Pokémon Standards Initiative

[Arty2]

Greetings fellow Pokémon fans,

The Pokémon fandom is truly remarkable: loyal, evergreen, creative and vast. However, while the sheer size of the fandom has certainly positive effects on the quality of the information produced, it also results into cluttered, cut-off bits.

As common sense dictates, localized communities are not water-tight, meaning users roam around using different related programs and visit several websites / forums, often with equally active accounts on many of them. Not only they have to keep several instances of their online presence, they need to move their Pokémon data along, whether that is their team's information, "trade material" and whatnot.

It would be overly optimistic (at the moment at least) to think of a portable "Pokéfan" identity across fansites; it is however possible to break all the rest free.


tldr - My vision (in lack of a less pompous word) is that anyone will be one day able to Copy a line of text and Paste it in their favourite application, forum, website and let the software format, translate and display it, never to worry about having to input their information over and over again.

In case I confused you already, let me illustrate using an example. This is the output of three popular IV calculation tools. You'll notice that every each one uses a different format. Go around in a couple of forums and you'll notice that every other post has a format of its own:

Shuckle (Relaxed)
HP : 15 - 19
Atk: 20
Def: 15 - 19
SAt: 20
SDf: 20
Spd: 15, 20
--AVG: 17.6667

#213 Shuckle [Relaxed]
IVs: 15, 17, 19 / 20 / 15, 17, 19 / 20 / 20 / 20
Stats at Lv.20: 41|0 / 13|0 / 110|0 / 13|0 / 101|0 / 9|0

Shuckle - #213 (Relaxed)
HP: 15 - 19
Att: 20
Def: 15 - 19
SpA: 20 - 24
SpD: 20 - 24
Speed: 20

A Pokémon data structure is merely a graspable example; such a set of rules / standards could facilitate anything related to information exchange within the community, for the benefit of the end user, that is... us.


Like any other fandom, we occasionally quarrel, become fanboys and flame each other, often forgetting how we all enjoy playing the same games. This can be one of those different, rare cases of collaboration beyond personal grudges and language barriers that can easily yield efficient and palpable benefits for years to come.

yet another Pokémon fan​

Pokémon Standards Initiative

Who does this interest?

Those within the Pokémon fandom that:

• manage websites
• program related tools
• use those tools
• write guides and FAQs
• battle competitively
• keep trade shops
• are active community members
• die-hard fans

If you're reading this, you most likely already belong to at least one of those groups.


What is this about?

As the name suggest, an initiative, about collectively defining and implementing a set of data format and representation standards across the fandom that should be readable by both humans and machines. Such standards should be easy to follow, degradable, extendable. Some applications include but are not limited to: Pokémon data representation, team sheets, event information, TCG card representation etc.
Once accepted, these standards will allow for simple and effective data exchange across websites and applications beyond language and format barriers.

Why should I care?

You really should care if you:

• happen to input the same information across multiple applications
• want this information to be chainball-free and re-usable
• have to manage a lot of Pokémon
• tediously style your trade shop
• need to keep track of event Pokémon
• move your team across battle simulators
• want to easily share your strategies
• are interested in the future Pokémon fandom
• …

How will it happen?

The infrastructure is already set; perfectly decentralized yet solid: forums, wikis, chatrooms, blogs, you name it! Thankfully localized communities are not water-tight and people usually participate in multiple talk spaces.
You can start a related discussion in your favourite forum, translate it perhaps, brainstorm, get more fellow fans involved and hopefully the idea will spread on its own.
Once the brainstorming has matured, the tech savvy fans can proceed and define the standards and adapt their software or websites. The means are plenty: plain text one-liners, XML, JSON, microformats and the list goes on.


signed by
add your name here

 

[Zekurom]

It seems like a good standard to have. Kind of like a Dragoncode for Pokemon then?

Oh, no, you're talking about a whole set of standards.

It's not completely out of the question, but I think you'd be hard pressed to get everyone to comply to the standard.

 

[Sandslash-Master]

You have quite the vision there. Though it would be wonderful to have a standard format for everything, I'm afraid it just wouldn't work out. There are far too many fans out there over the internet to get involved, and I don't think this important enough to make a global standard. Sorry, but it won't stick.

