does this work?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon (More info?)

This was in the latest Nintendo newsletter:

New to the catch-'em-all rage? Having trouble catching that elusive wild
Pokémon? Then try this trick, pardner. 1. Throw a ball at the Pokémon. Any
ball will work, but a more powerful one improves your odds. 2. The instant
the ball explodes, press and hold the B Button. 3. Release B when the ball
wobbles a second time. This trick isn't foolproof, but it dramatically
increases your odds of a successful capture. You don't need to weaken a
Pokémon beforehand, but some Pokémon, such as Mewtwo and Zapdos, need to
first be put to sleep.


--
John Salerno

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon (More info?)

John Salerno wrote:
> This was in the latest Nintendo newsletter:
>
> New to the catch-'em-all rage? Having trouble catching that elusive wild
> Pokémon? Then try this trick, pardner. 1. Throw a ball at the Pokémon. Any
> ball will work, but a more powerful one improves your odds. 2. The instant
> the ball explodes, press and hold the B Button. 3. Release B when the ball
> wobbles a second time. This trick isn't foolproof, but it dramatically
> increases your odds of a successful capture. You don't need to weaken a
> Pokémon beforehand, but some Pokémon, such as Mewtwo and Zapdos, need to
> first be put to sleep.
>
I just read that newsletter myself. This "cheat" has been around since
the chromatic generation, when it said it guaranteed capture. It's
validity depended on it requiring such exact timing that it couldn't be
disproven. I imagine that it still does, even if "dramatically
increasing your odds" is hardly what I'd call a cheat.

--

Chet "Tech" Weaver

AIM: PanGatomon
MSN: Nichirasu@hotmail.com
eMail: zeroohki at netscape dot net
Yahoo! Messenger: tech_weaver
ICQ: 122744531
Webcomic: http://desperadocoyote.keenspace.com

My Adventure Quest character:
http://www.battleon.com/aq-chardetail.asp?temp=131213
You can play Adventure Quest at http://www.battleon.com

Sometimes, I notice someone has posted a reply to one of my messages and
I think, "Oh, great, what did I say this time?"

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon (More info?)

Chet Weaver - Chicks Dig Giant Robots wrote:
> John Salerno wrote:
>> This was in the latest Nintendo newsletter:
>>
>> New to the catch-'em-all rage? Having trouble catching that elusive
>> wild Pokémon? Then try this trick, pardner. 1. Throw a ball at the
>> Pokémon. Any ball will work, but a more powerful one improves your
>> odds. 2. The instant the ball explodes, press and hold the B Button.
>> 3. Release B when the ball wobbles a second time. This trick isn't
>> foolproof, but it dramatically increases your odds of a successful
>> capture. You don't need to weaken a Pokémon beforehand, but some
>> Pokémon, such as Mewtwo and Zapdos, need to first be put to sleep.
>>
> I just read that newsletter myself. This "cheat" has been around
> since the chromatic generation, when it said it guaranteed capture. It's
> validity depended on it requiring such exact timing that it
> couldn't be disproven. I imagine that it still does, even if
> "dramatically increasing your odds" is hardly what I'd call a cheat.

Yeah, I seem to remember something like this a while back, but even then
people seemed to think it wasn't valid.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon (More info?)

"John Salerno" <johnjsal@NOSPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message
news:414b7dd0$0$2655$61fed72c@news.rcn.com...
> This was in the latest Nintendo newsletter:
>
> New to the catch-'em-all rage? Having trouble catching that elusive wild
> Pokémon? Then try this trick, pardner. 1. Throw a ball at the Pokémon. Any
> ball will work, but a more powerful one improves your odds. 2. The instant
> the ball explodes, press and hold the B Button. 3. Release B when the ball
> wobbles a second time. This trick isn't foolproof, but it dramatically
> increases your odds of a successful capture.

Short answer:

It's not true.

Long answer:

It's psychological. Capturing Pokémon - especially rare Pokémon - can be a
stressful experience, and if that stress goes unrelieved, you will grow
frustrated with the game and give up. I haven't played Ruby in a month
since I couldn't catch Groudon, for instance. One thing you can do, short
of carrying a Pikachu beanie everywhere to squeeze, is press down a button
really hard. This will alleviate the stress and keep you playing for
longer. If you eventually catch the Pokémon, you'dbe excused for thinking
that pressing B actually had something to do with it.

In summary, seeing as "not giving up" dramatically increases your odds of
success, then as long as the B button encourages this, the ""cheat"" is
true.

--
Steffan

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon (More info?)

"Steffan Alun" <sha3@aber.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:cigvpr$nne$1@titan.btinternet.com...
> "John Salerno" <johnjsal@NOSPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:414b7dd0$0$2655$61fed72c@news.rcn.com...
>> This was in the latest Nintendo newsletter:
>>
>> New to the catch-'em-all rage? Having trouble catching that elusive wild
>> Pokémon? Then try this trick, pardner. 1. Throw a ball at the Pokémon.
>> Any ball will work, but a more powerful one improves your odds. 2. The
>> instant the ball explodes, press and hold the B Button. 3. Release B when
>> the ball wobbles a second time. This trick isn't foolproof, but it
>> dramatically increases your odds of a successful capture.
>
> Short answer:
>
> It's not true.

Hang on a second!

Just remembered something.

There's been a certain degree of research into the effect of pressing
buttons and timing things on games. "Random" events are never truly random,
but depend on something that's PRACTICALLY random. For instance, randomly
generated quotes on websites might depend on how many seconds after the
minute it is on your PC's clock, and so on.

What this means is that there is a lot of evidence to support the idea that
a certain combination of button-pressing and split-second timing will, for
instance, trigger the appearance of a shiny Pokémon, or a rare Pokémon, or a
Pokémon on max stats.

This would also be true of the chances of catching a Pokémon when you throw
a ball. As Tech said, though, this would require such split-second timing
and such a deep knowledge of the game that the improved odds aren't really
worth it.

--
Steffan