TRAINER'S EYE #54 - "Fun With Hoenn Friends" ft. PvPoke

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by PVPoke, a Pokemon Trainer from  Minneapolis, Minnesota, whose passion for Pokémon has not only shaped his life but has also transformed the Pokémon GO community worldwide.

PvPoke's Pokémon journey began long before Pokémon GO even existed. He takes us back to a time when Pokémon provided him with solace and comfort during a challenging period of his life while he was in the hospital. It's a heartwarming tale that reminds us of the incredible power of Pokémon to bring joy and healing.

But this is just the beginning of his story. PvPoke shares his deep-rooted love for Pokémon and how it eventually led him to create a game-changing website known as PVPoke.com. Discover the reasons behind his interest in PVP and his decision to start this website, which has become an invaluable resource for Pokémon GO Trainers worldwide.

PvPoke also opens up about the hurdles and obstacles he's faced since starting PVPoke.com, shedding light on the dedication and resilience required to manage such a resourceful platform. His story is a testament to the enduring power of Pokémon to shape lives, foster connections, and inspire the creation of tools that enhance the Pokémon experience for all.

Trainer's Eye is a series where the stories are real and people still play this game. From PVP to Shiny Hunting, each person's Pokemon GO journey is unique and we dive into each journey here on As The Pokeball Turns!

Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay

Connect with PVPoke: Website | Twitter

Transcript

David Hernandez: 0:00

My name is David Hernandez, and you're listening to As the Pokeball Turns. Welcome to As the Pokéball Turns, where the stories are real and people still play this game. When it comes to Pokémon Go PvP, There are numerous people who have contributed to growing the community. At one point, an individual saw an opportunity to create a resource that allowed Pokémon trainers to better analyze metas in Pokémon. For a while, the best way to determine a Pokemon's usage was through testing and theory crafting. Eventually, a site was created that ranked each possible Pokemon eligible in whatever cups or metas one could imagine. Since the site's inception, it has been used by countless Pokemon trainers to develop teams for Silph Arena, factions, GO Battle League, And many more grassroots communities that continue to pop up. It has now become an integral part of the PvP community and a necessary tool to learn how to utilize if you want to improve or perfect your PvP battling skills. But what were the early challenges faced when the site was in development? What are the challenges that come with maintaining a site now? My guest in this episode is the owner of said site, here to not only answer these questions, but also share his journey with Pokemon Go, and who he was before the website. From Minneapolis, Minnesota, here is his origin story into the world of Pokemon Go. This is PvPoke. Today, I'm joined by a fellow person who goes by many names, just like myself. Some of you may know him as Empolian Dynamite. Others may know him as KakunaMatata. But most of you know him as PvPpoke. Thank you for coming on the show,

PVPoke: 2:13

Hey, David, thanks so much for having me.

David Hernandez: 2:15

Definitely, and, I feel honored to have you on the show because I've interviewed a lot of PvP people on my show. Your name has consistently come up for each person. I think it'd be hard for me to describe how much you've really Given to the PVP community and what you've done for them. from the bottom of my heart, I know I can't speak for everybody else, but I just want to say thank you for all that you've done.

PVPoke: 2:37

I really appreciate hearing that and it's awesome to hear that other PVP people have come onto the show and a big thank you to the community and everyone as well. Cause I certainly wouldn't be doing this without all the encouragement and support.

David Hernandez: 2:52

Oh, without a doubt. Now with any other guests, there's always an ordinance story, but one thing I want to ask is it true that you didn't have a smartphone before Pokemon go?

PVPoke: 3:01

That is a true story. Yes. I can vet that story. Fact.

David Hernandez: 3:05

Fact, what was the reason? Like, why would you not have a smartphone? Just if you're willing to share.

PVPoke: 3:11

Yeah, I got my first, texting cell phone in college and beyond that I didn't really see a need for a smartphone, up until Pokemon Go came out and I was like, ooh, I want to do this, but I'm going to need more than a flip phone. So down I went to the Verizon store and that all worked out. sometimes despite being a person in technology. I can stick with things that just work for me for a really long time. as example, my, my second monitor here at my battle station is 12 year olds, 1080p television cause why not? And nowadays I feel like I can hardly go anywhere without needing to look up a map or, imagine like folding out one of those big roadmaps on a trip. instead of listening to Siri or whoever give out, commands and actually Pokemon Go in a weird way is a very useful map app.

