Pocket Monsters in Your Backyard

Pokemon & Pokemon Go

3/3/2019

Pokémon, the crazy little creatures that popped into the world of child play back in 1996 have come to life!  I admit, back in 1999 when the game came to the U.S. I never thought we’d see a day when these little guys could be spotted in the underbrush of a park, or hanging out in a lake.  A day when all you’d have to do was spin your finger in a circle on your phone, then push it straight to the top, and throw your pokeball to see if you captured it.  What in the world am I talking about?  Well, let’s step back in time a couple of decades…

Pokémon were born in Japan, the brainchild of Satoshi Tajiri whose obsession with catching insects and tadpoles eventually led him to want to share his passion with other children in the form of a video game.1  Through a combination of his vision of insects traveling to his Game Boy along the Game Link Cable, and the concept of monsters living within small capsules in one of his favorite fantasy television shows Ultraman, he birthed the concept.  After navigating through a number attempts to get Nintendo’s attention, a name change from Capsule Monster to Pocket Monsters, and an almost broke company, the game was introduced on the Game Boy platform with Mew as the star.  As the game grew additional versions were released, Pokémon Red, then Pokémon Green, then Blue.  Children begged to purchase one iteration after the next, and parents scratched their heads in amazement at the marketing wonder.  They could hardly have imagined what would follow.  A card game, followed by TV shows, movies, and a phone app to tap into the mobile world encouraging kids to get up and move, as they pulled yet another generation into the craze.

How does it work, what’s the catch?  There are eighteen types of Pokémon to collect including Grass, Fire, Water, Bugs, & Electric, and like kids they can be quite unpredictable!  The video below reveals Ash, a well-known Pokémon trainer from the Anime cartoons, had quite the time with his first Pokémon, Pikachu2.   

Pikachu is likely the best known Pokémon, who could blame kids for falling in love with him he’s cute, wouldn’t you want to be electrifying?!

Humans can’t go to a Pokémon Gym to select our first Pokémon, you either get a random selection of them in a card pack, you select one at the start of a video game, or you catch them in the “wilds” of your back yard if you play Pokémon Go on your phone. 

The introductory video for Starter Squad 3, a new game coming out in 2019, gives you a look into selecting your first Pokémon in the video game.  Careful though, it’s a long video if you get lost in Poke-world and watch the whole thing! 

The name of the game is collecting them which allows you to switch types of Pokémon while battling.  To catch them you throw a pokeball at the little creature and if you catch it the ball settles down and it stays, if it is stronger than you/the poke ball it releases itself, and takes off.  Click the photo below to watch the catching of a Spearow on Bulbapedia4, or click this link to review the website.  

From that point on the rules in video game world and the card game vary but generally the idea is that you work to create a relationship with them through moving around the game to create a bond, foster, and teach.  Once you have their loyalty, you battle other trainers and evolve them into stronger more powerful versions of themselves.  Yes battles, because there has to be some kind of competition or struggle to rise to the top and make a game a good one, no?

Evolving Pokémon is accomplished by using stones you find in the game or challenging another trainer to a battle where each person selects one of their Pokémon and based on their powers, experience, and strength, you can change out your Pokémon mid-game, but in the end one trainer wins the battle.  This increases your Pokémon’s experience, which eventually levels them up to the next higher form.  

Bulbasaur is a grass Pokémon with poison as his power. He evolves from Bulbasaur to Ivysaur, to Venusaur as he “levels up” through battles to become more powerful.2   

Pichu, evolves to Pikachu, with a third evolution to Raichu who is both electric and psychic!

 

 

Now you can enter their world, or it could be said that they enter ours, as you chase them about the country looking for rare ones and collecting multiples to redeem and evolve them either just “say you did it”, or to take them to a “gym” to battle with other players in a virtual environment.  In this version the designers seem to have also incorporated releasing different Pokémon in different parts of the country, often corresponding type of Pokémon that would live in that location.  Forest dwellers are more often in the mountains and water Pokémon more often near a lake, river or ocean.

Is it a search and find, collecting, parenting for kids, or a game of quests to collect, battle, and level your Pokémon?  I’m not sure, but the concept is engaging, brilliant, and it captured the attention of a generation or two of kids as they entered the world of digital play.  Although educational insect connection was lost long ago there are definitely elements of collaboration, communication, strategy, critical thinking, and social connection tied in.  It’s a parent’s dream if they have the nerve to tap in and play with their kids, wandering about the city, county, state, or country looking for, and talking about, Pokémon. It’s conversation and bonding, “hey we’re by a lake, what kind of Pokémon will we catch here?  Likely water Pokémon, ‘eh?!  Which ones were those?”  It’s also worthy to mention that with so many others looking for Pokémon in parks and other places, that interaction with others is easy and entertaining, as someone yells from across the park “Hey, there’s a Charizard over here!”  Siyahhan and Gee (2018) focus on the value of parental play in video games in Families At Play5, I think they would be on board with supporting the Pokémon Go cause!  It encourages many of the ideals they focus on and has the potential for both vertical and horizontal play.

Even if you just catch and evolve them you’re exercising, engaging, discussing, seeing new places, and investing in your child.  The hardest part is staying alert, watching for traffic, not entering dangerous areas, and staying off private property as they warn you about when you crank up the game. Apparently it’s bad form to run through your neighbors yard chasing an invisible Pokémon.  Who knows, maybe if you showed it to them they’d join you?!

 

For me, well with my sons only visiting occasionally now I don’t search for Pokémon anymore, I suppose I could go find them in Estes but they really don’t come wandering by my front door since there are few players, if any, in this area.

A Pokeball with a highly treasured gold Charizard card and certificate inside.  Burger King gave these, and gold cards for many different types of Pokémon, away in kid’s meals around 1999.

Resources 

1. The World of Pokm̌on. (2018). Lernerclassroom.
2. Shippiddge. (2018, October 25). Starter Squad – Episodes 1-8. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPyPsGJ8UK8
3. History of Pokémon. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/History_of_Pokémon
4. History of Pokémon. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/History_of_Pokémon 
5. Pokémon Database. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pokemondb.net/ 
6. Siyahhan, S., & Gee, E. (2018). Families at play connecting and learning through video games. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.