Pokémon Champions not having singleplayer because it would make the multiplayer queue times too long is genuinely the funniest self-report I've ever read in my life.

how do you release a competitive pokemon game to be played locally with no way to recover the game state on a disconnect and no local play

Have felt this way for the last few years largely on the Western side (effortpost incoming) be it released works by TPCi (lack of guest artists, merch etc.) or the amalgamation of Pokémon into a brand first and foremost. Fans are often portrayed by TPCi in a weirdly homogenized way, which tends to execerbate this feeling. The "Hello Trainers!!" marketing gives me the ick because TPCi generally fails to recognize that a "Pokémon Fan" can mean one of many different things. From the impression I get; Little Timmy going to Worlds on summer vacation; a Pokémon GO influencer in their late 30s; young adults that play the TCG; or even someone like me that really just loves the singleplayer JRPGs— are all put in the same bracket. This isn't me advocating that one group get special preferential treatment and it's awesome that everyone loves this series so much, but something about this engagement with the community feels fake and it sours me a lot on the official front. There's a massive difference in products like Legends ZA versus a TCG mat with FRLG Sugimori art pasted onto it, but (generally) it feels like TPCi believes those products should be engaged with on equal terms by a super broad demographic. Compare this to the JP side. Things that appeal to an overtly massive young audience like PokeToon (we're talking very very young kids watching animations on YouTube) are directed/boarded by fucking industry legends like Shingo Yamashita, with an immense amount of care put into the craft of that product that your average sakugahead will appreciate. Conversely, you've got releases for more specific audiences like Project VOLTAGE, that use something for more adult fans as a springboard to create genuinely awesome stuff for all groups. We're three years in and people that don't really care for vocaloid are praising the accompanying audiovisual work to come out of that incentive, all in a language they don't even understand! I get the impression that something like PokeMiku could not earnestly spawn from TPCi. Closest thing we have to a Western creative force is Niantic, where Pokémon GO has been ferociously (and deservedly) lambasted by its OWN fanbase for a decade. This isn't to say "Thing VS Thing: Japan" (because every series will inevitably have their tacky McDonalds collab wherever they are) but seeing the sheer force of artistry on display for things like TCG sleeves or deck boxes versus the west is ludicrous. The impact that non-Japanese fans have had on the series (think Carlos on ZA or Toby on SV) compared to TPCi's persistent influencer culture is staggering on its own. Even DeNA had guest artists from Western Pokémon Twitter to create artwork for Masters! The term "unearnest" is again, probably the best way to describe this feeling, but I get the impression that being a "fan" of Pokémon to TPCi is merely equivalent to that of a consumer. I dont mean that in a cynical way, but largely that the barrier to entry for being a fan (previously: "fanatic") doesn't really start with those that have a sincere engagement with the series, and instead those that purchase products and/or engage with "fandom culture". Both sides struggle with tribalism in different ways— the JP front is borderline hyperconsumerist with modern Pokémon products almost as a lifestyle with very little criticism— but I feel that's somewhat understandable given the series is literally etched into the country's manhole covers— I totally buy that Japan loves Pokémon as a foundational cornerstone of modern culture. Meanwhile, the ENG fandom is practically all infighting or appeal to nostalgia, with any reverance for artistry or the production behind the series (GAME FREAK in general) treated with apathy at best and ire at worst. As someone that has spent the last few years really trying to deepen the understanding of this series and vouch for basic conversation on topics like gamedev or design intent, it does feel like a lot of that effort gets walked back a combo of modern Western social media culture and a very smoothed-down brand. It's one thing to deal with the rise of "who gives a fuck" dunk culture from people with a tangential interest in the series, but it becomes worsened when TPCi see these subjects as not worth acknowledging or solely for selling nostalgia. That official statement about FRLG being the "definitive way to play Kanto" is eerily lock-step with the current crop of fans that generally believe games like Red and Green hold no value. Not to say people need to love them above FRLG (or like them at all) but every discussion I've had with JP fans (in disagreement) always ended in mutual understanding regardless. Truthfully, I dunno how to "fix" this issue since it's so multi-faceted and partially relies on TPCi to start catching up to the JP branch. Even once-in-a-lifetime stuff like the DPMA Documentary release (that took up an entire month of my life!) felt marred by AI generated reconstructions and "leak culture" that destroyed the spread of valuable info. It wasn't a company sending a DMCA to suppress that info like you'd expect, (quite the opposite given some GAME FREAK staff I've chatted with since) but the warped will of fandom itself. Shit— for every new and cool thing released by a fan nowadays; we get a dozen leaks for Generation 23; TCG scalpers invading a Walmart; AI generated fangames with no respect for the original work; gimmick accounts that post the same thinly veiled, outdated microaggressions on *some* modern aspect of the seires; valueless recycled discourse on Palworld/whatever type Luxray "should" be; or people shadowboxing "genwunners" despite having never even played those games— all that set us all back by a wide margin. I think it honestly sucks to go in with genuine sincerity on the internet with regard to nerd* hobbies, it is genuinely inescapable and I really wish more people would push against it or create spaces for that discussion to begin with. Like I said, I've thought about this for years so I'm always down to DM if you're interested in talking about this more LMAO