David Hernandez: 4:07

And you said that because of Pokemon Go, that's what got you a smartphone. So what was it about Pokemon Go that I guess broke your commitment to not having a smartphone?

PVPoke: 4:15

Ooh, let's see. It definitely reached a point of, a fear of missing out that it's hard to explain just how big of a phenomenon Pokemon Go was in those first couple of weeks, like everybody was out and playing and I definitely wanted to be part of that and, definitely don't regret it cause it changed my life in a lot of ways.

David Hernandez: 4:34

Did you grow up as a Pokemon fan?

PVPoke: 4:36

I did, yes. I grew up, I think my first video game, in fact, might have been Pokémon Yellow on the Game Boy Color. that was my first, jump into the Pokémon series. And, have the cards, watch the movies, and as I grew up, Pokemon just continued to stay with me. My, parents assure me that was just a fad, but, seems to have definitely stood the test of time. And, I did step back from the series a little bit, between the end of high school and beginning of college, but got back into it with, gen five with Pokemon black and white and loved those games, and have been playing the main series since then.

David Hernandez: 5:17

Gen five was such a good generation cause I don't know. I liked the compelling story behind Team Plasma and developing that ethical quandary, that's kind of, I'll say, lying beneath within Pokemon, to where, is it right to battle with them? And, stuff like that. it asks some very tough questions that Pokemon has not really done too often.

PVPoke: 5:36

I really liked Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's story. as a matter of fact, for like slightly different reasons, but I think with both Unova and Paldea, there was a lot of character to dive into there. And presented Pokémon in a way that felt like more mature in a way.

David Hernandez: 5:53

Now, which generation would be your favorite?

PVPoke: 5:55

I have to go with Generation 3. Hoenn is near and dear to my heart. I unfortunately did spend a good amount of time in the hospital as a kid, and Pokemon Sapphire definitely, was a big help in getting through those times. So, very special place in my heart,

David Hernandez: 6:13

what happened that caused you to be in the hospital so much.

PVPoke: 6:16

as I like to say, coming up on, over the age of 30 now, my body is falling apart at the seams. Like you just wake up one morning and it's oh, that's a new pain. But, even as a kid, that was, that was the case. Had some long, longstanding digestive issues, stomach issues, and eventually had to get surgery for it. that was a challenging time, but Pokémon was there and Pokémon has also been there just kind of a constant, through my life in some form or another. it's very interesting to think about, how we play today and just for me anyway, it's something that's just always been there.

David Hernandez: 6:49

For me, I always imagined, during those tough times, I would always escape into a Pokemon game. And I always imagined those Pokemon that I had on my team were kind of always around me in a way. Kind of like an imaginary friend, if I could say.

PVPoke: 7:00

Absolutely.

David Hernandez: 7:01

that's what always helped me get through it, to where I felt like I wasn't alone going through what I was needing to go through.

PVPoke: 7:07

yeah, for sure. And I think that's a, such a huge core part of pokemon as a whole, as Pokemon as your friends, as your companions, supporting each other and however, sappy as that may seem, just having some pocket monsters to run around with in a game always brings a smile to my face, so.

David Hernandez: 7:24

Well, let me ask you a fun question. Since Gen 3 is your favorite Pokemon, if you were going to do a playthrough, what six Pokemon would you choose?

PVPoke: 7:31

My six from when I was playing and on replays in Alpha, Sapphire and such, Blaziken. Flygon. I loved Flygon growing up and now, Altaria was also a favorite. I had a soft spot for Absol. I thought it was super cool. Aggron. I liked Aggron. It was just this big, giant. steel dinosaur kind of thing.

David Hernandez: 7:55

Yeah, one more.

PVPoke: 7:56

probably Gardevoir, actually.

David Hernandez: 7:58

Are any of those your favorite Like just without the entire series, Pokemon.

PVPoke: 8:01

Yeah, Blaziken and Flygon, for sure. And Altaria as well, it's just so cute and fluffy.

David Hernandez: 8:07

So Pokemon go comes out, you upgrade to a phone. Like where were the places to go to play? Like where were the people at?

