Content = dailies.

Catch five pidgeys. Leave them in a box in the woods. x25 per day

Dr.DraX wrote:

Yut Put has a good point. It does seem like aesthetics are becoming decreasingly important in video games, advertising, etc. Here are some examples:

http://www.neatorama.com/2012/07/04/ evolution-of-windows-logo/#!3aOc0
http://boltgroup.com/brand/brand-blog/ brand-personalities#.U6m-Hvm7xng

The world has already started to focus more on content rather than visual design itself. Consider Pokemon X/Y, or a fairly large portion of Pokemon games, maybe even a big chunk of games in general, once you defeat the Elite Four, there might be a couple of things to do post-game, but other than that, there isn't really that much to do. This is however, an online game, the more room you have to work with, the more room you have to add content that will keep players coming back for more. A couple of Lilycove Cities or a Goldrenrod, a Silph Co., that kind of stuff would really help a game out. You want to keep players occupied as long as possible, which is mainly possible through a greater amount content.

Okay well I am not going to touch the Pokemon end of this, but those two links you posted, show the pinnacle of marketing and design. Look at those logos, all of them represent brands that have became so large they don't have to tell you who they are, you already know it (sans-windows, which really never said "windows" to begin with). While the opinion piece definitely states that the logos shown (with their exception of Pepsi) are good at what they did with their changes because they knew when to "stop", that if we keep pushing forward and don't know where to stop that some singularity of design is bound to happen.

This singularity has been "bound to happen" since someone say a typeface or design they really loved and gave it their rendition, and then repeat that with everyone else. Design is the living sticky-factor, you don't tend to forget it because there will be something about it that will always stick in your head.

So, your comment of " It does seem like aesthetics are becoming decreasingly important in video games, advertising, etc." kind of bothers me, because it makes me feel that you don't understand what aesthetics are. You can't see how beautiful and evolved these designs are, how they impact the user, what they let the viewer feel. Visual designs are experiences, they're memories and feelings. They are some of the most important things to an industry / company / person, if we excuse the main point that in order to really survive you have to have the "content" or "product" to really drive it home.

Aesthetics not being important really only goes for the Linux community (very few of them are pleasing to look at, but they're a sect of OS producers and users that don't care so much about it... and I guess sometimes UX, which kinda explains their market share... and the 1000s of different distros).

I'm speaking from the viewpoint of a developer, rather than that of a player. Players may stand in awe for long periods of time just to stare at the virtual world on their computer screen, but I think we all know that eventually they'll get tired of it and move on if they don't have anything to do. Imagine a BYOND instance that was simply a map that you could move around on. It may look like heaven, and you may remember it for the rest of your life, but that's all there would be to it. I'm not trying to incriminate what amazing things a player could potentially see, but instead I'm attempting to ensure that they don't have a huge lack of content once the game goes live.

Ex: The 'Flat Design Era' shows that organizations can lessen the amount of emphasis they put into what is seen, in this example, flat instead of 3D and sparkly. They can spend less time on things like that and still get the same amount of activity or sales.

Again, in no way did I intend to attack visual design, but I rather stated that more content is a must if one is looking for an active player base.

Okk this is getting a little deep and I'd like to remind everyone that this is a Pokemon game. Pokemon games have never had huge maps to begin with. They always had 8 towns/cities and a few islands.

We're going with the same idea. Except that instead of following linear paths we thought we could be more original, and since this is an MMO, give the feel that it's more of an open-world and that you are free to roam around instead of moving from town to town for the sole reason of defeating the next gym.

Players can follow the storyline, meet other players, trade Pokemon, Scan for Pokemon nearby with their Pokedex, participate in contests, go threw labyrinths and dungeons to find rare Pokemon that you can't find in tall grass etc...

The fact that everything look so "compacted" together ,that there isn't much space and that the towns are small, is nothing new in the Pokemon series. (Talking about GBC/GBA games)

Things have always been this way and these are the generations I've enjoyed the most. I don't think it should be any different even if this is an online game.

Kidpaddle45 wrote:

Okk this is getting a little deep and I'd like to remind everyone that this is a Pokemon game. Pokemon games have never had huge maps to begin with. They always had 8 towns/cities and a few islands.

We're going with the same idea. Except that instead of following linear paths we thought we could be more original, and since this is an MMO, give the feel that it's more of an open-world and that you are free to roam around instead of moving from town to town for the sole reason of defeating the next gym.

Players can follow the storyline, meet other players, trade Pokemon, Scan for Pokemon nearby with their Pokedex, participate in contests, go threw labyrinths and dungeons to find rare Pokemon that you can't find in tall grass etc...

The fact that everything look so "compacted" together ,that there isn't much space and that the towns are small, is nothing new in the Pokemon series. (Talking about GBC/GBA games)

Things have always been this way and these are the generations I've enjoyed the most. I don't think it should be any different even if this is an online game.

Adding onto this and more emphasis on the maps, I've included dungeon-esque areas in towns to expand, and those will have maps to themselves to explore. That being said, I think a lot of the judgement is premature. If any of you have examples I can look at to improve the map I'll gladly take a look at them.
Arguing philosophy and abstracts aren't very helpful to me in this case though, as most of what you people have said has gone over my head.

I do keep content in mind, such as which pokemon should be located where, where NPC'S should be placed, if the player will wander here or there, etc etc. I actually have even more ideas that I couldn't put to use on this current map. Hopefully in some future update I can actually use my ideas in terms of world building. As this map is quite linear, maybe my next map will be more akin to what I'd like to see, as it's radically different from what most people see here.

Nevermind the bantering between people about development beliefs and philosophy. If you want something here or there tell me why and I'll think about it. Flubbing about isn't helping anyone.

Some of those "houses" aren't even big enough to fit a person in. Is Goldenrod a city of doghouses and sheds?

LordAndrew wrote:

Some of those "houses" aren't even big enough to fit a person in. Is Goldenrod a city of doghouses and sheds?

Plot twist: each of those buildings had a stash of rare candy, but the developers removed the doors so you could never access said stash and level up all your Pokemans to over 9000.

Wow this grill is no joke. For someone I've never seen post on the forums before, she is holding her own in her first BYOND debate quite well. A stalwart warrior indeed.

Due to some issues with my external file that I use to retrieve Pokemon's data. The server will not be up for public testing.

Since I promised a release, I will be hosting the current server with the few bugs it may have. If you are interested, simply reply or PM me, I will PM you the server's password.

Server's closed I believe. It was already up for a bit.
Also I was there.