Has GameFreak/Nintendo ever considered this idea?

[Dr. Steve]

Since I'm relatively new here I'm not sure if this idea has ever been brought up but I'll give it a shot anyway.

Now 1 thing that everyone looks foward to seeing in every new generation is finding out what the designs of the new Pokemon look like. Everyone has different opinions on what they prefer. There will always be really good designs and also really bad designs. I always find the popular common criticism from old/former Pokemon fans that the newer designs will never match the coolness of the original Kanto and or Johto designs from the late 90s. I've heard it so many times that its actually kind of annoying now.

However this always raised a question for me. If some fans don't like the new designs why won't GF and Nintendo hold a worldwide contest? Let the fans design their own Pokemon to be featured in an upcoming game. This would give everyone a great chance to show their creativity and art design. I've seen countless fan-made Pokemon designs all over the Internet. I'm pretty sure these artists would love have their own fan-made Pokemon become a reality in a real game.

This is how I think the contest would go. It'd probably be somewhere from 2-5 winners overall. The decision making would go with 1 of 2 methods. The fans get to vote and decide what designs they like the best by voting or the developers themselves picks out the designs themselves. Or even better it would go both ways.

I think it would turn out to be a good idea because not only would fans be offered a chance to have something forever engraved in to the series they love but it will also bring them closer to the company then they already are. If it hasn't happened before its kind of a wonder to me. What do you folks think?

[AphoticVoid]

I think that is a fantastic idea, and it would be awesome to see a Pokémon sprite made by someone other than the developers.

[crystalzapdos]

Because 90% of the entries would be from a 10 year old with a dog with four stick legs and a happy face, and the paper its written one will say, "Hey guys make dis a Pokemon!" While their soccer mom stares at them smiling. When their Pokemon doesn't make it, said kid will be crying and the mom would be all like, "I'm never going to buy games from these evil people again."

Clearly it wouldn't work.

[stylesbk]

It's a great idea but i'm not sure how it would work with the copyright part.

[Bluelatios*]

Actually, that would be a fine idea. More community involvement can only mean better things for Pokemon, and it would definitely help keep the designs a bit more consistent. It would also be nice if GF could share some of their concepts for fans to discuss and provide input. It should definitely be GF that decides which 'mons make the top cut though. That way they don't HAVE to make a retarded Pokemon because it got x number of votes.

[Will-powered Spriter]

The problem is copyright. The winning pokemon would be the creation of someone not employed by gamefreak, so it would involve a lot of effort to ensure that the pokemon is counted as gamefreak's creative property. This needs to be done or else the winner could decide they want royalties or don't want their design used anymore or want to let someone else use it, and it would just be a major headache.

[Super-Staff]

Because 90% f the entries would be from a 10 year old with a dog with four stick legs and a happy face, and the paper its written one will say, "Hey guys make dis a Pokemon!" While their soccer mom stares at them smiling. When their Pokemon doesn't make it, said kid will be crying and the mom would be all like, "I'm never going to buy games from these evil people again."

Clearly it wouldn't work.

Trufax. That and the copyright issues that would arise as well.

[Italianbaptist]

The problem is copyright. The winning pokemon would be the creation of someone not employed by gamefreak, so it would involve a lot of effort to ensure that the pokemon is counted as gamefreak's creative property. This needs to be done or else the winner could decide they want royalties or don't want their design used anymore or want to let someone else use it, and it would just be a major headache.

Most companies have a caveat whenever you send designs or drawings in that they become the company's intellectual property. Twouldn't be that hard to work that into the contest rules.

[7 tyranitars]

Because 90% f the entries would be from a 10 year old with a dog with four stick legs and a happy face, and the paper its written one will say, "Hey guys make dis a Pokemon!" While their soccer mom stares at them smiling. When their Pokemon doesn't make it, said kid will be crying and the mom would be all like, "I'm never going to buy games from these evil people again."

Clearly it wouldn't work.

This lol, I can actualy see that happen lmao!

[blaze boy]

Now 1 thing that everyone looks foward to seeing in every new generation is finding out what the designs of the new Pokemon look like. Everyone has different opinions on what they prefer. There will always be really good designs and also really bad designs. I always find the popular common criticism from old/former Pokemon fans that the newer designs will never match the coolness of the original Kanto and or Johto designs from the late 90s.

The problem is that they grew up and out of the pokémon series and thus anything that wasn't part of their nostalgic childhood automatically sucks.

Bottom line is they're idiots and should be treated like one.

However this always raised a question for me. If some fans don't like the new designs why won't GF and Nintendo hold a worldwide contest? Let the fans design their own Pokemon to be featured in an upcoming game. This would give everyone a great chance to show their creativity and art design. I've seen countless fan-made Pokemon designs all over the Internet. I'm pretty sure these artists would love have their own fan-made Pokemon become a reality in a real game.

