Nintendo Makes Video Game Parodying PETA

- Now they know how it feels, says Shigeru Miyamoto

Roughly two weeks ago, animal rights movement PETA released Pokémon Black and Blue, a parody and critique of Nintendo’s Pokémon universe. Now, Nintendo has finally addressed the issue in their latest episode of Nintendo Direct. During the fairly short presentation, Shigeru Miyamoto appeared to announce PETA World – a game based on the animal rights movement.

[Satire]

[-Gespenst-]

In fairness, what message does capturing (what are essentially) animals and making them fight other animals as well as making them do your bidding, send out to kids?

Not to mention that the world of Pokemon is so mindlessly divorced from any political issue whatsoever, which makes the actual central concept seem less sinister. However, it's sinister in itself that the game is so simplistic.

I know it's all about companionship and granted the latest games in the series have touched on the philosophical a bit, but all the same, it's a series that needs to not be so simple. You can communicate complex issues to children through simple means, which is something Pokemon by and large chooses not to do. Many works of children's literature are subjected to scholarly study for just that reason - they have a kind of depth to them that perhaps registers in children's minds on more subconscious or subliminal levels.

Pokemon is not something I'd want any kid of mine to grow up watching, at least not obsessively. I'm pretty sure he or she would turn out to be a drooling moron.

[Wenis]

I enjoyed Pokemon as a kid and I don't drool

[Tommykrem]

I think the message of pretty much every second episode of Pokémon was "Look how Ash wins because he cares about his Pokémon, while others don't."

As far as games and television go, I've grown up watching and playing far more mindless things without that being much of a problem.

I'm glad PETA do things like promising reward to people who can commercialise synthetic meat. Stuff like that is probably why they're able to get the support of an incredibly intelligent person like Peter Singer, but some of their PR stunts are just tasteless.

[tigertron]

I was 9 years old when I first played Pokémon Red, but I didn't turn out to be an animal beater, and I certainly don't drool (well, not unless you want me to? :P).

[klecser]

You make an interesting argument, because I think its rooted in two classic parenting philosophies that we know don't work.

The first is that you come awfully close to the "classic" scapegoating technique claiming that media in of itself is damaging to children. The same argument has been levelled at rock music, Elvis, Dungeons and Dragons, violent video games, violent films, Huckleberry Finn, The Catcher in the Rye, etc.

This one has never panned out in serious research.

The second is the 1990s parenting philosophy in which parents were taught to be hyper-sensitive to any and all harm that could befall their child, lest they turn out to be "broken". This one actually ended up doing harm and parents are still teaching their children that they can live in a world free of mistakes or damage. Kids need to play in the dirt, outside, and skin their knees. They need to fail at something every so often. Sugary drinks didn't cause our obesity epidemic. Parents who have forced their kids to sit inside because playing outside is "dangerous" have taught their kids sedentary lifestyles. Cut the umbilical cord and let them learn that life is difficult on their own.

Parents themselves have the biggest influence in whether their kid turns out to be a "drooling moron", as you put it. Censorship can't touch education and confronting issues with children as a primary philosophy of child-rearing.

Pokemon doesn't even come close to the impact of the other hundred stupid decisions people are making in raising their kids.

But hey, people love a good scapegoat.

[Kos-Mos]

Thanks for a well formed reply. Another example is that shooting games makes kids go on a rage with a gun, yes it can trigger them. But there are so much more that lies behind when a kid do that.
Simplicity can be described in many ways. And even if Pokemon is simple, it doesn`t change the fact that it`s an experience healthy kids can and will learn from one way or another. It doesn`t need to be much, but it is something. I`m really fascinated by kids when watching them dig into something. It gets harder as you grow because you know what to expect from i.e movies and games.
I could go on forever in this topic, but we need more bubbles to do that:)

[Kos-Mos]

I`m sorry to say this, but you need to open your mind a tad. If you think Pokemon damages your kids in any way, you need to see a psychiatrist. Kids develop their mind mostly from their parents, not from Pokemon.
Putting an A in front of a B is really simplistic, but a kid learns from it.
A kid doesn`t need intertextuality to learn.

[klecser]

Its also out of a "Victorian" parenting style. Victorian parenting is the idea that children are simply little adults and that they should be treated like adults. Pokemon is not as "simple" as Gespenst thinks. Perhaps narratively, I'll grant him that. But the gameplay goes pretty deep, especially for young kids.

I just get this "my kids are gonna be dumb unless I shelter them from anything that I find 'stupid' as an adult" vibe from him. Victorian.

[3-4-5]

Doesn't PETA realize that a huge percentage of Pokemon players are either Cat or Dog owners and thus likers/overs of animals ?

So 50 million people play pokemon, does that mean 50 million dogs and house cats are killed ? No, therefore game doesn't = reality.

PETA kills more animals every year than Nintendo.

[Blankolf]

I hope Nintendo puts this down, I bet it's a trademark violation to put Pokemon in there.

I am all up for animal rights, but I don't over protect them, this is overprotection!

When I see in the movies or in a game a guy getting tortured or killed I don't rush out and do the same, or when I see a guy fighting in the arena as a slave, I don't rush out and find a person to enslave and build myself an arena, fantasy and real life are completelly appart.

I believe animals should be protected when it is the right time and place to do so, Pokemon is a franchise that despite encoraging fights and whatsoever, encorages a bound with your pocket monster, and I believe that most people grown up to have better bounds with animal because of such childhood.