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Bulbapedia Suggestions, ideas, and problems

Sorry if this has been mentioned before, but I was really surprised not to see a 'Counterparts' article to highlight Pokemon counterparts, like Magmar/Electabuzz, Pinsir/Scyther, Ho-oh/Lugia and countless others. I think it would be a good addition to the wiki.
We have [bp=User:Lugia/Pokémon counterparts]two[/bp] [bp=User:Gallevoir/Pokémon Counterparts]drafts[/bp] in the userspace, but the main reason that we don't currently have a mainspace article is because they are largely speculative. Some version-exclusives are obvious, but then you get really borderline ones like Kecleon/Bagon (Diamond/Pearl exclusives). Lugia and Ho-Oh already are listed as being part of the same [bp]legendary duo[/bp] though.
 
Happiness - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

This has been brought up in the article's talk page but nothing came of it, so I'll ask it here: Why is the article called happiness? Everything that measures it (past the haircut brothers) refers to friendship more than happiness. There's even references to trust (one directly saying it; another implying you need to gain their trust) with Happiness raters, which suggests the references to happiness and trust collapse on the broader concept of friendship. The Pokétch app measuring this value is also known as the Friendship Checker and not Happiness Checker. Dr. Footstep, another person who measures happiness by giving a commentary on the Pokemon's thoughts references the building of a relationship in his dialogue more than happiness. Then there's also the commentary in GSC about treating your Pokemon as friends rather than simple tools for battling, reflected by Silver and his Crobat. Taken together, all of these examples seem to show a confound between using the term happiness with the term friendship. While happiness is one component, I think what is being more accurately measured is friendship given the themes in the games and the dialogue of happiness raters.

Given that this mechanism was introduced in Yellow, which was to follow the Animé's progression, and one of those things adapted was the development of friendship between Ash and Pikachu (Pikachu seemed perfectly happy making Ash miserable in the first episode), I think the article would be better represented with the name Friendship.

Logically, it doesn't even make sense why Pokemon species would have a default value of being less happy, but it does make sense to have a value measuring how easily one can befriend a member of a species reflected by the different base happiness values.
 
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Since the App's called the Friendship Checker, Pokédex 3D say Woobat and Swadloon evolve with high Friendship and the Checker in BW checks how "Friendly" the player's Pokémon are, I've moved the page.

I would like to know though, was it actually called happiness in the earlier games?
 
I'm against the move, myself.

Frankly, the term "happiness" makes more sense to me. If I was a Pokemon being very well cared for by a trainer, I would be happy. If I was a Pokemon who was constantly allowed to faint and always being fed bitter tasting herbs, and otherwise being treated poorly, I would be unhappy.

Also, the majority of Pokemon fans refer to the rating as "happiness", and still do. Even when the shiny TCG cards were being called "Shining Pokemon" or "Star Pokemon", fans still used the term "shiny" until it officially became used in BW. Same with the term "eeveelution" before it too became official. Generally, I find that popular fan terms outweigh most other terms. Also, as stated before, "friendship" and "trust" has been used interchangeably. There doesn't seem to be a single official term yet, with the obvious exception of "Friendship Checker", but I still don't think that's enough.

I personally think it should be moved back.
 
Yes but, what I am trying to say, is there even truly an official term for "happiness/friendship/trust"?

When was the last time "friendship/trust" has been used before? Gen IV? If possible, I think it would be helpful if TPC or Nintendo of America could be contacted to see what the official term is, although that may be asking too much.
 
@Isamu Akai; @Werdnae;
The idea was seems adapted into Yellow from Ash and Pikachu's forming a bond of friendship, and there was no official reference to happiness either. It was referenced more as friendship by the original friendship rater, with terms like "happy" and "trust" being used as a descriptor. Seeming happy after a hair cut is just that, you got a nice hair cut, and as such, feel happy. However, actual ratings of the value seem to reference friendship more.

http://www.psypokes.com/gsc/happiness.php

This gives the happiness quotes of the first raters. If you look at each word in isolation, you see happiness mentioned more but it does not explain why the concept is not mentioned in all phrases. However, looking at the context as a whole, all the sentences describe the evolution of a relationship from stranger to friend. At it's highest value, happiness is only incidental to the closing phrase "It must love you a lot!", which is the polar opposite of the phrase for the lowest value "It doesn't seem to like you at all. It looks mean." Note how this final sentence says it looks mean, an emotion, despite its opposite valence, is on a completely different dimension than happiness (one can simultaneously be mean and happy). The following terms demonstrate how this relationship unfolds. It goes from "not liking" to not being used to the trainer, to trusting, and in the end, loving. The concept of happiness does not go through this evolution across terminology. Though, I do wonder what being cute has to do with anything than being uninformative midpoint (in terms of the midpoint value being located within this phrasing).

So yeah, as far as I am concerned, its always been a friendship value confounded with the term happiness. You can say the term happiness makes more sense based on some anecdote, but when you look at the actual terminology used across multiple raters, the concept measured is the relationship between humans and Pokemon (or in simpler terms, the friendship between them). Really, when you look at the major theme in the franchise (i.e., friendship) one begins to wonder why the term happiness persisted for so long other than nobody raising the point earlier.

EDIT:

Apologies for the awful, awful commentary but: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=uoo4XY2824Q#t=434s

"You should just keep it with you. That should make it happy! You can talk to it and see how it feels about you."

