Re: Federation of Kanto
Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 2:02 pm
Here's me being objective.
There's nothing wrong with having a pokemon themed nation. It makes a refreshing change from having twenty german themed nations; in our time we've had quite famous nations that started Chrono Trigger, Hell and Warcraft themed, so why not pokemon? Sakat forbid, it might even attract some more people to micronationalism, who've always wondered how pokemon styled government would work.
That said, you have to do it well. A german-themed nation done badly is a dime a dozen. A game-themed nation done badly is decried as a blatant copyright infringement. But done well, it evolves into more than it started with and can end up quite cool.
So far, I'd question that you've done it well. Something that bugs me (as someone who was a big fan back in the day) is the government system. Now, in the games (at least up to Sapphire), they're fairly vague as to an overall governmental structure. There's clearly mayors of each towns, who hold reasonable sway, but is there any sort of regional government. You've gone with 10 Downing St. I think that's a foolish way of going about it. It's a japanese game rewritten for Americans. British government does not seem to me 'pokegov done well'.
Going off what the games tell us, there is limited regional architecture to overall government. Whatever is there can't deal too well with transnational terrorist threats (eg Team Rocket), because they need ten year old kids to help them. But who does try to deal with them? The Elite Four and the Gym Leaders. I would put those guys down as the overall government, in the sense of feudal lords who hold sway in their town both by their honour and their power; and who act as an unofficial cross city police force. So I would suggest, working off the games, that your government system has mayors who manage the civil matters (including police) of an individual city; and gym leaders/the elite four as your 'leaders'. But whatever you do, it's not going to be a very centralised government, if you're staying true to the theme. And working out what government Kanto would have seems to me the most interesting part of a pokemon themed nation. Anyone can do battles in the games. Anyone can see the cities in glorious 2D. But nobody gets to experience being a gym leader as part of the national government ....
There's nothing wrong with having a pokemon themed nation. It makes a refreshing change from having twenty german themed nations; in our time we've had quite famous nations that started Chrono Trigger, Hell and Warcraft themed, so why not pokemon? Sakat forbid, it might even attract some more people to micronationalism, who've always wondered how pokemon styled government would work.
That said, you have to do it well. A german-themed nation done badly is a dime a dozen. A game-themed nation done badly is decried as a blatant copyright infringement. But done well, it evolves into more than it started with and can end up quite cool.
So far, I'd question that you've done it well. Something that bugs me (as someone who was a big fan back in the day) is the government system. Now, in the games (at least up to Sapphire), they're fairly vague as to an overall governmental structure. There's clearly mayors of each towns, who hold reasonable sway, but is there any sort of regional government. You've gone with 10 Downing St. I think that's a foolish way of going about it. It's a japanese game rewritten for Americans. British government does not seem to me 'pokegov done well'.
Going off what the games tell us, there is limited regional architecture to overall government. Whatever is there can't deal too well with transnational terrorist threats (eg Team Rocket), because they need ten year old kids to help them. But who does try to deal with them? The Elite Four and the Gym Leaders. I would put those guys down as the overall government, in the sense of feudal lords who hold sway in their town both by their honour and their power; and who act as an unofficial cross city police force. So I would suggest, working off the games, that your government system has mayors who manage the civil matters (including police) of an individual city; and gym leaders/the elite four as your 'leaders'. But whatever you do, it's not going to be a very centralised government, if you're staying true to the theme. And working out what government Kanto would have seems to me the most interesting part of a pokemon themed nation. Anyone can do battles in the games. Anyone can see the cities in glorious 2D. But nobody gets to experience being a gym leader as part of the national government ....
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