Pourquoi Poké? - October
11, 2000 - Chris Jones
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed
within this column are those of the participants and the
moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the
GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive
material afoot. Men go crazy in congregations, they only get better one by
one.
Don't say we didn't warn you.
It's almost certainly a sign of my ego gone out of control, but
every once in a while I'll take a look at a search engine to see if
my association with this site has put my name in any strange places
or contexts - and generally it hasn't, which is a good thing.
But I did notice that someone actually went to the trouble of taking a
line from one of my columns and adding it to their USENET sig. The
quote?
"Pokemon is freakin' Shakespeare."
-- Chris Jones, writer of the GIA letters column for April 20th, 2000
In my defense, the full quote was "Compared to Transformers, where every
episode broke down to "Megatron comes up with sneaky new way to steal
energy/destroy the Autobots but is foiled by his own greed and stupidity",
Pokemon is freakin' Shakespeare." But I should take my immortality
anywhere I can get it, I suppose.
Onward.
| Pokemon: It's a
breakfast now! |
| You couldn't have picked a better time to ask this, as I just finished
Pokemon Blue again today. It's a long story, but it involves me losing my
original file into thin digital air.
Anyhoo, I have to say that Pokemon is slowly becoming more of just a
videogame series, albeit one with more cross-marketing than any other games
series out there. And actually, this is what I expected.
Remember when Super Mario Brothers first came out? The lunchboxes, the
T-shirts, the cartoons, heck, even the *shudder* movie? It was a huge
multimedia phenomenon that eventually became more of a straight videogame
series. Not that there isn't still Mario merchandise and such, because there
is, but there's -nowhere- near as much as there once was.
I think the same thing is going to happen with Pokemon. It's already sort of
happening. It's not the utterly explosive media phenom that it once was,
it's now become sort of a steady roar. There's a Pokemon comic in certain
newspapers (And suprisingly enough, it's kinda funny, or at least better
than a root canal), there's 2 new movies coming down the pipes...yet kids
are starting to move on. Granted, most of the stuff they're moving onto is
lame (will somebody PLEASE tell me what Crazy Bones are?) but they're
nonetheless moving on.
The amazing pre-order figures of Pokemon G/S proves that the franchise still
has some life in it, though, I think. Gradually, however, I believe it will
become less viewed as a "kids' game" and more and more as one of Nintendo's
beloved franchises, right alongside Mario and Zelda. Heck, I didn't care for
the media blitz or the TV show or anything, but I enjoyed the heck out of
the game itself. So don't be giving me funny looks as I give my Alakazam a
pep talk.
DarkMoogle, who is anxiously awaiting Megaman Legends 2 and his Servbot toy |
I think there's a tendency among older gamers to forget that once
upon a time we were just as hyped about the Nintendo brand as kids
today are about Pokemon. It's maybe not such an attractive phenomenon
when you're not wrapped up in the hype yourself, but everybody deserves
a chance to be young and foolish.
That said, I think it's too early to gauge Pokemon's long term
success. Mario and Zelda have been able to become franchises because
they've expanded their original gameplay as new systems became
available. The huge preorders, new movies, etc. will give G/S an
opportunity to demonstrate if it's more than a one-hit wonder, but
we'll have to wait to get the players' opinion for the final
verdict.
| Pikachu: cuddly rodent
or heartless marketing ploy? |
| Chris,
I have to say that the word "Pokemon" still leaves a bad taste in my
mouth. There is just something about combined deliberate-cuteness and
crass marketing that rubs me wrong. And the marketing is truly crass...
not even the tv-toy tie-ins of the 80's had a slogan as blatant as
"Gotta catch 'em all!" Even though this has been incorporated into the
'plot' of the games/tv show/movies, there is no doubt in my mind that
the idea of getting kids to buy several hundred not-quite-identical
toys/games came before any actual forming of the plot. I realize there
are many out there who love it, even adults, but I just can't bring
myself to touch it with a ten-foot-pole -- unless said pole has a
flaming torch on the end of it. I hope it dies out soon, because I'm
not sure how much of its pervasiveness I can take.
I realize that will probably raise a few people's hackles, so as a
mitigating factor, I will do my best to help you with your thee/thou
confusion you mentioned in Tuesday's column.
