No Right Answer: Most Addictive Timesink Ever

[Chris Pranger]

Chris didn't deserve that last point because it wasn't a valid argument (though I do still have that song memorized from when I was 7). Tie ins are more a money sink rather than a time sink. I don't sit down and play a pokemon game and think, "you know what? I need to go watch hours and hours of the tv show."

I should clarify a bit there as I could have easily elaborated had I made that a full point rather than a final argument.

Simply put, a phenomenon takes an already addictive thing and makes it more difficult to avoid. If the addiction never sinks in this doesn't apply to you personally of course, but anyone who's a recovering alcoholic or in a similar situation will tell you how much more difficult it becomes to say no to their addiction if they can never avoid it. Pokemon has the benefit of having full media saturation, so no matter where you go to try and escape it, there's a high chance you'll see it and be sent right back into its open arms.

 

[varneraa]

If drug dealers had digital downloading capabilities, what product would fly off the shelves fastest? Our boys take on the very nature of addition in this week's debate.

From the description, I was expecting a debate on the nature of addition. Not a lot of math involved in this debate.

For me, Minecraft is definitely a bigger time sink.

However, the review barely touched on the meta, especially the card game. If Mojang added Magic: The Gathering to Minecraft...

 

[Xman490]

By going reason-to-reason, Kyle didn't get enough emphasis on his points. Minecraft's always-changing world is something that Pokemon cannot really strive to do.

On the other hand, Chris didn't bring up a point about Pokemon that's besides the "catch 'em all" aspect. You can play through any Pokemon game multiple times to try out different teams, like I will with Red because I have never used a Persian, Ninetales, Muk, etc.

 

[orangeapples]

Well, pokemon does this horrible thing where it tells you how much time you've wasted to it, and each game on average costs a pokeaddict 200 hours. Then there are the hardcore addicts who max out the clock.

Me? I'm content with simply having a living pokedex (have each pokemon arranged in the boxes according to national dex number, so it does start with Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, Venusaur etc, until it gets to the end.) and a team of 6 for a traditional singles 6 on 6 battles.

 

[Kapol]

Honestly, both sides failed to mention some points. Chris mentioned the shinies, but he didn't mention the biggest time-sink for the really obsessed with Pokemon... the IVs and EVs. The IVs are a huge pain on their own. You have to breed over and over and over in an attempt to get the highest possible IV number on each stat, which requires doing a lot of deciding on which pokemon to use as the parents (which you need to breed them to have specific good IVs) and random luck. Then, let's say you DO get 31 on every stat. Then you have to raise their EVs by battling only specific pokemon that give specific EVs to certain stats to improve those stats, thereby giving each pokemon a specific purpose for fighting. Compared to those, shininess is incredibly easy.

Kyle's points seemed to get revolving around the same point and coming back to it. You can just build build build. Don't get me wrong, that's a good point when it comes to time syncs. But at the same time I feel it's a lot easier to get bored with it for many. If you go the survival route, you have to worry about creatures, it takes forever to find resources you may want but are very rare, and the reason it's a massive time sync is because it takes forever to do something relatively simple. One might think that's a plus for time syncs. But I found that makes it boring before long until finally I just stop playing. In creative... well, there's just no challenge to it. It appeals to a lot of people I'm sure, but I don't think the game manages to balence the kind of fun, challenging gameplay to addictiveness ratio that Pokemans do.

That said, I think Kyle should have pointed out more how Minecraft is a much more social experience, or at least is more entertaining if you get more social. Pokemon is plenty social mind you. but it doesn't have something like jumping into a 24-person open server and just playing with other people, building together, and so on. That leaves the relatively little social interaction in pokemon to the dust.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Most Overhyped MMO Ever
Rift vs SW: TOR

ooh ...

I'm seconding this.

OT:
i agree with the out come of this debate, mostly because minecraft = legos and i have a box FULL of those behind my chair, thus, i have no need for a game that lets me build things

>.>
<.<
Pikachu still sucks though

 

[Mimssy]

I find TF2 to be my summer timesink.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

Though Minecraft gets boring once you've built a few neat things its like, eh, nothing happens now because no NPCs give a toss about what you just built.

Which is why people use multiplayer servers, so they can impress their friends with massive creations representing dozens of hours of labour, who will promptly burn it to the fucking ground.

OT: I think Minecraft is much more addictive because there is so much more to do. All of Chris's points were about how addictive it is to catch 'em all, because that's all there is TO get addicted to. Kyle points out that there are a massive number of things you can do on your own, and everytime you get bored with one, you'll stumble across another.

