Useless events: what's the point?

And I'm not talking about events that give new moves to Pokémon, but those moves are useless, either. I'm talking about stuff like this, that you can very, VERY easily make yourself (minus the Cherish Ball and unimportant stuff like that). Because I'm at a loss. Would even the most dedicated fans go grab such an event Pokémon if given the chance? I doubt it.

People still think Slowbro evolves into Slowking

Sadly, that is NOT a joke. I was reading this thread to get a better idea of what they were planning to do in regards to stat weighting (see yesterday's post for an explanation), and the subject of Eviolite Slowbro came up. So I took a look at the stats to see how bad it was, and believe it or not, it's its FOURTH most common item, at a whopping 2.7%. If you ever needed proof that the situation's gone so out of hand that the current weighting system just doesn't work anymore, well here you go.

I do find it weird, however, that no one in that Smogon thread seemed to realize that it was the whole evolve-into-Slowking schtick rearing its ugly head once again, instead suggesting that it might have to do with niche Trick uses. Can't blame them, though, really, most normal people haven't entertained the idea of Slowbro evolving into Slowking since gen 2. Still, it's pretty clear to me that it has everything to do with that old misconception and nothing to do with actual utility, and should count as a candle. After all, aside from PorygonZ and Dusknoir (which evolve from two of the best Eviolite users around), every other Pokémon in the top 250 for whom the Eviolite appears on the list is NFE, and even these two have an Eviolite rate of less than 0.5%. So if fully evolved Pokémon + Eviolite + Trick really was a thing, do you really think the Eviolite wouldn't be seen on anything but Slowbro, the one fully-evolved Pokémon people might think is not one?

Smogon overhauls tiering yet again

It's something that's been going on over the last two weeks, and I completely missed it, being busy with other things, chiefly Bravely Default, but here you go anyway in case you weren't aware.

Right, so it's not a massive change in methodology like the one from 2008, but it's still worth mentioning. Originally, they were using raw, unweighted stats to make tier lists. Then, in late 2012, they started assigning weights to each player's teams depending on their rating, which had the benefit of weeding out bad players, bad teams, and so on.

However, Pokémon Showdown's popularity kept exploding, which you can see right away in the monthly stats with the ludicrous amounts of battles done over it. This brought a whole new problem: the ratio of "casual" players to "competitive" players kept increasing, to such an extent that even stat weighting started having its limits. In his announcement post, which you should read if you want more detailed background, Antar cites the fact that no less than 4% of Sylveons ran Hyper Beam.

No, let me try this again: 4% of Sylveons ran Hyper Beam AFTER WEIGHTING. Anime-based teams are also even more popular than ever - even with Blastoise actually being usable this time around, its most popular teammate is Snorlax, and its fourth most popular PIKACHU. Tiers are supposed to be threatlists, and with such an influx of casual players that actually get to have an impact on weighted stats with Pokémon that just aren't threats, that definition is challenged.

This means that moving forward, the rating at which point your teams will really have an impact on the stats will be much higher. This month it'll be 1760, and they'll be winging it for a while until they get a more permanent solution in effect, which they're already working on. It sounds elitist, everybody acknowledges it, but when tiers stop serving their assigned purpose, something has to be done.

This change single-handedly moves around many Pokémon between tiers (rankings provided are the normal, weighted ones we're familiar with, not the 1760 ones):

Promoted from UU to OU: Chansey (#52), Latias (#59), Keldeo (#74), Zapdos (#82)

Promoted from BL to OU: Terrakion (#61), Kyurem-B (#63), Landorus-I (#65), Deoxys-E (#70), Deoxys-LG (#87), Manaphy (#88)

Demoted from OU to UU: Galvantula (#37), Cloyster (#39), Trevenant (#41), Sableye (#42), Klefki (#43), Donphan (#44), Tentacruel (#46), Starmie (#47), Smeargle (#48), Salamence (#49), Forretress (#50),

So, how long until a new Metroid game?

