(The tl;dr companion video to this article):

Ever have one of those days where the hits just keep on coming?


Sadly, it feels like that was kind of a day one thing for me

While I have greatly enjoyed my time with Pokémon Pokopia thus far, and may yet find value in posting random one off articles in the future about it, dependent on what random fascinations beget me involving the games future, I feel quite satisfied with how much I covered the title in the last week, so I will likely leave it there for a bit. I don’t mind covering games to a considerable degree, as long as the creative juices are flowing, very much like I did with Silksong last year around this time, and GoldenEye 64 earlier this year, but not every game needs to be a month long event with equal coverage to boot. I’ve already mentioned that my early impressions of what Pokopia has to offer, leads me to believe the game is going to have serious legs, which will likely even translate to a full blown series down the road, though Nintendo has already vowed to release multiple content packs for Pokopia in its current form, including an expansion called Bubbly Basin that just came out this month, so fans of the game have a lot to look forward to, I gather.

Though Pokopia is a spin-off title from the mainline series, as a fan of Animal Crossing, it scratches that ideal itch that yearns for the cosy, and the metaphysical snuggling up process on offer with Pokopia is divine. This is of course bias coming from someone who would be classified as an elder millennial, who was also a former Poke Addict in their youth, so take it all with a grain of salt, but the game has seen a lot of positive feedback, so I’m definitely not the only one who sees the fuzzy and warm potential in the experience. This all kind of tracks, cause even though c doesn’t always hit it out of the park with spin-off titles being of the highest quality, like most of commerce, it ends up being a numbers game, and if you have the capital to throw enough shit at the wall, something will stick, and there’s a whole lot of shit flinging coming from the Pokémon company on a near constant basis.

That last bit was kind of a mixed metaphor in terms of vibes, cause overall, the company manages a whole lot in terms of merchandising, even to the point where Pokémon is the number one highest grossing consumer franchise of all time, sitting around three hundred billion dollars worth of sales, which even beats out something as massive as Star Wars by more than three times the amount. I don’t usually concern myself with numbers, as I’m no stock holder nor bean counter, but there are occasions where one must be reminded of the absolutely mammoth size of an operation, to be pleasantly surprised that something of quality, like Pokopia, can still be produced, revealing that the entire thing isn’t just the grossest race to the bottom littered with no-effort products and endless cash grabs….because they probably could lean harder into that, and little would change, sadly.

I suppose I’m just relieved that the Pokémon name within the gaming space isn’t completely tarnished, with even some spin-offs sporting some quality content, like Pokopia, and though it is a mobile game, its undeniable that Pokémon Go felt like lightning in a bottle when it initially launched, and has grown a lot in its ten years on the market as well, with new content updates even coming out to celebrate its tenth anniversary, including a chance to get a Mewtwo, so you know, kind of cool. Which is good something is working within the gaming space, as I’ve touched on in the past on ATE, my gross disinterest in the series, ever since I felt Game Freak completely dropped the ball with Scarlet and Violet, which felt like not only rushed messes, but veered too far into the “Breath of the Wild” territory of design face lifts that the series never needed in the first place.

I know that Nintendo/Game Freak eventually released a Switch 2 upgrade for Violet and Scarlet, as they did with many of their more popular titles, as it made sense all things considered, for a bunch of obvious reasons I don’t feel the need to explain. However, I was still actively shitting all over the Switch 2 launch last year when it happened, as I greatly rejected the notion of the console quite early on, for financially related reasons, a lack of software, and sneaking suspicion the Switch 2 was going to illicit the same humdrum feelings both the PS5 and Xbox Series X did when I acquired both next gen systems, even after much delay. All that to say…utterly non-plussed by their severe lack of inherent offerings, and as I’ve mentioned in the past, probably the least substantial and most disappointing leap forwards in terms of generational shifts in console history. Of course, since I play games all the time, I use all three of my current gen systems (Switch 2, PS5, XsX) every week, and maybe close to every day, but just because I have personal tendencies towards video games within my daily machinations, doesn’t change the lukewarm response I have to their overall lacking standard.

On occasion, I may drop a truth bomb I’m particularly proud of, due to my romantic flirtations within the realm of the philosophical, and the length of time I’ve spent in the gaming world (more than a third of a century at this point), but I won’t pretend that my next point is anything original in its mention, in that one of the reasons I think these new lot of consoles kind of fall by the wayside of excitement is due to the fact that new tech is just not exciting anymore. I speak from the position of one lacking in financial privilege of course, so perhaps someone with more dosh lying around, like the DINKs of the world (dual income, no kids) are completely unphased at the skyrocketing prices due to a host of economic factors, but like the majority of consumers, my wallet is empty, as is the supposed meaning behind new tech, in completely failing to translate to anything of benefit on the user end, and usually just represents a way to milk the user for more of the same, while ultimately having increasingly more invasive technology invade your privacy, while coming up with shittier subscription models to keep you paying until the day you die.

I know the economic trends dont live or die based on my preferences, and major multinational corporations will do whatever is the most profitable, but my hope is that the collective are on the same page, when I say for the sake of everyone involved, we should all drag this generation out as much as possible, so that by the next time we release new consoles, there may be, at base level, a stabilized economy in which to release said new consoles out into the wild with, but also so that the leap forward will represent something considerable and actually impressive this time around. Especially when one considers how long AAA games take to develop these days, devs need more time to get games out there, so pretending otherwise is just asking for trouble, especially when that delusion translates to moments related to expecting insane turn arounds on project with unrealistic profits tied to them, which ultimately reinforces a grind culture mentality, and negatively affects both the physical and mental well being of workers within the industry, equating to a non-sustainable business model, and the way these things are handled will need to change going forward. By change, I meant with an organic element involved of course, as the more companies continue to push AI in toxic and counter intuitive ways, that continue to increase lay offs and fuck over real people, we will continue the slow slide into abysmal tendencies that will continue to completely screw this industry over.

Honestly, I had a totally different direction I was going to take this article in, but I guess my subconscious wanted to riff on the current state of gaming, so here we are. I’ll follow up on my original idea tomorrow, and begin my next project here very soon in the near future, which I think will act as another surprising tonal shift of coverage from what Pokémon Pokopia has been all about.

Till then.

~Pashford