So, I know among a lot of Pokemon players, RNG abuse is completely the norm and mostly accepted.  I’m a huge advocate of playing and enjoying games the way they were meant to be played, and RNG abuse, like the Pokemon Co. says – takes away from the spirit of the game.  I’ve spent – literally – hundreds of hours breeding Pokemon for VGC environments, and have a fair handful of shinies.

But let’s explore some points with RNG Abuse.

1. RNG Abuse doesn’t require any outside software or devices.

Ok, sure. Explain to me how RNG Reporter isn’t outside software and I’ll concede this point.

2. RNG Abuse doesn’t give you anything the game could normally not give you. 

True, no illegal stats are obtained.  That really just makes this “cheating light,” however.  Even if it takes a while, perfect stats and shiny legendaries make the actual hunt for the real thing less legitimate – and much less fun. Now, breeding and grinding for great IVs isn’t the most fun thing in the world, at all, but when you’re in the wild and come across a shiny by random, it becomes just another Pokemon because you can easily say to yourself “I could have just RNGed it.”

3. RNG Abuse saves time, because I don’t have time to breed.

I’m guessing at this point you’re just justifying being lazy.  Playing competitively takes a ton of effort. While there’s no way to completely verify this, it’s likely safe to say that shortcuts like this being taken weren’t exactly intended by the development staff, or by any game.  In fact, the official statement has been made it does detract from the spirit of the competition.

Through some other online discussions, I’ve pretty much found that RNG acceptance boils down to whether you do it or not.  That’s a dangerous precedent (though, I’ll avoid making any comparisons here…).  I’m pretty sure it’s going to be around for a long, long time, unless Game Freak decides to change how the RNG works in the games (there are a couple of reasonable solutions I hope they implement in X/Y.), and for a long time, I’m sure it’ll be contested by decent group of people, more or less. At least, I hope it’s contested.