Pokemon

[KitKatMatt]

Today is the 20th anniversary of the release of Nintendo's first Pokemon games!

Are you a Pokemon fan? Did your family let you play it, or did they forbid it? Do you think Pokemon is a harmless game, or do you think it's dangerous?

My mom (I didn't live with her) liked Pokemon at first when I brought my Gameboy to show her. She ended up forbidding me to ever bring it again after people at the church she attended told her it was evil and from the devil.

I have been a Pokemon fan from the first day though, so it didn't slow me down. I did know many people who weren't allowed to play it though, for many reasons. Either because their parents thought "monsters" were all demons, or because it "taught evolution".

What's your take?

 

[MehGuy]

Oh yeah, I've been meaning to download the game on the Nintendo 3DS shop. I wasn't allowed to own the game as a kid (played my friend's copies though..) but now as an adult no one can stop me!

 

[BookofMatt]

I'm of the age that when 'Pokemon' first hit big, I received a buttload of cards for Christmas, even though I didn't even ask for any. Despite having them in my possession, I never got into it nor the video games, as table-top/card/RPG sort of stuff never interested me. I looked at it no differently than the pogs craze which came the year prior, something else I never bothered to learn the mechanics of.

I do, however, own 'Pokemon Snap' for the Nintendo 64, which I know doesn't really count as an actual 'Pokemon' game, but is still a fantastic and super-relaxing experience. Also hammering the point home that I'm a helpless nerd: I bought the CD soundtrack for 'Pokemon: The Movie 2000' around when it came out solely because it had exclusive tracks by "Weird Al" Yankovic and The B-52's.

I remember hearing about 'Pokemon' being "controversial", but I never experienced any of it...my elementary school didn't ban it or anything. The biggest controversy I heard about was the cartoon giving children seizures. You'd be hard-pressed to find anything which hasn't been called "Satanic" over the last 50 years, anyways.

 

[Swan7]

Wow, no. I've never experienced the forbiddenness of Pokemon. I don't believe that's remotely evil. It's a fantasy world, ie: made up, created, not real.
I have no idea where this whole idea came from where fantasy, such as Pokemon, has somehow become "real" evil. I'm beginning to wonder if we are no longer having our kids learn realism from fantasy. That's the real danger, in my opinion. We, as human beings, can still be creative and in a healthy way. I strongly think that Pokemon is a harmless game. It's made for all ages that can comprehend between the 2 worlds, so to speak.

There is certainly more evil in the world than in a game.

 

[jacknife]

Pokemon is a pretty good game series in fact the recent X and Y games are probably the best in the series I was very impressed with them.

 

[Ubuntu]

I don't belong to the Pokémon generation, so this was something that I thankfully never was caught up with. I remember that my youngest brother used to tape and watch the Pokémon Anime series. He'd watch them over and over again. The series are essentially nothing but long commercials for the toys/video games/cards, just like Transformers were for my generation.

I'm not fond of marketing directed at children, I think this is an example of the culture industry at its worst. (Reference for those of you not familiar with this term: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_industry )

 

[Toro]

Never even played 2 seconds of the games.

I think I may have seen an episode or two while on TV but I wasn't REALLY watching it.

About the only thing I know about it is there is a little rodent..... like thing named pickachu.

 

[Qyöt27]

I was in seventh grade when it came out here in the U.S. in Q4 1998, so the anime didn't hold much appeal at all after the newness of the first season had worn off. The main series games were and continue to be where the appeal lies for me. I do remember some of the 'controversy' but it was only in passing at our house, and most of it was from reading about it happening somewhere else. I did get a starter and a couple packs of the TCG when it came out even though I didn't really do much of anything with them and really don't care about CCGs at all.

After the first generation of games I lagged behind a bit, though, and only finally asked for a copy of Gold when it was getting hard to find in stores. All the changes in the promo material for Ruby and Sapphire put me off enough that I lost interest and didn't seriously look at it again for a couple years, and then regretted it because by the time I warmed up to it they were out of stock in retail stores and Diamond/Pearl were the main entries (which I didn't do anything with because I didn't own a DS at the time, and the only games with a pull strong enough for me to get without having the system to play them on were the two Mega Man ZX entries).

I didn't actually get a DS Lite until April of 2013, and finally got back into the version rotations with Black - precisely because I liked the idea of it being restricted to the newly-introduced set of Pokémon until the post-game (which is why I didn't go for Black 2 or White 2 at the time). I bought a 3DS XL and X the day it came out, though, and have kept up to speed with the series since. I am looking forward to Sun and Moon.

 

[Swan7]

I am looking forward to Sun and Moon.

Now I have to make sure I play through Y first before getting Sun or Moon :o

 

[KitKatMatt]

It really took me a while to get used to X and Y. At first I could barely play them because of the change in graphics to 3D. I warmed up after a few months though and they were really great games!

I still haven't beat Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire though, I get too caught up in trying to catch rare Pokemon with the PokeRadar (or whatever it's called, I don't remember lol).

I just bought Red version on the Nintendo store earlier this morning when it was released. I am hoping they'll release the original versions of Gold/Silver/Crystal and Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald too!

 

[Toro]

Man I wish I were Japanese.

I could make weird cartoon drawings.... give them weird names and Id become rich.

I could draw some strange cat, thats just an odd oval like shape and suddenly there would be a cult.

I could call it Ohai Kitteh, or Hello Kitteh.

Then I could make a cartoon about a bunch of weird eyed kids doing whatever name it something that when translated into english is so weird and crazy....... something like Happy Happy Bubble Fun Yellow Time...... and that too would gain a cult following.

