Daely Snack: Have shinies lost their purpose?

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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. gais pls
    “I may start designing the professor today..idk (btw did the voting end for her name?)
    Any suggestions as to how she should look? (I have some, but I want dat community feedback)”

    Reply

  5. Getting back on topic here, I think people like them because they look cool and are fun to see with the sparkles and all. Now, if people are using third party programs to get shiny Pokemon, I think that’s not fair at all. All of those people that actually look for them and sometimes don’t find any but at the click of a button you get a shiny almost instantly (looking at you Instacheck). Totally not fair for IV breeders either.
    People wanted shiny Pokemon easier to find, now you got it. But since it’s easier to find them now, everyone complains. They are only doing it because fans wanted that.

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  6. I don’t think shinies really lost their purpose it still takes time and patience and it feels about the same for finding one as before at least for me anyways never cared much about searching for them in the past the first I ever encountered was Zubat in Emerald but thought something was wrong with my game then found Oddish in Leafgreen shinies really are just like any other pokemon so I treat them like I would a non shiny I’m always excited when I catch something because I love pokemon in general never paid attention with natures before so I don’t know whats the best for them if its one of my favorites I will use it shiny or otherwise I’ll admit I prefer the shiny colors on some but not all I like searching for them now but mainly pokemon that I always had a soft spot for if I find one I’m not searching it means another friend to care for 🙂 I also keep their original color as well and just switch to give one a break I treasure all of my pokemon <3 I love both and always happy to see either ^.^ hasn't gotten old yet xD I think I feel even more excited when someone else finds a shiny because its nice to see another that first encounters one and their genuinely happy about it n.n

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  18. i wish illuminate was more useful illuminate could work as intimidate but instead of lowering attack it should lower accuracy just like flash

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  19. Anyone know what the ratio of finding a shiny is in the Friend Safari? Apparently it’s lower than random encounters but not as low as poke radar or chain fishing..,

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  20. Those days you break out to an allergic reaction, then find out your favorite actor had cancer removed, and then shinies are literally being handed out while you’re doing chores. It’s the perfect daaaayyy

    Reply

  25. I FOUND THE SHINY CHINCHOU OH MY GOD AT A CHAIN OF 3 OF MY OF MY OF MY OF MY I FREAKING LOVE CONSECUTIVE FISHING HOLY MACARONI

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