PVPoke: 8:12

Back then, it's probably split between... Downtown Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota campus, which is still a fantastic place to play really any, campus is, usually a good hotspot for Pokemon Go.

David Hernandez: 8:26

PvP doesn't come out until 2019. What was your way to play the game before that?

PVPoke: 8:31

we had a really active Discord for the University of Minnesota. my typical, Pokémon Go day might be swinging by campus, hitting up some of the raid lobbies and some of the nests. back when raids first came out, as a matter of fact, that was the, really galvanizing, part of the game for the local community. At least for me it was, and raiding was just a big part of Pokemon Go and community life back then. Definitely much less now, unfortunately, but that was a fun time and lots of raid activity. And then of course, obviously when PvP comes along and we start having, Silph tournaments and things like that, and that was a ton of fun. honestly, that's probably a whole different topic of discussion.

David Hernandez: 9:18

Just regarding the raiding, I remember when raids first dropped, and it sounds like you had the same experience, up in Minnesota. to where there was just raid trains everywhere, and we would just go from raid to raid trying to, this is before Shinies, and we were just trying to get a Hundo's, I think, that's what we were doing here in our area, a Hundo's, and it was just like its own community in a way.

PVPoke: 9:37

Yeah. I remember even the first like raid days with Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. We were hyper competitive with those, we would, split into teams and try and beat each other's records for how many raids we'd do in the hour. We'd plan out whole routes and, try and figure out, the fastest way to do them and it was a pretty intense time.

David Hernandez: 9:58

Do you remember how many you were able to complete in an hour? Just a personal best?

PVPoke: 10:03

think the highest I got was around 30 or so. That's also like walking and usually I'd try and catch the Pokemon. I know some people would just finish the raid and then run. but I'd usually try and catch, get as much candy as I could.

David Hernandez: 10:22

I think it was it a tap and go, this is what it's called, where you run away from the raid boss, if it wasn't a shiny or a Hundo. It always bugged me cause I was like, I really want to catch this like I paid a dollar for it for one, but two, two, I feel like I'm abandoning it, if I don't try to catch it, it was a very weird parasocial kind of a relationship I had with these imaginary creatures at times.

PVPoke: 10:41

And then there's the, peer pressure from the other side of like, Hey, we got, we're starting this rain. It's like, Oh no, I still have seven balls left.

David Hernandez: 10:49

what team were you actually?

PVPoke: 10:51

I am mystic and I've always been mystic.

David Hernandez: 10:55

Alright, my fellow mystic player rise

PVPoke: 10:57

Yes,

David Hernandez: 10:58

I was wondering if you're a team instinct.'cause you know, instinct always had, back in those days, instinct always had six or seven balls and that was about it.

PVPoke: 11:05

Yeah, that's true. no, I chose Team Mystic a bit randomly, there were some people I met super early on that I never really saw again after the first few days of go that were like, oh, we're gonna be Team Mystic. And it's oh, sure, that sounds cool. But I like Team Mystic. I think Mystic fits how I play and, my personality best, so, analyzing the numbers, of course.

David Hernandez: 11:27

you ever thought about maybe making a website around P V P? I think that you'd be pretty good at it. That

PVPoke: 11:32

I should think about that. I'll need to figure out like the math and I don't even know what it'd be about.

David Hernandez: 11:37

you should call it p v p Poke.

PVPoke: 11:39

That is catchy.

David Hernandez: 11:40

I think

PVPoke: 11:41

I'm going to have to remember that.

David Hernandez: 11:42

I think there's something there. Anyway, so eventually, of course, P D P comes out in 2019. What was it about PVP that interests you at first?

PVPoke: 11:51

Part of it was just something new and exciting and I had a feeling I would get into it pretty competitively, whatever it ended up being. So even before any details came out, just from the announcement, my mind was starting to churn of like, okay, what is this going to look like? What's going to be good? And as a matter of fact, before PvP released, I built a prototype, of Pokemon Go's current battle system, the gym battling system as a PvP game and it was just, like me and, Alphafeeb playing. you had six Pokemon, of course they were probably all legendaries, tapping the screen as fast as you could. So that was, fun and kind of the precursor to actually making PVPoke.

