Fonts in Pokémon Presentations

While I'm not an experienced graphic designer, I know that typography - the presentation of text in relation to the properties of characters that make up that text - is also a part of it. So too does Pokémon present a lot of things not just with graphics but also with text, and that means using certain fonts for that purpose. I've covered one of them in the past, and now I thought I'd cover things a little more generally, considering various aspects of Pokémon.

Like a lot of things on the Internet, many Pokémon presentations (even the official web site itself) use certain kinds of "sans-serif" fonts, one of the examples being this blog. Being that many of those presentations are digital ones, as on a PC, phone, or game console screen, the reputed legibility in this context - even at small scales like on the small screens of the Nintendo DS or Switch Lite - makes sense. Portability has always been a main ideal of Pokémon (games), so this font usage could be considered a way of maintaining that.

Of course, there is one important non-digital presentation of Pokémon, and that would be none other than the TCG, which is in print form. Though it takes such a form, it still uses "sans-serif" fonts, yet in this case it still makes sense because they're not books (that typically use "serif" fonts) and they have a lot of detail and small text, some parts of which are only paid attention to rarely compared to the rest of what's on the cards. This likewise goes for the accompanying materials, which mostly use the same kind of fonts as the cards.

Then, there are the instances where "fancy" fonts are used. The logos and sub-logos used in the various products are some of them, which need to be as exciting as possible and thus necessitate the use of this kind of fonts. Some Pokémon books also use what could be classified as "fancy" fonts even though they're likely to be read again and again, as with the manga adaptations - but this is par for the course for manga in general; the use in the other books would reflect their fanciful nature as books for entertainment.

I consider typography to be as indicative and useful as any other aspect in graphic design, and if anything, this has to be something that is manifested in presentations involving Pokémon as well, given the above circumstances. It has to rely on text just as much as graphics - and other media - to make the world come alive and appeal to many fans as it has done for decades, and fonts as an aspect of typography do show how that can be here.

One year ago: Getting United with Unite Squads

Two years ago: Cosplay: Utsuru (for KJR)

Three years ago: Pokémon Go Community Day, 10/9/2021

Four years ago: On the Buying and Selling of Gameplay Elements

Five years ago: Hunting for Physical References

Six years ago: What Pokémon Eat

Seven years ago: Pokémon Jigsaw Puzzle

The New Event Structure of Café Remix

Earlier this year, I had noted some instances where events in Pokémon Café Remix overlapped one another, whether intended or not. They may be seemingly reflective of poor planning and/or oversight, also making them "grind-fests" for players. It seems, though, since that time, the game has gotten its act together and made a structure of overlapping events that helps to keep pace with a single prime event and increase interest in it.

The prime event - taking the form of a major Pokémon visit, Outdoor Tea Party, or Cooking Festival, along with the associated frameworks of One-Minute Cooking or Slow Cooking - is made to last for two weeks as the primary structure. This might seem a long time, but considering that players like me are also occupied with other things besides this game, it makes sense to have it that long. Furthermore, it works out for players of any skill level and allows them to play through the prime event without being rushed.

Along with the prime event, there are also mini-events that start a few days after the start of the prime event and lasts for several days each, one after another. They are "Audino's Cooking Drills", an individual points event; "Vee Vee's Cooking Class", a team points event; and a recurrence of Collect with Gholdengo within the Cook and Collect framework. All of these simply furnish additional items (the likes of Tarts, Golden Acorns, and Milestone Cookies) and can be played through by just playing the prime event, making them convenient adjuncts to the prime event without adding more "grinding" burden to the player.

Mission Bingo is also appropriately scheduled and often simplified to just three bingo cards for the duration of the prime event, with fewer multi-day tasks compared to what was in past bingo cards. What tasks are present now still require quite a bit of "grinding", but they're often for elements related to the prime event, thus also making them convenient adjuncts like the mini-events above. Thus, by just playing the prime event continuously - with occasional ventures to other efforts - many objectives can be accomplished.

Overall, the new structure for events solves many problems related to effort and disinterest while adding many opportunities for bonuses, making the "grind" that is still necessary for the prime event more rewarding and less pressured. After the old overlap, this should be considered as a welcome change, and one that should be able to remain for the longest time possible for players to take advantage of all its benefits.

