The Subtle Generational Spoiler

The social channels of Pokémon Go did something interesting on two occasions. In two celebratory images, a few Pokémon of the next generation that has not appeared in the game appeared in the images. The images themselves are rather busy - they have a lot of visible things in them, including a plethora of many Pokémon that are already available - so one would have to look at them closely to find the Pokémon in question. I call this a spoiler for the next generation, albeit a subtle one.

Last year, the image involved the fourth-generation starter Pokémon popping up in the periphery of the image. Lo and behold, later that October, the first wave of the fourth-generation Pokémon appeared, with the starters included in the first wave. This year, the Pokémon in question appeared close to the middle-bottom of the image, though still hidden among the mix of things. As can be predicted, they're of the fifth-generation starter Pokémon, so this hints at them coming sometime, though without a firm time frame (yet).

Admittedly, this is rather clever. The social channels expect a viewer of the image to be caught in the festiveness of the image and not notice fine details in the image until later on. And it's likely the one who will take notice is a different, more observant viewer. It's an amazing subtlety, akin to one that is present in a post I made not too long ago, which a reader commented upon. I still have not explained the majority of that subtlety, so I may have to do it at some point, even soon.

Thanks to this bit of subtlety, now fans of Pokémon Go have a bit of an expectation. That expectation is that Pokémon of an upcoming generation will be previewed (or rather, spoiled) by way of an image. Though the manner by which it is done is simple, the effect is profound. This is true whether one realizes it directly and soon, indirectly a little later by others, or even later when what has been spoiled has actually been realized. It seems to be amazing any which way.

(And maybe, perhaps that subtlety is present elsewhere too...? 😉)

One year ago: Don't Look Back... in Anger
Two years ago: Pokémon Desktop Wallpapers