David Hernandez: 12:39

How close did you get to what PVP eventually became or you weren't close at all?

PVPoke: 12:43

Oh gosh, not close at all. the core, you have the Pokemon out and you can switch them, was there. but you had six Pokemon on your team. you could switch at any time, of course it was using the gym battle system, so it wasn't locked into turns, you'd have, delays between your damage, landing, and, only one charge move, of course, too. no shields either. plenty of differences.

David Hernandez: 13:06

you said PVP, you knew you were going to be participating. Are you like very competitive? is that just something that drives you?

PVPoke: 13:12

Yeah, I'd say so. My competitive fire has a bit relaxed over the years, but growing up and at the time I was super into a lot of FPS games, Call of Duty, Halo, Gears of War, and at the time that Pokemon Go came out, I was super into Destiny and especially the PvP mode in Destiny called The Crucible, and I played that super competitively. so really that kind of, experience, knowing that a PvP mode was coming to Go, I just had an idea of like, yeah, I can see this as something I could really get into.

David Hernandez: 13:47

So on a scale of like, you're bitter that you lost, like it hurts, to you're like rage quitting and throwing things at the wall. Where do you stand in regards to how competitive you are?

PVPoke: 13:56

Ooh. I definitely had my, Call of Duty Rage days going, uh, growing up. but now it's a much more, relaxed and just, having fun kind of spirit. Like you can't help but laugh when something really goes against you and go battle league and like, Oh, of course they have a Bastiodon in the back.

David Hernandez: 14:16

Why wouldn't they?

PVPoke: 14:17

Why wouldn't they?

David Hernandez: 14:19

So how did the idea of PVP poke come to mind?

PVPoke: 14:21

it first started as a way of thinking how to visualize Pokemon, matchups. the entire genesis of the site came from the battle timeline of the, squares for fast moves and circles for charge moves, showing how a matchup would play out. That was like the first thing I started sketching out and building and grew from there. I built the first version of the site really in just like a two or three week sprint over a Christmas break and, it was just trying to build something as quickly as possible, get something working cause PVP had just come out that December. I wanted to get something up and running, and there's a funny story behind how PVPoke launched. I had it on like a private personal site for a little bit, and had shared that with, the Discord members of my local community. So they were helping me test things out, giving feedback and such, and one of them ended up passing the link to Swagtips. who then posted it to Twitter, and I was like, oh no, I have to actually, like, finish this now. Um, so I, I very quickly scrambled, like, I was debating a couple of names. I, was thinking like some generic, like Pogo PVP or like, Pokemon Go simulator. I was thinking of maybe doing something with one of the, monkey Pokemon, like Simisage or Simisear with the word Sim and ended up settling on PVPoke. So it was a snap decision of like, Ooh, I don't know what it should be, but let's give this a go and I think it worked out.

David Hernandez: 16:07

Now you said the swag tips eventually posted the link to it and you had to really run fast to try to get it set up. Were there any issues like with it crashing with so many people trying to access it at that point? Like, were there any problems?

PVPoke: 16:19

I don't think so back at that particular time. there have been bumps, like specific, points, like when GBL launched, that was a massive, like, oh gosh, there's a ton more people playing PVP now, because you can just match make right into game now. so that was a moment where I definitely had to go in and do some upgrades.

David Hernandez: 16:42

So when GBL launched, you had a significant uptick of people accessing your site at that point.

PVPoke: 16:47

yes. GBL was really a, like PvP is still niche in the larger scheme of Pokemon Go, but even before GBL, it was, significantly more niche with really just limited to people participating in Silph competitions. so like in terms of scale, that's pretty small, compared to the entire player base of Pokemon Go. So that was a, pretty big adjustment.

David Hernandez: 17:11

Over time, PVP poke has evolved. What has been some of the challenges that you've encountered?

