Pokemon

I absolutely love Pokemon. It's the 2nd highest selling game franchise of all time behind Mario (both Nintendo ironically enough.) That's not why I love it. If it were simply based on numbers I'd hate it. I hate Duke and UNC for the consistent dominance in NCAA basketball. I hate the Yankees and Red Sox for the same reason. I hate Manchester City for buying all of its players and managers to try to win a championship. I hate Manchester United (as an Arsenal fan I have to) because of their consistent reign at the top of the tables.
I love when things aren't handed out. When things are earned. When companies/businesses are run well from the ground up. Arsenal has a great soccer school program to build up it's players and runs a lot through it's own system rather than systematically buying players to fit empty spots. This isn't to say that they don't occasionally buy players to fit the puzzle, but I digress.
Pokemon started in the mid-90's in '96-'97 if I'm not mistaken. My first time, I was in 5th grade watching my best friend of the time level up his Jolteon. He got yelled at by the teacher and had his big gray block gameboy taken until that afternoon. That bitch.
Since then, I got my own, mastered the ways, and have loved every single minute of it. I didn't get into the cards too much, but the games for various handhelds have been in tune with the beat of my heart since that day in 5th grade. Nintendo has made a game series that takes place in different regions, exploring the lifeforms of different ecosystems (though it doesn't dive too much into keystone animals and things like that but for a gamed aimed at children it gets really complex). My lady friend picked at me when I first got Soul Silver and played the shit out of it after my show got put up last week. I tried to hold off until the end of the semester... I'm addicted... I offered her to borrow an old Pokemon game (Pearl) and a DS that was I borrowing from a friend to see if she would like it. She gets really really enthralled in movies and TV to the point where she devotes her full attention to these things. But never did I think she would get into Pokemon. "Zubat is a cock sucker." She blurted out today when we were sitting by the pool. I laughed.
She'd given me so much crap about playing a game that died out for most kids our age when we were like 14-16. Now she's asking me about types of moves that are effective against certain Pokemon. There's the obvious... Fire beats grass, electric beats water. But then there are random things that you don't really think about. Poison doesn't effect steel. It gets really complex. The point is that it's a kids game yes, very much so. It doesn't dive into the full realm of biology, nor the malice of what it could be. There's no death in it, and you can't really rupture nor preserve the balance of an environment. Most people wouldn't have the knowledge nor patience for this, certainly not little kids. But, personally I'd give it a whirl.
Either way, it's not just some remedial kids game with flashing lights, stupid cute little animals, and really morally positive themes. There's underlying stuff, like when a grass type Pokemon uses a grass type move the move does more damage than if a normal Pokemon used a grass move. There's stats to increase speed, attack, etc. There's a huge difference between special attacks and attacks as well as special defense and defense. All these come into play along with accuracy and damage of the move itself. There's a whole lot of strategy. Some Pokemon are naturally and substantially better than others, but can still be beat with ease by some really bottom of the barrel guys.
I'm by no means telling you to run out and buy Pokemon and play it until your fingers bleed. I am saying not to be harsh on the guys who are a little different because we play Pokemon.
When you know all the starters for your favorite sports team... You're the same as us. When you're 50 years old and you've read all the Harry Potter books... You're the same as us. When you know who's who in pop culture and what's up with the Kardashians/Jersey Show/Hills/Glee/American Idol... You're the same as us. When you shop exclusively at a specific store/boutique... You're the same as us. You might think you're better than the guy who's playing Pokemon in the cubicle next to yours while he's looking up stats to breed Pokemon (like the species is based on the female and the move set is based on the male) you'd better remember that you're just as big of a loser for looking up Northern Iowa's stats the day after they beat Kansas. You don't want to think of it as the same thing, but it is. We all have our vices, and we all enjoy the hell out of 'em.

Keep Rockin' Baby!