Social issues

[Forever]

Something interesting comes to mind when you think about Unova's deeper issues tackled - such as freeing Pokemon from human oppression, as well as even making reference to freezing the protagonist, effectively killing them! Said games also had protagonists that appeared a lot older than previous ones, and that appears to be the case now with the designs of the protagonists. With this in mind, do you think these games might possibly tackle some of society's deeper issues? By this I mean wide-range issues such as poverty, and isolated issues such as depression. Do you think something like this could be effectively tackled? Given that the protagonists do appear to be older do you think it's even possible that they could head onto these grounds? Because they could really do it in a way where it applied better to the older players, yet still was like "wow this is bad" to the younger ones.

Basically, do you think things along these lines are more likely to be tackled/brought up? Do you think they're not appropriate for Pokemon? And if they were, how could they be tied into the games?

[Scarecr0wFixatioN]

After Gen V's story I can't seem them going back to more basic plots like they used too. I don't think they'd tackle world issues just yet but I can see them incorporating more and more morals into the story. If they were to do poverty, I think it'd be pretty cool to have maybe a run-down town, with a lot of criminals and such in it. I still think one of the bigger "issues" this game might tackle, is animal testing, and animal abuse. Given the DNA logos I'm kind of expecting modification to be a huge theme in the game.

[Jake♫]

Honestly for a kid's game a lot of today's societal issues really aren't appropriate for it. I really wouldn't see anything wrong with tackling the ones that are milder (poverty was a good example), especially since Gen 5 definitely went into a deeper storyline.

[Miss Doronjo]

I can see poverty or work-related oppression being a deep issue talked in these games~ I mean, take a look at some of the well-known trainer classes: burglars, workers, and I don't know.. gamblers? I mean, some people have to reside to thievery to get money and other goods because either they are way too greedy, or, they might have to just to survive. Workers, of course, are workers, but, there was more worker-related classes introduced in BW like... business workers, and so on. Business is a pretty well known job where you'd have to "step on people" to achieve what you want, and generally, when you're "stepped on", you'd most lose the chance to gain the money that you need, and therefore, you'd won't be able to provide you or your family the money that they'd need. Gambler's are pretty self-explanatory; they would spend their own money to gain more money, but, the turn off is that they are in risk of "betting it all" and losing it all in the process.

So honestly, I think GF should go towards that direction, and teach kids that you know, that in the pokemon world, people can at least be down on their luck, you know? I mean... look, how would the social issue of poverty be of importance for children? How does a parent teach their young child about poverty and hunger when he has a full plate of yummy food in front of him, is well-dressed, and comfortable? They can’t. Yet, they yearn for their child to be aware of these things so that the seeds of compassion might grow in them. They wouldn't want them to grow up thinking they “should” give to those less fortunate than them; they'd want them to grow up realizing how fortunate they are, and how little separates us from becoming less fortunate, and wanting to improve the lives of others. Idealistic? Definitely. Unattainable? Maybe. But nonetheless, I'd think it's a worthwhile pursuit in pokemon.

[Ash493]

Even if it did happen... I don't think it would have that much of a impact, especially on younger audience who it would be targeted on...
Imo younger audience wouldn't really care about these, for them, background informations and would be catching Pokémon, winning badges without care...

[Shaturu711]

I don't think so. They would probably mildly touch on the issue of poverty, but only to a very small extent. Pokemon also appeals to a younger age group below twelve, so I don't think a six year old kid playing Pokemon would understand oppression and stuff like that.

[Cerberus87]

Isn't genetic manipulation a social issue? There's a lot of concern about genetically manipulated animals, plants and food nowadays.

[glitchguy]

The pokemon games are mostly targeted towards younger audience and lets be honest all they are about is catching pokemon, getting badges etc so i don't think most of them will really care for the background stories so i don't see GF doing anything like that.

[Elendil]

I personally feel if any social issues do arise they should be accompanied with the introduction of a good team to oppose the bad one. Something like the ex-plasma members in B2, but with their own team. More importantly I do think it they could work a plot with ex-plasma becoming some sort of worldwide Team lead by N going against all the future evil teams, which would bring up more morality and social issues.

[Twilight Sky]

Theoretically, it would be interesting to be brought up in a Pokemon game, but how? I suppose aside from the trainer classes(thief, workers, etc), there's not much room for poverty as well as some tougher issues like depression to be included in games like this. When you're playing a Pokemon game, you have to realize that your objective is, more or less to at least become a champion of your respective Pokemon league as well as beat all of the gyms and whatnot. How much room is there in the game to really put in there the different types of social issues that might arise throughout the game? I feel that it would just leave more questions than answers, because social issues is just an umbrella term for so many other issues, such as depression, poverty, the whole none yards!

I mean, when you think about the demographics of this game, children are going to ask a lot of questions, and most of them probably aren't really exposed(at least, to a more potent level) to the "dark side" of today's world, so to speak. There's a lot more than just poverty as well as psychological issues, of course! There's greed, there's corruption as well as tons of other things, but that would darken the general mood of Pokemon, since, at least in the spirit of things, Pokemon is supposed to be cheerful, uplifting, and generally be a game that elicits positive feedback, moods, happiness, as well as other related emotions.

It would be interesting at least as far as the older audience goes, but not without the consequences towards the younger audience. Either they won't understand it, or chances are, they'll probably exaggerate it more than what it is. Education is a good thing, but it's how you teach them and through what medium you use that matters. Conveying that lesson through Pokemon isn't really a very good idea, to me.

EDIT: I suppose having an evil team as far as symbolizing certain societal issues is a good idea, but to an extent; I don't think anything too powerful should make its way into a Pokemon game, at any rate.

[Scarf]

Originally Posted by Cerberus87

Isn't genetic manipulation a social issue? There's a lot of concern about genetically manipulated animals, plants and food nowadays.

This was also my first thought. There's all that talk of genetics being a theme in these games so it follows that there could be a team of bad geneticists who want to change Pokemon. Like the background elements around Mewtwo and Genesect, but brought to the front of the story. That's fairly important to what's happening in the real world, but is easy enough to disguise in a Pokemon world.

[jellicentfan1]

I don't think that X&Y will try to tackle any social issues maybe other than poverty or something that little kids can relate to and understand. Pokemon will likely always be rated E which will restrict some of the issues that can be implemented into the storyline. However I would love to see more social issues brought into the games.

[Pinkie-Dawn]

There are three moral issues I could see be brought up for a Pokemon:

- Genetic manipulation (followed by my predicted plot about the evil team stealing Pokemon DNA to gain their powers)
- Human/Pokemon relationship (as in a romantic relationship, and two sides opposing each other on whether or not a human marrying a Pokemon is right)
- Prejudice (One side believes humans are the superior beings and Pokemon are our slaves, and another side believes Pokemon are the superior beings and humans are their slaves)