Unofficial Community Suggestions Thread

SuperTrainStationH Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:30 am

Not to come off as imperious as a newcomer, I have two suggestions to propose.

FIRST, I think this forum may benefit from an OOC board to discuss/speculate on keystone issues that would arise from the existence of Pokémon as part of our everyday world. There's lots of room for this type of discussion in character of course, but I think it could be beneficial to the emerging "canon" of our setting to be able to speculate freely without concern of creating a discordant environment in which members have conflicting ideas on things that though not covered in the official canon, should, in character, be common knowledge or fact of that world.

The reason I'd suggest a sub board for this and not just a dedicated thread is the simple fact that the topics discussed and the conclusion of those discussions/speculations and how we decide to apply them to our "canon" can be easily viewed and referred to on a topic-by-topic basis, which would be especially useful to newcomers who might otherwise be expected to read through an intimidating 100+ page OOC Pokéreal Speculation/Discussion thread where numerous topics are being discussed on and off and back and fourth akin to a chat room log.

Considering the comparatively extremely accessible nature of Pokéreal compared to more "traditional" or "structured" sorts of roleplaying it would be nice to ensure that whatever little bits of fanon we do agree upon aren't so esoteric that it spoils the simple magic of what we're doing in the first place.

SECOND I think microblogging, specifically Twitter, could prove to be of tremendous utility to the ITT: Pokemon is Real idea (which I'll call Pokéreal for time's sake). The way we've generally approached the concept of Pokémon existing and being an everyday part of normal life in the /vp/ threads is to a greater extent than most RPs, simply real life with differences, and to partake in the fantasy of that is in an important sense more embracing the things our world shares with the Pokémon world rather than what would make things different, simply put, the little, otherwise mundane things that would impact the way we travel, play, spend our time, and get jobs done. The stuff Twitter is great for sharing.

For my own amusement the last couple of weeks I've been incorporating my progress in Soul Silver into my Tweets as though they were how I spent my actual day, and also working the Pokémon I'm raising or certain aspects of the Pokémon world into typical tweets I'd make anyway, and in the context of imaging Pokémon to actually exist, I've found it an incredibly fun and effective glimpse into what my day might be like if Pokémon was real, and the beauty of it is its not at all time consuming, takes but the slightest bit of imagination, and everything I post on Twitter need not actually have to do with Pokémon just as every aspect of real life doesn't need to relate to the existence of actual animals.

Stuff your partner Pokémon do when you talk to them in HG/SS, finding a spider behind a drawer, your Pokémon going on a playdate with someone elses while you're out with your Pokéwalker, moping the kitchen floor, making popcorn, how your Pokémon might react to shows on TV or the local weather (like drooling at a cooking show or being afraid of thunderclaps outside), all with a small amount of imagination, could be translated in an interesting or amusing way into the context of a world where Pokémon are real.

Some example tweets here from my actual twitter feed:

Having fun training around Route 35 with my newly caught Paras, Duster. #PKMN

Neighbor's Dodrio woke me up nice and early, 6:00 to be exact. I'm okay with this. #PKMN (FYI, it was a really rooster. See previous Tweet.)

Still out in the yard working hard on Chapter 46 as all my Pokémon play in the leaves together. I love this time of year. #PKMN

Out training around Route 35. Somehow Luna [a gastly] managed to get burned by a Firebreather's Magmar. How is that physically possible? #PKMN

Just returned from Taco Bell. Gave my Quilava a bite of my burrito, turns out he hates hot sauce. Oh Cocoa, you ironic weirdo. #PKMN

My Pokémon are all drooling at the food on Hell's Kitchen. You'd think I starve them all or something. #PKMN

Paras seems to think that the gap under my bed is a cave that needs exploring. Can you believe I named him Duster BEFORE this started? #PKMN

The Pokémon have been helping me clean the house all day. My Wooper and I are abut to mop up the kitchen floor. #PKMN

I like watching 1000 Ways to Die on Spike, but my Gastly, Luna seems to think its a comedy and can't stop laughing at it. Oh brother. #PKMN

No Maple [A furret], you can't play with the wild Pachirisu that are squatting in the attic. If Luna can't scare them away I'll have to use Repels#PKMN

Found a wild Spinarak behind the nightstand while redecorating. Caught it with a spare Ball and will release it outside later. #PKMN

Pizza's here. Delivery guy flew in on a Dodrio. How can those things even get off the ground anyway? In any case, chow time! #PKMN

I find that some of my Pokémon playing followers have found enjoyment into these little glimpses of Poké-reality, and I thought it would be neat if we could get a number of us all following each other. I personally use the #PKMN hashtag for my Pokéreal tweets, its surprisingly underused and would very easily differentiate from ordinary "IRL" tweets.

So if anyone's interested in extending this into Twitter perhaps we can make some sort of listing or something. My twitter name is STSH by the way.

Shana Mon Nov 22, 2010 9:53 am

Man, your tweets are fun. If I had twitter, I'd probably be doing that as well.

But yeah, a discussion forum would be good - get some consensus on stuff. A LOT of the time on the /tr/ version, there'd be things like, "Oh noes, I stared into my Shedinja's shell and now my soul is going!", when it's contradicted at a different point in the thread. Sort of a worldbuilding forum?

Trainer Nick Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:40 am

Shana wrote:"Oh noes, I stared into my Shedinja's shell and now my soul is going!"

ಠ_ಠ

On topic, the Twitter thing sounds like a good idea; I've never had one before so I might look into setting up a purely Pokémon related one to tie in with this site.

SuperTrainStationH Mon Nov 22, 2010 11:03 am

Trainer Nick wrote:
Shana wrote:"Oh noes, I stared into my Shedinja's shell and now my soul is going!"
ಠ_ಠ

On topic, the Twitter thing sounds like a good idea; I've never had one before so I might look into setting up a purely Pokémon related one to tie in with this site.

Yeah, making twitter accounts is a snap, anyone who wants to join in could do so easily

I made a Twitter listing called PokemonareReal, shall we use this as our Twitterbase? There's not much in terms of moderation or leadership on a Twitter list a you'd find on a group or commuinty on most other sites, its just a list of like minded people more than anything else, it would make it easy for us to follow eachother, both us from this board and random Pokémon fans to find us and join in.

If your alright with that, I can add this board's url to the description easily.

EDIT: TWITTER LISTING LINK ACTUALLY WORKS NOW

Pokemon is real Twitter listingl

vaati Tue Nov 23, 2010 4:04 pm

Twitter sounds fun. Maybe I'll make one..

I like the idea of world-building. I don't think there should be too many 'rules' because that can turn a lot of people away - but I think establishing a small canon like how far the regions are from each other / time to travel between them and similar things could be beneficial.