, Mr. MacTalonflame, and Kalos-Kage Greninja making names in the OU Monotype tier, the Monotype Thematic Battlers have finally earned its respectful place in Smogon.

Sadly, for the Character Team Battlers, they are still being harshly criticized and attacked in every cruel and unfair way by … just about every member of the smogon community save for a few (even the previous two subdivisions of this group mocks them today most of the time). The number one character victim is Ash Ketchum Teams. The scenario 1 above still prevails within the community for many logical, social, and justified reasons. Yet for these types of battlers, they feel like smogon is attacking their idol/s harshly for they have high sentimental value to these types of thematic battlers. This small group are close buddies with The Remnant Nomad Battlers and The Freedom Mason Battlers since they can feel the animosity of the community. Perhaps one day, there could be a tier for Official Human Pokemon Characters. Whether you want to use the video game variant of Gary Oak’s Team, or using the Pokemon Manga variant of Sapphire’s Team, or the anime variant of Dawn’s Team, the only restriction for this potential tier is that a player can only build a pokemon team based on one official human pokemon character only. Let’s use an Ash Team as an example. He normally has Pikachu, right? You can use any member of Pikachu’s family tree on the human character team you’re building like Raichu. Full evolutions of an official human character team are permitted for this potential tier. Yet who knows, would this untapped tier come to fruition? Only time knows.

The Remnant Nomads​

If you have a favourite pokemon that you love so much in game yet you want to use it to its best performance competitively, that is the common mindset of this group of battlers. They carve their own path and give no spit about the mindset of the Smogon community even if they do follow some of Smogon’s rules and suggested team builds.

While they know how their favorite pokemon does in game, they also know a lot about their favorite’s competitive edge and best roles in the harsh Pokemon Metagame of Smogon. Speaking from experience, back in mid fifth gen avoiding the harsh Weather Wars of OU, I used to play with a Female Pokemon Theme Team featuring Team Charm from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky (Lopunny, Medicham, and Gardevoir), and three Unova pokemon that I see as very feminine aesthetic wise (Cinccino, Lilligant, and Mienshao) in Black and White UU. The star of that team is Cinccino. I really know her best strengths and weaknesses like second nature along with my other team members. Usually, these battlers would give an answer something like this if they are questioned as to why they are not following and using the recommended pokemon established by the tier they choose to play.

“…Personally, I expect all of you to see this as a pokemon team that is thematic and not a solid team, which is true. But these girls are my favourite pokemon in game, and I know their best set and roles that Smgon has establish. Yes I still follow and obey the clauses and restrictions Smogon has made. Just don’t force in my throat to change my team. I’d rather ladder this tier in my own way with the pokemon that I truly know a lot and love a lot to use over every other pokemon that you suggest to me no matter how ‘better’ they are. Stop using the ‘Win all the time’ mentality too seriously.”

Simply, the Remnant Nomads are a hybrid of The Analyst battlers and The Thematic Battlers for they are a mix of knowledge and childhood heart. These people are very rare to find in Smogon’s community like a Diancie’s Diamond in the Kalos skies. One thing is certain about this group. The fact that we were like this group at one point in our battling experience reflects our pokemon childhood before either Smogon strips away our childhood (how some people interpret Smogon’s Elitism towards just about every pokemon player), or continue and learn the complex sport of Pokemon (how others interpret the change from casual player to competitive player). It’s just that some members of Smogon community find themselves at home with this type of people.

The Freedom Mason​

Has any of you played any Super Smash Bros with all items and hazards on whenever you play competitively with others online or local multiplayer? If the answer is yes, then you just might share some ideologies from this group of battlers called the Freedom Mason Battlers.

Usually, Ubers has this kind of setting where all the moody abilities, evasion moves, and other denied tricks of pokemon battling are permitted. I mean, if you restrict some things, some pokemon that rely on those extremely powerful abilities will not be at their full potential. Moody Bibarel anyone (I’m certain that some of you OU players will hate facing this thing)? Believe it or not, I can see two shades of gray groups in this group.

The first half only wanted OU to have no legendary pokemon and pseudo legendary pokemon be used at all in battles since they really cling to the common mental idea that legendaries are unstoppable. Unfortunately for the casual players who are just entering competitive for the first time, Ghetsis gets that harsh reality nailed to your innocent casual soul very hard (if you played Pokemon Black and White that is…). Only a few can really see a small innocent light in this group for this half refuse to leave its comfort zone.

“Reality is evil. I’d want to stay innocent in my childhood mind.” = One of many ways to see and understand their perspective

The other half however wants a zero percent restriction in every pokemon battle. No discrimination, no rules, it’s a pure free for all battling community. At times, this other half gets way too extreme to the point of allowing hacked pokemon and having 999 EVS all over Pikachu’s stats and moves. Heck, there may be times that moves are super effective against EVERYTHING!!! Which is why, when they are about to battle out of control, they need lots of careful management from other battlers to avoid making major sport chaos.

