Wednesday, November 14, 2018

GTS and Wonder Trade in Pokémon Go?

One of my raid fellows recently brought up the issue of how hard it is to keep and keep track of Pokémon that need to be traded in Pokémon Go. It was said that there needs to be a system that helps to manage these Pokémon and get them traded where they need to be traded. This reminds me that Pokémon Go is missing two systems of trading that have become a mainstay of the main series, GTS and Wonder Trade. This also leads to the question of whether they can actually be implemented in Pokémon Go as well.

The key issues for the implementation of both of these systems are Stardust costs and the proximity requirement for a trade. As I've noted in my initial post about trades in Go, trades aren't free, varying on the Pokémon being traded, and the trading players need to be nearby to initiate the trades. These are strict controls, but they're also understandable to keep things from becoming unsavory. GTS and Wonder Trade will have to be radically different to take account of these issues.

In the main series, GTS - short for Global Trade Station - allows players to deposit Pokémon to be traded, which may catch the interest of another player, initiating a trade with that player's Pokémon. In regard to the issues above, GTS might work by a password system: a player deposits a Pokémon, distributes a password to another player, and the other player enters the password to select a Pokémon to trade, and then the two confirm the agreement to trade along with the Stardust costs needed - both players then need to get close as usual to actually initiate the trade. This allows the GTS to be decentralized and fully controlled by the players.

Meanwhile, Wonder Trade allows a player to deposit a Pokémon for a trade immediately with another deposited Pokémon, in a way being similar to a gacha. It would be hard to implement this on a massive scale like the main series games, but for a small group of gathered people, this can work with some added restrictions, in particular disallowing Shiny and Legendary Pokémon, and distributing Pokémon only to those who have registered entries in their Pokédexes. In this way, the system still works, but with consideration of the above issues.

In the meantime, my raid fellow was thinking of other systems that would still allow trades to be kept track to be facilitated to occur as efficiently as possible. Someone could keep track of who offers what and others that are interested, which might be considered an "offline" version of the GTS approach above. The person could also remind others when they meet to perform the trade to make the system fully work. This might become a temporary solution until an actual GTS approach is implemented.

I agree that even for me, it's hard to manage my own Pokémon that I (eventually) desire to trade. In that regard, it may be time to bring in the GTS and Wonder Trade systems from the main series Pokémon games into Go. They'll have to be reworked somewhat, but if it'll get Pokémon traded, then it may just be a good thing. For now, it seems low-tech solutions will have to suffice in lieu of these systems. But perhaps once these systems can suitably make their way in, they'll amp up the allure of trades and get players to do so as intended.

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