Blog Post #1

 Something I've been spending a lot of time doing recently (although I may regret it when I have major assignments due in a timely manner) is playing Pokemon. One of my friends has a Nintendo switch and has reintroduced me to Pokemon (one of my favorite games from when I was little). I was unaware that Pokemon games were still coming out, and now that they're on the Nintendo switch they look even better and feel so much smoother to play than on the original DS that I originally played on. However, I noticed while playing these new Pokemon games that they seemed much less challenging that previous games I played when they were released on the original DS. I wasn't sure at first whether this was due to my higher intelligence or if this was really something that the Pokemon franchise was doing on purpose. So, I took to the internet and found an article sort of discussing this issue as others have found this to be true as well. The article helps to discuss the idea of the who the Pokemon franchise's audience is. Although it seems much of their audience started with people who are currently my age (having grown up with the gameboy or DS) it seems that Pokemon may still be attempting to capture that younger audience. So, it makes sense that they would continue to make their games less challenging and more visually appealing as their platform isn't known for creating level-grinding hard to beat games, but rather an enjoyable experience with a light-hearted plot line. Overall, this matters to me because as someone who is still very interested and still plays the new Pokemon games I don't want to see the experience become so completely easy that it is no longer fun to play.

link to article about difficult of pokemon games - https://gamerant.com/pokemon-games-difficulty-features-change-perception-age/