Commercialism at its best (or worst)

Kiyomi

Talk about commercialism. Everyone remembers tickle me elmo, rght? The craze, the phenomenom, the evilness... Well, it all started with that. Now they have a hokey pokey elmo (It does the hokey pokey...and you thought the original elmo was scary!). Then, yesterday I just saw a moving, "Talking" (it says "Pikachu") pikachu being advertised on TV. Now don't get me wrong. I like Pokemon. I play the games. I watch the TV shows. I watch the movies. I have some of the merchandise. However, that was just too scary.

It really bugs me that pikachu is "the" pokemon, too. After all, in the original game, you start out with charmander, bulbasaur, or squirtle. Pikachu does not appear anywhere in there. So why isn't one of the startings ones "the" pokemon? For that matter, if they were going to choose one outside of the starting ones, why pikachu? He is not extremelly easy to catch. If you miss him in the first forest (blue/red version) you have to go all the way the electic plant to find one. Plus there are only a few in the original forest. It is not like they are just popping up everywhere. If the game is the base of the TV show (which it is), and a lot of the TV show goes along with the plot of the game, why did they change that so much?

Aradia · Teh Creator of Cute Gender: Joined: 16 Jul 2004

I totally agree with you, while I'm nowhere near educated in Pokemon, why is it that everything whinnie the pooh you see has only pooh and piglet? or if there is a different character, they're with pooh or piglet. What is that? and how is it that you can almost never find gopher merchandise? sorry, i love tigger and gopher. i got a tigger bedroom outfit one year and everything had pooh with tigger in the background. really angered me...i need to let go. Neutral

Ultrawolf · Mr. Roarke Gender: Joined: 04 Jul 2003

Personally I think they couldn't have picked one of the starters because then people would get upset that they didn't choose THEIR favorite starter.
Pikachu is pretty cute looking so they just rolled with that. It was popular so they milk it for all it's worth. Typically companies aren't very fond of trying new things so whatever sells will sell. It kinda sucks that way because then there is an overcomercialization. I don't know about you but I can't STAND anything pokemon other than the games anymore. I used to LOVE the show up until after the indigo plateau tourney or whatever after Ash got all the original badges. Then he slowly become more and more dumb and gave away all my favorites. (How many times did he give away charizard to get him back again? "I'll come back for you Pidgeot" Yea right.). I liked some of the movies though too but again it was just pikachu being force fed into me that caused me to stray away from the non-game related Pokemon merchandise.

Cobalt Katze · Uncertainty Gender: Joined: 05 Oct 2002

Kiyomi · Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 10:11 pm Post subject:

Yeah, I know. That sucks because the game is really cute and fun to play. They just always have to take things too far.

Aradia, those are my fave characters, too! You'd think rabbit would be my fave, but he is too timid. I love Gopher's lisp. I want a Winnie the Pooh video game!

Ultrawolf · Mr. Roarke Gender: Joined: 04 Jul 2003

Kiyomi · Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 10:42 pm Post subject:

Ultra, I did play that! It was really cute, though I need to open up more levels in that area. Right now I am chasing the bad guys with Beast in my group, and I am lost.

Ultrawolf · Mr. Roarke Gender: Joined: 04 Jul 2003

Kiyomi · Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 11:31 am Post subject:

Yeah, it was very cleverly done, I agree. Plus they really outdid themselves with the new look for FF characters. *Drools over certain characters*

I'm currently stuck in the sewers or whatever that is where you have to push a bunch of doors. I am trying to figure it out on my own, but I will probaby resort to gamefaqs.com soon.