Pokémon is a series that has gone strong since the late 1990s thanks to a brilliant marketing strategy of keeping it both appealing to kids and nostalgic at the same time. It's a series with a fanbase that ranges from children whose first experience with the series was the Eevee Let's Go and Pikachu Let's Go games, to adults in their thirties who played the original Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue games. No matter which you played first however, all trainers experience one equal struggle when it comes to raising Pokémon. This is summed up in three words, trade-to-evolve.
At some point, you as a new player looked up how to evolve that Haunter of yours only to cringe when you see the description on Bulbapedia say 'evolves into Gengar when traded.' You think, "how am I supposed to do that when I don't know anyone else with the game." or you're maybe too young to have your own card and your parents don't want to pay for Switch Online. Trading to get an evolution comes with a lot of complications, so why hasn't Game Freak considered altering it? Especially since they haven't made any new trade-to-evolve species since the XY games. How exactly does this benefit everyone?
We Hate Trading Anyway Because We Love Our Team
Let's go back to the early days of the series. There is a theory that the creators of the games originally implemented the trade-to-evolve feature to encourage exchanges among players. While this idea obviously had every positive intention in mind, the developers failed to realize something about human nature.
This is that, we as a species are greedy in the most practical way. People by nature don't want to give up something that holds a special attachment for them. If you trade a strong Electabuzz you raised with love and care for a level 100 shiny Dragonite, it's not going to feel the same because you didn't spend the time to raise it. In other words, there's no formed attachment quite like there is to your original Pokémon. Humans take pride in their work, and frankly offering away something you worked so hard to perfect feels like all your effort was useless.
Technology Is A Double Edged Sword
Living in a first-world culture of convenience makes it unintentionally hard for someone to imagine what life is like without high speed internet. There is a misconception of what the term developing countries means, and the definition is very broad. Much of the time though it can simply translate to a lack of convenience, specifically a lack of indulgence. People there can be happy and comfortable but live without things like having a twenty- four hour corner store five minutes away, chain restaurants everywhere, etc. Or as mentioned earlier, outdated internet. Basically, things that would make life easier but not necessarily better quality. It's about time for Nintendo to start taking into consideration the demographics of their fanbases in these places.
Gaming can be extremely complicated for those living in remote areas or whose country's inflated currency makes a Switch Online subscription difficult to afford. While Switch Online is another can of worms left best to be discussed as its own thing, all gamers should be able to have a chance to have the same playing quality regardless of where they live or what their internet is like. The developers at Game Freak need to understand that trade just isn't an option for everyone and as such it shouldn't hinder players from being able to train their favorite Pokémon.
Players Want A Challenge, But Not Inconvenience
Every player loves a tricky evolution algorithm. Except there's a big difference between that and pure inconvenience affecting gameplay. Take the Pokémon Tyrogue, who is the juvenile form of Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee. It evolves at level twenty into Hitmonchan if its attack is greater than its defense. If its stats are the reverse, it becomes Hitmonlee. But what happens if the attack and defense are equal?
Why you get the adorable Hitmontop. Introduced in generation two along with Tyrogue himself, Hitmontop has the best of both's evolutions strengths. It's the most ideal unit to go for out of all three, but getting him is difficult since it has to have equal parts attack and defense when it levels up. This is a very finicky task, but it's definitely worth doing if you wanted to truly maximize the power of the line. Not everyone has the patience to try to achieve this though, so having the option of evolving to the other two is fantastic. It's an example of how there's a challenge, but you aren't hindered in gameplay if you really want to raise that Pokémon.
Give The Fans Options
If all else, there should be a mechanic in game that allows someone to bypass the trading if they can't get access to it. For example, the evolution system Pokémon Go uses saving up certain amount of candies to unlock a new form. This even goes for the Pokémon in it who are normally trade-to-evolve. Players have the option to use either method for them. While it's probably because trading in Go was implemented as an update later after its release, having the choice is an example of how other future game mechanics should be.
The trade-to-evolve itself shouldn't be totally eliminated because there are plenty of people who use it to help out friends who need a Pokemon evolved and then trade back. The challenge for the developers should be just a matter of how to make the mechanic more user-friendly for gamers from all different situations and playing styles.