Plus, there's a superior community. There is really only one way to interact with other Pokemon players, and that is to build a better team, either to beat them in a battle or to show off. In Minecraft, people engage in wars and build-offs (sometimes at the same time), they invent and play sports, and they come up with innovative ways to grief the everloving hell out of other players [http://ah.roosterteeth.com/archive/?sid=things&v=more] (seriously, if you have a few minutes, watch some videos. They are only a couple minutes long, but very funny)

 

[Kapol]

Chris owned this one, but Kyle could have really matched his point on the outside franchises and merchandise. Minecraft already features tons of merchandise, and is commonly played by some big names in today's media, such as Joel Zimmerman (deadmau5 for those that don't know). We even have Minecon to go along with it. To everyone that wants to bring WoW up as a better arguement, I submit you to view this:

http://gnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Minecraft-Paladin.jpg

That's a costume for Paladin Tier 2 "Judgement" as a Minecraft skin costume at Blizzcon 2011.

Major kudos to Dan for his analogy, as well.

Talk to me when Minecraft has it's own majorly sold Trading Card Game (or at least used to be, not sure if it's as popular any more), multiple movies that have actually been in theaters, a television show that's been running for 15 years now, multiple soundtracks, multiple comic books published, and so forth. Minecraft is good and is hugely popular, but Pokemon is one of the biggest franchises in gaming. And that has to do with how addictive it is, I think. The idea of 'gotta catch em all' is just so well done and a concept that anyone can really pick up. It's a challenge put forth to players, and one many take on.

 

[Rakor]

Not to mention getting the version of your pokemon with the right special ability, and the right personality, and giving it the right combo of stat buff food...

And Contests....

HAH! Right, contests. But still, top hats for all your pokemons.

 

[ivc392]

Isn't there a wildly mediocre fan-made Pokemon MMO? I think its Pokemon World Online or something...

 

[subtlefuge]

I can't decide if winning is losing for this or if the only way to win is not to play.

 

[Waaghpowa]

I should clarify a bit there as I could have easily elaborated had I made that a full point rather than a final argument.

Regarding your final point. Minecraft IS portable and I personally would consider Minecraft to be the bigger time sink, not just because of the previous points regarding being a "True" sand box game, but because everything you need or could ever need is contained in the single game.

Each Pokemon game has it's limits, once you reach the limit, there's not much else you can do. Beat all the end leaders? Collected every Pokemon and developed a stellar team? Not much else you can do after than other than duel your friends.

Now I don't think it's a valid point to include every game in Pokemon because having to purchase additional games doesn't necessarily make it a bigger time sink. Minecraft is a single game that requires far more time than even the entire Pokemon series combined. The very fact you HAVE to get the other Pokemon games makes the amount of time you can put into the game limited by comparison.

I've played all the pokemons, except the recent ones and have put a lot of time into them myself, but compared to the infinite possibilities and content that Minecraft supplies? There's no comparison.

Bear in mind that I'm not big on Minecraft, I played it for a few days, built a house with a lava moat and quit. I'm not into those kinds of sand box games. I mention this because I want to make it clear that I'm not a Notch Fanboy and that I don't care for his game.

 

[gNetkamiko]

Believe it or not, I really do want to sink my time in Minecraft. I mean, sure you can just sit at the place you started at and build your home there, but the real fun is exploration, and the occasional adrenaline rush you get either at night time (where you're rushing to find a safe place to sleep), while facing off against a creeper (or several), or are about to accidentally do something painful, like falling into a lake of lava.

Sadly, since I don't have Minecraft, I'm stuck with Terraria. Even worse, I'm on my 4th character in that game and just like my previous 3, is close to completion.

 

[blackrave]

Can you mod Pokemon? End of discussion

Besides everyone knows that TES2aggerfall is the biggest timesink in the world

 

[Conn1496]

Minecraft was good until they updated it and overcomplicated things with dragons, and endermen and crap. Yet, Pokemon will always be good. My older brothers and sisters played it, and now so do I. You can not walk away from it, most of the time, you'll take it with you! You'll take it to events dedicated purely to pokemon, that last for hours! I didn't really like Pokemon Black, I'll admit. However, I think the word "didn't" really takes it here, because now, I play it for hours on a daily basis with my friend(s) (Which makes it a multiple time sink.). Even when I'm alone, I'll still train, catch, battle, trade, explore, and generally play for hours on end, and to what goal? To be the very best, like no one ever was. To catch them is my real test, to train them is my cause... and THAT people, is why Pokemon is the biggest time sink ever, and has been for generations.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

Why is Notch going against his own game?!
Oh wait, you claim Chris is NOT Notch?
Look at the photo's again!!! :O

 

[DigitalAtlas]

They are right. Pokemon is like Crack

But its SOOOOO FUCKING GOOD

I always find time to use my team at the battle subway.

I'm surprised they never mentioned getting perfect IVs and training EVs. Dear god. So much time.

 

[djAMPnz]

My biggest timesink would have to be Roller Coaster Tycoon 2. My parks were epic, I never wanted to turn that game off. Civilization was pretty addictive too, but not as much as RCT2.

 

[Webb Myers]

Pokemon vs Minecraft is a valid debate...if you're 12 years old.
For the grownups, it's Civ (aka "one more turn") vs WoW (aka "take my money")