One year ago: Latest Pokémon Fun on Social Media

Two years ago: Surrendering in Pokémon Unite

Three years ago: Record-Keeping in Pokémon Games

Four years ago: Countermeasures for Pokémon Go: Taking Stands, Taking Chances

Five years ago: Someone Else's Points

Six years ago: A Poké Ball Keychain

Seven years ago: Cosplay: Kisetsu no Matsuri

Two Festival and Pokémon Dreams

In more recent times, my dreams tend to have been concentrated within a span of a couple of hours, so things tend to happen (relatively) quickly within that span of time. Also most times recently, Pokémon wasn't somehow involved, and thus I tend to let most of those dreams slip. However, two of those most recent dreams did involve Pokémon and left somewhat of an impression. As such, I couldn't let them slip - in fact, I had to remember them so I can share them here on this blog, which becomes the purpose of this post.

One of those dreams apparently involved a band audition, with me as one of the members of the band - certainly being on vocals. Remarkably (or not surprisingly), we used "Mezase Pokémon Master" as our audition song, which becomes the aspect that ties this to Pokémon. Even so, the audition seemed to be affected by certain "shenanigans": we had decided that the music (and thereby my singing) would be varied in some ways - which may or may not have worked out to our advantage - and the other band members were seemingly "acting up" during our audition performance. The results of the audition are not for me to determine, as indeed I woke up after the performance ended, but there may be a few considerations for me when I perform again with a band.

The other dream involved a festival - actually, two festivals in fact - and both of them took place on the same day. Apparently, I had been intending to go to one of them, and not to the other one, but I ended up going to both of them anyway. As for how these relate to Pokémon, there also seemed to be an intervening matter related to Pokémon Go, and even one or both of the festivals contained elements related to Pokémon Go; admittedly, these were already sketchy as I dreamed about them, and became even more sketchy as I woke up from the dream and attempted to note down their most significant details. Only these were left, but I was assured that Pokémon was somehow involved.

As is evident through all my posts on them, I use festivals (and therefore by direct extension, conventions) to promote my interest in Pokémon through all the various activities I can do there, whether cosplay, singing, games, and so on and so forth. Their appearance in my dreams is thus a given possibility, for which the above dreams realize. Now, dreams often have meanings - at least interpretative ones - and if there could be a meaning to be extracted from these, it may be that I have to synchronize my dealings with Pokémon (Go) and my continued attendance to these festivals, which may not always be easy.

Somehow, I'll still be attending festivals (and conventions), even if circumstances and my needs may dictate otherwise. But what seems to be important to me as a Pokémon fan is the way I can bring this out within them, as what I like and enjoy. In that respect, these dreams seem to be meant to occur - even as quickly as they do transpire - perhaps to provoke me to think about them with Pokémon in hand.

One year ago: The Happy Bonus in Café Remix

Two years ago: Filling a Trainer's Home with Pokémon

Three years ago: Tournament: Raid Group Master League Classic

Four years ago: Let's Talk About Phones and Gadgetry

Five years ago: Livestream and Let Livestream

Six years ago: Cosplay: SJF - Tomodachi 3

Seven years ago: Iron Trainers?

Cosplay: Tanoshii Matsuri - Axis Cup (Local)

Me: OK, here's something a little different yet more of the same.

Goh: A cup! So... a tournament, then.

Ash: But I think it's for something else other than Pokémon.

Me: Well... you bet - for a team game that isn't of the Pokémon sort. When that one becomes as popular as this game, we'll surely promote it.

Ash: But they have characters for this one!

Me: Sure, and that's why I send you to this one. It also keeps me out of trouble at home.

Pikachu: Pika? ["Really?"]

Me: Maybe, maybe not. Anyway, you should have gotten to the place.

Ash: It's a coffee shop in the middle of nowhere! Or... almost.

Goh: Weren't there other buildings around?

Ash: A couple of coffee shops and houses, but other than that it was farmland.

Goh: I see what you mean. Oh, and, uh...

Me: Here's the schedule if you're curious.

Goh: Wow, it's just for a few hours! And most of that looks like downtime.

Me: You could think of it that way. After the character festival opens, Ash is supposed to hang around while the judges get introduced before the character parade.

Ash: Which I'm in!

Pikachu: Chu. ["Yup."]

Me: Of course.

Goh: How was the hanging around part?

Ash: It was nice. I met our friend's friends. We got to talk a lot before the character parade.

Goh: That should have been fun - and so was the parade.

Ash: Um, well... it was in the beginning, until I dropped my Poké Ball - or, it flew out.

Goh: Ouch! I guess that screwed up things a bit.

