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(Image credit: The Pokemon Company)
One MMO player’s fun Pokemon Snap-style challenge has turned into more than four years of hunting down RuneScape and Old School RuneScape players who hold coveted, one-of-a-kind Pokemon usernames, all so they can say hello and log them in one of the most unique Pokedexes ever made.
This is about more than confirming these players exist, too. That would be boring. Instead, Zarmos will physically go say hello in-game for the Pokedex photo. Pokemon players have been found in both RuneScape and its Old School sibling, but Zarmos is the common denominator in the photos.
“Rare usernames in RuneScape are really cool to me because it’s a 23-year-old database, and unlike other MMOs, there’s only one of each name for the rest of time,” they say. “I thought it would be a fun challenge to see how many owners of these names I can meet in-game for a picture. It’s kind of like playing Pokemon Snap. I added every Pokemon name across two of my accounts and played the game normally. If they went online I’ll say hi.”
“Naturally, the first 1-200 are relatively easy as they are active players with their private chat on,” they continue. “I can just [message] them. As time went on though, they got increasingly rarer. I will often catch people logging on RuneScape for the first time in one, four, and even 10 years. I have also become connected to the name market which still remains a source of new names. Nowadays there will be a new one once every three or four weeks at best.”
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The white whale for Zarmos is one day meeting a player named after their personal favorite Pokemon, Chimecho. I was pleased to find that they’ve already found my favorite Pokemon, Lapras, number 131. But their most memorable encounter so far has been – and please hold back your memes – Vaporeon.
“My friend Neil is a very OG player, and he used to know a lot of these people,” Zarmos says. “Out of the blue he remembered that an admin of Pokémon Planet, a ROMhack [now calledPokeNexus], owned [the username] Vaporeon. He was very difficult to reach though, I couldn’t message him on any platform.”
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
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Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
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1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
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4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
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Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
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1
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Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
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3Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”
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Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”
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4Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
4
Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
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5Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”
5
Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”