As longtime readers know, each year we embrace an annual tradition, where students, and by definition the folks who make ITHACON happen, write about Fandoms or the business overlap with pop culture.
Our second runner-up winner of this year’s fill-in columnist contest is Caroline Podskoch. I bet you’ll enjoy reading her thoughts about Pokémon. And just so you know, Caroline was part of the team that managed all of ITHACON vendor relationships. Congrats on this, and I appreciate all your hard work managing ITHACON Caroline.
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The Pokémon Problem
by Caroline Podsckoch
Pokémon is unavoidable. Not just in the tall grass in the games, but in any sphere of geek culture in the past few decades. The franchise just hit its thirty year anniversary last month, with the first games, Pocket Monsters Red and Pocket Monsters Green releasing in Japan on February 27th, 1996. While video games were the start, Pokémon has transcended all forms of media– movies, several television shows, toys, and, most notably, a trading card game.
Pokémon’s TCG has always been a major part of the franchise since its first release in late 1996. Many fans of the video games also enjoy collecting cards and even playing the trading card game, including myself. However, there is also a massive crowd of people who are only interested in the cards. This, in of itself, is not an issue; physical collectables have always been a part of fan and geek culture. Then why has the Pokémon TCG been a controversial topic lately? The answer is scalpers. Continue reading “With Further Ado #396: Student Winner #3 – Caroline Podskoch and The Pokémon Problem”