Unsurprisingly, we've had total radio silence since Other M. But it's been almost four years, and STILL NOTHING. Heck, you could say it's been seven years since the last Metroid game worth playing. The gap between Super and Prime? Eight years.

So clearly they know Other M has gone over like a fart in a church, and people want so little with it they probably decided to let the storm pass before doing anything else with it - or at least announcing it to the public. (Yet at the same time they don't have any issues acknowledging it in SSB4.) But if you told me back then that by March 2014 there still wouldn't have been word of anything, I would've called you crazy.

So, prediction time. How long until we get to play a new Metroid game? (Release, not announcement, just to be clear). I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say the second half of 2016. Winner doesn't win anything but bragging rights, mind you. That is, if they even remember they made that prediction to start with.

(And just to make this clear, Retro producers confirmed in an interview many years ago that this was purely a coincidence that got the HOENN CONFIRMED treatment by fans. Especially considering "nearing completion" usually means release within seven years.)

Get out of my head.

No, really, GET OUT OF MY HEAD. You've been in there for a week now. Any more and I'll start charging rent.

Today is a very special day.

Because we can celebrate someone dying and not look like the worst excuse for a human being in the process. Farewell Mr. Phelps, the world is truly a better place with you gone.

Right now I wish hell actually existed, just so I could imagine his total disbelief upon ending up there.

Fanboyism: not just in gaming!

It's election season in Quebec, and whenever you say election, you say POLLS! Poll after poll after poll after poll! One recent poll in particular got people talking, for the simple reason that it was the first one that had the Liberal Party in the lead. Now just about none of you are from Quebec, so I'll let you in on a little secret: our provincial Liberal Party is pretty much universally hated. So when that poll came out, people went apeshit, the kind of apeshit you thought was solely reserved for video game arguments. THE POLL WAS RIGGED! THE LIBERALS BOUGHT THE POLLING FIRM! And so on.

Two things in particular stood out about that poll. First, it was done through the internet, not by phone. And there's ever-increasing evidence that internet polls aren't that much less reliable, if at all, than ones done by phone (such as this data from the 2012 US presidential election). Yeah, I was surprised too, I would've thought phone polls would've done better than that, but who am I to argue with cold hard facts? Cold hard facts that clearly aren't enough for many people, by the way.

Second, some regions (namely Montreal's suburbs and Quebec City) were willingly overrepresented, with a much larger sample than in other regions. What people don't know, though, is that polling firms then weight each region according to their population. So if a region has 10% of the population, but 20% of the sample, then each person from that region will only be given half a vote to compensate. It's also worth noting that in the case of this particular poll, other regions had the same sample size as usual, meaning that while most polls stick to the 1000 mark, this one was above 1200. But hey, people don't know that, so CLEARLY THE POLL WAS RIGGED.

The real kicker is that a new poll from a different firm, which came out today, has the Liberals in an even more commanding lead - though THAT poll is a little dubious, thanks to a sample of only 665 people after eliminating undecided voters. Still, putting your head in the sand and denying that the Liberals are in the lead because they're morally bankrupt, only care about themselves, are EVIL FEDERALISTS, yadda yadda yadda, just makes you sound stupid. (It's not like the alternatives are more heroic either, though let's not get into that.) When election day comes, if they win, are you going to complain that people were intimidated in the voting booths or something? Man, I'd pay to see the tears.

Pikachu finally doesn't get preferential treatment!

Of course it has to be in Trozei 2, which I assume no one really cares about, but still. Here's a bit of trivia for you: aside from Happiny and Chansey's Healer, only one NFE has a special ability. And it's a gen 1 mono-Electric type.

AND IT'S NOT PIKACHU. No, it's Voltorb. VOLTORB of all things is the sole NFE with a special ability that's not Healer. Talk about a random pick. But hey, as long as it's not freaking Pikachu again, I don't mind.

Theorymon time: What if Sleep Talk could trigger Rest again?

