Stupid people

[farla]

One of the interesting things about my heavily gamebased fanfics is that anything that accuses the player of not caring about pokemon seems to inevitably lead to a spat of reviews in which other people claim it's not true.

These usually disturb me because the reviewers sound batshit insane, and I'd like to go on with my life without the knowledge there are actually nutcases who form deep bonds with their little pixels. I can see liking the game, liking certain pokemon species, even liking a particular pokemon that wins a lot. Start talking about how they're your actual friends though, and I start hoping you're already institutionalized.

But after getting back from a conversation with the most recent of these, I find there's another alternative which seems more plausible.

Basically, when I say something to the effect of 'So let's admit it everyone, we're just playing a game, and all that stuff it says about caring and kindness isn't true because none of us really act like that', people take it as a personal attack and promptly deny it. It's never occurred to them before, they've never done anything contrary to this, but the moment I suggest it, their hearts fill with love for their pokemon and hurt that I could think otherwise.

I'd like to take a moment to thank the comics industry for their incompetence that led to the creation of the perfect word to describe this, as otherwise I'd be left flailing about for a description.

The reviewers are trying to retcon their beliefs and actions. Over a stupid story.

Comments

[wintersheir]

It's probably tied into the whole "OMG my Mary Sue is soooooooooooooo nice to pokeymans adn tehy love her alot!!!1 she nevar catchs them cuz taht iz MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!!1 she finds tehm when thay R hurt adn heals them!!!1" etc. etc. thing.

I know I'm terrible; I make my pokémon fight until they faint, at which point I send out a trash non-combatant or an HM slave and revive the fainted one while the cannon fodder gets OHKO'd. They get a break when they gain a level. It's cheaper to hit them with a lemonade, of course, but sometimes I forget.

This is pretty much how I treat my pets in WoW, too. ^_^ La!

(I feel bad when my pet dies in WoW, though, 'cause they both have such sad little corpses. And I need to stuff them full of food to make them happy again. Piggies.)

[farla.livejournal.com]

See, I'm not even that nice. I battle them until they drop, then I switch in the next and battle that one until it drops. My preferred training method is to fight wild pokemon until five of my six have fainted, and I see gym battles with injured pokemon as a fun challenge.

[nakitamanomiko.livejournal.com]

For awhile I used to train till all my pokemon fainted getting ready for the first badge in that grass before Pewter. Then I realized that wasn't exactly a very cost efficient method of training. My only real problem is once I beat the game there's not much to do, but I never restart the game because I don't want to lose 1 or 2 that did pretty much all the battling, and that I worked on for like 40 hours.

[farla.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the pokemon games don't leave much to do after the main quest. I can trade my pokemon, so I restart all the time. It's a lot more fun that way.

[nakitamanomiko.livejournal.com]

I have no way of trading mine, so I'm basically training apprentices in Emerald. I'm on like my fifth, apparently I'm too good at telling them what to use as they always seem to destroy me. Talk about gratitude.

[farla.livejournal.com]

Start screwing with them, then!

heh

[(Anonymous)]

Why not? Why shouldn't there be people who form emotional bonds with pixels?
There are people who somehow keep their emotion bonds with certain pieces of sown together pieces of fake fur filled with foam. And those who keep emotional bonds with hallowed out badly molded pieces of plastic that just gather dust on their shelf. And forming emotion bonds with characters and beings who exist purely as figments of their imagination with no substance in reality.
So what's so odd about feeling similarly about a collection of a couple fighting stats, a "personality type" and some pixels?

A lot, that's what

[farla.livejournal.com]

Actually, all of those guys are nuts too.

Stuffed animals are a bit understandable since they're at least tangible, and even still, most kids don't literally treat them as real friends so much as familiar comfort objects. The others? Contrary to the cliche, kids don't actually treat imaginary friends or figurines like that. If one did, they'd probably need psychological help.

Also, sign your name if you're anonymous, please.

[antialiasis.livejournal.com]

You're kind of splitting things into two extremes. I don't take special care to cater to my Pokémon's imaginary emotional health or call them my friends, but I still can't possibly restart a game without trading all the Pokémon I've battled with to any extent to another version first.

I cried when my relative restarted my Yellow version. It was my first Pokémon game, contained the first Pokémon I ever trained to level 100, a few others that were almost there including the one particular Charizard that made it my favorite Pokémon, a glitched Jolteon that made me feel special and a damn complete Pokédex. I had been writing down my Pokémon's stats on paper for no particular reason and trained dozens of Pokémon that almost nobody ever uses past level 60 just for the heck of it on that game. Can you expect me not to care at all?

Caring is not the same as being delusional. Sure, if Pokémon were real, you wouldn't say people "care" particularly about them if they battle with them until they faint and are not at all in a hurry to heal them if they get hurt. In that way you have a point. But I don't think all those reviewers mean they care about their Pokémon in that way. I haven't seen the reviews in question so I don't know how exactly they worded it, but I doubt they all meant that.

[farla.livejournal.com]

No, I'm referring solely to the people who literally say that they care about their pokemon and love them and take care of them.

For example: "I use RETURN move so my relationship with my Quilava is important. I guess you don't have imagination. You wrote these fanfics with cold soul and brain. I don't understand why'd you still write these stupid fanfics. Maybe you can call me 'insane' or anything you like. But trust me, your life isn't as happy as I am. Even though I don't have many friends, my Pokemon friends help me through the days. You, even if you have a billion friends, your life won't be happy because YOU ARE COLD-HEARTED AND DOESN'T HAVE A HEART! Think about it deeply, Farla-san!"

The majority of the people, if they were honest, would say they are attached to their games, and that while they're playing or thinking about it, they might feel an attachment to the particular file. But, like a stuffed animal, that doesn't stop them from getting bored and throwing it in their bag without a second thought.

Basically, there's a difference about caring for their wellbeing as if they're your friends, and enjoying playing a game. A really big difference.

[antialiasis.livejournal.com]

o_O Okay, I take back what I said. Some people really are crazy.