Ash: It did. I guess it wasn't meant to be.

Pikachu: Pika chuu... ["Maybe not..."]

Goh: And you were in your...

Ash: Hoenn outfit, like last week.

Me: I thought it could make up for that time, but apparently it couldn't happen.

Goh: You might want to save it for a better time.

Me: Sure. I'll think about that.

Goh: How many characters were in the parade?

Ash: Six with me. And three won.

Goh: Let me guess - you didn't.

Ash: Nope.

Pikachu: Pi... ["Nope..."]

Me: Should've known. Who were the other characters that didn't win?

Ash: A rabbit and a "snake boy".

Me: Oh, interesting. I thought the former would.

Goh: Did it have any chance at all? 

Me: Who knows?

Goh: OK, how was the ending? 

Ash: It was fine. There was a dance group and a band - I think? - but I didn't get to see the band to get back to our friend.

Me: That's fine. It was still a good afternoon for going out, based on what happened.

Ash: Yeah!

Pikachu: Pika! ["Sure!"]

Goh: I could see this happening again.

Me: That's very likely. Until then, we may have to be on our toes for our same and different affairs... just like this one.

One year ago: Improving on Routes (...Maybe?)

Two years ago: Means of Venturing for Trainers

Three years ago: One Girl Is Company, Two Girls Are...

Four years ago: Official Representative Pokémon for Regions

Five years ago: (Not) Sparkling Names

Six years ago: My Town, Pokémon Town

Seven years ago: What's in a Name?

Pokémon Go Community Day, 10/5/2024

Sometimes, Community Day needs to be all "sewed up" and ready to go - figuratively meaning that things have to be prepared. An example includes me having a Buddy Pokémon of the featured Pokémon ready before the date and some Candy stock to go with that, or it could also be having the necessary items and aids to catch as many of the featured Pokémon as possible. Either way - and in other ways as well - preparation is a given, and somehow.

The keyword for this edition, of course, is "sewed up"... because the featured Pokémon is Sewaddle, the Sewing Pokémon. As it evolves to Swadloon and finally Leavanny, it receives the Charged move of Shadow Claw, an oddity given its types but one that might just work for PvP. Meanwhile, the main bonus is quartered Egg hatch distance, which becomes another chance for some people to clear out their Egg stash. Apart from that, today is a run-of-the-mill edition for a Pokémon with three evolutionary stages.

Of course, that entails the usual cavalcade of bonuses: extended Lure Modules and Incense, double Candy and Candy XL chance, discounted trades and an extra Special Trade, photo bombs and bonus raids (this time for Swadloon), showcases and stickers, and item bundles galore on the Web Store and in-game shop. On the side of Research, Field tasks are the usual, while the extra Special tasks are given a unique title ("Sew Far Sew Good") for the edition, but the commentary (or banter) is still missing just like last month. It may be something to contend from this point onwards, but things go on.

Meanwhile, there was just me today to deal with this edition of Community Day. Last month, things were actually shuffled up a bit for one reason or another, and that was also true for this month. In both cases, they occurred at the beginning of the event, and the rest of the event proceeded as normally expected. Still, I've been informed that the happenings are specific to the event (and meetup) as it takes place in my local area, meaning that meetups in another place aren't (as much) affected. This leads to the wonder if going to another place might be good as a change of pace from attending in my local area.

I'm wearing my Ash shirt instead of sending him for a change.

For the results, I caught a good number of Shiny Sewaddle - 10 of them - but none of them won any of the giveaways held in the meetup. Knowing that the evolved ones might have a PvP future - even if not evident now - I evolved one each for possible Great and Ultra League usage as the primary effort, along with the usual others that didn't take as much effort. Whether they might get used for their various purposes at a later time is another matter, but I at least like to have them at the ready.

Like the Sewing Pokémon as the moniker for this month's featured Pokémon species (and its family), I always have to have some things "sewed up" for the occasions of Community Day, and this one was no different. While I can't say as much for all the other aspects that go into the occasions, everything is still sewn into the "fabric" that makes up the occasions and I can contribute to them uniquely in different ways.

One year ago: Warring for "Pokémon" Tickets?