This is how I think the contest would go. It'd probably be somewhere from 2-5 winners overall. The decision making would go with 1 of 2 methods. The fans get to vote and decide what designs they like the best by voting or the developers themselves picks out the designs themselves. Or even better it would go both ways.

I think it would turn out to be a good idea because not only would fans be offered a chance to have something forever engraved in to the series they love but it will also bring them closer to the company then they already are. If it hasn't happened before its kind of a wonder to me. What do you folks think?

It's a terrible idea since fan made pokémon tend to be terrible and wouldn't solve the problem of the older "fan" hating on the newer pokémon, thus the whole thing would be a waste of time and money.

Furthermore Game Freak hires very capable designers without the hassle of copyright, royalties and other crap.

[doseljugo]

If Digimon can make fan made Digimon official through contests I don't see why Pokemon can't do fan contests themselves.

http://digimon.wikia.com/wiki/Digimo...ot-art_Contest

[BCVM22]

If Digimon can make fan made Digimon official through contests I don't see why Pokemon can't do fan contests themselves.

What other franchises do is the very definition of immaterial. It was just explained: because Game Freak hires and employs a perfectly capable art and development staff to design the creatures and they have absolutely zero need to solicit ideas from the fans.

Furthermore, the notion that fan input is inherently required for "better communication" is flawed because the notion that fan communication is necessary is itself flawed. It isn't. Game Freak doesn't actually need to communicate with the fans, in no small part because as much as the fans like to think otherwise, they don't really have anything crucial to communicate to Game Freak.

It's not an idea that's had merit any of the last hundred times it was suggested.

[Zorkel567]

Yeah, as others have said, the contest rules would most likely have in it that once the design is sent, if in the chance it is picked, it Nintendo/Gamefreak's property and the original creator/seder no longer has any claim or ownership of the design. That idea is really interesting, and would be neat to see, imo.

[blaze boy]

If Digimon can make fan made Digimon official through contests I don't see why Pokemon can't do fan contests themselves.

Because with Digimon there is no restriction on what makes a Digimon a Digimon, For example if I was to create a Tiger that shoot laser out of it nose with a Samurai sword and a machine gun it would be a Digimon without any problem. However if I was to submit the same design to be a Pokémon it would get rejected due to it not being a simple design.

[SimH8]

This is an awesome idea. To avoid copyright issues, make it so people send drawings in a competition style fashion, so contestants are aware their idea could be used in GF products. And not all pokemon need to be fan made.

[Takaru]

Instead of holding a contest I'd rather have GF look at the designs some artist have made for them and hire them.

[Mystical Jackal]

Nintendo/GameFreak will start using design made by fans when they get desperate of new ideas.

[doseljugo]

What other franchises do is the very definition of immaterial. It was just explained: because Game Freak hires and employs a perfectly capable art and development staff to design the creatures and they have absolutely zero need to solicit ideas from the fans.

You ignored the context of my post in order to be obtuse. People questioned how contest creations could be legally implemented and I posted examples.

Besides, such a contest would have more to do with the great publicity over the gimmick of letting fans have their input. Even if designers had to refine the winners for a viable end product.

Why? Because fun. It is as simple as that.

[BCVM22]

I was replying to your post in the larger sense. That people can maneuver the idea to be legally feasible does not at all make it a good idea. Because it isn't.

[Psychic Politoed]

I think they had a small contest to name a Dragon move (Draco Meteor), but that was just a name. They already have a big idea bank for actual Pokemon they can come up with.

[blaze boy]

I think they had a small contest to name a Dragon move (Draco Meteor), but that was just a name.

Yeah and that was only open to the Japanese audience

[Psychic Politoed]

Yeah and that was only open to the Japanese audience

I was mentioning that as a matter-of-fact. I'm not a huge proponent of this idea.

[AeroKorogu]

The reason they do not do that is because they want peoples support, but are not accepting ideas, so that all the games are generally the same, like ray william johnson with his new studio runaway planet, brent butt and the other writers/producers of corner gas(old show, I know, but a good example), and many, many writers/producers/creators of anything in the world. To keep everything under control and have everything generally the same, they come up with the pokemon themselves. Plus, gamefreak pays money for people who work in the company to have them create and draw pokemon. If the take ideas from fans, then there's no real point of even having them there...as well as copywrite issues

[Nesquik3D]

GameFreak/Nintendo would probably be overwhelmed with entries as well. Copyright is a major issue too.

[bobandbill]

This has been pretty much answered, so I don't see much else to discuss besides repeating.

It might seem like a nice idea on paper, but it won't be so easy to implement in the end at all. Besides, why would Game Freak go to the trouble and effort while still risking legal issues (copyright and intellectual property can be a very iffy thing to deal with at times) when they have their own production team?

They also rejected the idea when previous people requested via email, I recall, so that's not going to change now. (6th gen already has the Pokemon decided and ready to go I bet).

Hence going to close the thread.