Differences between PO and Showdown (And other Online Pokesims if any)

[Quattro Staravia]

(IMPORTANT NOTE: I am not trying to start a flame war. I am merely more familiar with Pokemon Showdown than with Pokemon Online)

After looking through the internet looking for Let's Plays/Nuzlockes of Reborn, I found out some background on the game, and how the Pokemon Online Server came first. I found out that (this might be common knowledge to all of you, my apologies) the reason for Reborn's difficulty is due to the fact that the game was made by seasoned battlers who knew what they were doing.

Now, as I mentioned in my important note, I am not framiliar with Pokemon Online. What I am framiliar with, is Pokemon Showdown. the battle simulator Smogon uses to decide their tiers.

Now, I ask you, as an "Uneducated Fool". What are the similarities (Other than you can battle with Pokemon on both) and differences between Online and Showdown (And any other online Pokesims if any)?

Please: keep it civil. No coments like, "ONLINE ISN"T RUN BY ELITIST ASSHOLES!!!!!!!!!!!!221111"

Edited June 13, 2014 by Quattro Staravia

[Deleted User]

I've only used PO. There's a newer one called PokeBattle that I've been meaning to try out, it works a bit differently with team building.

https://www.pokebattle.com/

[Fezzdog]

When it comes down to it, PO and Showdown are mostly personal preference. A lot of people loathe Smogon's community so Pokemon Online is the general alternative. PO and Smogon run different tiers as well as having different interfaces of course. It's easier to implement new theoretical meta-games on Showdown though compared to PO from what I know like CAPs and stuff that changes battle mechanics (STABmons yay!). Reborn has had a PO server for years so that's where most of the community reside, but I know most head to Showdown for laddering including myself.

There is Pokebattle, which is pretty interesting. Basically all Pokemon are assigned points and you have a limited number of points to build a team with. It's apparently in public beta, I haven't tried it yet though.

[Tempest]

The very little I've heard from friends that play both:

Showdown if for battling

PO is for the community

Now that said I've only been on Showdown once but it was all about the battling. Hell no one that was a confirmed member or whatever it was called could talk. On PO, most servers except for beta are more community oriented.

[Tacos]

I've been a showdown person for quite a while. The main server is definitely more for battling while some of the community made servers are far more for the community. Sure, I've had my fair share of tyrannic assholes running servers that couldn't give 2 less shits about their community, but aside from that, if you look for a community, go to smaller servers.

[Arkhi]

Personally, I prefer Showdown. My biggest pet peeve is the Smogon limiting, but the design is simpler, animations are in Showdown, and field effects are shown. Additionally, making a team is easier on Showdown in my opinion, so I typically make teams on Showdown, then transfer them to PO.

Much of my preference towards Showdown is because you don't need to join a channel to have a battle. However, because of this, finding one particular person on Showdown is tricky, I find.

Otherwise, because of Reborn, I take a liking to PO. The changed stats show up, you can easily talk with multiple people in 1 on 1 conversations, and the lack of animations does speed up the game a bit.

[Felicity]

"ONLINE ISN"T RUN BY ELITIST ASSHOLES!!!!!!!!!!!!221111"

Had to

Honestly though, it is most of the reasons listed above, although from what i can tell, showdown is more reliable for servers *cough*Reborn*cough*

[gutten_tag]

Showdown is too aggresive being warn by a little threat. Seeing something like Swagger got ban to Uber- i laughed so hard. Of course each community got their own advantages and disadvantages, i still prefer PO more for the best community, and Showdown for the best place to gain experience for competitive.

[Sapphire]

Showdown, eh? *Sniggers* Showdown tends to be full of Glitches. One of the more egreigous ones is if you try and switch against a pokemon that has Shadow Tag (it doesn't even tell you it has it) you lose your turn with the comment *X's Shadow Tag prevents swtiching!*

Also it's run by eliteist assholes.

[Magus]

Showdown does have a better layout though and it looks a lot better than PO, but I don't battle on sims because 3DS master race, sims are for plebs blah blah.

But the Reborn community on PO is really cool so that is what keeps me around.