Should Pokémon focus more on single player or multiplayer?

[Quillion]

This is what I believe I mean:

Focusing on single player entails:

• A deeper story that likely shakes up the characteristic story formulas of the series. OR...
  
• ...much more freedom in how you progress and explore the world.
  • Either of the two depend on whether you prefer eastern or western conventions of RPGs.
• Much more challenging trainers and "dungeons"/caves.
• More interesting characters to interact with.
• Much less or even no required trading for evolution and completion.
• More difficult but more rewarding item finding and Pokémon captures.
• Scaling effectiveness of the Pokémon to rarity/difficulty to find and capture.

Focusing on multiplayer entails:

• Balancing the Pokémon so that the metagame isn't as centralized on Garchomp like Smash U on Diddy.
• Fairly radical changes to more established Pokémon perhaps in stats (Gen VI proved they're not above that) and moves perhaps to the point of being nonsensical.
• Introducing certain moves to the game that may be unusual but better balance the game.
  
• Trivializing key aspects of the RPG experience like level grinding and exploration.
• Easily providing items for the sake of multiplayer building.
• Rendering the exploration and progression with the game pointless since every Pokémon is equally useful.

And "both" is not an option. Like the roster of Smash and the overworld/dungeon ratio of Zelda, focusing on one will inevitably detract from the other. Now make up your mind and decide!

 

[Firus]

Personally, I'm on the single-player side, though I don't necessarily want all of those and I'd be okay with some of the multiplayer improvement. For example, I feel like of late it's become more and more difficult to get some of the good TMs (not in the sense that it takes a lot of work, necessarily, just that they're not available until late game) and changing that would serve to help in competitive team-building, but it also is preferable for people like me who predominantly play through the "plot" of the games, so to speak, i.e. just through the Elite Four. It's really frustrating not getting the best moves until the very end of the game, or worse right after I'm basically done playing.

But overall, I'd like to see a bigger focus on the adventure stuff and fleshing out that experience. Though I wouldn't really say they've ever really done a shabby job with that, to be honest. I always feel like I get my money's worth out of the games.

I get the impression a larger portion of the Pokemon audience (at least, those who aren't kids) is interested in the competitive part so that may not be the popular consensus. Then again, I also feel like most of the competitive community still plays on simulators, so only the balance stuff is going to really affect them. (I could also be 100% off on all of this since I'm mostly out-of-touch with all game communities nowadays.)

 

[dragonexpert]

As a competitive battler I do prefer the multiplayer being the focus. I remember back in the days when I'd use Shoddy and Pokemon Online to create teams without having to breed for IVs or moves. I got to the point in Ubers where I'd basically only lose to hax. Now I'm trying to do the same thing for VGC.

Generation 6 has made things much easier competitively which is a step in the right direction. IVs are now easy to pass and with a move tutor to teach some rare / powerful moves it makes building competitive sets a snap.

 

[Muskrat Catcher]

I voted multiplayer, but what I personally have in mind is actually quite different than fixing competitive battling (which is pretty messed up though, but I have chosen to abstain from competitive battling to an extent). What I want to see in pokémon is what I want to see in every game, something that is dying out on non-nintendo consoles: the ability to have more fun with a friend while you play the same game in the same room. Would it not be amazing to have a Co-Op pokémon adventure? Or maybe tag battle missions/challenges? Or more ways to have fun in the game casually, regardless of online play, where you can't yell in your opponents face, "HAH! I PREDICTED CORRECTLY!" or "Whoops, welp, that was a mistake". People online are cold and serious, and without communication you can only try to win rather than have fun. Nintendo is legendary for making a great party game experience, so imagine having as much fun with your friends in pokémon as you would in Mariokart or Mario party? That's what I want to see from pokémon.