Two years ago: Possible Future Unite Licenses? (Take Two)

Three years ago: Quickies: Nurse Joy, the Maintainer of Health

Four years ago: Circus You Create

Five years ago: Gym Progression in Pokémon Go

Six years ago: Starters and "Pseudo-Starters"

Seven years ago: The Old New Thing: Second-Generation Games

Asset Downloading in Pokémon Go

After thinking about it, even in light of what was said previously, I finally decided to go ahead and cover Pokémon Go as the theme of this month's "four fours". Even so, it won't be the subtopic I suggested at that time. Instead, I've decided to cover some obscure or less commonly considered facets of the game. One of those is the downloading of game assets, which as with many games, Pokémon Go has a lot of, especially in more recent times. Being an online game, it's a matter that naturally comes along with the game.

It is fairly easy to tell when game assets are being downloaded, in particular those related to Pokémon models. In this case, they'll appear as sparkling spots until the model asset is downloaded and completely present. Sometimes this happens quickly, and other times it doesn't happen as quickly; in particular, for a fresh install, there's always the possibility that the process might get stuck on a few of the remaining assets that just might be necessary for playing at that moment. Fortunately, the game does offer a solution.

The "Advanced Settings" section of the game has the "Download All Assets" option, which does do what it states it does: it downloads all game assets so that on further play, only device loading is necessary for them (but as expected, one still needs to be online to actually play). It carries the warnings of requiring sufficient space and a Wi-Fi connection to initiate the download, particularly as there's several gigabytes of data, but it should mean the peace of mind that playing will be made easier with the downloaded asset data. 

With that, besides the fresh install situation as an evidently described one above, an oft-cited scenario for initiating "Download All Assets" is before a major event, for example Community Day or even bigger ones like Pokémon Go Fest. This is certainly to mitigate possible network disruptions that can cause problems with asset downloads, which has happened in at least one major paid Pokémon Go event going back in time, but the peace-of-mind situation also described above still holds in any case, with or without a major event.

Pokémon Go has been proven to be a demanding game in terms of technology, and that would apply well with its magnitude of assets today, some of which can be downloaded at will and others that may need to be downloaded all at once to make future play less of a burden. In that respect, this is indeed a facet less commonly addressed even though it is quite obvious for those who play (and maybe even some that don't). As with the feature of relevance above, the hope is that easier play may be attained even just by discussing it.

One year ago: Item Drops in Pokémon Go

Two years ago: Quickies: Needing a Speed Boost

Three years ago: Possible Future Unite Licenses?

Four years ago: The Sun Also Rises... on SLA

Five years ago: Dub Reunion, Dub History

Six years ago: A Strongly Brilliant Thing

Seven years ago: Feelings for Female Trainers

The Metronome of My (Pokémon) Life

A long, long time ago, I mentioned the Metronome move as a move that some Pokémon may possibly learn and use. It's a niche move, considering what it does and which Pokémon are able to learn it. At the same time, it is also of interest for its philosophical wonderings, in particular with regard to aspects of my life and the Pokémon goings-on within it. It's something that seems neat to be explored, so I've decided to take a post to do just that, to see how the move and its effects are manifested in that life.

Just to review, when executed, the move selects and executes any one of the multitude of moves available to all Pokémon, which have grown in number since the first games the move was featured in (and with the development of Pokémon itself). In the anime, this is often depicted by a Pokémon waving both of its pointer fingers from side to side several times like the hand of a metronome, then stopping in the middle with a flash as the move is executed. Though the selected move itself is rarely seen, it's understood that something occurred.

Each and every activation of Metronome is a surprise, and so are some of the things that happen in my life. It seems as if a Clefairy - a prominent user of Metronome - is waiting around every turn and always waving its hand, and when it stops, something happens. What that something is might just be the attack I need in some cases... or not in others. Meanwhile, I myself might have a Clefairy (or more likely a Togepi, another well-known user) of my own, and that would lead to my own usage of the move in ways I can (or can't) imagine.

Metronome is still a fascinating move, even many years after it was first implemented, that may or may not have significant effects depending on the user and circumstances. The same is true of my life and the Pokémon aspects intertwined in it, which just may be the result of repeated usage of Metronome by various users and circumstances, with the effects being the way that life is now. The usage of Metronome will surely continue in my Pokémon life, and the users, circumstances, and results might just be astounding.

One year ago: Updated Emblems in Pokémon Unite

Two years ago: Enjoyment at the Mercy of...

Three years ago: The Little Jungle Cup of GBL

Four years ago: Gotcha Good, Like I Should

Five years ago: Preparing for Sword and Shield

Six years ago: The Items of Shuffle's Special Shop

Seven years ago: When an Iris Blooms: Episode 669 - "The Bloom Is on Axew!"