Hax: A Counter Argument to Complaints about Random Elements in Pokémon
by trachy
“Hax”
You’re probably all familiar with that moment in Pokémon where you crit an opponent at a fairly key time. The foe calls hax, and then more oft than not, will rage quit. But is hax as big a factor as people make it out to be? I’ve long held the belief that while random elements such as freeze and critical hit rate are important elements to consider in a battle, that they don’t actually swing the direction of a battle in the opposite direction.
“Roots of Hax”
Probability and random elements are key parts of the RPG genre which Pokémon belongs to. Go as far back as you can, and you’ll see even in the board games that inspired many of the video games we play today that probability was a key factor, as these games often used dice. And it is still an important element of the genre, as things like proc chances, critical hits, and misses can be found in almost every RPG.
Now the question of why probability is included as an element in these games is still a good question. One of the main reasons is that it allows for greater replayability. If a game were to lack in random elements, things would play out a lot more formulaically, and while there would be differences in battles based on player choice, they would still have far more similarities to them than they do as of now. Think of Chess, which has an absence of chance. Chess games tend to more or less play out in similar (although not perfectly identical) fashions each time the game is played. To a lot of people, this tends to mean that the game becomes stale far more quickly. With probability being a factor, the games play out in vastly different ways each and every time.
Another reason for the inclusion of random elements in RPGs is that it introduces the idea of risk/reward. What this means is that a person decides to take a chance by doing a certain action. That action has a probability of failure that will either cause their action to be less effective than they wanted it to be, or possibly even have no effect at all. However, they take this action with the knowledge that the payoffs of success will be significant. It actually takes a large amount of skill in order to make full use of risk/reward, as it requires a significant knowledge of the mechanics of the game, an understanding of how things will play out if you fail and how things will play out if you succeed, familiarity with statistics, and sheer gumption. As an example of this, look to the game FTL. In FTL, you can either explore the surrounding area, or go straight to the jump to the next level. By exploring, you risk death from enemies, as well as events that you might not have the crew or upgrades for. However, by taking the risk of exploring, you can find equipment, gain more crew, and increase your stockpiles. Games of FTL are won and lost depending on how players balance exploration with running for their life. So too does Pokémon use the idea of risk/reward.
“Dealing With Hax”
When people are complaining about hax, what they are really complaining about is that an event that is out of their control had a negative effect on them in the battle. But is hax really out of their control?
Let’s look at Freeze. Freeze is held by most people to be the most powerful status effect, which is why Game Freak has yet to release a Freeze equivalent to moves like Sing or Thunder Wave. It basically shuts your Pokémon down. But Freeze is far from unstoppable, and it is actually quite easily preventable and curable. While this was a much bigger deal back in Gen V, thanks to the fact that weather changing abilities were more or less permanent, it is still notable that it is impossible for freeze to happen in Sunny weather. This means that a Sun team will rarely be impacted by freeze. Sun isn’t alone in weather that can handle freeze. Rain has Manaphy to easily switch in on Ice Beam and other Ice type attacks, and since it has Hydration as an ability, it can easily remove the freeze. Holding a Lum Berry will cure the freeze, and since Lum Berry is a decent item on some Pokémon, this can generally be helpful in dealing with Pokémon using Ice Beam. You can also use clerics with Heal Bell or Aromatherapy (i.e. Blissey) in order to cure the frozen Pokémon. Speaking of Blissey, the Natural Cure ability which it and other Pokémon have also is able to easily deal with Freeze. Also of note is that any Pokémon using Flare Blitz or Scald (both fairly common moves among Pokémon that resist Ice) will thaw themselves from the freeze. So before you complain about being frozen, think of all the ways in which you could have stopped the situation from happening.
Some things are harder to deal with freeze though, such as critical hits. Critical hits are going to happen in your battle. Games that go on for an average amount of turns have a pretty high probability of having critical hits. Such a high probability. So high that you need to prepare for them. If your team had a weakness to Scizor back in Gen V, would that have been okay? No. Well, crits are even more likely to show up than Scizor, about 100% more likely. Always take into account the risk of a crit, and make good switches and make the right move choices. Resistances and healing will be enough to recover from a crit and keep you in the game.
“Skill”
Hax is something that has more of an impact at the lower skill levels. This is because the players don’t have the knowledge of the game mechanics needed in order to play around the random chances of things. The higher up in skill levels you go, the less of an impact hax will have on deciding the winner of a game, and more probability is tossed in as a part of strong plays. I’ve always held the belief that a competitive game should be balanced around the higher skill levels, as balancing a game around the lower skill levels is fairly silly, as it panders to the people who don’t spend time with the game rather than rewarding the people who put effort into getting good.
Also, stop using the whole “hax is a big factor when the battle is between two equally skilled players.” That is a seriously flawed argument because there is no practicality behind it. There is no such thing as equally skilled players. Players may be very close to each other in terms of skill, but one person will always have a bit more skill than the other and one will always have a bit less skill. It’s also important to note that the teams themselves are never equal, and that one team will always have an innate advantage over the other team, no matter how slight that advantage may be.
“Conclusion”
Hopefully this little article has given you a new perspective on how to view hax and probability in Pokémon. And hopefully it will help you become a better player overall. Stop focusing on what your opponent did to you and start focusing on what mistakes you made, and you’ll start to improve as a player.
Good luck, have fun. :D
