Ever since the release of Pokmon Sword & Pokmon Shield?s official trailer, back in February 27th, the Pokmon community has been active in regards to the flagships of the 90-billion dollar franchise?s 8th generation of games. Following the success of Pokmon Ultra Sun & Moon, the last games of the portable era, expectations were at an all-time high not only due to the release of a new generation ? with new Pokmon, a new region in Galar, and new characters and worlds to explore ? but also because of the sheer ambition revolving around the first mainline games for the Nintendo Switch.
And when the trailers came out, the community united themselves in joy and anxiety. Memes and comics featuring the british-stereotyped characters swarmed social media, and Wooloo, the fluffy Pokmon, was the talk of the town. As far as everyone was concerned, these games were going to be the definitive stab at a new, consolidated Pokmon empire of AAA releases to compete with the very best. After the release of Nintendo Switch exclusive Pokmon Let?s Go Pikachu & Eevee, a title mostly made to test the waters and cater to the ?casual? audience, fans were watering at the mouth to see what Game Freak would put forth as the real deal.
So, then, came E3 2019? and all hell broke loose. So what exactly went wrong? Why are people fighting over the National Dex? And is it just the National Dex that is the point of contemption between fans, or is it a deeper, older, increasing frustration with the Pokmon franchise?s evolution since older years?
We?ll start from the beginning.
Nintendo?s presentation ? or, more accurately, the customary livestreaming of a Nintendo Direct specifically for E3 ? had the world mesmerized. Between moments like the announcement of a new Animal Crossing game, a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and long-awaited duo Banjo & Kazooie as DLC characters for Super Smash Bros: Ultimate, everyone was singing Nintendo?s praises and people closed their Twitch apps with a satisfied smile on their faces.
The same, however, could not be said for those who stuck around for the afterparty.
As per usual, Nintendo kept things running at their own channel with the Nintendo Treehouse stream. During a showcase of the new games, Junichi Masuda, director at Game Freak and usually the main spokesperson for Pokmon, announced that not all Pokmon from the current roster would be readily available in the games. As in, appear in the wild. That sounded fair, since no Pokmon title ever has included all of the 800+ critters in the game at the same time. Things got worse, however, when it was specified by Game Freak that ?no Pokmon from outside Galar?s regional dex will be able to make it in the game?, which is a complete devolution of the previous statement, because it means that these Pokmon technically won?t even exist to the new games.
Panel from ?Galar Border Shenaningans?, made by u/AbelHagen on Reddit. Full comic: https://new.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/c2g19t/galar_border_shenanigans_oc/
Why is the National Dex so important?
Pokmon games have always had a select pool of Pokmon available in-game, and the remainder coded into the ?National Dex? ? that is, the complete roster featuring all Pokmon, ever ? for when players who made it past a certain point in the games decided to carry over Pokmon from other games. That could happen for a myriad of reasons:
- Completionists may wish to have a ?Living Dex? in-game, which is a collection of every Pokmon in the game stored into your box;
- Competitive players may have bred/are breeding optimal Pokmon in past versions, and wish to either carry them onto the next generation to use them in online battles, or continue to breed and adjust them for the new metagame;
- Some players might be attached to a few favorite species of Pokmon, wishing to use them on their quest to glory in the main game itself.
There are a few other reasons why people have this sentiment towards the National Dex, but these are the more present ones.
The Pokmon games have mostly been advertised with the tagline ?Gotta Catch ?em All!?, which began as a mistranslation, but ended up sticking to the franchise through media and merchandise. This turn of events was regarded by many fans as plain betrayal to Pokmon?s core values, while some welcomed the ?change?.
After a while, Serebii.net, one of the most well-known sites for all information and news regarding Pokmon and famous for their early access to upcoming games? data, released a tentative list of all the Pokmon available in the new region, Galar, so far. As promised by Game Freak in the Treehouse, a select number of Pokmon from each of the seven previous generations have been picked to join the newer ones, but if the list is to be trusted ? and it generally is, as far as Serebii.net leaks go ? the main presence comes from ?Generation 1″, the ?classic 151?, and we?ll get to why this is controversial later on.
(NOTE: the Serebii.net list is updated with every new leak and/or trailer, and was last checked before this article?s publishing at August 15th, 2019)
Posted by u/BurgerSushi on the Pokmon subreddit
Such pandering, coupled with the straight-up blocking of Pokmon that are not in Galar?s regional Pokdex, has made fans angry because it shows complete disregard not only to ?catching ?em all?, but to their favorite Pokmon as well ? at least, for those whose favorites did not cross the border to Gen 8. Game Freak further explained that the ?purge? was done for the sake of ?balance?, to help level the field competitively by hand-picking which ?mons would make it in, and due to ?programming? and other technical reasons.
