The Perfect Game

Toward the end of 2007, I wrote a lot about some emerging trends that are proving to have staying power, promising to shape the gaming landscape going forward: broad accessibility, cross-media convergence, portability, connected play and episodic content, to name just a few. And I've even cringed a little at what sort of game this trendmania might produce: some sort of super-casual, web-based merchandising frenzy with horrible tie-in products and cheezbag mobile minigames I'd have to play online with horrendous, lowest-common denominator types. Given ominous occurrences like rampant industry consolidation and the sudden notice of the formerly evil mass market, I confess I've been watching the horizon toward the future with some anxiety.

Until last night, when I realized that this perfect game of the future, one which handily rounds all the appropriate milestones while still managing to be lovable already exists.

Pokemon is one of those games I never really put down, not for good. A good friend of mine recently got a copy of Diamond. I'm Pearl, so I had to go and pick it up again and have gotten sucked right back in. I was so into it that I had to buy some of those Pokemon booster pack cards off of the street for my friend as a joke -- and then realized that I liked them and wanted to keep them.

I don't know if I can quite quantify all the ways in which Pokemon is perfection, but I can look at it from a standpoint of significant recent trends:

Accessibility
My eight year old cousin plays Pokemon. So do the high schoolers I see during after school hours when I ride the subway. Some Spanish lady in my home ghetto who doesn't speak English is at the laundromat washing five loads of laundry and her tiny little boy is playing Pokemon on his GBA while he waits for her. So do I, and so does my salaryman friend, and virtually every single gamer I personally know. It's on one hand incredibly explanatory and basic, pick-up-and-play, and yet has the potential for nearly limitless sophistication (I can't understand half the things some people are talking about when discussing Pokemon tournaments). With the advent of Wii, we acted as if it were the first time that a truly all-ages game were possible -- but Pokemon did it first.

Persistence and Convergence
Of course, one of the ways in which I defined "accessibility" when I originally discussed it is in a more literal sense -- games that provide the player numerous points of access, numerous ways in which to interface with the game world. Okay, maybe the zillion-episode Pokemon cartoon is decidedly for children. But I have the excuse of having had a little sister of the correct age during the original U.S. Pokemon explosion, and was therefore forced, absolutely forced, to be privy to numerous episodes. And even though that was several years ago, the information I learned about the various Pokemon attributes by watching the show is still useful to me in playing the game.

I know the lore of the game world, I have an insight into the roles and personalities of many of the Pokemon, and I even recall their attributes, strengths and weaknesses from seeing them presented in the context of the cartoon, in a way that helps richen the gameplay. And with every new film release comes a new Pokemon to be caught -- even though a single Pokemon game encompasses really only a single set of events, the world goes on because the media is continuing alongside it, episodically. Confession: If I happen to catch the show on, I'll still watch it.

I also own a Pokemon couch throw, several packs of cards, and even a few four-dollar miniatures that I happened to find in the discount bin at my local drugstore. The game's primary motivating mechanic -- collecting -- can be extended to the real world, too, and that adds value to the game and brings it to life.

Connectivity
Habitual solo-players -- like myself -- are leery of being forced to play with others just to engage fully with a game. But Pokemon gives you the option -- and makes it an easy choice. Being a writer and living a lot of my life online, many of my social acquaintances are online, too. Of course, many multiplayer games allow you to connect up with long-distance friends; that's more than half the appeal. But the simplicity of trading Pokemon clutching gifts is understatedly sweet, and it's especially fun to meet up with a pal to play locally. The options it provides are very basic -- you can trade and you can battle, you can draw a group picture or you can play a sort of capture-the-flag style game in the underground mine. It's low engagement, low barrier and yet engaging.

One of the cutest game experiences I ever had was when I went to Toys 'R' Us for the event during which they were giving out Manaphys. You didn't have to do anything particularly complicated, you didn't have to beat anyone else -- you just had to show up, and get an adorable blue creature that makes a dolphin noise. That toy store was swamped with kids from knee-high to people my age and older, and once they'd picked up their rare Pokemon, they were playing and trading with one another. There was just such a good energy there; one of my favorite stories is the one Penny Arcade's Gabe tells about seeing the enjoyment on kids' faces when he participated in a Pokemon tournament at GameStop. How many games can you bring into real life to that extent, aside from a bit of awkward, stilted conversation with game store employees, the only strangers who understand you?

Gameplay, Stupid
So Pokemon is sophisticated without being hardcore, accessible without being juvenile, and positive without being too sugary. With all of its surface charm, it can be easy to overlook the rather brilliant gameplay balance it has struck. It's got something for everyone: Explorers, Achievers, Socializers and Killers. The world unfolds gradually as you gain in strength, the game mechanic is a collector's feast, stats are subtle and meaty enough to provide plenty of tailored growth, social play and team values are essential, and you can really become quite dominant if you're dedicated, ascending global leaderboards and participating in competitions.

The gameplay is, in a word, brilliant. It's perfectly balanced, simple and yet largely intuitive; it's a rule-bound world that allows success for anyone who learns those rules -- and yet it's complex enough to continually challenge you precisely at the skill level you're at. Luck is important, too, always a factor that keeps battles fresh, even once you've learned the formula.

So if these trends we've been discussing really are the future of games, then Pokemon has been there for quite a while already. It's got staying power, too -- there's no better starter game on DS for young kids and entry players, resulting in an evergreen crop of new fans, while I imagine the current fanbase will continue to pick up new installments in the franchise for as long as they play video games.

By the way, there's a new Pokemon and movie coming out soon. I'm a little embarrassed to admit I care, but maybe I shouldn't be.