The good thing is it doesn't need to be. It's successful and popular anyway even without that kind of accolade (legitimate or "staged"). People's enjoyment of the game isn't dependent on whether it's GOTY award show fodder or even just possessing all the alleged qualities that make a game a GOTY candidate.
It's fun to play right now and is filling a niche people didn't even realize was up for grabs. Any improvements over what it is today will just be icing on the cake. And I think we all know there's no way the mainstream game awards will give this game so much as a nod. They're bought and paid for by the AAA publishers. They wouldn't even nominate it to snub it.
Oh indeed. I was more referring to the *quality* of the game itself, rather than some arbitrary accolade from some whogivesafuck irrelevancy from the past century.
But again, in order to remain relevant long term and not join its countless brethren in irrelevancy due to the aforementioned issues mentioned by the likes of
macrodegenerate,
Glowie,
greasyArchivist, and so on, PocketPair needs to put their big boy pants on and get to work. I like Palworld as is, but it can become so much greater still if given the attention it needs to thrive. Not to dethrone Pokemon persay, but to become its own thing independent of Pokemon, and with any luck, perhaps given birth to a new renaissance of copycats and iterations on what Palworld is doing like the predecessors that came before it.
Whether Gamefreak and by extension Nintendo take this seriously or not in their games going forward remains to be seen. It might be the kick in the ass they need to get serious for once and buckle their fuckle for their next series of games. But more likely, they'll continue to stagnant as per usual and do whatever it is they do to maintain the status quo. So that leaves like like of Pocketpair to pick up that torch and do something with the monster collection genre, along with the relatively less successful iterations of the likes of Cassette Beasts, Nekomon, TemTem, and so forth to try and take more of that pie from Pokemon.
-
On a side note, any thoughts for what form of "evolution" will take with Palworld, assuming it is actually included?
I am personally hoping that they will deviate from the bog standard set with Pokemon, and go with something a little different. I've been thinking on the topic on and off, and I think temporary form shifts ala some special/key items that allow a monster to change their form into something different will be nice, something that can be toggled on and off at will in a manner not to disimilar to Digimon. Maybe as a side grade.
Or if we're going the strict upgrade route, something like gathering special items to upgrade your pals.
I know we already have that in a sense in the form of the condenser, and we have seen something akin to that in the past trailers where two mons were merged to create a brand new one, but I wouldn't mind something a bit tweaked and original for the purpose.
Speaking of which, I hope they give us less "cruel" ways to upgrade your buds in the future. Perhaps something that takes longer, but is no less rewarding in its own way. Right now my character could be considered a murder hobo that outstrips the evilness of any of the four factions within the game, swooping down on the regular with his beakton and slaughtering both the native fauna and humans like to feed his insatiable appetite to grow more powerful. I have nothing wrong with what it is right now, but I'd like more options on the table, and hopefully that'll come in the form of mods or future updates to come.
Call me a sissy, but it'd be nice to roleplay a bit more with your buds and iterate on that in the future. God knows since the last time I played in Black & White, Pokemon appears to iterate precious little on the matter, nevermind the other stuff I take issue with in the forms of their newer designs for mons, evolutionary concepts, and so forth.
Given time, I think Palworld could capitalize on this if they pull it off. Of what form that takes that would be best optimal for the game, I am still thinking on that. But what they have right now has laid a nice foundation to expand upon it, assuming they solve their other issues such as with base building, and the other glitches.