 

[Arty2]

True, there are too many fans out there, but it really takes only a few dozen to form a working group and just a handful to actually implement it, the rest would follow either way.

 

[The Outrage]

True, there are too many fans out there, but it really takes only a few dozen to form a working group and just a handful to actually implement it, the rest would follow either way.

It was fairly hard to get people at Sppf to conform to the same standard when it came to posting movesets in their RMT, and Sppf is a large community.

Though if you can get major websites to conform to the standards, the rest would follow.

 

[Arty2]

What I'm trying to do, is just initiate a talk on the matter and the rest will hopefully find their way. It has to be a co-tailored set of standards, not something to be forced upon.

Having Joe's personal vote on this, rest assured that even SPPf can turn.

 

[decent doofus]

I didn't know that there was a post about this on Bulbagarden, but I read the corresponding post on Legendary Pokémon and sent an email asking some questions. Arty2 kindly answered many of them and asked me to repost the conversation on BMG.

———

On Fri, Sep 3, 2010, <XXX@XXX> wrote:

I support this initiative, but, should it be published, please use my initials.

I have some questions. Well, a lot of questions. First, could you be more precise with the goals of the initiative? When you say that you want to "one day [be] able to Copy a line of text and Paste it in their favourite application, forum, website and let the software format, translate and display it," what do you mean by "line of text"? A representation of a Pokémon?

If so, do you have in mind creating a data language for Pokémon? What *incentive* would an administrator of a community have to implement the initiative's prescriptions? What incentive would a member of a forum, etc. have to use the language?

If you want to make the data language pan-language-accessible, then in what language should its syntax be? Should language agnosticism be a priority? Should the data language be human-readable or as compact as possible? How are moves represented, with or without Japanese/English/etc. names? Formes too.

Good luck! I look forward to…well, I'm not sure yet, but I'd love to keep in touch anyway.

———

Hello JSC,

Thank you for your support.:] So, let me try and answer:

A standards system could include much more that a representation of a
Pokemon, but indeed it has to start with something, preferably
something graspable.
This is just yet another example, but it could be something like this:
"PSI::Shuckle::213,20,41,13,110,13,101,9,0,0,0,0,0,0,23,5.0,1,-1,5.4.3.1,1"
Code wise, in my humble opinion, the code should be both compact and
human identifiable (if not readable). In the example above, the
nickname would help the user understand which is what but the
species/form is located in the numeric values. Admittedly one would
have to use some application to create this code, but that could be as
easy as an online form, plus any piece of software that allows user
input, could and should export a "pokecode" as well.
Consider it as a .txt file which you can open with Notepad, Word,
Writer and whatnot. You still have to use software to make it, but
it's portable and non-proprietary.

Having such a standard would work like a universal human/machine
language. Fore example, a japanese player could paste his "pokecode"
in an english forum and have it automatically translated, or load the
same "pokecode" in several tools (stat calculators, team builders,
emulators).
A "PSI-enabled" community, would have the benefit to welcome a broader
audience, by making the transition in an easier way. Another example:
that same japanese player, could participate in a tournament in this
english-speaking forum, simply by pasting his "trainer-credentials",
"teamcode" and using a standardized sign language for arraning the
battles. This community could merge their tournament records with
another community, effectively joining their efforts. Or they could
even form some sorts of a fan-side GTS by exchanging this very data
with many other communities.


Would it be okay for you to re-post this conversation in the forum (I
presume BMG?) you saw it?
I believe you pose some key questions that others may want answered too :]


Arty2


⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒
★ Your friends from “Legendary Pokémon” ★

———


I would like to voice my further opinion here, though, that the sample of the data language he gives below is a tad fragile. It's subject to breaking whenever Game Freak adds or removes another stat. At the very least, the Generation of the Pokémon should be noted.

 

[Arty2]

I hope linking to other forums isn't against the rules or anything so here goes:

Sister thread on Smogon

This "project" now has a proper home: http://www.uepc.eu/viewforum.php?f=508