Addicted to Pikachu

Uh oh.

You know, I've been dying to play some MMOG online but I'm afraid I might get caught up in it and spend too much time and money adventuring. Maybe it's because I was an English major that I find the engagement in shared fantasy so seductive. Not only do you get to "step inside the book," so to speak, but you also get to co-author the tale. Yeah, definitely a dangerous playground for me. But Pokémon?

I knew I was in trouble the first time I, not Sarah, suggested a run to Eight Ball for a booster pack. It was a weekend; we'd been playing and tweaking our decks. Let's make a run, I suggested. We went into the store and asked to see the "booster packs" for Team Rocket Returns and for Fire Red/Leaf Green. They're only $2.99 each so we decided to splurge and buy a few of each. We waved our hands over the carton to ensure good vibes in the packets we chose. We walked out with four packs; hopped in the car, and before we even started the car, we tore open our packets to see what we had scored. "Oh wow, Zapdos EX!"

So here it was, barely a day after we'd spent an entire day playing Pokémon at the Malibu City Championships, and we succumbed to the urge to tweak our decks with new cards. But hey, we're not the only addicts. As we were coming out of the store, we ran into David, from our gym, going in. David's heading for college next year and we are hoping he gets in to UCLA, his first choice. Sarah did an actual cartoonish double-take as we passed each other in the parking lot. It always feels strange to see people you know in one context show up in another.

So why do I continue to play Pokémon? It's not the same addiction I fear when I contemplate MMOGs. There's no story here. (No one in his right mind actually watches the Pokémon tv show or movies.) Turns out the game itself is addicting. It is the perfect blend of luck (the shuffle and draw), variation (your opponent's moves and deck) and skill (your own ability to maximize opportunities that present themselves). As a result, whether I win or lose, I am compelled to play again, to try again, to improve my game. It's actually a bit like golf, only more about thinking than physical prowess with a 3 iron (private joke). No, it's considerably more complicated than golf. It's like chess, but each time you play the pieces are different, drawn from a finite but huge pool of potential pieces with a variety of moves that are, in turn, affected by the presence of other pieces.

Yeah, the complexity is the source of the addiction.