PVPoke: 17:16

Thankfully PVPoke hasn't required me to hold it upside down to evolve it, which has been a blessing. I think there are a few, there were definitely a few features that were the most difficult to adapt to. I'll say shadow Pokemon was one that was quite difficult because now I had to have Basically duplicate entries for Pokemon just cause they had a different multipliers. So that was weird and took a bit of time to think through and get used to doing. the one update that really pains me for a long, long time was the... Pokemon Go, was it beyond, the level 50 update with XLPokemon. That just completely threw out, a lot of the systems that I had built and how I wanted to try and manage the kind of PVPoke, Pokedex cause all of a sudden Pokemon can get a lot stronger now, but nobody like at the time it released. Nobody could power their Pokemon up. So it was a really big challenge of, well, how do I show this in the rankings if people can't have access to it yet? what I ended up doing was creating separate Pokemon entries for the XL versions of those Pokemon and as time went on, as events came out, as people got access to more and more XL Pokemon, I would update the rankings with generally, what people would have access to and that was a huge pain. I will never do that again. it was a nightmare of like one creating duplicate entries was just messy to manage from like a, Ooh, this Pokemon got a move update, but Oh, I got to make sure I update it for the XL copy of that Pokemon as well. managing cups and move sets and, one of the more challenging parts of it was on a daily basis, I get feedback of Hey, why isn't this XL Pokemon in the rankings? Or why is this XL Pokemon in the rankings? No one can get it. that was really challenging of having to be the gatekeeper kind of, of, this Pokemon should be in the rankings. This Pokemon shouldn't be in the rankings. And that's not really a mess I want to, try and maintain ever again. So thankfully we're at a point now where, eventually I just, pulled off the bandaid and it was like, okay, every Pokemon is going to be level 50 now. That's that, and not everything's fine and dandy, but that was a really challenging period in the growth of PVPoke.

David Hernandez: 19:43

Yeah, because that's a lot of time spent, and I'm guessing you're the only person who works on PVPoke, or do you have a team?

PVPoke: 19:48

Yeah, it's just me. it is open source, and there are people who contribute code from time to time, and I super appreciate that as well.

David Hernandez: 19:56

how do you find the balance between trying to not only do your personal job, but also manage PVPoke, as well as have whatever, I don't know if you're a family man, or whatever your life is outside of Pokemon Go, like, how do you find a balance between those?

PVPoke: 20:08

That is a great question, and it took me a number of years to figure out the answer. When I first started PVPoke, I was just... Consumed by it, wanting to work on it all day, and, I'd say for the first year or so, from 2019 to just about 2020, it was just all consuming, and... Whenever like a Silph announcement dropped, it was like, Oh, I have to, stop everything and go take care of this. And that did come at the detriment of work, of personal relationships. that did come to a head and there was a, moment around, just before, the pandemic where I was not feeling good about the balance of things and, I was debating stopping. But over the pandemic, over the next couple of years, I, had a lot of time to myself, of course, and worked a lot on finding that balance and, thankful to say today that, the balance is pretty healthy. That does mean, for example, that some updates might not come out as quickly. Some of the features I might want to add or work on, I might not have time to, but overall, it's really about sustainability and thinking about, okay, how can I keep running the site for the next year, for the next five years, if we're lucky, and developing the processes and just managing my time in a way that can help accomplish that.

David Hernandez: 21:29

a tough balance to find because, you know, I don't run a website like you do, but for me, for podcasting, when I first started, I struggled trying to find that balance between. creating an episode, trying to do all this stuff, but also having a personal life as well as trying to make sure I have a house and everything will work. And the lines get blurred sometimes because you get so obsessed with one aspect in this case for you is the website for me as a podcast and trying to find that balance to where, okay, I like doing what I do, but I don't want to get so burnt out on it that I stopped enjoying it, if that makes sense.

PVPoke: 21:57

Yeah, exactly. were there any points when you're running the podcast where you made a, deliberate effort of okay, I think I have to cut back here of like, say doing X number of episodes a week or any moments that jump out at you as trying to find that balance more deliberately.

David Hernandez: 22:13

Yeah, it was actually when I, stepped away last year. I got burnt out. I felt like this is not me. I had imposter syndrome like no other and I was like, let me just back away and I did. I went to counseling. I still do from time to time. I talked to him about that and he helped me establish better boundaries and as well as try to get over my imposter syndrome to a degree. doing those steps, trying to learn about, why I like to do the podcast, cause it's always about the why with that, whatever you do. You got to remind yourself, like, why do you like doing this? And if the why becomes to the point to where it's like an obligation and not really because you enjoy it or you've lost your original reason for why you started to begin with at that point, it might be time to transition.

