Thoughts on the "climate-change Pokemon"?

Blutspitze · Nov 20, 2019

First, sorry if this has been posted already; I didn't see a thread yet.

For anyone uninitiated, the latest installment of the Pokemon series, Sword/Shield, was released last week. The new region, Galar, includes some new variants of old Pokemon, including a variant of Corsola. Originally a water/rock type that's meant to convey the fun and concepts of coral reefs, the new variant is a bleached out ghost type:

The entry in the Dex in Shield for the variant reads - "Sudden climate change wiped out this ancient kind of Corsola. This Pokémon absorbs others' life-force through its branches. ".

I personally find it fascinating to see, but at the same time not something that anyone's likely to pay much attention to. Numerous news outlets have commented on the variant, but I can't imagine that it'll have any REAL effect at all.

Peach02 · Nov 20, 2019

its definitely not a bad thing. It could help educate some on the damage of climate change but as you said not many will notice

Blutspitze · Nov 20, 2019

Peach02 said:
its definitely not a bad thing. It could help educate some on the damage of climate change but as you said not many will notice

It would be nice if it took a foothold, so to speak. Mostly, I was surprised that a company like Nintendo was willing to say difinitively that a) climate change is real, and b) it's killing the oceans. With so many deniers, I'd think that they'd try to stay a bit more neutral.

Peach02 · Nov 20, 2019

Blutspitze said:
It would be nice if it took a foothold, so to speak. Mostly, I was surprised that a company like Nintendo was willing to say difinitively that a) climate change is real, and b) it's killing the oceans. With so many deniers, I'd think that they'd try to stay a bit more neutral.

Hopefully it does and the more large companies that acknowledge it the more likely people are to open their eyes

Blutspitze · Nov 20, 2019

Peach02 said:
Hopefully it does and the more large companies that acknowledge it the more likely people are to open their eyes

It's a bit weird, though - it's not exactly Nintendo saying "Hey! this is an issue, let's fix it!!!", but rather a very basic acknowledgement that feels almost like a minor Easter Egg. Regardless, I 100% agree that it'd be awesome if big companies would do ANYTHING like this. This particular thing is getting some news buzz, at least, so it's better than nothing.

ReefBeta · Nov 20, 2019

I think it's a nice touch.

I think it would be a great education vehicle and engagement tool. I can already imagine suggesting my kids to do the science project / poster about what happen to Corsola, and what we can help to help him be happy again.

Peach02 · Nov 20, 2019

Blutspitze said:
It's a bit weird, though - it's not exactly Nintendo saying "Hey! this is an issue, let's fix it!!!", but rather a very basic acknowledgement that feels almost like a minor Easter Egg. Regardless, I 100% agree that it'd be awesome if big companies would do ANYTHING like this. This particular thing is getting some news buzz, at least, so it's better than nothing.

small steps

Blutspitze · Nov 22, 2019

zsxking said:
I think it's a nice touch.

I think it would be a great education vehicle and engagement tool. I can already imagine suggesting my kids to do the science project / poster about what happen to Corsola, and what we can help to help him be happy again.

I can certainly see it as an educational vehicle, though it'd be relatively niche. Anything is something, at least. A big part of the issue is that there will always be change deniers, so always pushback, even in a game primarily targeted at kids.