As far as I can tell, the difference between thee and thou isn't a case
of informal/formal, but of object/subject. You use the word "thou" when
the person is the subject of the sentence, the person doing the action,
and the word "thee" when they are the object, the person the action is
being done to. It's like with me, myself and I. "I need somebody to
help me; I can't do this myself." (1st person.) "You need somebody to
help you; you can't do this yourself." (Modern 2nd person.) "Thou
needest somebody to help thee; thou canst not do this thyself." (Old
2nd person.) While I can't give this a 100% guarantee (not a Medieval
studies major), I'm reasonably certain that's how it works.
Later,
Chaomancer Omega |
In Pokemon's defense, let me point out that "Gotta catch 'em all"
hasn't been exploited nearly as bad as it could have been. Traditional
toys have been about acquiring the whole set of Autobots and the like,
but Pokemon as it originally started was merely a single game - the
purchase of a single cart was all you needed to get started. Pokemon
are also, for the most part, vastly different from each other. Nobody's
gonna mistake a Pikachu for a Lapras or a Charmander. In contrast, the
only real difference between the original three Decepticon jets was
their highlighting colors.
As to thee and thou, somebody disagrees with you...
| Don't forget your
thees and thous |
| thee is the familiar singular form...you is the plural and/or formal
version...they equate to "tu" and "vous" in French...except you'd hardly
ever have used "you" to refer to someone, it's a little _too_ formal, like
referring to someone you've been introduced to as "Mister".
And to be honest, I've never had a problem with Pokemon. Sure, it's
ubiquitous, but it's a lot more intelligent and less condescending than most
of the other "kid stuff" out there...I'm willing to bet in 10, 20 years the
current crop of kids will sit about reminiscing about it the way we sit
around chatting about our favourite cartoons or tv shows from when we were
kids.
Ciaran Conliffe |
This sounds a little more like what I remember about thee and
thou... but mostly this whole thing has reminded me how happy I am
that I speak English and don't have to put up with formal 2nd person
pronouns and gendered nouns. Good stuff.
And of course kids today will grow up reminiscing about Pokemon - in
20 years I guarantee someone will have written a cynically humorous
deconstruction of the first Pokemon movie for their website. I look
forward to reading it.
| Get your sleeping bags
ready |
| I recently saw an advertisement in the Wal-mart section in my local paper.
Now this article caught my eye and made me think for a while. And while I
was thinking I came to a startling conclusion, that this article is
completely false.
Oh yes, the article had a picture of a Playstation 2 and in a little caption
under this picture said "Available October 26" Now as I recall that there are
only going to be 500k (or maybe a little more than that) shipped to the U.S.
Is Wal-Mart going to be the only retailer to carry the ps2??? or is this
article only more hype???
David, (wal-mart is OK but I think that they should correct this before a
wide spread panic ensues) |
As
this article at points out, Wal-Mart did not have a PS2 preorder
program in place, so it'll be first come first serve when the system is
launched. In other words, the ads are totally legit. However, considering that each store serves several thousand
people and may only receive a few dozen consoles, the competition's
gonna be fierce. I see people lined up around the store, camping out in
the freezing cold to get a precious blue LED... remind me to drive by at 2am so I
can point and laugh at their foolishness.
| A fan in moderation |
| Well. Pokémon. First off, I'd like to say, please don't assume EVERY gamer
hates Pokémon. ^_^; I've actually been listening to my Pocket Monsters CD
(noooot the American one, no no no no no no no no) all day, for the first
time in a LONG while.
What screwed Pokémon over was the marketing. Obviously, definately, totally.
Okay, I enjoyed the Anime, and while episodic and sometimes extremely
stupid, but the toys? Cards? Toys? Toys? Clothing? Toys? WAUUUUGH. ;_;
I was happy with just my copy of Red and my Rokettodan on the television at
six AM weekdays... but, of course, that doesn't sell.
~nezu thinks kojiro is sexy, even with inflatable breasts. |
While I did get (and print) a few letters complimenting Pokemon as a
game and praising the design from a critical standpoint, interestingly
enough this may be the only letter I got that really spoke from a
serious fan perspective... although, as you can see, even relatively
hardcore fans aren't that happy with how the series has been treated.
| Speaking of heartless
marketing ploys... |
| Pokemon?! Trying to broaden your demographics, huh? Trying to tap into that
6-12 year old market, eh? Does this mean every response will contain a fart
joke, DOOD, and a rant on how homework sux? |
I'm in grad school at the moment, so believe me, I can give rants on
how homework sucks at will. That aside, since the above letter was the
closest thing I got to a rave about how cool Team Rocket was, I think
the column's safe from juvenilization for now.
| Reach out and trade
with someone |
| I'm actually pretty excited about Pokemon Gold/Silver as a sequel to one of
the only Game Boy games to ever hold my attention for over 30 hours of game.
