Catering to Old and New Players

Pokémon is a franchise that is two decades old - and counting. That's a pretty long time for any game series, and that is amazing as well. A series that has lasted this long also has to have many, many old players, as well as new ones coming in over time. Meanwhile, the series itself has expanded greatly with new content in every new generation, and thus there is a lot to take in for any player. The challenge now with a series this old and big is how to please new players with new content and/or rehashed old content, and how to ease new players into existing content.

One approach that takes care of both is remakes of older-generation games, and this is an approach that has worked well for quite a number of years from the first remakes in the third generation. The games appear mostly as they were originally, but certainly with improvements that incorporate current content (that is, new Pokémon) and current needs (for example, the Pal Park in HeartGold and Soul Silver) on the most current platform. Going forward, it's not hard to imagine there will be more remakes of older games as new platforms come and old platforms go, and this is a good way of putting new life in those old games, bringing new experiences to old players and giving a taste of the old experience for new players.

While remakes are great, sometimes it's just as great to experience old games (and associated sentiments) as they are. That is where retro things come in so that old and new players alike can (re-)experience them in current times. The Virtual Console games accomplish this finely, especially when they can be connected to modern experiences. Even if they're simply just elements of old things, at the least this will help to indicate the history that Pokémon has, which may then invite old and new players alike to look into and perhaps try to experience those old things, keeping them somewhat alive.

Whatever the case, content is certainly a key issue, since there is a lot of it for Pokémon. As a key example, each new generation has a multitude of new species, which are linked with different properties. A balance has to be struck for newer games so that new players aren't overloaded with information but old players can still have something to process. As a new seventh-generation game, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon seem as the perfect answer; it's still the Alola of Sun and Moon but with some rehashing, so those who have not dealt with the seventh generation can still work with it, while those that already have can work back in different older knowledge. Gradual incorporation of new and old content as in Shuffle and restricted content as in Picross works too, though the applications are limited. Different games certainly need different approaches.

By now, Pokémon is big and old, in terms of both players and content. And it will surely accrue more of both as time goes on. Choices need to be made with selective approaches about what content is to be presented to old and new players alike so that they may experience them as much as they can and should. It's not hard to see that this can lead to enjoyment, and that this enjoyment can lead to the extension of the lasting nature of the franchise.