But, I mention all this in wondering about what it is that 'drives'
this whole craze, and thus, may play some role in the development of a ZPD
for poke'mon. One another level, I'm interested as others may be about the
messages and meanings (Moral perhaps) that children make about this
activity. I'm concerned that at the bottom of all of this, and what really
drives it is - greed. After all, what is such a manufactured scarcity.
And I fear this is one message that the children ( and us older folks) may
or may not get.
Cary
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From: "Nate Schmolze" <schmolze who-is-at students.wisc.edu>
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Subject: RE: RE: Pokeman ZPDs
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 19:15:13 -0600
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A related article on a U.K. site with a link to the new Pokemon Trading
Company.
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/11/20/timfnffnf02005.html?19
96766#links-----Original
As far as Nintendo, there has been a lot of other games which have not taken
this route. My understanding is Pokemon had a rather specific marketing
plan in which the "fad" was controlled and its life extended. For example,
Pokemon is still going rather strong in Japan after three years. The object
is not only Pokemon, but creating tactics in which the market can control
the development of fads.
I recently read Rose's book *Powers of Freedom* in which the Pokemon
scenarial seems right in line with his critique of neo-liberalism. In
opposition to the traditional hand off view of the market, it is assumed to
be in partnership with goverment and can be controlled in fundamental ways.
In many ways Pokemon reminds me of the current reasoning in the
poli-economic sphere. Instead of kids getting beat up or stabbed, we have
mergers. Is Disney acquireing ABC that different than a kid trying to get
all the best Pokemon cards?
Nate
Message-----
From: Paul Dillon [mailto:dillonph@northcoast.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 1999 3:27 PM
To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: RE: Pokeman ZPDs
I fully recognize that the Pokemon industry is a fully developed,
multi-market niche, capitalist enterprise. I find Cary's insight that the
scarcity and competition for rare cards forms a powerful framework that may
communicate more than the overt content of the Pokemon artifacts. It's good
to see that some others (Nate and Katherine) think that there is something
different (qualitatively?) as compared with earlier multi-market niche, kids
fads. Is it relevant that the Pokemon industry began initially as a video
game for Nintendo?
Paul H. Dillon