So happiness was mentioned once, but this was in reference to keeping Pikachu outside of its Pokéball. The last sentence however, is the one of interest as it directly refers to the act of checking Pikachu's "happiness". It didn't say that you should talk to it to see how happy it is, but instead, to see how it feels about the PC. This last part is exactly what all the Friendship Raters and Dr. Footsteps do, examine how the Pokemon feel about their trainer.
 
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In addition to that above, I noticed while I was changing the links that Pokemon Pikachu 2 had it as [noparse][[happiness|friendship]][/noparse], suggesting that the term actually used in that is "friendship". Meaning that it would be the official term as far back as generation II.

Certainly, as I was changing the links, most of them actually made more sense as friendship than happiness. Iris and Drayden, when acting as move tutors teaching Draco Meteor both refer to it as friendship. The rater in Icirrus City will tell you "How friendly it is". Add Pokedex 3D's evolution information ("Level up with high friendship"), and it's clear that in Generation V it's absolutely friendship.

When I initially moved it, I was thinking that this was the new official term, and that they had maybe used happiness before (We use the most recent official names. See: Bell Tower/Tin Tower.) But the more links I changed, the more I started to realise that happiness was never an official term, and simply a fan-made term and that while official uses often avoided using a specific term, when they did use one it was always friendship.

That said, "Happiness" still redirects to the article. The intro of the article mentions that it is often referred to by fans as "happiness". Official terms have priority over even near-universal fan terms, but fan terms this popular must be noted like this one is.
 
All the Prima guidebooks I have use "Friendship", and mention increasing the bond with your Pokémon. There are also the descriptions for the [bp]Soothe Bell[/bp], [bp]Luxury Ball[/bp] and [bp]Friend Ball[/bp], as well as Return and Frustration, that all mention friendship or being friendly.
 
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Alright, I now see that 'friendship' has been used quite a few times by now. That said, I don't mind the move too much now.
 
Are there any glitches for FireRed and LeafGreen? I havnt seen a Bulbpeadia page on those games yet - making a glitch page on this topic would be interesting.

Also running a tournament page where the winner gets a rare pokemon, or a page where people can put their FC's up and request battles
 
Are there any glitches for FireRed and LeafGreen? I havnt seen a Bulbpeadia page on those games yet - making a glitch page on this topic would be interesting.

Also running a tournament page where the winner gets a rare pokemon, or a page where people can put their FC's up and request battles

There are some glitches for FRLG, though they're mainly ones that only happen by using cheating devices. And Bulbapedia does have a page. It would have helped if you had looked first before asking... List of glitches in Generation III - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

In regards to the tournament idea, I'd rather not. Bulbapedia is an encyclopedia, not a tournament host...
 
Are there any glitches for FireRed and LeafGreen? I havnt seen a Bulbpeadia page on those games yet - making a glitch page on this topic would be interesting.
As Isamu Akai mentioned, [bp]List of glitches in Generation III[/bp] has all of the glitches in FireRed and LeafGreen listed.

Also running a tournament page where the winner gets a rare pokemon, or a page where people can put their FC's up and request battles
That is the purpose of the forums (so what you're using right now). For requesting battles, see the Bulbagarden Battle Center. That is also where tournaments are run from. However, I don't believe there are often prizes of rare Pokémon.
 
I'm not quite so sure, but according to Serebii & Psypokes, I think that the Safari Zone Blocks in HGSS has a maximum of x7 levels instead of just x4 or quadruple. Though I'm aware that the HGSS Safari Zone Page is still incomplete, but that's one of my suggestions.

I'm also a bit confused about Serebii or Psypokes' results on the Safari encounters. For example, it says in Bulbapedia that Murkrow will be found if you have at least 5 Forest Block values, at the Swamp area...
But in Serebii (here), it says either Krabby or Hypno, but I can't find Murkrow.
Hmm, is Serebii also unfinished too?
Or maybe one of them is only found on Day or Night?
 
I'm not quite so sure, but according to Serebii & Psypokes, I think that the Safari Zone Blocks in HGSS has a maximum of x7 levels instead of just x4 or quadruple. Though I'm aware that the HGSS Safari Zone Page is still incomplete, but that's one of my suggestions.

I'm also a bit confused about Serebii or Psypokes' results on the Safari encounters. For example, it says in Bulbapedia that Murkrow will be found if you have at least 5 Forest Block values, at the Swamp area...
But in Serebii (here), it says either Krabby or Hypno, but I can't find Murkrow.
Hmm, is Serebii also unfinished too?
Or maybe one of them is only found on Day or Night?
According to our page, Murkrow is not found at night. I just checked in my SS, and Murkrow is there in the morning.

I was also able to find Bagon with just five forest blocks and eight plains blocks, meaning that you're right - the upgrades do go up to at least x7.
 
Perhaps this really isn't the best place to ask, but I've noticed these sprite rips at a sprite ripping site from some sort of Pokemon game for the DS. But I cannot tell if it's some sort of official game or a hack... If it were official, I guess I would have expected to see an article on the wiki by now. But still, I wonder.

I can't post a link to the site with the sprites ripped, since that would be against forum rules, but it's something that's being called "Pokemon Card Game Asobikata DS". Can anyone confirm just what this thing is? And if it is official, does Bulbapedia actually have something on it?
 
Ah, guess I wasn't able to locate it because there was no redirects... Would anyone mind if I made a redirect using the title I mentioned?
 
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