Play

Play and Pokemon Red

My experience with play this week also incorporated a lot of nostalgia. I was able to find and play through a version of Pokemon Red, the first entry in the Pokemon franchise back in 1996, though not my first experience with the games when I was growing up. Though I have experienced the game more recently than I’d probably like to readily admit, it had still been some time and considering the game a bit more analytically was a fresh experience. All video games have rules, whether explicit or unwritten, and most have objectives the player needs to complete in order to win. Games like Pokemon offer kids the chance to experience both the advantages and limitations of rules, and what, for them, defines winning.

Pokemon’s original premise, and it’s entire marketing campaign (“Gotta catch ‘em all”) is based around the idea of collecting the various types, totaling 150 in the original series. But there are other dynamics at work. The in-game credits don’t actually roll until the player has battled his/her way to the top and become the Pokemon champion. As part of the story, the player is caught up in a quest to stop an evil organization, Team Rocket, from fulfilling their schemes. For others, Pokemon is simply a fun social experience, with options existing for playing against or trading with friends.

The distinct aspects of the game—completing the Pokedex,becoming champion, fighting evil, and playing with friends—remain the pillars of the franchise amidst lots of other changes it has undergone. Players are free to choose what winning means for them and what kind of character they want to be: researcher, champion, hero, or social. Developing in any of these areas requires achieving certain objectives, but it isn’t necessary to master every aspect in order to complete the others.

Games can be valuable tools to teach children about life, but have inherent limitation. Sometimes playing by the rules is important, but at others, a game’s necessarily limited possibilities eventually inhibit a child’s ability to think “outside the box.” Pokemon, while certainly still limited by this kind of restriction, offers children with differing values, interests, and personality types a chance to define for themselves what winning means to them.