Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Does any of this sound familiar to you?

Today is April Fools' Day, and many websites are celebrating it, including Bulbagarden, who put up a few fake news articles, including this one. The reason why I'm pointing this out is because of this paragraph:

"What's been revealed sounds so stereotypically Canadian, I can't believe that this is real." reports Jeff Flocon, a Quebec competitive strategist and commentator. "The villains sound like a spoof on provincial politics, and the Pokémon choices sound like stereotypical Canadian wildlife of moose and beavers. Are you serious, Game Freak?!" Mr. Flocon did note that the new battle arena did "sound appealing".

Well well, what do we have here. Jeff Flocon from Quebec, competitive strategist and commentator. Yeah, you all know where I'm going with this, don't you? I'm from Quebec, not gonna argue against that. "Jeff", while not my actual first name, is a diminutive form used by many people who have it, and is more importantly the in-game name I used in all my Pokémon LPs. "Flocon" is French for snowflake. "Competitive strategist and commentator"? I could argue over semantics, but they had to put something there, especially since I'm not doing LPs anymore, so close enough, I suppose. And they did get the signature exaggerated anger down pat, too.

Yep, they just did that. Either my awesome Pokémon street cred is more far-reaching than I thought, or this is the eerie coincidence to end all eerie coincidences. Never expected Bulbagarden of all places to do this, especially after the YeOldeJacob saga a few years ago.

Now, the million dollar question is, had those reveals been for real, would I have reacted like this? It all depends on how far they'd go with stereotypes - after all, Unova and Kalos had some, and I didn't complain. This, on the other hand, would be pushing things to the next level, especially with political commentary thrown in. And to be honest, while I believe separating Quebec from Canada is a really bad idea, dumbing it down to a simple matter of good and evil is something I'm not willing to do (though many people on both sides are, trust me on that).

With that said, Gamefreak will never push the envelope this far, which is the whole joke to begin with. And thank the stars for that.

24 comments:

  1. As the writer, I will confirm that all of the names in the article are inspired after Canadian internet personalities. So no, it isn't an eerie coincidence.

    A lot of the planning that went into the story went in thinking up Canadian stereotypes. We ended up with a list of 30 or 40 by the end, which was then pruned down and watered down.

    Beyond that, it went to looking at historical examples of "leaks" in the franchise and seeing how the more notable ones did. Typically I found that those that kept their information basic and plausible garnered more discussion, so I went down that route.

    Then it was internally ripping apart the leaks with the "interviews" that were saved for the bottom. There is where some easter eggs were planted, referencing Canadian personalities. I included you in one because you are relevant to the community, and I always enjoyed your April Fools stuff.
    That, and I needed a voice of reason within the leak to point out the obvious flaws.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, makes sense. I'm flattered to be considered a "voice of reason"!

      Thanks for the reply and the insight. I didn't expect that, but it's appreciated.

      Delete
    2. That's kind of awesome. It's like an Easter egg in a Pokemon article.

      Delete
    3. I guess your Pokemon street cred really is far-reaching. Well, the part where people like the writer have heard of you...

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. Oh, that happened a long time ago. That was a guy who used to write editorials for Bulbagarden, and he was your stereotypical genwunner. It was still back when being a genwunner was the norm instead of being frowned upon the way it is now. Being the avant-garde trendsetter that I am (not really), I tore into one of his editorials in one of my LP videos. I mean, he'd said that the LATER generations (which were 3 and 4 at the time) were the experiments as opposed to 1 and 2 which were the safe bets (talk about ass-backwards), and that HGSS didn't do GSC any justice. As I said back then, "I imagine if you're looking for GBC-level graphics, a cramped Kanto, an incredible lack of challenge and so on, sure, it didn't do GSC justice".

      That happened at the point when my channel started exploding in popularity because one of my videos ended up in Chugga's related videos, so he caught wind of it, and boy was he pissed. He started trolling in the comments sections, so I did the Slowflake thing and blocked him. Oddly enough, he kind of disappeared afterwards, only returning for a somewhat positive piece on BW1 shortly after release.

      Either way, I just assumed I was on Bulbagarden's shitlist since then. Not that I cared, I always called them like I saw them, regardless of who was involved, whether it was Bulbagarden, Smogon or anyone else. If anyone was worth praising, I did so, and if anyone, even the same person or community I praised earlier, was worth verbally tearing into, I did so as well.

