Gabe, some guy who draws online or something, also plays Pokemon (the video game). He recently attended a tournament by which he was the oldest player there. He went on to take out a punk who was intimidating the other kids, and bowing out in the second round so his challenger could continue the tournament. It is an interesting story, and not just because “awesome” overcame “bully”. Gabe made some interesting observations about the children’s behavior that correlate with how competitiveness is portrayed in the television series.
I’ll be honest, this made me tear up. I wish I had been there to observe them being good sports, as well as having a good time. I know that as a child I was always filled with a huge amount of anxiety when going into something like that, no doubt due to the mentality that my family had going into such events. Young children seem to be the right age to instill such ideas about play and the importance of interaction, which is counter to the idea of “destroy your enemy into oblivion” that permeates from so many other games (I am looking at you, Magic: The Gathering).
The news page for that day is wrapped up nicely with a touching letter from a twelve year-old thanking Gabe for helping him in a personal battle against others making the game not fun.
Good warm fuzzy feelings, all over.
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