PVPoke: 22:51

I super appreciate you opening up about that. I've been going to therapy as well for a number of years and that's definitely a talking point for me, of finding balance and trying to, save off some workaholic tendencies, as well, the imposter syndrome of, like, am I giving enough time to this, am I letting down my fans or listeners or what have you? feeling that, pressure to try and keep that up is a lot.

David Hernandez: 23:16

You've been listening to As the Pokeball Turns. We're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back. Now, earlier you said that you were super close to stopping PVPoke. Was it because of the pandemic that kind of kept you from stepping away or was there a different reason? what kept you going to continue doing PVPoke?

PVPoke: 24:43

I just knew rationally that there's no reason I can't run this website and do it in a reasonable, sustainable manner, like that's possible. I just have to find the way to how to do that and even if that means cutting back on some things. for example, I used to do, a training mode for all the various Silph cups and GBL cups and so on, and make, training analysis graphics and such from those on a weekly basis.

David Hernandez: 25:12

Oh wow. Dang. That's lot.

PVPoke: 25:13

yeah, that was something I ended up dialing back on and if you're wondering about training and training analysis, I have not been able to update that in a while, but I am working on some updates, some fixes that will let me update it in a more efficient way and hoping to get that out either by the start of the new season or close to the start of the new season.

David Hernandez: 25:36

You mentioned earlier how the XL candy kind of threw you for a loop. Has there been anything else that's made it difficult for you to be able to simulate matchups when it comes to just running the website?

PVPoke: 25:46

Yes, that is a great technical discussion. A few particular things. One was, I'd say primarily debuffing moves. That was a bit of a struggle to get right and still there's room to improve, just getting how should the sims play out, what order should they use moves, and so on. And then one technical thing about PVPoke, the sims play out matchups in a predetermined way. There's some logic to when Pokemon throw their moves and how they throw their moves and when they shield and so on. you can go to any Pokemon matchup, hit the battle button a hundred times, then it'll always come out the same way. and that was something I designed from the onset of. Yeah, I think everyone should get the same result for all the matchups instead of doing something like, showing like an average score out of a hundred or a thousand, possibilities or something like that. So PVPoke can only do one result. What threw me that for a loop was when they introduced, moves that have a chance to debuff. all of a sudden, you're going from moves do the same thing every time, which you can try and work your way down to an empirical, definitive result for a matchup, to now random things are happening, anything could happen. What's that gonna look like? the sims still don't represent those in the best way. Kingdra with Octozooka, for example, is a particular problem. thankfully, Pokemon Go doesn't have too much RNG in it, but you also have, a lag and such to contend with, so things can still go awry.

David Hernandez: 27:24

Well, I don't think we want you to try to simulate lag.

PVPoke: 27:29

Oh, that's another fun, story. When the sneak and denial bug first came around. For some background on this, Pokemon Go, usually PvP, usually operates in a very, repeatable, reliable way of, you use your move, your opponent uses their move, and things happen in a very specific rhythm That you can, you know, calculate and simulate and so on. There was a bug that got introduced where using your fast move at the same time your opponent use a charge move could cause you to lose your move or get denied, depending on latency or lag. there are all sorts of wild theories of what could or couldn't prevent fast move denial. after this bug came out, I was like, okay, we'll just wait for that to get fixed. And then it stuck around and it stuck around. And then got to a point where I was like, Hmm, should I try and incorporate this somehow? it did finally get fixed, but I always, just joke to myself that it would get fixed the moment that I tried to implement it in the Sims. So, you have me to thank for having it stick around so long, because I never bothered.

David Hernandez: 28:36

In what ways do you try to cater your website to beginners in PvP? To people who maybe aren't familiar, just barely learning?

PVPoke: 28:43

Yeah, that's a, that's a great question. It takes, there's a huge knowledge barrier for entering PvP in the first place. Even still, if you were to show a random Pokemon Go player, the rankings or the battles and such, it would probably be pretty hard to explain. I do try and keep the initial screens as clean as possible. So there's some advanced numbers and such, like... move counts and things like that, that are behind, settings that you have to turn on. So that's a deliberate choice of trying not to put too many numbers on the screen at once.

