Steam, lemmy and reddit are currently creaming themselves over a game which devs makes multiple really cringe “jokes” about slavery and exploitation. Read the steam page descriptions.

Those “pals” are clearly antropomorphised creatures being dogwhistle for humans. And if you read the game reviews, even the g*mers are not lost on that fact (just they love that):

    • GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      9 months ago

      Sincerely yes, I think there is no conclusion you can come to about games like Pokemon except that an integral part of the premise is “What if dogfighting was flashier,” and they do various things to try to overwrite that fact, but the fact remains.

      • taiphlosion@lemmygrad.ml
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        9 months ago

        Then you don’t know anything about the genre and you clearly haven’t put any thought into it past “two dogs fighting each other”. Especially considering in game it’s canon that Pokémon can leave their trainers if they didn’t want to stay.

        Or do you want to extend this to Shin Megami Tensei too? Is collecting demons and using them against your enemies just dogfighting too?

        It’s just a vulgar misrepresentation of the genre and my special interest (the creator of Pokémon got the idea from collecting fucking bugs), and you sound like one of those PETA people who have also been misrepresenting Pokémon since like the fucking 90s.

        • GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          9 months ago

          lmao No matter how many times I tell electrode to Explode, he doesn’t leave me, so shrug-outta-hecks who cares what the LoRe says? The devs are too cowardly to make the abuse victim do more than be grumpy, so that shit means nothing.

          I don’t give a shit if it’s your special interest (it has been mine in the past), that doesn’t insulate it from criticism. In SMT at least you actually persuade demons to join you. With Pokemon you do violence to subdue and subjugate them and little hearts and friendship meters don’t change the skeleton. Pokemon Ranger makes a much better case because you’re at least only temporarily conscripting them, but don’t you fucking tell me that the mainline practice of beating and paralyzing a juvenile animal and then sticking it in a computer box forever is pro-social from a standpoint that considers the animal.

          • taiphlosion@lemmygrad.ml
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            9 months ago

            K

            Edit: I was going to originally just leave this here cause I didn’t wanna bother responding to someone using purposefully misrepresenting arguments about Pokémon but I mentioned it being my special interest not cause “it’s above criticism” but cause I know what I’m talking about more than someone using PETA level arguments.

            You don’t know what you’re talking about, so I have nothing to argue with you, I’d rather just block you cause you’ve already made your mind up about it and talking about it in discussion is pointless because it’s your uninformed opinion anyway. 🤷🏿‍♂️

        • booty [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          9 months ago

          Especially considering in game it’s canon that Pokémon can leave their trainers if they didn’t want to stay.

          copium. i trapped it in a ball and then locked it in a box forever.