Mon Pokemon GO Rants

Do Pokemon Feel Pain?

If you see me standing really still with a serious look on my face, staring at my phone, it's not because there is anything terrible happening. I'm just wondering if the Pokemon I captured feels any pain as it bounces around the white domed interior walls of the ball I've captured it in. Do they try to scratch or breathe out fire to melt the wall? For the few seconds of 3-2-1, as I countdown to see if the capture was successful or not I wonder about stuff like this. Sometimes I think about the computer codes that are probably random as the Pokemon struggles around, but that is too realistic and takes away from the magic of the game. 

Someone told me once that Pokemon is about teaching children to capture animals, enslave them and then make them fight. Like a virtual cock fight, you know, those giant rooster fights which happen in poor places where people use lots of money to bet on their animal killing the other. In many ways, this person is right, we are making virtual animals fight until they faint and then we make them better again with a revive gem. The Pokemon won't ever die...because this is a kids game and no animal should die because you didn't make a charge move in time or because you just suck at the game. 

When going through my list every night to grind down Pokemon into candy, I sometimes do feel bad. Some Pokemon took forever to capture and then their CP was only 10! Even if the analysis said they were a wonder, it would take forever to get them to max out their CP/HP. This all kind of reminds me of Soylent Green, with recycling Pokemon into candy to feed other Pokemon! Yikes!