Oh, if ONLY I were part of the band The Vapors.... in the 80s they were turning Japanese.... they have no doubt fully transformed by now.

Now I draw cartoons its just images of an insane American.

 

[Swan7]

Man I wish I were Japanese.

I could make weird cartoon drawings.... give them weird names and Id become rich.

I could draw some strange cat, thats just an odd oval like shape and suddenly there would be a cult.

I could call it Ohai Kitteh, or Hello Kitteh.

Then I could make a cartoon about a bunch of weird eyed kids doing whatever name it something that when translated into english is so weird and crazy....... something like Happy Happy Bubble Fun Yellow Time...... and that too would gain a cult following.

Oh, if ONLY I were part of the band The Vapors.... in the 80s they were turning Japanese.... they have no doubt fully transformed by now.

Now I draw cartoons its just images of an insane American.

Hey, I can draw anime and I'm not Japanese Nor am I rich

however, I think you could write a weird script and I could draw There, everyone wins!
Sugoi!

 

[jacknife]

It really took me a while to get used to X and Y. At first I could barely play them because of the change in graphics to 3D. I warmed up after a few months though and they were really great games!

I still haven't beat Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire though, I get too caught up in trying to catch rare Pokemon with the PokeRadar (or whatever it's called, I don't remember lol).

I just bought Red version on the Nintendo store earlier this morning when it was released. I am hoping they'll release the original versions of Gold/Silver/Crystal and Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald too!

The only game i ever had to get use to the graphics in was oddly enough borderlands that artstyle makes me sleepy if i see it for hours on end.

 

[Toro]

Hey, I can draw anime and I'm not Japanese Nor am I rich

however, I think you could write a weird script and I could draw There, everyone wins!
Sugoi!

Okay.

Ummmm and a Sugoi to you as well.

 

[redblue22]

I think it is pretty strange that anyone would have a serious problem with pokemon. I mean no offense, but I think my parents might have been concerned that I was into something that wasn't explicit demons and wizards, and seemed geared to young children or girls. I thought the advertising was a stroke of genius. "Gotta catch them all" or get them all, etc. I mean, it is a collection and their theme was that you had to have them all. Maybe I would have enjoyed it.

 

[Qyöt27]

It really took me a while to get used to X and Y. At first I could barely play them because of the change in graphics to 3D. I warmed up after a few months though and they were really great games!

I actually found myself pleased with the '3D'* pretty much immediately, which was a whole lot more quickly than I thought it would take. But my problem for the first 7 or 8 months after getting it was that I had a lot of other stuff I had to do, and so I didn't really speed up and finish playing it until the following Summer. By contrast, I blew through all of the plot of Omega Ruby in only two weeks or so.

*the 3D camera, not the 3D effect that the 3DS was sold on. I have that turned off because it's just a gimmick.

 

[KitKatMatt]

I actually found myself pleased with the '3D'* pretty much immediately, which was a whole lot more quickly than I thought it would take. But my problem for the first 7 or 8 months after getting it was that I had a lot of other stuff I had to do, and so I didn't really speed up and finish playing it until the following Summer. By contrast, I blew through all of the plot of Omega Ruby in only two weeks or so.

*the 3D camera, not the 3D effect that the 3DS was sold on. I have that turned off because it's just a gimmick.

I am into Red version at the moment but I think after that I'm going to replay X, then tackle one of ORAS.

Yeah I meant the 3D camera. I turned the effects off because they always make my head hurt. The parts that were really difficult for me were when the camera angle changed, and I didn't have the "overhead" view anymore. That also happened a bit in Black and White, and those parts were still difficult. The big city in X and Y is very hard for me to navigate because of that (and the city in B&W is also difficult).

 

[Travelers.Soul]

I'm not of the pokemon generation but I never saw anything wrong with it.

 

[Sir Robbins]

I WAS in the pokemon generation as well a yugioh. LOVED them both. I still have my original 150 cards and tons of stuffed animal pokemon... I even have a few tee shirts. Got the first game boy and game boy color for red, yellow, gold and silver. Watched the tv show and the movies that went into the theater like Pokémon the movie 2000..

 

[kittysbecute]

Are you a Pokemon fan? Did your family let you play it, or did they forbid it? Do you think Pokemon is a harmless game, or do you think it's dangerous?

Pokemon are cute. My family wasn't opposed to us playing Pokemon or collecting cards and so forth. (My dad bought me my very first card - Krabby for $1. First edition and I still have it... even if its all beat up. Eventually my parents also bought me a gameboy color pokemon bundle for Christmas one year.) I remember when it was just getting popular and most kids had Pokemon cards and different kids had varying rules from their parents about them. One friend was not allowed to collect the cards at all. A couple young kids aged 4-6 were allowed to have the cards but not allowed to trade them (I figured because they could easily be duped to trade and then want to take back the trade). But everyone else I never heard of any such rules.
I think Pokemon is fun, the only harm I can think is paper cuts, a guilty conscience if it is banned by parents, and potential waste of money as it can be very addictive. Oh and seizures if you happened to watch that one episode. Ah and the big kids could trick you out of your good cards. Some of the arguments I heard from someone who banned it as well as most video games and tv and cartoons is it is a waste of time and money.
Ah.. I guess a more dangerous thing is being charred or zapped by Charizard or Pikachu... I guess I should have thought of that first. Or even worse.. if Jigglypuff starts singing.

Anyway, I enjoy Pokemon and personally can't see much harm from it, but I can still respect people who choose to avoid it. It's their choice.

I am wondering now if my stack of missing cards was burned in that one fire....