Last updated 6/18/09



Monday, June 2, 2008

Pokemon Blood

I'll admit, when Pocket Monsters first came to America, I bit. Back then, there was something unique and alluring about capturing weird animal-creatures, training them, battling and trading them. This was back in the day before wifi for handheld games, so there was also something social about it. You'd play the game, make opportunity cost-driven decisions (do I evolve my eevee into a flareon or jolteon [vaporeon was for wimps]), and then fill in the gaps by trading with other nerdy kids. While I can say those days are far behind me, there are still some who give in to what I can only call "the craze." I'm not going to name names, but being able to dominate a trivia packet with a Pokemon theme scares me mightily.
As the good Book says, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." So it should probably be with Pokemon, but each to his own. It's important to hold onto our childhoods, right? In that way, I still allow myself to laugh at Pokemon-related things. It's one such item that makes me appreciate Daniel Day-Lewis all the more. Now I need to watch There Will Be Blood.

'Til later, then.

4 comments:

Gobbler said...

I need something better to do than berate all of your postings. But yeah, how is magic any better? Nerd.

Anonymous said...

I just watched "There Will Be Blood" with Danielle last night...it was pretty interesting. Admittedly, I was watching it just for the last part of the movie (milkshake scene...and it was pretty awesome).

Anyways, Pokemon=awesome.

Anonymous said...

I wish someone would write a Pokemon For Dummies guide. It's the hot thing right now for 5-6 year olds, but none can explain the rationale behind the trading. I think they do it how I choose wine - the prettier the card (or bottle label) the more desirable it is. Who knows/cares what it's really worth!

Blue Shoe said...

Indeed. With Pokemon there's a kind of pecking order, too. Each one has a different "type" or "element" which is strong or weak against other types. Also, certain ones are much more rare than others. So one tries to build a well-balanced team, so to speak, or a team of rare all-stars. I think that's part of the appeal.