Nintendo, said it didn't need online, that you didn't need online play to have fun. For the most part, they were right, the Wii sold amazingly to the surprise of many, including me. Where they were wrong in all this was, they had one off gaming more successful franchise ever, Pokemon. When the Wii came out, Pokemon wasn't at its prime but was at the point that it needed a boost, like Mario received 3D. What did Pokemon need? simple, the one thing Nintendo "didn't need", online! I can find very few people, almost none, that would disagree that Pokemon could possibly destroy even WoW if it was online. For years we captured and raised our pokemon for what? To fight! All we ever wanted to do what fight them against are friends and people around the world. When the current generation consoles were announced, all you heard from gamers was Pokemon MMO, over and over, but Nintendo shot all that done when they said the Wii wasn't going online. Looking back at it now, Nintendo let a Juggernaut die out  and become just a well known hand-held game.  I think there love for Mario doesn't want to let Mario fall from #1, but Pikachu at one point was more known then even Mario. Nintendo will never have to bite there words because the Wii didn't fail. But were all left with the "what if", Where would be now if the Wii had a Pokemon MMO? It would change the direction of many games fighting Pokemon for gamers attention. In my opinion it would have taken this generation by storm. Nintendo would win this war easily. What do you guys think?

Nintendo, said it didn't need online, that you didn't need online play to have fun. For the most part, they were right, the Wii sold amazingly to the surprise of many, including me. Where they were wrong in all this was, they had one off gaming more successful franchise ever, Pokemon. When the Wii came out, Pokemon wasn't at its prime but was at the point that it needed a boost, like Mario received 3D. What did Pokemon need? simple, the one thing Nintendo "didn't need", online! I can find very few people, almost none, that would disagree that Pokemon could possibly destroy even WoW if it was online. For years we captured and raised our pokemon for what? To fight! All we ever wanted to do what fight them against are friends and people around the world. When the current generation consoles were announced, all you heard from gamers was Pokemon MMO, over and over, but Nintendo shot all that done when they said the Wii wasn't going online. Looking back at it now, Nintendo let a Juggernaut die out  and become just a well known hand-held game.  I think there love for Mario doesn't want to let Mario fall from #1, but Pikachu at one point was more known then even Mario. Nintendo will never have to bite there words because the Wii didn't fail. But were all left with the "what if", Where would be now if the Wii had a Pokemon MMO? It would change the direction of many games fighting Pokemon for gamers attention. In my opinion it would have taken this generation by storm. Nintendo would win this war easily. What do you guys think?

When i was a kid, I thought of fighting other people's pokemon on the gameboy mostly as a novelty, it was not important, trading with others was though.  All that was missing from my childhood was a console Pokemon RPG.  Thats what I wanted, for the game to look amazing.  Instead we got Pokemon Snap and that Battle only game.  Where was the RPG?  Thats what I loved about Pokemon.
Oh well, I wouldnt say its wasted though, I mean, with it selling a few million, i think Nintendo knows how to handle this baby.

I agree that the Pokemon series is being wasted in a sense. To me, it is becoming a sports game the way it keeps getting releases without some kind of major innovation.  A transition to 3D and the implementation of some sort of online mode besides a basic battle mode would do wonders for both the franchise and Nintendo.
 
I do think you're on to something though. If Nintendo put some power behind pokemon, they could create an unstoppable juggernaut of a franchise.

I have to massively disagree, while I do agree that the series badly needs some evolution (no pun intended) taking it online isn't the way to do it.
 
Pokemon is primarily a kids game.  Turning that into a huge online environment is pretty much always going to end in disaster, especially when mixed in with the more serious players.  You'd end up with many of the younger players being prayed upon for easy victories.  Being a turn based game makes it completely unsuitable for an MMO style of gameplay.  Battles require a lot of strategy and usually end up lasting quite a long time..  So how would this work?  If you're not that good at the game, you're going to end up getting beat by all the other players and making no progress.  And if it involves battling random NPC trainers and only meeting others at certain locations, then how is it different from the single player RPG's?

But the single biggest reason, which I'm sure many "hardcore" players would disagree with, is that the current battle system is fundamentally broken.  The EV/IV system promotes grinding rather than having any actual skill or strategy used, it removes the rock/paper/scissors gameplay and turns it into purely a numbers game - and that's why the online/competitive battling scene doesn't and will never work on any kind of serious competitve level, despite what a few deluded fans may believe.  At least until they change the core mechanics.
 
The current games already have areas where you can meet up to trade/chat/battle and even play a selection minigames online, why do we need more than this?
I think what we really need is just a big, proper Pokemon game on the Wii, similar to Monster Hunter, but retaining the features and gameplay and makes Pokemon what it is.

Pokemon isn't be wasted. It's sold 200 million units of games. I don't see how nintendo isn't getting any sucess out of it.

After Pokemon Blue/Red and Gold/Silver, Pokemon was wasted. Nothing was new, nothing was funner than the original two series.

Pokemon has had online, but not like an MMO. I wouldn't play it though, because I beat the Elite Four in Silver over 100 times and then was over Pokemon forever.

Don't mess with teh Pokémans!

It's never too late, man. Well, okay, maybe. I think most people have completely lost interest in Pokemon. I know I did about 10 years ago.

" It's never too late, man. Well, okay, maybe. I think most people have completely lost interest in Pokemon. I know I did about 10 years ago. "

" Nintendo, said it didn't need online, that you didn't need online play to have fun. For the most part, they were right, the Wii sold amazingly to the surprise of many, including me. Where they were wrong in all this was, they had one off gaming more successful franchise ever, Pokemon. When the Wii came out, Pokemon wasn't at its prime but was at the point that it needed a boost, like Mario received 3D. What did Pokemon need? simple, the one thing Nintendo "didn't need", online! I can find very few people, almost none, that would disagree that Pokemon could possibly destroy even WoW if it was online. For years we captured and raised our pokemon for what? To fight! All we ever wanted to do what fight them against are friends and people around the world. When the current generation consoles were announced, all you heard from gamers was Pokemon MMO, over and over, but Nintendo shot all that done when they said the Wii wasn't going online. Looking back at it now, Nintendo let a Juggernaut die out  and become just a well known hand-held game.  I think there love for Mario doesn't want to let Mario fall from #1, but Pikachu at one point was more known then even Mario. Nintendo will never have to bite there words because the Wii didn't fail. But were all left with the "what if", Where would be now if the Wii had a Pokemon MMO? It would change the direction of many games fighting Pokemon for gamers attention. In my opinion it would have taken this generation by storm. Nintendo would win this war easily. What do you guys think? "

I agree that Pokemon as a franchise has been wasted, but that's really only because they haven't advanced the series much beyond Gold/Silver/Crystal and instead have stuck to the same conservative design tropes that have been around since the first games with few improvements (For the record, Contests don't count as improvement). It feels almost like a sports game in a way: They add some more faces to the roster and tweak certain mechanics, but in the end you are still playing the same game with a new coat of paint.

Money.  They don't care about what you think or any of the people who would hope for the stuff you do.  They still sell millions of units per game and that's all that matters to them.

" @JonathanMoore: I still don't see how that was wasted. Don't be stubborn about it. Besides calling it the most wasted franchise in the world is a huge thing especially when they're are franchises that are most wasted. "