I've never felt more connected and disconnected with my smallest family members than talking Pokémon. "Fuck yeah I know Pikachu, let's go Chraizard, let me tell you about the beast that is Swampert, me and the folks used to ban legendaries and Garchomp and.... What the fuck is a super-size Gigantamax Velaryon-Z mode Gizzantex-o?
Maybe it's always been a gambling addiction, i dont really know. My kids (and their whole school) don't play, but they buy and trade like they think they will make money. Some look up prices on TCG, some don't. They think alt art, misprints, and the one good card you get per pack is worth gold. I only let them buy with money they make.
To a certain extent it's always been a thing, but the wave of streamers and the like getting way too into a couple years back definitely boosted it.
It's the same with any fad, spectacle + interaction + collectables + artificial scarcity, and baby we've got a grift going.
The only thing that matters though is if the consumer believes the value they get out of the grift is worth the money they put in. Pokemon is a good grift.
Ok, but pokemon is $35,600,000,000 ahead of the next biggest media franchise ever. While I don't know every single name on the list down to $1B, none that I know are based on catch them all and mostly children gambling.
Want a card? Buy a pack. Get the card you wanted? No. Buy another pack.
Yeah, what's your point? We're not talking about all media, we're talking about tcg's and collectable fads, you know, the subject of the posted meme and comment thread? It was your comment!?
Honest question, in media franchises, to what would you compare the pokemon gift?
Bayblade, Magic the Gathering, Digimon, Yugioh, Pogs, baseball cards.
Basically anything that has a randomised collectible component that you can't purchase individually from the provider is gambling.
Same, it's like a 50/50 chance I'll know the pikemon they're talking about.
Gigantamax is just a form they can take that makes them huge, just like mega evolutions back in the day. There’s also EX formes, V, V star and a few others. It’s just alternative forms for that generation, it’s really not that hard to grasp
just like mega evolutions back in the day
Which day was that? I played Yellow, Gold, and Ruby/Sapphire and have never heard of mega evolutions. Though I did know of gigantamax since I bought sword and shield for my niece and myself.
Yeah i feel like mega evolutions came about around the black and white days.... definitely not "back in the day"
They’ve been in the game for over 10 years, so maybe that’s not in “your day” it’s been around for an entire decade.
I feel so old because Pokémon was neat and all, but it was late to the party. We already had years of MTG and even Star Wars CCG. We played the RYB carts on GB, but I was rocking my Nightmare and Leviathan well before my Mewtwo and Charizard.
Yeah I hate when young children try to tell me about their interests fuck them I'm smarter
If children were so smart, why are they still children?
Kids these days don't know how good they have it. They have over 1000 Pokemon to choose from. Back in my day, we only had 150 Pokemon and most of the good ones were psychic.
I'd pretend I didn't know about Pokemon unless asked because my image of Pokemon is very different to their new eyes. Don't wanna ruin it for them, you know?
Sad Lion