It seems we're talking about series a lot recently. There's a lot to love there, especially if there's a universe of information that's acknowledged between series. As some sort of geek, I love a good myth arc, though that's not a prerequisite for something to be entertaining. The point is that having a series or franchise allows the writers or developers to convey a large amount of information in a short amount of time to an audience that has been along other parts of the same ride.
Some series get a lot more love than others, though. I think I have the misfortune of overlapping with Geremy's discussion of this particular one, but it was serendipity that I happened to start playing games from it at the same time, so we'll just have to put up with that. Pokemon is a monstrous behemoth that engulfed the childhoods of many people in my age bracket. I maintain that it is one of the most complex stat-based battle games ever devised; the original had over 100 distinct characters, some of which grew into others, which might have doppelgangers that were distinct from their counterparts. Additionally, you had to build a team of 6 of these and memorize a mildly complicated system of weaknesses and strengths. And they were collectible. It's amazing.
For as long as I can remember after the Internet becoming truly prevalent, there has been demand from the masses for a Pokemon MMO. Nintendo has adamantly refused, though I'm not sure on what grounds. The more recent generations of the games have a Wi-Fi marketplace of sorts where you can interact with other players. The difference would be that you also have these players running around the game world together.
For me, the draw of such a game would be exploration in an open and potentially dangerous world with a team of versatile and obedient monsters. Aside from a lack of specific goals and tasks, the Pixelmon mod for Minecraft satisfies this particular itch. My one lamentation is that my hardware isn't really great for running a server and actually playing the game. A real 3D Pokemon MMO would be fantastic, however. I can't help but wonder, though, whether the Internet would quickly ruin the thrill of exploration with its rambling about the hidden areas.
At any rate, while rumors of such a thing occurring were first fueling the fires of ravening demand for it, we got a different game. I'm a little surprised by finding out recently how popular this game was, as I never heard anyone talk about it until recently. Maybe they, like I, were too ashamed to admit owning and enjoying it. Provided I've got my timing right, I will have mentioned on the show recently that I started replaying the Pokemon Trading Card Game for the Gameboy Color. There was no great demand for it and no one expected it, yet it came to be. And it was good.
If you're unfamiliar with how the game works, I suspect you can find some rules with relative ease. It's very simple, and easily exploitable. Once one side has momentum, it's relatively hard to stop it. It was even worse early on as there weren't a large number or variety of cards to work with. This game, however, automates the tedium of a card game and lets you enjoy the parts that you actually care about: building an abusable deck and proceeding to utilize it to great effect against other people willing to play against you. The game gives you some more cards every time you stomp someone, and they're willing to keep playing regardless of which broken deck you use. Find me some opponents outside of a video game that will let you do that.
Part of what has driven the Pokemon machine over the years is how addictively collectable they are. Even the original games were sold in such a way as to encourage owning two copies, or for the more social, actually interacting with people who did own another copy. That's gotten much easier as anonymous Internet interaction has been integrated, but there's still a near manic need to finish a Pokedex when the little creatures are so easy to come by. Jokes about 10-year-olds with gods in little balls aside, even the legendary Pokemon only require patience to catch. The card game capitalized upon this perfectly. While the game was, in my opinion, mechanically flawed, the cards themselves were visually interesting and fun to have. The Gameboy game gives you all the joy of trying to complete your card collection without spending money on them, and letting you use them to stomp opponents.
There is a bit of wonky art, though. Nightmare fuel.
Sometimes a gem just falls into your lap. You just have to dust it off to realize what you've found.
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