The reason why this group really push the idea of pokemon battles being free and not being discriminated is that this group, most of the time, sees and feels the great animosity, discrimination and harsh reality of the personality of becoming an Analyst (because statistics and data are too precious to be destroyed and changed as how some see it), Challenger (most hate battlers playing with dirty tricks as if it’s Anarchy. They prefer Democracy like in Twitch Let’s Play Pokemon), or even some groups of battlers: more so to the former two. Hence this group is the real bottom subdivision to both The Analysts and The Challengers making community revolts that only hurt themselves even more either intentionally or unintentionally for the impossible goal of ridding of human autism within the Smogon Community. But of course, it’s all on their shoulders, along with yours, to judge respectfully.

The Guild Master​

Honestly, I’m not sure how many in the Smogon Community remember the characters of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers. As a fan of the PMD franchise for their characters and story, getting through the guilds training while surviving Chatot’s and the guild members bickering alongside Wigglytuff’s unstoppable stupidity and YOOOOOMMMTTAAAHHHH!!! Powers is possibly like the internet life of a student learning and training with a Mentor/Teacher in Battling 101. If you are a pokemon battling 101 teacher, I welcome your small and humble group to the list of pokemon battlers.

Being a highly respected sibling of the Analysts and the Visionaries, these chosen few are like the Magna Cum Laude and Summa Cum Laude of knowledge within this community. In fact, the Analysts and Challengers are on almost equal ground with the Guild Masters in terms of knowledge and experience respectively. What separates this group from the rest is that they have the balance of both worlds. But the important requirement to become one of the most recognizable and highly respected Guild Masters is mastering and understanding how to pass knowledge, ideas, and opinions in a logical and very respectful manner.

Simply, they know most to all of the proper words and knowledge needed to pass on to the student / trainee. Not only are they smart, they are also approachable and nice people that you can ask for guidance whenever needed. Honestly, it’s from these people that know how to agree AND disagree with respect to the person it talks to. While other groups can disagree on something like this small group, rarely do you see a battler do it both respectfully and logically like the Guild Masters.

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While there are many more kinds of battlers that exist around the competitive community of pokemon, most of them could just be a mix of the mentioned groups above. Even if you are both a Visionary and a Freedom Mason, one of those two will always stand out about yourself as a pokemon trainer and battler. Who knows? Could you belong to the group called the followers who just go with current trends instead of making their own trend simply for fun (fun in a broad sense that most won’t bother narrowing down) like sheep that only follows the shepherd?

As we come to reaching the end of this article, we should ask ourselves these questions.

“Are we willing enough to see every pokemon battler’s view and opinion while we agree or disagree with them with humble respect instead of expressing our opinions with animosity and disrespectful negativity?”

“What kind of battler am I as a person?”

 

[Bummer]

Well. So this happened.

I cannot explain why we overlooked this thread, or at least basd on what I currently know. Did you make a new post for your written material in this thread, or did you edit the material into a previous post? Because the latter may have evaded our notification system although it still doesn't explain why the thread was locked when I found it

Either way, I'm bumping this to the front so that others can leave feedback if they want. However, I do need to emphasize that the articles aren't written in this subforum. When you have the article approved, we make sure you get access to our workshop, and there you can once again create a thread of your own for the article, and then write it, have it gp checked, and so forth. And while I commend your patience, there's nothing wrong to remind any of us if you see no response in one week or more.

This article is still valid though, so after letting our new consultants gloss it over, I'd have no qualms with moving this to the workshop. Sorry for the mess. By the looks of things, this one seems to be on us.

 

[jireh the provider]

Well. considering the scenario your crew had, I understand. Just give me links and locations of the workshop if it's a requirement I have to do.

 

[Bummer]

Since no one has objected, then this article can definitely go forward into our workshop, that you now should have access to. Here's some general advise we give to all writers (although some isn't applicable this instance as you're already done):

1) Get your stuff done on time. If there's ever a situation that comes up, talk with The Smog Staff, and we'll make accommodations. The key here is communication; we need to hear from you if something is up that will prevent you from meeting the deadline. Try to get your stuff done in two weeks if possible, in order to give the GP/HTML/art team time to get everything done.

2) Don't leak any of our stuff until the release happens. This includes art and any other information. If you ever want feedback on your work or have questions, you can join us in #thesmog on IRC (if you don't have IRC, you can PM me or another staffer on the forums and I'll give you a link).

If you need any help, please don't hesitate to ask The Smog Staff. When you post your thread in the Article Workshop, you need to set labels for it. You'll need to set the issue's number too. For the tags that say WIP, Grammar, etc, those are the stages your article are in. Since you'll ideally be working on the article after posting your thread, mark it as WIP. When you finish, move it to Grammar and get it checked twice by other people. Afterward is the HTML stage and someone will put it into HTML code. Your article will eventually get art done for it and it'll be complete!

Welcome to the force!