• OW Investigative Series: Violence in Video Games

  

  Written by Sage 11 Comments
  Last Updated:: June 21, 2009

  Part 4: Pokemon

  In recent centuries the world has been racked with animal on animal violence. You need not look further than Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, and sometimes History Channel (check local listings). Every where we look some animal is killing another animal. But why? Is it for food? Are the creatures pre-programed to hate each other? Or has gang warfare spilled over into the animal kingdom? Only recently, since man has evolved hunting and tracking capabilities, has human on animal violence escalated. Some people, so called ’scientists’, have postulated that these behaviors are what allowed human beings to become the dominate species on our planet. A quick look out the window, if you live in an urban area at least, shows you that yes there are a lot of humans everywhere. But why has modern man chosen to still attack, kill, capture, and even eat animals? Is it because proteins obtained from meat and poultry are essential to a healthy diet? Is it because a number of domesticated species would no longer be able to survive on their own without human intervention? Or is it because of the destructive influence a certain video game has had on the populace?  As we have shown in previous articles, all violence in society can be blamed on video games, so it only make sense that animal cruelty must also be the fault of video games.

  The game blamed for this recent surge in animal violence is, of course, Pokemon. In the game young children are encouraged to run away from home, live in remote areas, capture rare animals by forcing them to fight other rare animals, and then force them to live in small balls. A trip to a local pet store is all one needs to see the destructive influence Pokemon has had on the average pet owners. Small plastic balls are readily available for a number of different species. These balls force the animal to roam the house, walking in their own waste, attempting to free themselves before they are thrown at another animal and forced to fight it out for no reason what so ever. Small groups of children have been found wondering state parks attempting to capture animals and force them to fight each other. In a number of incidents the animals turned on their owners and mauled them. Not too long ago Michael Vick, and avid Pokemon fan, was arrested for running a dog fighting ring.

  What is more disturbing is the far reaching nature of Pokemon. Because the advertising campaign was so wide spread and most people are so stupid, nearly everyone in the targeted age group was quickly swept up in the so called ‘pokemania’ leading to ‘poke-animal-abuse,’ ‘poke-black-market-trafficking,’ and eventually ‘poke-federal-prison.’ The U.S. Federal prison system is brimming with twelve year olds who played pokemon and then tried to buy a lion cub on the black market. Children could be seen jumping the protective barriers at zoo’s attempting to catch a rhino or battle a bear. Fighting fish sales jumped through the roof. Dog fighting, cat fighting, and in one disturbing case sheep fighting rings popped up with alarming numbers. Throughout the nineties and into the 2000’s local and federal agencies worked tirelessly to stop young kids from becoming wrapped up in the Poke-craze that put so many in jail. Similar to the DARE program, “Don’t catch any of them” campaigns were started. Though they had some impact little could be done to stop this violent trend.

  Finally the poke-phenomenon has started to fade and so have the animal fighting rings. These strange events have shown us once again that video games cause more problems than the solve. If it weren’t for Pokemon most of the world would probably be vegetarian. With every new release of ‘different versions’ of Pokemon fears of violent resurgence worry the animal lover community.

11 Comments

1. #1 JeZeP says:
   November 7th, 2009 at 3:22 pm

   Great Site, hilarious article
2. #2 one eyed willie says:
   November 7th, 2009 at 12:59 am

   This article sucks. I don’t see how you can say Pokemon starts dog fights, even if it is a joke. Get over your hatred of the Pokemon games and give them a try. This site is full of rampant fanboyism. Its worse than Sony Defense Force.
3. #3 avi says:
   November 7th, 2009 at 1:07 am

   I agree with one-eyed willie.
4. #4 Neutrality says:
   November 7th, 2009 at 5:41 pm

   regardless of both comments and the article i still hate Pokemon (if it was trying to make people forgive it,) and personally i’d use Pokemon in Michael Vick’s defense : P

   “How do you plead?”
   ‘Innocent on grounds of obssessive Pokemon watching.’
   “You’re free to go.”
5. #5 Ed says:
   November 7th, 2009 at 11:58 pm

   Excellent article.

   Also, any fan of OW knows that they play Pokemon and they always have. Everyone plays Pokemon. Do you know why people hate Pokemon? Because they tried Pokemon and got addicted. Then after months of rehab they kicked it and by using reinforcement they claim to hate Pokemon.
6. #6 Avi says:
   November 7th, 2009 at 8:04 pm

   i don’t see hw you can say, if not for pokemon, most of the world would be vegetarian, it just makes no sense.
7. #7 Avi says:
   November 7th, 2009 at 8:04 pm

   ”don’t see HOW you can say”
8. #8 avi says:
   November 7th, 2009 at 1:49 am

   so wat ur saying is that there was no animal figting before pokemon? complete BS.
9. #9 Ralph says:
   November 7th, 2009 at 8:23 pm

   Damn this shit’s funny.
10. #10 Fedricco Rabaya says:
    November 7th, 2009 at 2:26 am

    I was a fan of POKEMON. But since i started watching porn I slowly got over my addiction. Seriously guys, once you hook up with some hardcore porno you will see POKEMON as it is: Bullshit!