The Sham of Early Story Deals in Video Games
The beginnings to most adventure based videos games is fairly straight forward. You are nothing, and for that reason, you start with nothing. Oftentimes the game will set up a red herring trap of luxury early on as a lure to rip the player off their valued in game currency for a sham item. In Brandon Keogh’s article titled “Across Worlds and Bodies: Criticism in the World of Video Games“ he highlights one moment of a video game “Mother 2” in which the player has the option to purchase real estate early on. He mentions that it would take a serious grind in order to actually afford the home in the early parts of the game, but urges that the player could return back at a later point to purchase the home. Little did we know this home offered no reward for the amount the house cost. Once inside the home, the gamer will notice walls missing and all the appliances damaged. The article goes on to highlight the symbolism behind the broken forth wall and multiple Easter eggs placed in the home. The article failed to recognize this strategy as a red herring to bring the player back to an earlier point in the game after they have progressed to a point that would garner that action. I noticed this trend when I played the first and second generational Pokémon games on my Gameboy. The Magikarp and Slowpoke tale salesmen in Pokémon Red/Blue and Gold/Silver offer a similar deal in the early part of the story which turns out to be a farce if you decided to return later and revisit the salesman.
Actually, in Pokémon Red/Blue, the Magikarp salesman is no conman after all, just a terrible fisherman. While your initial reaction to shelling out your hard earned pokecash for a Magikarp may be disappointment due to the fact that Magikarp is useless, this Pokémon serves as an early gem. You won’t do any damage with Magikarp’s “Splash,” but if you manage to level him up to 15 (which is work), he/she will learn a physical attack that eases up the stress. If you kept Magikarp in your part long enough it will eventually evolve into one of the strongest monsters in game, Gyarados. As a kid, I felt so conned. But I continued to play out to see where this Magikarp led me. I was pleasantly surprised.
I believe Pokémon capitalized on the lure of the Magikarp by placing a similar salesman in the early parts of Gold/Silver. He is offering the deal on a slowpoke tale, which is cruel. Regardless of the cruelty, the price being offered is well above anything a player would be able to afford in that moment (1,000,000 to be exact). Regardless, as the player progresses through the story, they remove a tree that is conveniently blocking a path from the town in early game from the rest of the world. You can return later to the salesman who is now under pressure from the police because we recently shut down a slowpoke tale sales ring. It seems like the perfect time to purchase this item that everyone has been ravenous about. For a discounted 9,800 pokecoin, I received my slowpoke tale. I soon learned that this tale offers zero benefits towards in game success. It offered nothing. I felt scammed even though at that point the money was the least of the issue. I realized the game dragged me back to the early point in the game for almost nothing. I decided to sell the tale back to the mart, who kindly offered me 4,900 pokecash.
Keogh’s mention of the early game bait that draws you back for nothing reminded me of old tricks the Pokémon franchise would employ. It seems games use this tactic to draw players back and expand their play time. In the case of the Magikarp, I felt relived at the long term benefits for what seemed to be a pure sham. The slowpoke tale taught me not to trust all salesmen. It is interesting to see the different ways video games connect to each other with similar red herring story archs.
