- Joined
- Mar 12, 2021
OK, I was going to side with Kevin for once because Pokemon seems too escapist for schools to be incorporated into the game well, but it does make sense that there would be schools built around Pokemon training, and I like your point that building in some educational content into popular games is a great idea.For the record, the school segments he's complaining about are totally optional about three minute long classes that teach you about various aspects of the game world, ie in history class you learn little bits about the history of this gen's region and in math class you learn how much damage various kinds of attacks do. It's basically a little tutorial minigame and going through every single class once each takes under fifteen minutes - and like I said, at least from where I am in the game, it seems totally optional and not forced at all. Oh, and you can totally explore around the school grounds and the (huge) entrance hall and go into all the different classrooms and stuff, I'm not sure why Kevin thinks this is like... tiny or flawed.
The whole school in the game is basically a Pokemon themed Montessori school - all your lessons revolve around what you want to learn about the most (Pokemon) while tackling each discipline in a way that relates to that, it's really cool. Hardly the dystopic wasteland of simulated public school he seems to be trying to call to mind where you get beat the crap out of in a one-room schoolhouse.
(Off topic a little, but frankly I think it's cool and admirable that Pokemon decided to centrally feature school as something important, interesting and fun considering how many kids got wayyy off track with schooling due to the pandemic and virtual school and so on, along with rising trends of anti-intellectualism. Anything that makes kids excited to go to school and learn things is a plus in my book. Those little class segments would be great for kids to help them get a little bit of help with math, reading comprehension, and other things that may have suffered during pandemic lockdowns, or at least get them excited enough about learning it to ask for help from their school. But I guess Kevin can't possibly be expected to remember that these games are first and foremost for kids, not thirty-something year old men with receding hairlines and rat infestations.)
Also Pokemon-related schools show up in the ninth ever episode of the anime, so it's not new. But if you really love the "at age 10, you must FORGE your OWN WAY in the WORLD" angle of the worldbuilding, I can see how the concept would feel incongruous at first.