      Delete
    2. Aka, the scum of the Pokemon fanbase. Apart from some of no lifes on TV Tropes who contantly spurt that Hilda's "legs" get their fetish senses going.

      Delete
    3. Genwunners was the norm during gen 4? I could understand if this was in gen 3's time when R/S/E got so much hate (I actually gave it a chance and appreciated the natures and EV system back when the stereotypical genwunners thought they "didn't do anything new" and were ruining the system), but gen 4 was the time for gen 2 love.

      Delete
    4. Actually, generation 3 was well recieved in it's debut, people just left because they were growing out of the series.

      Delete
    5. That wasn't the case from what I saw at least, Ruby and Sapphire were considered franchises destroyers by many.

      And yes, genwunners were still the norm at the time, though gen 2 did get a lot of love as well. 3 and 4, though? Zilch.

      Delete
    6. Maybe what I was referring to was critical reception rather than fanon? Anyway, I remember enjoying generation 3 back in the 2005 days, then again, I'd like to say I have half a brain cell not to leave due to one change.

      Delete
    7. In retrospect, Gen III didn't fix the issues with Gen II but did introduce some positive things. The games themselves, meh...not that bad but for its time, Gen II was better. Wouldn't call it a franchise destroyer, but then again I rarely go the entitled fanboy route.

      Delete
  3. Thats awesome Slow. It always seems like you are pretty well known in the community, even if you didn't have an insanely popular YT channel. I bet you are quite well known amongst genwunners and anime fans.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was told once that I had one of the most subbed gaming channels that weren't partnered. I don't know if there's any truth to that... I doubt it, personally.

      Delete
    2. Honestly, considering your no-nonsense attitude, your intelligence and how your videos still had the funny moments looked for in LP videos it wouldn't surprise me if you were one of the most subbed non-partnered channels.

      Delete
    3. I felt disappointment every time one of my favorite LPers or reviewers suddenly got partnered, but you always held a stiff upper lip and didn't sell out to the youtube thugs. You earned a lot of respect from us viewers who saw youtube's gradual decline and google's rise to douchiness over the years.

      Delete
  4. I would love to see a region based on Canada. Beaver and Moose wouldn't be a stereotype, it would be expected for a region based on Canada.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Imagine battling the character. He would probably have a team of Excadrill, Tyranitar and a third Pokémon that you like. Following the rule that every trainer has to have a team of 3, except the BIG BOSSES!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Or he'd be a really powerful Ace Trainer like at the end of Challenger's Cave in BW, who I think had six. Oh, and just for fun, the Pokemon would have competitive movesets, 31 IVs, great EVs, and the max AI. Hey, we all know Slowflake is more competent than Cynthia, who is sadly the closest thing to competition that the Pokemon games could provide in terms of gameplay...Well, that and the Blue rematch...

      Delete
    2. What's stopping them in the Frontier? They'd need to use OU Pokemon to even keep up...

      Delete
    3. (shrugs) Ridiculously high levels that they'd need to grind to stand a chance against? We're not talking Pikachu or pre-XY Charizard here. That or Troll Freak could stick a Mewtwo or something in just for funsies...

      Delete
    4. I leave this place to find you two expanding on my little idea. But thay are good ideas to say the least.

      Delete
    5. Ah yes, I can see the article now:
      "Ace Trainer defeats Champion before player"
      Lots of interviews with Lasses and Bug Catchers talking about their confusion over concepts like perfect IVs, EV spreads, and balanced movepools.
      End with a quote from the frustrated player going "But I was supposed to be the next champion! It was in the script!"

      Delete
    6. The Pokemon world's branch of the Bunbunmaru would explode in popularity with such an article. I should phone Aya about this! The true end would be Ace Trainer Jeff chastising everyone in the Pokemon world for being incompetent morons (and Cynthia for not using her formidableness in battle to stop Team Galactic. At least Alder had the excuse of trying and losing badly). And what's to stop him from using Legendaries of his own? Say...The opposites of the ones the player catches? Of course, this is the type of challenge that you'd have to beat the Elite Four at least TWICE for...

      Delete