That statement is hard to believe; after all, the ?balancing? of the competitive metagame has been completely ignored by Game Freak generation after generation, with fans from the Smogon community being the ones to shoulder the responsibility and come up with battle formats, banlists and tiers to keep things running smoothly. Meanwhile, Game Freak has created things such as Mega Mewtwo X/Y, Mega Rayquaza, and other game-breaking and unbalanced Pokmon/moves/abilities that not only affected the metagame, but the games themselves. In Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, the 3DS remakes of Pokmon Ruby & Sapphire (2004), you?re even force-fed the Legendary Pokmon Latias or Latios, with their Mega Evolutions already accessible, into your team as early as the 5th badge.
It is hard to believe that now, all of a sudden, Game Freak has had a change of heart and suddenly cares about balancing the metagame. As early as 2 years ago, Pokmon Sun/Moon and Ultra Sun/Moon were sporting completely overpowered Z-Moves and the easily accessible Legendary Pokmon Ultra Necrozma, the very definition of ?overpowered?.
Of course, with 800+ Pokmon available, it?s obvious that some are more popular than others. That didn?t stop Game Freak from including all of them in Ultra Sun/Moon?s game code; and bear in mind that US/UM were both released for the much less powerful Nintendo 3DS. There is, at present, no tangible reason to actively keep Pokmon from being carried over to Gen 8, even if they?re not present as-is. Which lead us to Junichi Masuda?s answer to the fanbase. I strongly recommend that you read the entire thing before continuing; it?s not long.
As you can see, amidst all the blanket statements that are to be expected from corporate announcements, Masuda basically doubles down on what has been called ?Dexit? (a play on the equally british concept of Brexit, symbolizing Galar?s ?exit? from the National Dex), confirming that yes, the purge is real and your Pokmon aren?t making it in unless they?re picked by them.
But if the game is good, then what?
Even if the National Dex issue has become the most debated issue between fans, sparking the #BringBackTheNationalDex movement and arguments over the importance of featuring all 800+ Pokmon or not, there are equally alarming issues that have been brought up regarding the Pokmon Sword & Shield games themselves, separate from previous generations.
One of those issues is animation. For a game that?s supposed to represent the jump from portables to consoles, the array of animations available for both characters and Pokmon is nothing short of underwhelming; tons of images and videos have shown the precarities of both graphics and movement in Sword & Shield, such as this video by Cyber Shaman, which compares S&S?s imagery with that of N64 games such as Pokmon Stadium and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Posted by u/NekoPais on the Pokmon subreddit
A more recurring comparison on Reddit is between the animations of Sword & Shield, such as a model bouncing up and down while a cartoonish footprint appears on the other side for Double Kick, with the dynamic and vivid animations from 2006 release Pokmon Battle Revolution (Nintendo Wii).
Some argue in favor of Game Freak by saying it?s ?too much work? to animate 800+ Pokmon from scratch, and then port them over to Gen 8. But that?s not exactly true, and the answer comes from Game Freak themselves. Creatures, Inc., the entity responsible for making the 3D models of Pokmon for the 3DS games since X/Y, had reportedly made the models ?futureproofed? for Game Freak: this means they could be carried over from generation to generation, with no need to build said models from scratch. All that would need to be done is update the textures, like they did for the original 151 in Pokmon Let?s Go Pikachu & Eevee.
See? Futureproofed.
This ?futureproofing? is why the 7th generation games, Sun/Moon and Ultra Sun/Moon, used the same models from the 6th generation games. There was no need to make the models all over again ? it was all there to begin with. And if they managed to run (albeit in a bit of a dicey manner, with notable framerate issues) in a portable 3DS game, surely they can run on the Nintendo Switch ? a home console which can handle titles such as The Witcher III in 1080p with minimal to no lag.
Another criticism that?s worth mentioning pertains to how the game, which, again, was supposed to represent Pokmon?s grand entrance to the full HD, home-console realm, still looks like a 3DS game with somewhat updated textures. Even the NPCs? animations, as shown by the latest trailers, fall short except from cutscenes; where higher quality of animation is to be expected.
