Thief said:
... I just think that playing with your Pokémon is something more personal than any other feature we've ever had. I feel like a goal for them should be to strive for a universe like that of the anime. Not exactly, but just in how trainers interact with they're Pokémon. They are pets/partners/friends, so it makes sense that they would include an Nintendogs esq type mini game. Now whether or not it will continue to have added effects could change. Like maybe if they kept it, in the future it just wouldn't boost anything but maybe happiness alone (because that makes most sense) and would end up being called something else or just a place to go to play with your Pokémon; expanding interaction possibilities with your Pokémon. Maybe train them for battles or contests, like trainers are normally seen doing in the anime by themselves.
Of course, we all loved having our Pokémon follow us in HG/SS and they didn't keep that, so really anything could happen.
You couldn't be more right. Since the first games we've been hearing about how "the bonds you have with your pokemon are what made you beat the champion, the league, yadda, yadda" but ingame, those bonds are just capture - train - success! This is the best news for all of us who develop a certain attachment to our pokemon, finally we we'll be able to treat our pokemon like the friends we (and the game) consider them to be.
Nonetheless, I think they are a little shortsighted, based on what we know now. It should be that, if you treat your pokemon well, it gains EVs and happiness (which in turn, gives them buffs in battle: better accuracy, evasion, priority and perhaps a occasional focus sash effect.) and if you mistreat them, they get even more EVs and become more powerful, but they start to hate you (and that gives them other buffs: higher attack/SP attack, less accuracy, not obeying, maybe even running away).
The idea is to equalize both methods to reflect a trainer's style, not make one training style the obvious choice, like they appear to be doing now (we'll see). It's the same deal with morality in videogames: more often than not, it's clearly better to be a saint/bastard because the rewards are better.