It's no secret, nowadays defensive Pokémon and teams have a rough time against the onslaught of super-powered offensive moves out there. So I was thinking, remember how back in gen 2 Sleep Talk could trigger Rest to refill HP while also resetting the sleep counter? It was brutally overpowered at the time, thanks to a metagame so stall-oriented battles that lasted 200 turns happened way too often for everyone's liking. But with everything that's happened since then, such as the new EV system introduced in gen 3, the physical/special split, and the introduction of countless offensive powerhouses, do you think it could work without being as brutal as it was in gen 2? Defensive playstyles sure need the hand... the only real reason I'm iffy on even mentioning this idea is the fact that OU's top Pokémon, Rotom-W, actually uses Rest quite often. But the only OU that really gets any significant mileage out of it is Trevenant... what do you think?

A few thoughts on A Link Between Worlds

After completing it the other day, I have this to say: remember how I used to say that top-down Zeldas just didn't do it for me as much as the 3D ones? Well, I might have to review my stance on that! LBW is the best of the bunch, no friggin' contest. And I can't put it down to just one thing, it's just a multitute of small factors that ended up piling up.

The event move dartboard returns!

A poll was held to determine who between Victini, Jirachi, Manaphy and Darkrai would get a special distribution as a tie-in to the Klefki short associated with movie 17. Well, Darkrai turned out to be the winner, and was given a randomly picked move that it can't learn otherwise. And this time, the dart thrown by a blindfolded Junichi Masuda hit PHANTOM FORCE! OOOOOOOOONE HUNDREEEEEED AND EEEEEEEEEEEEIGHTYYYYYYYYY!!!

What, you don't believe my story? How else could a crappy non-STABbed physical move be given to a Pokémon with 90 base attack (which would be low even by OU standards) and 135 base special attack? Oh well, it's no big deal, I think we can all agree that Darkrai definitely doesn't need another useful move. Unlike the other three. Why, oh why did Darkrai have to win?

Wait, people hate Daylight Saving Time?

Because I sure don't. I don't know how it is further down south, where daytime duration is more consistent throughout the year, but here I always find myself anticipating it greatly, especially since we started doing the switch in early March instead of early April. It marks the period when the sun starts setting at a reasonable hour (up until yesterday there was no light whatsoever past 5:30 PM), and it also rises a bit later, so I don't get woken up too early as easily. I kid you not, if it weren't for DST, the sun would rise as early as 4 AM in June, and that's absolutely unacceptable. (Heck, 5 AM is already borderline NOPE.) On the other hand, if we had it all year round, it'd rise at 8:30 AM in December. Also unacceptable.

While I understand adjusting our biological clocks to it is a mild inconvenience, it's far less of a problem than having to wake up and go to work in the dark, or wake up way too early for no good reason and lack sleep as a result. Think about it.

Smogon February stats: The taste of karma

Sorry for what may seem like slacking off, I just totally forgot that these things came out. Let's write that thought dump, shall we?

Dazzling Gleam. Light of Ruin. Moonblast. Moonlight.

Please rage more on how this new type should've been Light and not Fairy.

Japan? Who needs Japan?

Certainly not Sony, who in the end managed to tie the Wii U for sales immediately before the PS4's release in Japan, with both sitting at 5.8 million units sold as of February 22. Sure, Japan isn't nearly as good of a market for home consoles as North America and Europe, but this scenario paints a very grim picture of Nintendo's prospects. Of course it's something we already knew, but I find myself increasingly wanting Nintendo to start reconsidering its place in the console market. That is, unless they really mean it when they say they'd rather close shop entirely rather than become a third-party developer.

True statement of the day

"How would you like if you adopted a pet from a shelter and they didn't let you change its name because its first owner called it "Asshat"?" -NicoCW

You all know what I'm talking about. And even if they do fix it next time around, it will have taken at least TWENTY YEARS to get it right. Unacceptable. (Don't get me wrong, though, better late than never.)