Source: https://www.newsweek.com/pokemon-sword-shield-mega-evolutions-z-moves-1443836
Adding fuel to the fire, Game Freak later confirmed their non-attachment to features by announcing that Mega Evolution, Z-Moves and a few other core mechanics, which have been present between the Gen 6 and Gen 7 games, will not be appearing in Gen 8. We?ll touch upon the feature issue later on as well, but just as an overview:
Mega Evolution specifically has been a divisive topic, since its lore and metagame value represented a major point of, well, evolution in the Pokmon franchise and was deemed simply too integral to the games to just ?vanish? like that. And, seeing as the Champion of Galar has a Charizard ? a Pokmon with two Mega Evolutions ? by his side in the trailers, it?s all a bit confusing to see. The equally quick introduction and removal of features between games has been a concern amongst the fanbase over the years, but the straws didn?t break the proverbial Camerupt?s back until this generation; be it for the rest of the game not compensating, be it for sheer exhaustion from so many years of resignation.
The substitute gimmicks for this generation are Dynamax ? a phenomenon where, as far as we currently know, a Pokmon increases its size by a lot and their moves become somewhat stronger ? and Gigantamax, where maybe some Pokmon could see form changes with the added bonus of? getting even taller.
Even if more is to be revealed, I find it hard to believe that ?making Pokmon bigger? is a more interesting mechanic than Z-Moves, let alone Mega Evolutions, which had lore behind them, incurred design and ability changes, and created better opportunities for (a few) underutilized Pokmon, aside from the redundant megas like Mewtwo?s and the pseudolegends?. This sort of flashy, but lazy content is trademark to Game Freak?s recent philosophy when it comes to Pokmon.
Growing pains
There has been an ever-growing cycle of mediocrity in Pokmon releases ever since the jump to 3D, with Pokmon X/Y, all the way back in 2013. There?s been issues with Game Freak?s development prowess as far as the Gold & Silver games in 2001, where Nintendo legend Satoru Iwata (RIP) reportedly had to go downstairs and help the GF developers because they weren?t able to compress the Johto region inside the game. Iwata not only managed to get Johto in, but also included an entire postgame in Kanto, the Red/Blue/Yellow region.
The issues with the evolution of Pokmon games are many, so let?s approach them in parts. There?s a method to this madness, I promise.
Source: https://www.thegamer.com/pokemon-kanto-things-forgotten/
Nostalgia pandering
It?s no surprise that, up until today, no other generation of Pokmon has managed to match the original 151?s popularity. To this day, the Gen 1 Pokmon are talked about everywhere, from Pikachu to Charizard, from the Nidorans to Eevee, from Vulpix to Lapras. In a world where media was present, but much less diverse, 90s kids were largely exposed to the same pool of influences as they grew up, and most grew up with the Pokmon anime and the Gen 1 games, Red/Blue/Yellow. Despite those games being an objective mess, both as RPGs and as games themselves with all the bugs and glitches, I?ll get maimed and burned in public if I dare say that other generations are better than the originals (which I grew up with).
Obviously, Gen 1 holds a special place in everyone?s hearts. That being said, the term ?genwunner? (e.g., ?A person who acts and judges solely on nostalgia, establishing a supremacy of Gen 1 over other generations with no evidence?), coined by the community itself, is evidence of how bothersome this nostalgia can be at times; and it gets worse with Game Freak?s obssession with referencing Gen 1 ever since the X/Y games.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knVTeJ4rYlI
Oh, there?s a ?Mega Evolution? in Gen 6 now? Cool, so are the Gen 6 starters getting them? No, but you?ll be force-fed one of the Gen 1 starters and they will get Mega Evolutions, effectively overshadowing your Gen 6 starter. Oh, there?s an area called Santalune Forest? And why is it so familiar? Well, it?s because it?s a literal carbon copy of Viridian Forest. And the wild Pokmon? Will I find unique ones in the early routes? Yeah, sure, one or two, but you?ll also find the same Pidgeys, Caterpies, Weedles, Magikarps and Geodudes you?ve found tens of times already in other games.
In Gen 7, things got arguably worse. Alolan Pokmon ? regional variants of already existing Pokmon ? were introduced as core elements for the Sun/Moon games, which got people excited. The Alolan Pokmon were basically redesigns of said Pokmon, both in appearance and in moveset, abilities and typing. There?s a number of Pokmon across the board who could use a little revamp, but guess what? Exactly. Only a few Pokmon from Gen 1 got Alolan Forms. Rattata/Raticate, Vulpix/Ninetales, Grimer/Muk, Diglett/Dugtrio, Raichu, Marowak, Exeggutor, Geodude/Graveler/Golem, Sandshrew/Sandslash, and Meowth/Persian, namely. All pretty much fan favorites for the nostalgic.
