The Pokémon Players Who Want To Save Christmas

The Pokémon Players Who Want To Save Christmas

Pokémon players around the world are coming together in the name of holidays next week. The plan? To brighten up the day of any kid that is playing Pokémon for the first time, after receiving any of the new games as Christmas presents.

First, some context. New Pokémon games, like X & Y or Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire have a cool feature called “Wonder Trade.” Wonder Trade lets players put up a Pokémon of their choice up for trade, and in exchange, the player gets something random from whoever is also Wonder Trading in that moment. The shtick is novelty: you never know what you’re going to get in Wonder Trade. While that uncertainty is part of what makes Wonder Trade so great, it also means you’re always in danger of getting something crappy in return for the Pokémon you put up for trade.

In the past, people in the Pokémon community have come together to organise events where they only trade certain Pokémon in the hopes of making Wonder Trade more fun, or to try to turn the tide of awful Wonder Trade Pokemon that nobody wants.

There was “Operation Zubat Storm”, where people unleashed a bunch of Zubats onto Wonder Trade, the joke being a callback to how annoying Zubats are in the actual games:

The Pokémon Players Who Want To Save Christmas

A different initiative tasked Pokémon Players with flooding Wonder Trade with starters on a specific day:

The Pokémon Players Who Want To Save Christmas

This year, there’s a holiday event that people are calling “Wonder Trade Christmas.”

The Pokémon Players Who Want To Save Christmas

The idea is simple. Many kids are undoubtedly going to get a new Pokémon game for Christmas. So why not make sure that on Christmas day, the Pokémon on Wonder Trade are mostly awesome? It’s an effort that hopes to minimize the number of basic Pokemon on the Wonder Trade service, like Bidoof, Zigzagoon, Wurmples and Ralts.

In response, people around the web are trying to prepare by picking certain Pokémon, or breeding special monsters to give away in bulk on Christmas. On sites like Tumblr, people are reminding each other to observe Wonder Trade Christmas if they can. Some people are debating what to give out on Wonder Trade, if not actively asking the community for suggestions and ideas.

Some people are running with Pokémon lore. Did you know that in the Pokémon universe, not only is Santa Claus real, he is also a Pokémon trainer? One of Santa’s chosen monsters is Delibird, a Pokémon that, according to Bulbapedia, has a signature move called “Present” that allows it to “carry special items in its tail that may cause damage or heal its opponent.”

The Pokémon community has taken Delibird’s story to heart:

Last year, the Pokémon Wonder Trade Christmas event was called Delibird Christmas, and players encouraged each other to Wonder Trade Delibirds. This year, the event isn’t themed around Delibird, but some players, like oldschoolvinny, are still planning on keeping the festive spirit alive with massive giveaways of Delibirds holding expensive items like “nugget.”

The Pokémon Players Who Want To Save Christmas

Players like miyamorana are going the extra mile, and making sure that their Delibirds are named wintery, Christmassy names. And the more hardcore players, like Pokemon4ever, aren’t just putting up any Pokémon on Wonder Trade for Christmas. They’re making sure their uploads are competitively viable shinies. These are the sorts of Pokémon that are so rare, and difficult to obtain/train, that some players are going to be cloning their giveaway Pokémon using special methods. That is to say, these Christmas Pokemon won’t be obtained through normal means — they will be carbon copies of a different Pokémon, obtained through special means. While players feel conflicted about cloned Pokémon not being really “legit,” at least in this case the tampering of the game is being used for good.

If you’d like to participate in Wonder Trade Christmas, you totally should. Look into your boxes and single out cool Pokémon that you don’t want. Go out into the wild grass and capture special, rare Pokémon. Try your hand at breeding Pokémon with special moves and abilities. Give away some starters, or legendaries. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire have lots of legendaries! Name your Pokemon cool things, too. Give them items. Anything you can think of — be creative. Who knows. Maybe you might make some kid’s day.


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