Pokémon.
Just the name of this legendary franchise can bring back a flood of memories for any child or child-at-heart of the nineties. There was no way to gauge the utter obsession that would sweep the world upon the release of those little plastic Game Boy cartridges; it was a societal fascination that rivaled the greatest trends of the past decades, and even in recent years, continues to captivate its audiences. But how did this craze sweep the gaming world so fast? And what impact did it have on our culture, both as a society, and as gamers? With more than a little of my own excitement, I looked into these questions.
Pokémon was the ambitious idea of Satoshi Tajiri, an avid bug collector and follower of the still relatively infant videogame scene in the late eighties and early nineties. He was particularly intrigued by the recently released Game Boy, and the link cable functionality that it possessed. The cable itself had a significant impact on the gaming culture, as it allowed two players to link up their Game Boys and play a game together on two separate systems. Up until then though, the cable had only been used as a means of competition.
Tajiri saw another potential. He imagined a game where cooperative trading took the place of combat as the primary focus of the link system. He sought to combine this aspect of gaming with his love of his bug-catching hobby. So, with this idea of trading digital bugs and pets as a basis for design, he founded a game development team called Game Freak in 1989. The original release of Pokémon was six years in making. During this long development time, Satoshi Tijiri had time to refine and re-imagine his original dream. When he finally released his project to the Japanese public in 1996, and two years later to the rest of the world, the response was nothing short of fanatical.
It seemed as if overnight, Pokémon became the newest “gotta have it” toy of the decade. It moved Game Boys like no other game before it had, and it swept the gaming and youth culture. Teachers in schools began complaining that kids were bringing the games into class to play during lessons. An entire line of trading cards, cartoons, movies, clothes, toys, and other, offshoot videogames followed soon after Pokémon’s initial release. It was impossible to deny that is was a phenomenon. But what was it about Satoshi Tijiri’s new game that enthralled its players so much? Well, let’s look at the game itself.
Tijiri envisioned a world that was inhabited by millions of the titular creatures, the vast majority of them caricatures of real world animal counterparts, as well as the ‘trainers’ who caught and raised them. The player’s goal, as one of these trainers, was to travel the world, seeking to capture and train all 151 of the creatures. It was a simple concept, but the scope of it was unprecedented at the time, and the mechanics of the game truly breathed life into an area of gaming not yet tapped.
In order to promote trading of the creatures between players, the game would be released in two separate, yet very similar versions (Red and Green in Japan, Red and Blue in America). The game would be very much the same in both editions of Pokémon, with the only difference being the absence of a handful of creatures from each version, and their presence in their counterpart edition. So, in order to obtain all 151 Pokémon, one would have to seek out an owner of the opposite version and offer a trade. In addition, there were several points during the role-playing game where the player was forced to make a one-way, exclusive choice between two different Pokémon. Even the very beginning of the player’s adventure, where he or she would choose a ‘starting’ Pokémon from three choices, would ensure that the player would need to trade with at least two other people who chose a different starter. All of these design decisions were made to promote the trading mechanic of the game, and they paid off brilliantly.
There was suddenly a new incentive to game socially with others. From my own personal experience, I can remember that playing the game and trading with others suddenly became the reason to invite friends over to play, replacing the more traditional friend-centric activities of watching cartoons, basketball, board games, etc. On the bus to school, new friends were made as soon as the recognizable tone of the Game Freak logo sounded over the tinny speaker of a Game Boy as someone started the game up. The sorry few that didn’t catch on to the fad found themselves to be at least a little left out as conversations, recess, reports, show-and-tell, and every other form of elementary school expression became centered around the new game.
And psychologically, the game was nothing short of endearing. Players often would form emotional bonds with their tiny virtual pets, watching them grow like a real animal as they were trained, steadfastly refusing to trade them to others, or even let them be borrowed for fear of losing them. The game’s story itself was very customizable for the time, allowing the player to name their in-game character, their rival, and their Pokémon, lending a sense of personal investment and uniqueness to the gaming experience. The supporting systems of the gameplay – the game’s economy, for instance – struck the perfect balance between being deep enough to engage a young player’s interest, yet simple enough not to drive them away with complexity.
Perhaps most of all though, the simple yet timeless nature of game world drew players in and captured them. The entire concept was based around viewing a new and wonderful world from the eyes of a young kid (the player’s character is ten years old), and striking out to fulfill one’s own goals and dreams. It appealed to the child in everyone.
All of these factors which made up the game Pokémon made it a landmark in video game history. It wasn’t the pioneer of most of the concepts in the game (roleplaying, battling for experience, collecting, etc.), but it combined all of those aspects so well with the new concept of trading to create a truly memorable game. If nothing else, its impact can be judged simply by looking around today. Although perhaps not as utterly obsessive as in its golden years, Pokémon is still a popular franchise in every respect. And it doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.
Source: http://www.gamingtarget.com/article.php?artid=6531
No comments:
Post a Comment