Here?s a perfectly skippable list of pandering nitpicks in Gen 7, just so you understand why the issue is being brought up at all:
- The main character and their mother came to Alola, the game?s region, from Kanto;
- Lusamine, the game?s final antagonist, goes with her daughter to get treatment in Kanto;
- Most, if not all of the exclusive Z-Moves are from Gen 1 Pokmon;
- Kanto gets a shoutout every few chunks of NPC dialogue along the game;
- In Malie Town, there?s a building called the ?Kantonian Gym?, made to resemble almost picture-perfectly the inside of Kanto?s Vermillion City Gym, and Malie Garden features a group of five people roleplaying as the Nugget Bridge trainers from Red/Blue/Yellow;
- A professor who appears during the game is literally called ?Oak? and has Professor Oak?s same build and face, but don?t worry, it?s totally not Prof. Oak, because this one has long hair, tanned skin and his name isn?t ?Samuel?, it?s ?Samson?;
- The cave connecting Heahea City to Konikoni City is called ?Diglett?s Tunnel?, which is, yep, you guessed it, a reference to Diglett?s Cave from Red/Blue/Yellow;
- At Battle Tree, during the post-game, you get to encounter Red (RBY?s protagonist) and Blue (AKA ?Gary?, your rival from the Gen 1 games) and even battle against them.
Is referencing your most popular generation ever a bad thing? Absolutely not. Like it or not, Pikachu is the face of the franchise, Gengar is the go-to Ghost Pokmon, and somewhere out there, someone?s making a joke involving Zapdos after hearing thunder outside. The issue is just that, well, it?s not really nostalgia if you keep ressucitating the same corpse every six months, is it? So far, we?ve been in Kanto for a grand total of 5 generations:
- Red/Blue/Yellow, the originals;
- Gold/Silver/Crystal, where a watered-down version of Kanto is featured in post-game;
- Fire Red/Leaf Green, the Gen 3 remakes of Gen 1;
- Heart Gold/Soul Silver, the Gen 4 remakes of Gen 2, where the Kanto postgame has a lot more content;
- Pokmon Let?s Go! Pikachu/Eevee, the latest Nintendo Switch game.
Counting individual games, that?s 12 games featuring or based in Kanto. Do people not get tired of seeing Cerulean City every single time they play? In that same vein, the people who grew up with ? or are fans of ? Gen 4?s games, Pearl/Diamond/Platinum, have been patiently waiting (10 years, to be precise) for a remake in Nintendo Switch glory; only to be met with yet another return to Gen 1 and the ?original 151?.
Edit source: https://imakuni.tumblr.com/post/177534440396/imakuni-n-when-i-tell-him-i-want-to-put-pocky (It?s amazing, lol)
A change in philosophy
The more hardcore Pokmon fans knew this part was coming, and some of them are already groaning in irritation, but it?s necessary to talk about the Gen 5 issue, or, as my brother called it, ?The Original Sin?. (disclaimer: he disagrees with me, but the name is awesome so I kept it)
The 5th generation games, Pokmon Black/White and Black 2/White 2, were games that, like it or not, were pretty ambitious. These games focused on the story a great deal more than previous games, featuring morality plot points, a bit of philosophy here and there, actual danger to the protagonist themselves and the world around them, and a rich region in Unova, with tons of caves, paths, nooks and crannies to inspect.
Black/White specifically also restricted itself to containing only Gen 5 Pokmon at first, letting you see and catch other generations? Pokmon only after beating the Elite Four. Black 2/White 2 made the game feel less linear in the way you go about exploring Unova, introduced a lot of new places to explore, included a lot of other gens? Pokmon in the wild from start, and even introduced two features which should?ve never left the franchise at all: Easy and Challenge Mode, where you can actually set a difficulty level for your run, and the Habitat List, which was a subsection of the Pokdex that showed every Pokmon species available in a particular area (encouraging you to, well, catch them all).
