Pokemon: Peer-to-Peer - The negative effects of it - Miscellaneous - http://maxpages.com/hbdragon882/peer_to

Quote from: http://netnomad0312.tripod.com/antipokemon/APreasons.htm#audience

My point is that the Pokemon trend knows its audience, and any teenager who plays Pokemon:
· Is generally unaccepted by his/her peers,
· Finds him/herself playing with little kids because they're the only other ones who'll play it with them, and
· Is sending a message to everyone around him/her that they are immature, by playing with tiny, fighting monsters bent on beating up their own kind.

This is key to this issue, here, peer to peer. Peer to peer, simply put, is student to student. At any age, it’s important to have friends. If you don’t have friends, there is an overwhelming desire to play a game, Pokemon.

The effects of playing Pokemon are overwhelming. While I believe it’s unintentional that Pokemon has a targeting audience, it does have one. And that’s depressed kids. I know, I can tell. Friendless kids need companionship, and in a strange twist, Pokemon actually do that.

The feeling that comes when you have defeated a trainer, gotten a TM or HM, or have captured a Pokemon, locks kids into playing more and more of it. The slogan, “Gotta catch them all!” reinforces that and it brings kids more into the game. It’s the truth. Anyone who has picked up the game and actually seriously started to play it knows that.

The “not generally accepted by his/her peers” is a true statement. Generally, teenagers playing the game find themselves not blending in with the other kids. They are separate from the crowd. And it doesn’t help that Pokemon is doing this. It’s profiting off of kids who don’t know any better, both teenagers and little kids.

Yes, that’s right, little kids are played into this issue. Those little kids who don’t know better than to stick a toy in their mouths don’t’ know any better when it comes to doing homework, chores, or interacting with their peers. Especially since the targeted age group—6 to 10 years old—they need to have fun, they need to run around. Pokemon holds you, grips you like nothing else.

The fact is, teenagers who play Pokemon are “sending a message to everyone around him/her that they are immature, by playing with tiny, fighting monsters bent on beating up their own kind.” Now, I played Pokemon Yellow for review reasons. I subjected myself to see what would happen. And I did. I now know what happens. You feel compelled to play the game. Since I am Anti-Pokemon and because I just borrowed it, breaking away from it wasn’t too bad.

Playing Pokemon can also damage relationships between kids, as the insanity builds. It, in some ways, is the difference between love, and, just a relationship just based on sex. Now, I don’t want any blah, blah, blah about this in my guestbooks. It is a good example. Love is based on communication, talking, recreational, with sex being the smallest. Having a relationship just based on sex is not good. I don’t want to get off topic here, but now, you know what that is, and now I’m going to apply that concept to Pokemon.

When you play Pokemon, you feel that you just need to play, not really thinking about anyone else (even when you’re trading with a link cable). Based on this, relationships between friends may suffer, or worse, fail, when they begin to compete bitterly in battles with link cables, boasting about that they caught a rare Pokemon, have a higher-level one, or that they have more badges. Having a relationship based on sex is the same thing.

So you see, Pokemon doesn’t work with peer-to-peer, only in a negative way. So why do people do it? It’s because they want to fit in, but in truth, it just does the opposite; it doesn’t. So, drop that Game Boy Color with that Pokemon Yellow, Gold, Sliver, Blue, Red, Pinball, or whatever Pokemon game you have, and get a better one, one that can get quality friends.

P.S.
The author wishes to thank the Net Nomad (Jwall0312@aol.com) for allowing the use of the copyrighted quote that appears in the beginning of this article.

Copyright Info (6/22/02):

All pages and text are the copyright of HBdragon88. Do not post this on any site for any reason, except where I give my written consent (see below to e-mail me about this). This info is not to be used on ANY Anti-Anti-Pokemon or Pokemon sites. No info is to be stolen and be used commercially and/or for private use, it is to stay on this site. Being dodgy won't help you; I will find you eventually, whether it's a tip-off from one of my friends or I personally find it. Don't even think about it.

windyaso-ap@yahoo.com

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Page Updated Sat Jul 27, 2002 11:34pm EDT