I picked up Red and I picked up Yellow and today I'll be picking up Gold and
a buddy of mine will be picking up Silver.
I could go on for quite a while about what I expect to be fixed and what
good things from the first iteration that I expect to see return, but I'll
leave that responsibility on someone else's shoulders.
While Pokemon is an excellent portable game, I think what made Pokemon a
phenomenon and what is going to make Gold/Silver every bit as big is the
social aspect. Collecting, trading and battling Pokemon is something that
allows the handheld gamer to interact with other gamers and Leave their mark
on someone else's gaming experience, yet each players gaming experience
remains theirs alone. It's a powerful dynamic.
It's a dynamic that if other games captured effectively they'd be big as
well. I'm not certain that online play is the way to do this, but I think
the GameCube and the Dreamcast may have access to a little bit of the action
with the GBA/VMU. I'm really interested to see where developers can take
this.
-n0sh (who admires the Snorlax work ethic) |
It definitely does seem to be the case that the social aspect of
Pokemon often gets ignored. Both the original game and the card game
are interesting precisely because they've allowed people to have a
standard RPG experience that also reaches out to other players - in a
sense, Pokemon wasn't just a game, but a community.
On the other hand, subsequent Pokemon spinoff titles that had no
social aspect at all have managed to sell quite well, and a critical
mass needs to be reached for players to have others to trade with.
Over 100,000,000 Game Boys in existence means G/S shouldn't have too
much of a problem trying to find another cart to link to, but I wonder
how well the GBA version of Pokemon will fare.
| It's not a spinoff,
it's an evolution! |
| Hey DA,
You asked us yesterday if we felt that Pokemon Gold/Silver could revive
the Pokemon series. While I was thinking about this, it occurred to me
that if one upcoming game is going to be able to get more people
interested in Pokemon, it's not going to be Pokemon Gold or Silver. It
will be Pokemon: Puzzle League.
Pokemon Gold/Silver is pretty much an extension of what we've seen of
the Pokemon RPGs so far, without a terrible amount of change. The
people who love Pokemon may get it, but it's not going to get more
people interested.
Pokemon: Puzzle League has an interesting twist to it, though. Reading
through the recent review, I noticed that something was missing from the
product. At no point in the game, or in the various modes, or in
battling your friends, is there any form of "catching them all".
I think this is the second game with Pokemon in it that has strayed from
that idea. The first was Super Smash Bros., which has been regarded as
a fairly good game by most of the people who played it. There are no
efforts to get people to take as much time as possible to claim all
Pokemon available in the game.
What makes this helpful to the series as a whole is the commonly held
perception that Pokemon is a plan to sell as many products to children
as possible. Pokemon: Puzzle League may be a product that Pokemon fans
would be expected to buy, but it would not cause people to buy other
products in turn. Any product tie-ins to the game are already covered
by the TV show, after all. As a result, the game seems more detached
from the "Pokemon selling power" and more along the lines of "Pokemon
licensed game".
Tetris Attack used Yoshi's Island and the Tetris name to get attention,
but it then proceeded to keep people's interest with its inherent
entertainment value. The same thing may work here.
In addition, this is the first time the Panel de Pon series has been
brought to the Nintendo 64. Yes, it has many similarities to Tetris
Attack, but people without an SNES haven't been able to play the first
game. So the attraction of a highly acclaimed puzzle game combined with
the Pokemon name would be able to attract more buyers than the Pokemon
name alone.
When I first played Super Smash Bros., I didn't know much about Pokemon
in general. I learned a bit about Pokemon from playing the game, and
started taking some interest in it. However, I have never gone out and
bought Pokemon merchandise, leading to the grand sale of Pokemon
products that some people hate to take part in. But at least it got me
interested.
If Pokemon Puzzle League can get people interested in Pokemon without
shoving a merchandising tagline in their face, then it will be a bright
day for the Pokemon name.
Cotton candy's relative |
That's a fairly unique spin on things, but I dunno how valid it is.