I could go on and on about Gen 5?s features, but the fact of the matter is: it was a high-risk approach, and sadly, the fanbase did not appreciate it at the time. Nowadays, you?ll find a lot of Gen 5 fans, but at the time, Pokmon Black/White were bashed like no other version has been before, especially due to their decision of not featuring Gen 1 icons like Pikachu and Charizard early on, preferring to prioritize what fans jokingly called ?bootleg Pokmon? ? a reference to how some designs and typings of Gen 5?s roster were similar to Gen 1?s. The focus on the plot did not impress as much early on either, with many voicing opinions such as ?lmao, imagine caring about plot in a Pokmon game?, and ?I only play Pokmon for the competitive?.
These voices are, truly and for all purposes, minorities???maybe not everyone is super invested in a Pokmon game?s plot, but it?s not like everyone picks up a game already wanting to skip into the postgame and EV train a VGC challenger team. Nevertheless, they were the loudest back then, and as a result, Gen 5?s legacy was tainted for years to come. This is pure speculation on my part, and I?ll never claim it to be anything else, but it?s curious how this was the aforementioned Junichi Masuda?s big project and, after all the criticism for focusing on plot, not being tied to the past, and all the ambitious features? every single game that came out afterwards featured lazy storylines, nostalgia pandering and a general lack of ambition.
On mediocrity
I?ve said earlier in this article that all of this is related to the fanbase?s anger at Sword and Shield. Don?t worry, this is the final part.
Like I said, ever since Pokmon X/Y in 2013, there?s been an increase in flashiness and a decrease in substance throughout Pokmon. X/Y?s rival team, Team Flare, is (according to a number of polls, threads and online discussions throughout Reddit, GameFAQs, Bulbapedia, Nuzlocke Forums and social media) the worst of all teams, including their boss, Lysandre. The side-characters, Calem/Serena, Shauna, Tierno and Trevor, are seen more as constant annoyances instead of rivals or friends like Cheren/Bianca, or Barry, or even Blue and Silver. Mega Evolution, while being the saving grace of the game, did not make too much of an impression until Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire.
Up until Gen 5, Legendary Pokmon had separate maps, or events with dialogue, lore, and actual storylines around them for the most part. Many fans remember going to Sinjoh Ruins to face Arceus, exploring the depths of Cerulean Cave to go after Mewtwo, or solving Deoxys? puzzle in Birth Island. In Gen 6, however, things took a turn for the bland:
- Mewtwo is just sitting there inside a tiny, barren, devoid of life cave called ?Unknown Dungeon? (Cerulean Cave?s original name, because of course, pandering to Gen 1 yet again is more important than making a decent cave);
- Hoopa, one of the 6th generation?s Mythical Pokmon, is literally just? given to you via Mystery Gift and, unless you bother to look it up online, you?ll never know that a NPC has just appeared at Parfum Palace to tell you Hoopa?s lore. The game does not mention this at all;
- Even Zygarde, supposedly the strongest Legendary Pokmon of the region lore-wise, is given almost 0% attention other than a dungeon. Instead, Zygarde is shoehorned into Sun/Moon with a tiny speck of exposition, and scrapped entirely in Ultra Sun/Moon aside from a purposeless postgame encounter.
In Gen 7, the blandness was adressed in the same way a person hides a scar with makeup. Mega Evolutions went from forefront mechanics to postgame content, being replaced by the aforementioned Z-Moves; while fun mechanics, they added little to the gameplay other than make battles even more easy and/or unbalanced. Gen 6?s mechanics, such as O-Powers, got the boot and Pokmon-Amie became ?Pokmon Refresh?, a literal reskin of the previous, only with the added feature of healing status conditions without using items. As if the games needed to be any easier. Super Training also was replaced with one of the many islands of Pok Pelago, for example, and Festival Plaza is a slower and more complicated Join Avenue (from Black 2/White 2).
As mentioned before, the focus shifted from ?making content and producing an experience? to a rapid-fire rotation and introduction of features, in a rhythm not unlike those of gacha games. Things started to become disposable, shallow and flashy for the sake of appealing to the impressionable or instantly grateful. One?s like a restaurant, while the other is like fast-food. (not really a good analogy, since I love fast-food, but uhhh anyway you get the picture)
Speaking of Gen 7; the rival literally picks the starter weak to your starter, as opposed to every other game where they tried to pose an actual challenge early on. Team Skull and the Aether Foundation + Lusamine as villains actually provoked positive responses (like mine) in Sun/Moon, but Ultra Sun/Moon came and threw it all out the window for the sake of a more kid-friendly narrative where the villain is no one. Except the person with frozen Pokmon in her basement and a history of emotionally abusing her children, but that?s okay, because she had noble reasons for being crazy and all is forgiven after beating a legendary dragon!!! Sigh.
