PokéMarx

     Ever since its release in 1996, Pokémon has been a wildly successful game worldwide, and one of the latest versions, Pokémon White 2 and Black 2, are no exception. However, despite—or perhaps even because of—its popularity, themes of our culture today end up being woven into its narrative and gameplay, and one of the largest themes of our society is that of capitalism and its basis in private property. One of the most obvious ways that this shows itself is that you are battling with money on the line, but what’s weird is that from a Marxian perspective on property, the main basis is not the hard-earned money, but something else. In the opening for Pokémon White 2 and Black 2, the dialogue and actions that one goes through show that the main capital in use in the world of Pokémon is actually the Pokémon themselves.

     One of the main points running through Marx’s writings is that the driving force of technological advancement is the division of labour, with the capitalist division being between the property-owning bourgeoisie and the much larger property-less proletariat (Manuscripts 1). In the starting location of Aspertia City, Pokémon ownership is somewhat rare, with only five of the thirty-two non-playable characters owning them. In fact, initially the most respected person “in” the city is the heretofore unseen Gym Leader that hasn’t even arrived yet, but possesses one of the eight slots for gyms in a region. Additionally, the Pokémon owners’ lording over those lacking is noticeable, as your rival (who already has a Pokémon) tells you if you attempt to leave the starting city that if you don’t find the person you are looking for in the city, he’ll go out there and look for you. If someone is lacking in Pokémon, they are restricted to a single town; made obvious when an attendant in the gates between your hometown and the nearest road berates you for attempting to pass without a Pokémon (before realising you have one and letting you pass).

     This is all good in showing that there is a division between those with Pokémon and those without, but Marx states that society is formed by a division of labour between groups, and the ownership division doesn’t appear at first to follow that. However, one of the manifestations of this division that Marx points out is as the division between mental and material labor (Ideology 173), which strongly exists between those trainers with Pokémon and those without. The trainers’ work that they do in the world is command their Pokémon what actions that they need to take in battles and in the field. In fact, the highest ranked trainers (the Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and the Champion) have little manual work that they need to do, as aspiring trainers literally flock to them to issue challenges (though you never see them in game). On the other hand, the characters that you encounter without Pokémon are seen only in passing, and the most commonly encountered are attendants at Pokémon Centers or clerks at Pokémarts (the stores where one purchases items), where they are used by you as a go-between for your needs and how to accomplish them, worth to you only what they can provide.

     However, Marx focuses not only on the division of labour as one of the main causes of advancement in society, but also at what he believes is the root cause of that, the methods of production—on what they produce and how it is produced (Ideology 150). Although how items in the Pokémon world are produced is not well-defined within the series of video games, what it produced is well documented even early on. In the starting city, the Pokémart is quite visible for everyone to see, offering a growing supply of wares for the player to buy. And unsurprisingly, all of these items—from the initial Pokéball for capturing more Pokémon and Potion for healing them by a slight amount, to the later specialty balls for more intricate situations of capturing and Full Heals for fully restoring your Pokémon’s status—all focus solely on the advancement of your Pokémon rather than what you as a person need.

     Were this a real civilisation, this societal structure would not be able to last, as the humans would not be able to survive, because of the focus solely on Pokémon instead of the people the necessities for survival would not be produced. Because this is a game, however, this part ends up being glossed over in the telling of the story. This choice, though appearing mainly to be for the sake of time and memory space, still holds some Marxian significance. The choice of what needed to be included and what could be left out needed some idea as to what was important enough to add and what could be left out. On these ideas, Marx states that “[t]he production of ideas of conceptions, of consciousness, is at first directly interwoven with the material activity and the material intercourse of men” (Ideology 154). For this idea to come about for removing the seemingly trivial details, the base of these ideas had to come from a materialist source, and since it is all focused on the Pokémon and what they need, this base is formed from them again being the founding principle of the capitalist culture within the game.

     One of the problems that Marx points out happens within such a capitalist economy is that of all drives which could get started, the only one that does so is one’s greed and desire for competition (Manuscripts 1). This competition is very clearly shown right in the beginning; for before you even receive your first Pokémon, your rival is bemoaning the lack of trainers in your hometown. This competition is also one of the main drives throughout the plot of the games, as though you are entrusted with a Pokédex to capture and record data on all the Pokémon in the game, during the game, this takes a tertiary seat to battling your way across all the gyms to prove that you are the best trainer and fighting an evil team trying to take over the world or worse. This competitive desire stems from an economy set up for Capitalists, and is based on coming from Pokémon, again linking the capital of the games to the Pokémon within them.

     In Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, even in the very beginning of the game, many of Marx’s ideas of what makes up capitalism appear, from the division of labour into mental and material tasks and what comes from that, to how an extreme sense of greed and competition sets in. What is unique about their appearance, though, is that the main points do not arise from currency in use, but instead from the uses of Pokémon in the society. These ideas that we receive from capitalism are not just a local culture, but spread throughout the world because of its pervasive influence into our ideology. If even the video games from Japan have these capitalist themes inserted, Marx’s belief that the material world shapes the ideological realm certainly shines through.

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Works Cited
Game Freak. Pokémon White 2. Maxsoft, 7 October, 2012. Nintendo DS.
“Hugh.” Bulbapedia. Bulbagarden, 6 February, 2014. Web. 27 February, 2014.
Marx, Karl. "Estranged Labour." Marx, Karl. Philosophic and Economic Manuscripts of 1844. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1959. 1-10.
Marx, Karl. "The German Ideology: Part 1." Tucker, Robert C. The Marx-Engels Reader. New York: W W Norton & Co., 1978. 146-75.
Peltier-Robson, Devin. “Pokémon White 2, Part 01: Aspertia City.” Marriland. YouTube, 7 October, 2012. Web. 27 February, 2014.

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