Hey, so I checked every single game that has a category here, and I can now say that the leaderboards are a complete mess: Half of the games either aren't available, or they are just too dumb/not speedrunnable.

I made a list of the games that don't make sense on this leaderboard:

1. Extremely Dumb Games Pokemon Art Academy You can't really speedrun this, it's just clicking continue for over an hour. Really dumb and boring speedrun to do. Pokemon Roll Call Rhythm Game This isn't even speedrunnable, it's an autoscroller for a song, which is also extremely easy to complete and has a max score, which doesn't make sense for a highscore category. Pokemon Say Tap Exactly the same as Roll Call Rhythm Game
2. Not Available outside of Japan Pokemon Mezastar Pikachu Great Surfing Adventure Wobbuffet Fell Down Tug of War Tournament All of these 4 games are for arcade machines that are only available in certain places of Japan. There is no rom or emulation available for them, which makes them almost impossible to be played, let alone do a speedrun of.
3. Obscure Platforms Pokemon Hiragana and Katakana Adventure in the Maze Big Sports Meet Sega Pico and Advanced PicoBeena are quite obscure platforms that are also only available in Japan. There are no roms for "Adventure in the Maze" and "Big Sports Meet", and the rom available for "Hiragana and Katakana" is unplayable given that it doesn't emulate the book with the letters to choose from. Eevee Tamagotchi Again, extremely obscure platform that is also only available in Japan. Obviously, there is no emulation or anything for this and it's almost completely impossible to get one of these to run.
4. Games that aren't available anymore Pokemon PC Master This game is lost and there is no way of playing it, except for a trial version that only loads until the menu, without any gameplay at all. Pokemon Virtual Fest This was an event at a VR game that isn't available anymore given it was a timed event, so it's literally impossible to do a speedrun of this. Pokemon Dream World Servers are down, the game doesn't exist anymore, it's impossible to speedrun it. Gold Rescue Team This game is also lost, there isn't any way of playing it. Fishing Rally DS Another lost game. There is already a leaderboard for the Unity remake so it doesn't really make sense that this one has a leaderboard too. Rumble Rush Servers are dead. Pokeduel Servers are dead, and the only run on the leaderboard isn't even a speedrun, it's just a guy that recorded himself playing and then claimed WR since he is the only one that recorded a full run like that. Pokemate Another lost game.
5. ??? Pokeball I literally don't know what this game is supposed to be. If it's one of the pokeball flash games, then it's fine, but if it's that Pokeball toy thing then it's incredibly dumb to include, since it falls into the same category as the Eevee Tamagotchi thing.

All the games I mentioned are completely unnecessary and/or dumb and just make the leaderboards messier and confusing. My proposal is to delete most of these categories I mentioned, if not all, or at least discuss what can be done with them, cause in it's current state the leaderboard is just a disaster.

The other games I didn't mention are fine and should remain on the leaderboard imo. Thanks.

(Also sorry for the long post).

well the lost games might not stay lost for ever and what people in japan should not be able to speedrun?

I get what you mean, but if a game is lost then it shouldn't have a leaderboard until it is found. Right now there are like 7 or more empty categories that are just filling the space and make the leaderboard unnecessary messy. If they are found then they can be added, but I find it really dumb to include them when it's literally impossible for anybody to run them at the moment. They are just leaderboards with 0 players for no reason other than including them for the sake of it.

The japan issue isn't that it's in Japan, the problem is that it makes it harder to access it, and thus it's harder/almost impossible to make the leaderboard competitive. This is even worse for the arcade games, where you not only would have to be in Japan in order to do a speedrun, you would have to go to a physical arcade store, buy a token or whatever it's called to play the game, and then be able to record it at the same time. It's just a lot of factors that make it almost inaccesible for most people, outside or inside of Japan. Of course people in Japan can speedrun, I'm just saying that I don't think it needs to have a leaderboard, that's all.

like Fishing Rally DS might leak one day since some does have it but they won't wisk leak trouble or want devalue there rare rom so that one might on there sicne of that. and Pokemate might be findable if find a old phone what still has for download so so those mind be founded one day. Gold Rescue Team might get removed but poably just be moved the leader board allowed speed the PMD demo's. also pretty sure i seen Pokemon PC Master gameplay

oops wrong game

your talking about this right?

Yeah, but my point still stands. If they aren't available now, then they shouldn't have a leaderboard right now. If they are somehow found, then it's at that moment that they should be added. But right now they are just filling space just because. They are all empty categories with 0 players. This is a speedrun leaderboard, not a wikipedia for every single pokemon game (lost or not).

And yeah that is a trailer for Pokemon PC Master, but there isn't any file available online of it, so the game cannot be played. Even if there is old gameplay footage, there is no way of playing it right now.

i guess they just hope someone will see leader board and summit a run or just add them to save time for went they are found or for went not just in collection off limits to the public. i also remember be some games what have been removed like GBA video carts and i think some junk like tomodachi consoles and a few other stuff i can,t remember

Yeah, I get your reasoning, but it still sounds very stupid to mantain the leaderboards for them imo. This shouldn't be a museum for every obscure pokemon game, it should be a leaderboard where everybody can submit a run to, which isn't the case here.

Some games in this leaderboard are still playable with some special ways. But we cannot provide the way to play it because of the site rule. There are some Japan exclusive games but it does not mean they are not playable. Games like Eevee Tamagotchi, Sega Pico games, Pokeball (a Pokémon toy) are still available in some platforms like Ebay or Amazon. Some games are also a placeholder, which is similar to the situation of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Wiiware. For the "dumb categories" you referred, I think there are many more dumb categories in speedrun.com. Why do you specifically target this leaderboard? By the way, I will categorize the leaderboard soon.

I targeted this leaderboard because I did a lot of runs on it lol. Yeah, I figured the console games are the ones that make the most sense to keep out of all of the ones I mentioned. I personally find placeholders really dumb so I just wanted to address them because I think they are completely unnecessary in a speedrun context imo. Still, some games like the Virtual Fest, or Pokeduel or Rumble Rush should be deleted, as they literally don't exist anymore, and nobody did an actual run of them. I mean they are permanently unplayable, they are just filling up the space.

As for the "dumb" categories, the fact that there are other dumber categories doesn't mean that the ones here can't be dumb. Including the Rhythm game doesn't make any sense, there isn't any highscore or speedrun to do as it is an autoscroller (and a very easy one at that). Pokemon Art Academy is a great game casually, but it's extremely boring as a speedrun as you don't have to do literally anything. It's just being included for the sake of it. I just think that because you can doesn't mean you should.

But yeah, I'm just proposing all of this stuff, you can do what you want, you are the mod anyway, I don't mind if you want to keep them, but I just wanted to address that it all looked very messy and unnecessary.

Also don't know what categorize means.