mungus

You need four badges to use matchmaking. Anyway, my comments apply to the beginning of the game and the Challenge command, not matchmaking.

I just started the game. I've beaten Brock and started heading to Cerulean City. My first impression is that the game is excellent and seems like a lot of fun, but the PvP elements are not motivating enough. The main problem is that you get no XP or ¥ from using the Challenge command in the wild. (I obviously haven't tried matchmaking yet.) So why would you do challenges at all, except to flex on other players? It's also tedious to issue challenges. You have to click a player and select Challenge, then hope they're interested. Even if they are interested, they might get into a random battle by mistake. So you need to issue 5 or 10 challenges before you get to start a fight. That's a lot of work for something that doesn't even provide a reward! Here are my suggestions: Challenge Mode: You can click on yourself and select Challenge Mode. This puts a "!!" symbol above your head and causes you to automatically accept the first challenge you receive. This will make it easier to find players who want to battle. Challenge rewards: Challenge battles should provide XP and ¥. If this is unacceptable for some reason, perhaps the winner could receive items like Nugget or Rare Candy instead. (I don't think balance should be a concern here, because these rewards will just help you complete the PvE campaign faster. They won't affect PvP battles, which are level-adjusted anyway.) Challenge restrictions: If challenge battles don't provide XP and ¥ because of balance concerns, I suggest using some kind of restriction. For example, the XP and ¥ you receive is capped at (1000 x your number of badges) every 24 hours. This lets players receive rewards for Challenging occasionally, but prevents them from powerleveling with their friends. Also, perhaps, you should not be able to challenge the same player twice in 24 hours. Basically, I think it should be slightly easier to Challenge players in the local area, and you should receive some sort of reward for doing so. The Challenge fights are really fun and interesting, but they should provide a little more motivation!