My thoughts on Pokemon, as inspired by class readings
The 'Monsters, Ghosts, and the Making of Modern Japan' class I'm enrolled in has always had fantastic topics to discuss, and this week we're tackling the phenomena of Pokemon. I'm not going to go into lots of detail about the history of the game, but I would like to toss out a few ideas of how it fundamentally works, and how it might be improved.
We're looking at a structured methodology of categorizing and raising elements (aka, pocket monsters) of the world envrionment as presented in a fashion which is meant to be shared with other people to facilitate communication and friendship. At it's core, this is what Pokemon is; a struggle to improve yourself through mastery over the enviroment by following a rigid ruleset to improve your arsenal of monsters, which should be further improved by sharing your findings and tactics with other people.
When I first tried the game, I found it sort of overwhelming; I'm alone in a large world I don't understand, enslaving animals, fighting other people, unable to comprehend the vast rules, and feeling rather alone and helpless. How do these monsters grow? What do I do if I catch yet another Pikachu? Where do I go? What the **** are these radioactive stones? Why does everyone insist on fighting me?
See, from this perspective, the game can't possibly work. I was isolated in a game that, despite being somewhat solitary in nature, was truly meant to be shared with others who are on their own parallel paths. The creator of Pokemon, as this weeks readings suggests, designed the game so that players can and should interact with each other, trading monsters to strengthen their friends, and share notes on how to tackle tough areas. The heart of the game is the metagaming that happens with your friends and schoolmates outside of the game itself, and then each of the players follow their paths to become stronger as they're forearmed with this knowledge.
No wonder I didn't get it.
Yet, now that I understand the metagaming strategy, I see how unfortunately limited the current mechanic of the gameplay is. You guide your little avatar along, meeting up at PokeCenters where your IRL friends can connect to your handheld, and you interact in this fashion. A one-time connection to trade or battle really limits the inherent co-op paradigm that PokeMon should really be. If you're truly supposed to be interacting with others, then the rigid method of "arrive, connect, transact, disconnect, leave," is unnaturally parsed compared to how human interaction is, and keeps the player isolated.
Taking a minute to step back, let's look at the game world. The world of PokeMon has numerous groups which work together on some level: Team Rocket, Gym members, numerous professors, etc., who are working with others to achieve some goal. Currently, the players, though forearmed with knowledge from others, must still face each organization alone, and I think that this concept should change. If the game world offers some group or team affiliation, then this could also be implemented for players to enjoy.
Aside from fanboy nerdgasms of playing as a member of Team Rocket (which I'd totally do in a heartbeat), a team affiliation, much like guild status in Western MMO's like WoW or LotRO, would allow the user to have access to resources left behind by senior members of the group in a real-time environment. Instead of the cumbersome "meet, join, trade, disconnect, leave" method, having a Team Resource Hall (perhaps by using the Wii's Wi-Fi connectivity and SD memory card slot as a player-side server for those present) lets the users come and go as they please. The kids are going to play with each other anyway, usually in larger groups, so offering them a headquarters of their own could well give them a sense of community both in and out of the game world. Of course, this could allow competing Team events or whatever, but the core element of isolation in the PokeMon world would be reduced a bit.
Of course, as I'm waaaay behind in my PokeKnowledge, it could be possible that this in the works or already released, or that this is simply converts the game world into something too MMO-like for the PokePlayer's liking.
I dunno. These are just the ramblings of a lonely Lvl 34 Kung Fu Monkey (kicking type.)
We're looking at a structured methodology of categorizing and raising elements (aka, pocket monsters) of the world envrionment as presented in a fashion which is meant to be shared with other people to facilitate communication and friendship. At it's core, this is what Pokemon is; a struggle to improve yourself through mastery over the enviroment by following a rigid ruleset to improve your arsenal of monsters, which should be further improved by sharing your findings and tactics with other people.
When I first tried the game, I found it sort of overwhelming; I'm alone in a large world I don't understand, enslaving animals, fighting other people, unable to comprehend the vast rules, and feeling rather alone and helpless. How do these monsters grow? What do I do if I catch yet another Pikachu? Where do I go? What the **** are these radioactive stones? Why does everyone insist on fighting me?
See, from this perspective, the game can't possibly work. I was isolated in a game that, despite being somewhat solitary in nature, was truly meant to be shared with others who are on their own parallel paths. The creator of Pokemon, as this weeks readings suggests, designed the game so that players can and should interact with each other, trading monsters to strengthen their friends, and share notes on how to tackle tough areas. The heart of the game is the metagaming that happens with your friends and schoolmates outside of the game itself, and then each of the players follow their paths to become stronger as they're forearmed with this knowledge.
No wonder I didn't get it.
Yet, now that I understand the metagaming strategy, I see how unfortunately limited the current mechanic of the gameplay is. You guide your little avatar along, meeting up at PokeCenters where your IRL friends can connect to your handheld, and you interact in this fashion. A one-time connection to trade or battle really limits the inherent co-op paradigm that PokeMon should really be. If you're truly supposed to be interacting with others, then the rigid method of "arrive, connect, transact, disconnect, leave," is unnaturally parsed compared to how human interaction is, and keeps the player isolated.
Taking a minute to step back, let's look at the game world. The world of PokeMon has numerous groups which work together on some level: Team Rocket, Gym members, numerous professors, etc., who are working with others to achieve some goal. Currently, the players, though forearmed with knowledge from others, must still face each organization alone, and I think that this concept should change. If the game world offers some group or team affiliation, then this could also be implemented for players to enjoy.
Aside from fanboy nerdgasms of playing as a member of Team Rocket (which I'd totally do in a heartbeat), a team affiliation, much like guild status in Western MMO's like WoW or LotRO, would allow the user to have access to resources left behind by senior members of the group in a real-time environment. Instead of the cumbersome "meet, join, trade, disconnect, leave" method, having a Team Resource Hall (perhaps by using the Wii's Wi-Fi connectivity and SD memory card slot as a player-side server for those present) lets the users come and go as they please. The kids are going to play with each other anyway, usually in larger groups, so offering them a headquarters of their own could well give them a sense of community both in and out of the game world. Of course, this could allow competing Team events or whatever, but the core element of isolation in the PokeMon world would be reduced a bit.
Of course, as I'm waaaay behind in my PokeKnowledge, it could be possible that this in the works or already released, or that this is simply converts the game world into something too MMO-like for the PokePlayer's liking.
I dunno. These are just the ramblings of a lonely Lvl 34 Kung Fu Monkey (kicking type.)