David Hernandez: 29:17

Try not to overwhelm them with all the information, because PvP in general, it's hard for them to learn all the little nuances like the energy management, the, when to use shields, how much damage your Pokemon can take, and that's enough information on its own.

PVPoke: 29:30

that's actually a really good discussion around the type of numbers that PVPoke uses. PvPoke has a metric called battle rating. It's just a number between zero and a thousand that says how good or bad a matchup is. So Bastiodon against Altaria, Bastiodon is going to have like a 900 some rating against Zelteria, and you know that's a really good matchup. it's a really simple formula, it's just How much HP does the winning Pokemon have left? And part of catering to the beginners and just trying to keep things simple as a baseline, that metric is not perfect, of course, there's a lot more to what determines what is a good or bad matchup than just how much HP you have left. but for the sake of simplicity, that's why there is a battle rating metric in the first place. And it's going to be really hard to modify that in any way because there's a lot of things you could look at, like, how much energy do you have coming out of the matchup? how many turns would it take to flip the matchup? And so on. that would be fun to tweak numbers for, but probably won't happen for, the core of PVPoke, just to keep things simple.

David Hernandez: 30:44

So one thing that you've been on record about when it comes to PvP Poke is about an app. And you said that it's just too much to do or I guess it's outside of your realm of expertise.

PVPoke: 30:55

That's true, yeah. I wish I could just snap my fingers and make an app appear.

David Hernandez: 31:01

Have you tried?

PVPoke: 31:03

Uh,

David Hernandez: 31:03

kidding, I'm kidding.

PVPoke: 31:06

wait, I, I think I got it. Ah,

David Hernandez: 31:09

Nope,

PVPoke: 31:09

not quite, not quite.

David Hernandez: 31:10

we tried.

PVPoke: 31:11

yeah, an app is like probably the number one request that I see. unfortunately, things get complicated. App development can be a fairly different undertaking than web development. as well there are all sorts of red tape or yellow tape or what have you, when it comes to getting things approved for the App Store or dealing with App Store reviews. as much as I'd love to make an app, it's just not something that has made sense for me from an effort versus outcome perspective, it would be a ton of work to try and rebuild the website as an app. And when I think about what could an app do that the website can't, the list is fairly, I guess small. so My takeaway on that is I just want to keep building the website, keep building one code base, make it as good on mobile as I can make it. unfortunately, no plans for an app, but you can add it to your home screen and have it work like an app.

David Hernandez: 32:14

Is it more of a... I know you said the red tape behind it, Probably the sprites is probably what you're referring to when it comes to Pokemon and plus other things. Is it just like a different building block between app development and web development to where it'd be like starting from scratch. Is that kind of the biggest barrier when it comes to having PVPoke as an app?

PVPoke: 32:32

Yeah, for me. It would be starting from scratch. There are definitely ways to build a website and an app from one code base. And if I were to start all over again, I would probably look to do something like that. I am unfortunately too far down the river to turn back. Um, yeah, I unfortunately don't have the time to rebuild PVPoke from scratch. So the way we're going is the way we're going at this point. And yeah, just trying to maintain it from day to day.

David Hernandez: 33:05

Well, now here's the big question. when will Niantic hire you? Or if they offered you,

PVPoke: 33:10

gosh. I, I see this,

David Hernandez: 33:15

to go work for Niantic?

PVPoke: 33:16

I see this from time to time on Twitter and I appreciate the sentiment of anyone who like tags me and says, they should hire you, you should go work for them, etc. I think that like realistically, most companies aren't going to be hiring random people from Twitter and I feel like, just cause I make a website for Pokemon Go, it doesn't necessarily make me qualified to, let's say, make a website for them or assist with developing the app or be a game designer, things like that. There was a position open for, I want to say it was a game design position. I did apply for that and. I can think of a lot of people in the community who did and I don't know where that role is at now, but I, hope that there's a ton of qualified people out there, so hopefully that role is in good hands, but from a practical standpoint, Like, realistically, I'm probably best off just keeping doing what I'm doing, just as Niantic is probably better off developing their app without my and complaining about bug moves being bad in PvP or what have you.

David Hernandez: 34:29

Bugs need love, man.

