Pokémon: Are hackers taking away the games' purpose?

Hey fellow Steemian trainers,

I know there have been already thousands of whiny posts and Reddit threads about hackers, but this is not necessarily one. The purpose here is to have a discussion about how the main Pokémon games' experience is affected by them.

The main point of the game for me is that I can collect and train awesome creatures. Breeding for good (or perfect) IV 'mons and shiny hunting defines my endgame activities - It really gives me a feel of achievement when I work hard to get a really rare 'mon and then finally I acquire it. I can proudly showcase my collection, the strong ones can be used for online battles. As you can see I am quite a collector type, we could say completionist.

However, it really turns me off that there is the chance to get the same 'mons I grinded for hours just by inserting them into your game. I don't even use wonder trade anymore because it hurts my feelings that if I get a good 'mon it is 99% hacked and I feel bad ethically by calling it part of my collection. There are even twitch channels streaming their hacked shiny wonder trades 24/7.

I don't really follow professional Pokémon, but I remember 1-2 years ago quite a few "Worlds Championship top 16 players hacking exposed" youtube videos popped up on my feed.

You know what I say, I can understand those people. I mean if you are a competitive spirit and you need to have multiple line-ups and you spend most of your time fighting online and figuring out new tactics you shouldn't be forced to ride your bike up and down in the game all day waiting for RNG gods to bless you with a good IV, good moveset 'mon which you'll be able to use later on in battles. This might be a game design mistake in my opinion.

I think cheating is acceptable in single-player games, it is your world, your rules, you decide how you would like to shape it. But with every added fake shiny I feel like the value of other shinies is reduced. I mean it just feels pointless to me to work hard for something which others can get so easily - even if it is illegal.

Imagine that you have a job and you are working your ass off to make a living, but others just cheat on lottery draws and have an infinite amount of money - without getting punished. Even it cannot be proved that they did not get that wealth legally, people just know it because it is suspicious.

I think the ability to hack the game is mostly toxic towards the people with collectors mindset. Some people say I shouldn't care about what others do, just enjoy the game and play it how I want - and they are probably right. But in the back of my mind, I always get triggered. The problem might be that I consider Pokémon games kind of like an MMO in which everybody plays by his/her own and gather to fight each other or trade with each other. Imagine if you could just hack any item or mount for yourself in Wow. The game would be pointless. And that's how I feel about Pokémon sometimes.

This is my opinion and my point of view. Please feel free to discuss the topic.

• What do you agree and disagree with?

• Did I get something wrong? Let me know.

• What do you know, will cheating be more restricted in Sword & Shield?

Thanks for passing by!

Follow Upvote Resteem @goodguymate

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