Layout source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnstyx0o8FE
Lastly, adding to the Legendary issue from the previous generation: Sun/Moon did things the right way by centering the plot around Solgaleo/Lunala, and introduced a whole postgame, top-secret, Interpol-esque Ultra Beast hunt. Unfortunately, that?s it. The entirely forgettable Magearna is a gift you get in an even lazier fashion than Gen 6; and Necrozma, who would become Ultra Sun/Moon?s main Legendary, is just mentioned in passing and has a simple find-and-catch segment, because it?s supposed to be a teaser for US/UM. Then, the games came out, and? ugh?
Solgaleo and Lunala have their places cemented, and Necrozma has a? respectable focus, and is actually the only really challenging battle in the franchise since Cynthia in Gen 4. But really, the plot becomes such a mangled mess at that point that it?s questionable whether they handled Necrozma the right way or not. And the Ultra Beasts follow mostly suit; the hunt from S/M is replaced by each UB having their own little pocket dimension, but you have to go through an annoying, repetitive minigame to have a chance of getting to each of them. That?s leaving aside Marshadow and Zeraora, who, following Magearna?s footsteps, are just soulless event gifts.
The aforementioned minigame is, of course, Ultra Wormhole, where you can catch every single one of the Legendary Pokmon from other generations?! Provided that RNG is on your side in this minigame, obviously. Pokmon succumbed to the sad trend of most modern RPGs and RPG-esque games including RNG replayable quests to maximize playtime, not unlike Dragonball Xenoverse 2, for example. This is taking Gen 6?s issue of oversimplified or outright lack of Legendary events, and proposing a solution to the problem which actually makes it worse. But it falls in line with everything that Pokmon has become since the jump to the 3DS, and therein lies the issue. People got tired.
I, for one, took the bait hard and defended Gen 7 until I realized? it?s not that great, honestly. It has replay value for me, but that?s because I?m crazy about Pokmon. I can only imagine how it is for people who?re not too sold on the newer games. There?s also the issue of how Ultra Sun/Moon came out only half a year after Sun/Moon promising more features and a few fixes of Sun/Moon?s issues; so, unlike, say, Black 2/White 2, Ultra Sun/Moon were not viewed as sequels, but rather, the finished product of Gen 7, meaning we paid for two full-priced games when we could?ve just? not played Sun/Moon altogether. The only thing we?d miss is a better (or? less worse) storyline.
Source: https://twitter.com/LeighPouse/status/1140578644777144321/photo/1
So when you have progressively mediocre games, year after year, Gen after Gen, and then the almighty Nintendo Switch games come out without a National Dex, without Mega Evolution, with lazy animations and ?Pokmon are big now? as the new gimmick? well, even the most accepting and carefree fan might feel disappointed. And that?s where all the complaints come from. This is the origin of the backlash.
One last thing before we finish up here, real quick:
Toxicity
This is a point that needs to be addressed, and a bit of a self-critique as well.
In the end, Pokmon is just a game. We cannot really control how the franchise is going to move forward, not even if half the fanbase ?votes with their wallet? and ignores Sword/Shield. Obviously, the fans love the franchise, and the hardcore fans love it so much that being this disappointed, not to mention wary about the future, can often lead to confusion and anger. And, well, not too many people handle anger very well when they?re online.
I?ve been a hard critic of Masuda?s statements ever since he said people don?t care about games too much because they have smartphones. But he?s a human being. A person. And, well, it sickens me to my stomach that people somehow think it?s a good idea to promote hashtags such as #HangMasuda and send death threats to him over a Pokmon game. This is less a gaming-exclusive problem and more relevant to the many discussions we have about how anger-driven our post-modern world is, and the kind of people it raises.
The more pressing issue aside, far too often we?ll run into fans battling it out on Twitter replies or such, spamming hashtags. You got the #BringBackTheNationalDex people, and the counterculture which IIRC uses #DontBringBackTheNationalDex (really long tag there). Stating your opinion is fine; a protest is not a protest when it?s done in a convenient way for the protested. But people have to understand that disagreeing is not attacking. If you say #BringBackTheNationalDex, and someone says #DontBringBackTheNationalDex, it ends there unless you want to have a civil debate about your viewpoints. There?s absolutely no need to beg for heads to roll, to call people ?corporate shills? or ?entitled fans?.
In the end, well, it?s just a game.
(says the guy writing a whole damn dossier about it, lmao)