PVPoke: 34:30

yeah, so I think, staying our separate ways is probably for the best.

David Hernandez: 34:37

One question that I was wondering. So obviously, you know, you're just one person running PVPoke, and you almost came close to stopping the site altogether. Now, I'm under the assumption that you don't plan on stopping anytime soon. But have you ever thought of what would you do if there was a day to where you just couldn't run PVPoke anymore? Like, is there any contingency plan in place or something that you have in mind in case you need to step away?

PVPoke: 35:00

Ooh, I'm gonna have to update my will. I don't have a contingency plan. if that day came, I would probably try and seek out, Someone to maintain it or a team of people to maintain it. which there are a lot of talented people in the community, and there are a lot of people who already are knees deep in the PVPoke code, doing some of their own custom development and Pokemon analysis and things like that. And thankfully, like, with it being open source, if I get hit by a bus, at least the code's still there.

David Hernandez: 35:32

Oh my gosh,

PVPoke: 35:35

Oh, good luck. But, yeah, that's hard to say.

David Hernandez: 35:38

it's difficult to think about. And it's something that I wanted to know, just because, we saw Silph Road closed their doors

PVPoke: 35:44

Yeah,

David Hernandez: 35:45

for me. And even probably for you, since you grew up, like I always thought they'd be around and nothing's guaranteed. So I was just always curious, like what would happen, you know, if.

PVPoke: 35:54

it Silph was so shocking because at the time it didn't even, I didn't even think it was a possibility that they would just stop. I think in the wake of Silph, probably what the grassroots community is going to look like is, a more, variety of community tournaments and such going on. So that's really cool to see those taking shape And people still playing just to have fun. Silph going away is a really hard moment for sure in the history of PVP and I hope people stick around.

David Hernandez: 36:23

What did Silph Road mean to you?

PVPoke: 36:24

Ooh, goodness. I, it was my exposure to, PVP as well. without it, like I'd have random Trainer battles with locals, but they were by no means competitive and Silph Arena was really what got people from thinking like, Oh, Hey, this is a random cool feature to wanting to practice and build up teams and study strategy and if it wasn't for Silph, I think PVP could just be a forgotten feature. so that was. So important for the game and, certainly at least for the, first two seasons or so I was really engaged with the Silph arena and even past then, just it's been always been a part of PVP and some of my favorite in game moments are thanks to Silph, so, definitely owe them a lot.

David Hernandez: 37:10

Well, Matt, PvPpoke, Cocoonerotada, whichever you go by, you've been a lovely guest. I do have one last question before we close this taco stand.

PVPoke: 37:19

Ooh, okay.

David Hernandez: 37:20

In my humble opinion, I would say that you're probably one of the most important people who would deserve a spot in regards to the Mount Rushmore of Pokémon GO because without your website, the battlers that we have now would not have the experience, they would not know as much about the game as they do without you. What goes through your mind when you think that the PvP scene wouldn't be the same without you?

PVPoke: 37:41

Oh boy. I, when I started PVPoke, it was from the perspective of this is a fun game I play with my friends and PVPoke was just an extension of that fun. It was, hey, my fellow local players, let's check out this thing I made and, let's play some tournaments and, I'll see how I can make it better. And as time has gone on, I'd say that mindset of it's just something I do for fun with friends has stayed the same in my mind. The environment and the scale might be different, but, I was just at, NAIC over the summer and getting to meet everyone and shake hands and say hi and. do trades and such and do in person battles was just so thrilling and the same exact experience that I had when I first started playing and building PvPoke. I try not to overwhelm myself with anything beyond that, but for me, it's still just a fun project that I do for friends and with friends and it's been really awesome to have everyone's encouragement and support along the way.

David Hernandez: 38:56

PvP Poke, that's the show. Before you do go, if people somehow don't know who you are, if they want to connect with you, where can they go to find you, by all means, please plug away.

PVPoke: 39:05

Yeah, absolutely. You can find me on Twitter at@PVPoke.

David Hernandez: 39:09

And I'll make sure to include links to everything he said in the description of today's episode. Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns. If you want to support the show, consider becoming a patron by either clicking the link in the description or going to patreon.com/asthepokeballturns. Now here's a sneak peek for the next episode of As the Pokeball Turns.