Wait, are you saying that Pokemon is supposed to be profound?
I can understand that sometimes Pokemon can be deep in it's own ways, but play it for the enjoyment of playing it, don't play it solely for what it "communicates". Did you honestly think a 10-year old would understand the whole space/time thing of D/P/P? Or that there's some sort of hidden dimension in-between?
Either you get the storyline/reference or you don't. Chances are, most kids that are 10 and under probably won't get this "ying/yang" theory, regardless of whether it was explained to them or not, so...it's a pretty useless thing to complain about, in my opinion.
I'm not complaining, Dear, just offering an opinion. As I said, I actually like seeing the loose Yin Yang cartoon fantasy depiction, I just don't think the games should be named in accordance with it if it means confusing the audience.
And you misunderstood me completely. No the games should not be profound; I never said the games' should explain Yin Yang theory--that obviously won't happen, and they will probably present a story where an explanation of complexity won't be needed, just as they did in D/P/Pt. What the games need to be able to explain is why their titles don't match their contents, which they cannot easily do because Pokémon is not profound enough to explain Yin Yang. Thus, the majority audience will likely see it as unattractive, which is not the kind of image an artistically vast game would aim to project. It's not going to drive its fanbase away, though the younger and less knowledgeable of the fanbase will no doubt WTF at the lack of label-to-content correspondence.
Let's switch over to those not of the fanbase. Imagine you knew nothing about the Yin Yang theory. What would you think seeing a white mascot labeled "Black" and its vice versa next to it? I would WTF. You would too. The confusion caused is bad advertising.
As you can see in the above two paragraphs, both fans and potential buyers are WTFing. I doubt the executives over at Nintendo want most of their audience to WTF at their silver franchise. It was a poor decision in my opinion. Will sales continue to skyrocket? Of course! Though I don't think there will be nearly as many newcomers to the Pokémon world this generation, which could have been different. Bad business sense if you ask me.
I'm pretty sure that most of those 'non-Asian children' are gonna be too distracted by the colorful bug-eyed creatures than wonder why White Forest is in Black and Black City is in White.
I was a child once; you're attention span may have lacked the ability to multitask at an (not so) early age but my developed mind was fully capable of questioning that which did not seem to aesthetically belong.
I'm sorry, I was under the impression that Nintendo and Game Freak, the creator and producer of Pokemon are based in Japan and therefore their target audience are Japanese children, and Western audiences are merely lucky enough to get translations of the game and anime. Besides, children like bigger and more epic things. Look how big Avatar: The Last Airbender was/is. Whether they understand the big picture or not I'm sure they'll understand the significance and enjoy it, and if not, then it'll just go over their heads and they'll play on blissfully ignorant. Heck, I didn't even start reading what the characters had to say until I was like, twelve. Besides, they probably won't mention Yin/Yang too much throughout the Western games. It'll probably just be "Without Good, there is no evil, so is there really such a thing as either one?" things like this. Besides, from what I've seen I think GF is raising the age of their target audience anyway, what with the older characters and all.
Western audiences are a goldmine to Game Freak; the West actually holds the majority of games sold, with the USA itself selling near equal to Japan. Why wouldn't they be part of the target audience? Game Freak gets a percentage of the profits; there's no way they don't consider the West part of their target audience. Again: business sense.
If Western audiences are only lucky to get translations, the Game Freak is only lucky to be getting as much money from us as they are.
Plus, they're basing Isshu on the New York area, where Pokémon merchandise sells with madness. I doubt it's mere coincidence.
As for the rest of your argument, you are arguing against a point I never made. Refer to my response to Twilight Sky in this post, as you seem to have come to the same misunderstanding as she. I am not against the implementation of Yin Yang in the games, I am against the game titles.
Astinus said:
It's not foreign to them.
There are always things in Pokemon games that younger players may not understand. EVs/IVs are perfect examples. For storyline purposes, how many younger children could actually follow Cyrus's explanations about emotions and space and time? The younger children are most likely going to be furiously pressing the A button to get through the talking faster so they can catch their feathered dragon with a jet engine for a tail.
They're not going to be bothered by it.
I never said they would be, I just think the game names were an unintelligent idea on GF's part. I'm tired of repeating this, so just refer to my above responses.