Companies of all sorts have sold puzzle games by associating them with
a well known mascot, going all the way back to Dr. Mario for the NES.
The games may be good and sell well, but I don't see that the
association really cuts both ways as far as promoting interest. I
really like Capcom's Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, for example, but it
hasn't made me want to play any more Capcom fighters as of late.
| Good question |
| Chrizzah,
I know you don't run a Q&A coloum but seriously how do you get past
that forrest dungeon in SG2. The one where you have to get to that
tower. I bought the game when it first came out and have been stuck
their ever since. I've looked at all the FAQs and I even bought the
strategy guide and I still can't figure out how to beat it.
-Chris (nice name huh?) who just beat Vagrant story and got Ogre Battle
64 in the same day |
Actually, this is exactly the kind of question I love to get,
except in this case I can't provide an answer. I know exactly where
you're talking about, and remember that it was a pain in the ass to get
through, but I can't remember exactly how. I do remember that I
wandered all over the place, both slow and fast, but that the final
solution was ultimately the path prescribed on the map. I think I just
had to walk the route a couple of times through and kill every enemy I
met on the way, but if anybody else remembers a more exact solution,
please send it in.
| Pokemon compared to DQ
and Capcom fighters? Wow. |
| What's this? Imad's on-topic for once? Hey, it happens
to the best of us. =)
Seriously, I've enjoyed Pokémon (the Game Boy games, the anime, the card
game) pretty much from the get-go. The games have got that old-school feel
that a lot of newer console games severely lack. Overall, the characters are
cute (gotta love Oddish!), and the anime holds up quite well, which is
especially surprising when you consider that the Pokémon don't speak
anything resembling English/Japanese. The Trading Card Game is excellent --
it might not have the vast feel of something like Magic:TG, but it's
incredibly deep and interesting nonetheless. It blows many "full fledged"
TCGs out of the water.
On to the video games... I feel that Pokémon Gold/Silver is more of an
evolution of the original games rather than a revolution -- if you never
cared for the Pokémon games (whether you're just a bigot or you honestly
don't care for old school RPGs), GS won't make you a convert. However, if
you liked the first few games, you'll probably find a lot more to like in
GS. It's somewhat like the evolution of the Street Fighter 2 series, in many
respects (skipping a few titles in the process): Red/Blue/Green are Street
Fighter 2: World Warriors, more or less. A bit unpolished, a bit lacking in
depth, but still solid games. Yellow might very well be the Hyperfighting of
the series -- a couple extra features, quite a bit more polish, but very
little that's actually *new* for a non-Pokélover. Gold and Silver (or
Crystal) would correspond to Super Turbo (X). They've got everything you
loved the first games for -- but much more so. To top it off, you've got a
load of new things to do, as well as a very rewarding finale (which I won't
spoil here). A better comparison might be to the evolution of the -- insert
drum roll here -- Dragon Quest/Warrior games. Think of it -- the step to
Gold/Silver is that which we saw the DQ series take with Dragon Quest III,
all over again. Day/night, alternate worlds, subtly (or not) familiar
faces... the list goes on. Heck, if GS took place before the other Pokémon
games and featured multiple character battles, it *would* be Dragon Warrior
III... Well, maybe not. =)
Which brings me to the Reader Suggested Topic, with tongue planted firmly in
cheek: What will it take for Chris to admit --publicly -- that he was wrong
about Dragon Quest VII? Is it even possible? Or is it a case where, as Mr.
Scott would say, "But Cap'n! I cannae change the laws of physics!"?
Best,
--Imad "(e)magius" Hussain, who always writes waaaay too much to have a shot
at being printed |
Interesting analogy... except, if true, a lot of the thrill's gonna
be gone from Pokemon soon. I lost interest in Street Fighter soon after
the Championship Edition came out (man that was a long time ago) and
moved on to other fighters precisely because the games weren't
changing all that much, just becoming more introverted and limited.
Still, if it appeals to you old schoolers out there, go to it.
Onto the subject of Dragon Quest - I was honestly holding this off
until one of the many, many people who told me I was full of it wrote
back with a rapturous review of the import version. But the entire DQ
community has fallen silent now that the game's out, so I might as
well go ahead and bite the bullet:
I was wrong about Dragon Quest 7.
