"But I'm tenacious."
-Heartcutter
|
| #1 mattzarella[166824] | | 245.165.8.67.cfl.res.rr.com | | Awesome. Looks great now. | #2  [166825] | | dblt-74-209-36-19.gtcom.net | I'm extremely tired and read this while I was waiting for something else. No clue if that helped or harmed, but I enjoyed this. Didn't recognize most of the pokemon, but everything was explained very well and the coding was quite nice. Good flow from information to battle depiction, as well.
Gave it an eight. Wouldn't be averse to more of these. | | #3 mattzarella[166826] | | 133.19.102.97.cfl.res.rr.com | I'll start off with the negative stuff; if you haven't arrived at my house with Dahmer-esque intent by then, you're welcome to read the positive stuff too.
First off, the look of the report is fairly unappealing. White on black is the old standby, but I've come to associate it with sites that are still under construction. While I appreciate your use of tables to separate the new Pokemon information from the flow of the battles, it all looks very Geocities to me. Take a look at Ling's guide to CSS, and if you have to, copy/paste his code and try to make some adjustments from there. There are excellent ways to do with CSS everything that you did in this report, and more, and at the same time make it look cleaner and visually appealing.
I didn't really like the second game. Although I was introduced to some interesting Pokemon, that was about all the merit of the game. It seems like it was a throwaway just to fill space between games 1 and 3, because I felt like you just steamrolled through it and that doesn't make for an exciting read. I thought the first and last games were much more suspenseful and captivating, and that overall it just slowed everything down by being in the middle. Maybe if you want to add an "easy" game like that next time, put it at the beginning as a warmup type game for the readers to get into it.
I would have liked to hear more of your thoughts, strategically speaking. There are a few times when you discuss why you were making a certain move, but overall I think that the whole report could have used more of it. Keep in mind that the majority of your readers most likely have never played Pokemon competitively. I haven't played a genuine Pokemon game since something like Red or Blue, before they started releasing Pokemon: Burnt Sienna and Pokemon: Grandma's One Strange Yellow Tooth and generally abusing the colors of the rainbow. Tell us why you made that U-turn. Tell us what you think your opponent might be thinking. Tell us what you think your opponent thinks you're thinking.
For the love of God, don't feel afraid to stick your neck out and make some jokes. You've got lots of material and Pokemon is not exactly the most serious topic. I understand if you don't feel that the reporting allows for much humor, but at least try to find some ways to improve the otherwise dry writing. Make us attached to your Pokemon. Make us laugh at the opponent. Maybe give us a new perspective. As of right now it reads like "I'm playing this game on my DS. This guy switches in a Pokemon. I'm going to do x. He does y." Something more entertaining would involve a new look on things other than the fact that you're just playing a game against an opponent, like "So today, I, rabidfox the Pokemon trainer, was in the stadium and this SENSELESS MOTHERFUCKER challenged me to a battle, so Blastoise and I gave him an incredible enema. What a tool." Do something creative.
Now, the positive...
The .gifs were a really, really cool and useful idea. I'm glad that you decided to use them, and in a way that allowed us to follow the action akin to something like a minimap update for Starcraft. For the most part, I understood where your Pokemon were at all times and who was currently up, as well as if they had switched or were u-turned or whatnot. Great work.
I love new games. Not much to comment on there, but I love reading about something that hasn't been rehashed.
You assumed, quite correctly, that none of us were even beginner Pokemon players. Other than the aforementioned strategy stuff, I felt comfortable with my level of knowledge about the game and the currently used Pokemon.
Overall, I'd say it was a very solid 7 improved by the use of .gifs and good information about a new game. I concur with Maar on the 8. | | #4 micro[166829] | | cpe-65-185-126-209.woh.res.rr.com | i dunno about the quality of the report (guess thats why im not a rater) but it was fun to read, and the game is fun to play even if it has steep learning curve. this is pretty far removed from ye old red/blue of yore that i used to own.
the only question i have is: how do you view a battle log? the guys in the smogon server aren't helping, google fails me, and my comp doesn't know the filetype. | | #5 micro[166830] | | cpe-65-185-126-209.woh.res.rr.com | | nevermind, just had to manually open it with some sort of word document. :B | | #6 wakiki[166860] | | 68-119-69-143.dhcp.mtgm.al.charter.com | | Nice report. :) Although it be nice to know some of the terms first. I didn't know what "sweep" meant until you defined it at the very end. |
Back to the Battle Report
|
|
Home
Forum
Starcraft Tournaments
