Daely Snack: Have shinies lost their purpose?

Shinies. The elusive differently coloured Pokémon that were so rare that most people thought they were hoaxes/glitches/hacks. Yet, with the internet becoming more and more widespread, soon everyone knew about them. With a 1 in 8000 chance of finding them, they were truly sought after by collectors who had to put considerable effort into getting them.

With people complaining they couldn’t get one, Gamefreak threw a bone and released several shiny Pokémon as events, in addition to making some slight tweaks to the chance of finding shinies. Sorry folks that had a shiny Raikou, your’s became so common that people didn’t care about your achievement anymore. Luckily there were only a few event Pokémon, leaving a majority still hard to catch (even when using the Pokéradar).

But XY changed even more than that. They made so many tweaks that, as evidenced by the comments here and on other sites, you could easily find three shinies a day. The Safari zone with hundreds of Pokémon available, a new egg breeding mechanic, horde battles, the Pokéradar is back and maybe even a tweak to the base chance itself! This brings my to my concern of today: is there still a point in shinies?

The major thing about shinies was not that they were differently coloured. In fact, you could say that over half of all Pokémon looks worse or almost not different at all in their shiny form. No, the thing that made them cool was the rarity of finding one, the thrill of encountering and successfully catching it. It shouldn’t be only about its looks, but also on the memory that is attached to it. But with XY the rarity is gone. People will stop caring about your feat. “Oh, you got 30 shinies? I got 60, hmpf.” The whole elusive aspect went away, and that makes shinies not that exciting for me anymore as they once were.

But that’s just me of course. What do you think? I’d love to hear your opinion in the comments, and when I got the time I will try to respond to them. Seeing as this is a discussion post, keep spam to a bare minimum. If you got something interesting to say, say it, but don’t start 200 comments threads about one battle you had, use the chat.

~Daedardus~

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3,018 thoughts on “Daely Snack: Have shinies lost their purpose?”

  1. You better watch out, you better not cry!
    Better not pout I’m telling you why,
    CHANTACLAUS WILL F*CKING COME TO YOUR HOUSE, HAUNT YO *SS, AND EAT YOUR SOUL WHILE YOU SLEEP, B*TCH.
    .
    .
    .
    .
    Sorry, I had to, how can I not after my name? XD
    #plsnoban

    Reply
  2. If Alakazam and Gengar got a Mega, why didn’t Machamp and Golem get one as well? I feel like they’re all together, in that they all require trade to evolve.

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  3. I shall blow your minds guys! (at least some of you)

    Did you know that the Psychic type is based off of the human mind? It’s weaknesses coincide with the fears of the average human; ghosts, darkness, and bugs.

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  4. i really hope for in gen vii they reconnect some megas to real evolution just let them evolve with trading while holding its megastone (banette,mawile,absol i looking at you) obviously its stats and abilitys wouldnt be the same, too OP

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  5. I hate how some people try to be funny on the GTS. I asked for a Japanese Ditto and offered a Pokemon with its Hidden Ability. Guess what I got?

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  6. I almost fill my box with shiny pokemon, here’s the list: (The first few are caught through chain fish, so nothing special, but still)

    Basculin, Relicanth, Kingdra, Seaking, Dragalge, Gyarados, Lanturn, Octillery, Politoed, Crawdaunt, Swoobat, Clawitzer, Talonflame, Flygon, Zigzaggoon, Nidoking, Druddigon, Noivern, Venusaur, Gardevoir, Goodra, Volcarona, Chesnaught, Aegislash, Trevenant, and Litwick. (So far, hopefully more to come.) No, shiny in X and Y are still meaningful because they are earned legitimately and not through hacks.

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  7. Having a really deep moment here. Shinies aren’t tools for showing off, they are memory holders that hold the memories of when you found them, and your crazy butt reaction when you found them! I would never trade a shiny away because of that deepness.

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  8. Here’s a tip: Wonder Trade around this time when the Japanese players are playing to get their generous gifts from Wonder Trade 😀

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  9. Gtg guys. Might not be on tomorrow. What am I saying of course I’ll be on tomorrow even if it is a holiday (that’s good to some and bad to others). Happy early Thankskkanukah!

    Reply

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