A few weeks ago I began playing Pokemon Black Version in order to do research for my final paper. At first I had considered a few different titles such as Life is Strange, Hollow Knight and Celeste. I knew I wanted to do something that regarded the gaming community’s interaction with games, and how the game ultimately impacted those who became immersed within it. Particularly, I wanted to see how female video game players were impacted by the decisions of a company, as most games tend to make some sort of assumption that their player is a male to some extent. This somewhat ruled out Hollow Knight and Celeste for me. Though both games are amazing, they’re perhaps too amazing to critique, and they leave some things to be desired when it comes to plot critique or character critique and immersion. From there that left Life is Strange, which I had never played at all and seemed a bit intimidating to take on. 

So instead I decided to look into a series I had played all my life, Pokemon. I have always loved the Pokemon games and have always been interested in their creation, features, the companies that weigh in on decisions and why certain decisions are ultimately made. But, one thing I began to notice is that I did not look at the games through the same critical lens I did while doing my research compared to that of which I usually do. I’ve done plenty of plot analysis, and comparison of Pokemon games, dumb as that might sound, before and I think I discuss many important points the community is interested in debating. However, the ones I came upon while doing my research were different. I started to realize some of the stereotypes we’ve talked about when it comes to character creation, and how the very stereotypes I discuss through feminist theory were in front of my eyes the whole time. Short skirts, short skirts everywhere. Literally everywhere for no reason. For some reason I thought Nintendo to be above making the obvious stereotypical decisions because most of their games are geared toward a younger audience.

Anyways, I began playing Pokemon Black and started to take note of some of the interesting interactions within the game, particularly with female characters. One of the things I noticed before I even began playing was the age old question “Are you a boy? Or a girl?” It somewhat struck me how I could start to forge a paper over the lines as the entire Pokemon community seems to know them by heart, to the point they’re somewhat of a meme or a joke within it. I was interested in how Pokemon, to this day, sets gender up as a binary, between male and female, wholly separate with no other option. However I ultimately decided that I would stick with the idea of focusing on the female character, and how female players might interact within the game and immerse themselves. But, I planned to use this line and its context to focus specifically on the player character, as that is the most direct way in which the games affected the immersion of their players.