Of course, that statement needs some qualifiers added. I personally
still don't think it looks that great, and I still don't think it'll
sell that well over here. However, I will get it when it comes out
because I already promised I'd give it a try, and regardless of what I
think, the Japanese really do seem to like it. I would have thought
for sure that they'd find it crude and antiquated, but not only has it
sold considerably better than I thought it would, even after the
initial preorders were taken care of, the foreign reviews have been
pretty much universally positive from what I've seen. Thus, I was
wrong, and I apologize to the DQ community. We cool now?
| Ash returns from the
dark world and is now RED ASH |
| Will Gold and Silver revive the Pokémon series? I
don't know -- when was Pokémon ever dead? There was
an astoundingly original title that defined a genre and
single-handedly resurrected a dead system. Since then,
the only entrant in the series has been the admittedly
awful Pokémon Yellow -- which was really more just
a reconciliation of the divergent worlds of the cartoon
and original game than an actual remake / new game.
Yes, believe it or not, Pokémon Gold and Silver are
really only the second Pokémon games -- they're
basically Pokémon 2. Sure, like many sequels, the
Gold/Silver adventure is just a "bigger and better"
version of the first with new monsters, more features,
and a longer quest. But seeing as how Pokémon Red
and Blue offered some of the deepest gameplay this side
of Carnage Heart, I don't think any fans will be
complaining about the prospect of having "only" 100 new
Pokémon to fine-tune. Sure, the plot is still
non-existant, but it was never supposed to have one!
Being betrayed by Squirtle or having Pikachu lose his
memory and go into coma until you found Ye Olde Magicke
Potionne would have just interfered the gameplay.
As for the various Pokémon spin-offs, they're part
of the main Pokémon RPG series only in the way that
Working Chocobo for the WonderSwan is Final Fantasy X
(hint: it isn't). While they're hardly relevant to this
discussion, it's worth noting that they've been
consistently more original than the "fill-
in-the-blank" titles many publishers are putting
out. The voice-interaction Hey You, Pikachu was
released in Japan a year before Seaman, and the
brilliant Pokémon Snap remains the only known
console photography title. Rather than constrain
developers to formulaic ideas, the Pokémon license
has given them the freedom to experiment with untried
game concepts with the assurance that the product will
still sell no matter esoteric it is. Ah, yes, I only
long for the day when Pokémon Dancing will
introduce rhythm games to the masses...
Wait, what I am talking about? Pokémon sucks
because it's successful -- I'd better play some more
Valkyrie Profile to redeem myself. Damn Agetec for not
making RPG Maker directly read my brainwaves and
instantly create my dream RPG!
- Fritz |
Ok... a little more sarcasm there than I generally indulge in, but
some good points made. One correction does come to mind - I think the PS2
does have at least one really bad "virtual model" photo game, but
other than that, I think you're pretty much dead on. The only question
that remains is if the current interest in Pokemon is fueled by the
series' previous momentum, or because of genuine quality... but given
my record with DQ, I think I'll pass on hazarding a guess.
Closing Comments:
It's late, I'm tired. Write letters on the topic below, and have a good one.
-Chris Jones, can't wait to
Journey to Johto, D00D!
| Topic for Thursday,
10/12/2000 |
| The next generation console wars are looming in the not so distant future.
It is becoming ever apparent that Sony may lose the strangle hold they
have on the video game industry, and no longer be the center of RPG's
that the Playstation is today. Multiple platform development seems to be
extremely likely with all systems on a more level playing field.
So where will us RPGers go if our favourite games and series are split
amongst the consoles? Final Fantasy X and XI reside on Playstation 2 but
suppose Chrono Trigger 3 and Vagrant Story 2 are bound to X-Box. Or
Grandia 2 remains only on Dreamcast, yet Lunar 3 is localized by WD for
Playstation 2. What if Dragon Quest VIII is ported to all four systems,
but the Game Cube version boasts superior visuals yet synthesized music,
the Playstation 2 version has jagged visuals with a fully orchestrated
score, the X-Box offers patches to add new towns and features, and the
Dreamcast version is just plain inferior in every way but the system only
costs $50? Or maybe Squaresoft sticks with Playstation 2 and every other
RPG developer just follows suit. Does anyone care either way? The
popularity and abundance of RPG's already makes it too difficult to play
every game despite the fact they are all basically for ONE system
(Playstation). Will the next generation wars force us to miss out on
revolutionary games or just burn a hole in our pocket books?
Sweet. Got it below 500 words this time.
Supreme Guru of Relaxism |
|
|
|
|
