Native Jovian

I don't have kids either, but I'm skeptical of the idea that there's a large group of people saying "giving a $200 3DS to my child is no problem, but a $300 Switch, now that's a bridge too far". Yeah, the 3DS is cheaper and (possibly?) somewhat more durable thanks to being able to close it when it's not in use, but it's not like it's cheap enough that running out and buying a new one is no big deal. Either your kid is responsible enough to carry around a multiple-hundreds-of-dollars piece of electronics, or they aren't. The difference between a 3DS and a Switch on that scale seems like splitting hairs.

Man, I played through enough of Sun to get to the first pokemon center so I could grab the items (and greninja) from the demo plus the event munchlax. Holy crap, going back to Y after that is actually kind of hard. Just little quality of life stuff makes a huge difference. Being able to check move info in battle! Being told whether a move is super/not very/normally effective! A button to go straight to "use pokeball" instead of having to navigate through three menus first! None of it is a huge deal by itself, but all together it's like night and day. In other news, I feel like sort of a dick catching stuff in the pokemon village. "Yeah, this is where pokemon go when humans have been dicks to them and they just want to be left alone. Anyway, better bust out those ultra balls if you want to fill your pokedex."

You're good, man. I'm still working on Y. Just finished saving the world last night. I laughed my ass off at how everyone was basically "well, now that the ancient superweapon that nearly wiped humanity off the face of the planet is dealt with, let's get back to the really important thing: POKEMON JOURNEY! Those last few gym leaders aren't going to defeat themselves!"

Is there a Gamestop event pokemon for December, or is it online this month?

So, I didn't get to finish Y over Thanksgiving like I'd hoped (I spent most of my time doing things like "hanging out with family" and "eating delicious food", silly me) but I did make a fair bit of progress. I know I'm behind the times on this, but man, Lysandre goes from zero to genocide pretty damn quick, doesn't he?

Wait, how the hell does this work? Can you just scan everything and get them all? Because that's pretty nuts. I mean, not in a bad way, but I'd still be pretty surprised. In other news, I got my copy of Sun, but I didn't manage to finish Y before it came. I'm going to hold off on starting it until I do that, because otherwise I probably never will. I'm taking all of next week off for Thanksgiving, so I'll definitely finish up Y and get started on Sun

So, no more field moves at all? It's all replaced by... whatever the thing in the demo that let you ride a taros at will was called? I'm entirely okay with that. Having to give up a slot or two in your party (I'm using a bibarel and a hawlucha in Y, though I'd probably have the hawlucha anyway, because LUCHADORE PARROT) wasn't a whole lot of fun, though I'll admit that smashing through walls and stuff was amusing for some reason. I guess we'll just have to summon pokemon to do that for us on command instead of having them be part of our party now, though. No real loss there, as far as I'm concerned. I also preordered my copy of Sun from Amazon, so it should be waiting for me when I get home from work tomorrow. Sadly, I still haven't beaten Y yet (though I've made a lot of progress in the last week or so!), but I'm travelling for Thanksgiving next week so I'll probably finish up Y and then start right on Sun during that trip. I suppose I should decide which starter I'm going with. I haven't even actually looked at their evolved forms yet. I'm leaning toward rowlet, though. ....okay, I just looked at their evolutions. Definitely going with rowlet. By far the most awesome of the three, and with the greninja from the demo, I just need a fire-type starter to round out the main three. Maybe they'll let you pick a second starter later, like in X/Y.

The girl that talks about the guy who rescued her when she sprained her ankle? Next timed event after that is the guy in city hall with his pikachu, I believe, which was 12 days from the start (so seven after the girl you missed).

In other news, I finally got around to checking out the demo, as well. I cannot be the only one who found Team Skull's "gangsta" shenanigans to be cringeworthy. Like, just... ow. Seriously. It's horrific. Other than that, pretty good stuff, though. As others have mentioned, I appreciate the game letting me know what attacks are effective against what, rather than making me memorize and/or guess a million different type interactions. The fact that they've finally gotten rid of the grid system entirely takes a bit of getting used to, but no real complaints. The Z-move pose the trainer makes is hilariously dorky, but in a good way, and the z-moves themselves (or the one I've seen, anyway) are visually impressive. Is there any word on whether mega evolutions are still a thing? Because it's basically the same mechanic, only z-moves are individual attacks instead of a super mode like mega evolution. I'm not sure how they'd work together -- maybe you can do one or the other, but not both, in any give battle. Anyway, short of Team Skull making me want to facepalm my hand through my skull, I'm generally liking what I see. I'll definitely go back to it when I have more time and see what else it's got for me.

In honor of the demo release, I actually got off my ass and played some Y yesterday. Now I have three badges, and I can mega evolve things. Yelling "henshin a-go-go, baby!" recommended but not required. I also got a plot-relevant lucario that I feel kinda bad that I can't actually fit in my party. Between pokemon I need for HM moves and covering a good variety of types, I don't have space for him. "Lucario really wants to go with you! You should take him, I'm sure he'll become much stronger with you as his trainer!" "Sweet, free pokedex entry. Now get in the box and never come out." If anyone's wondering, my team is Bibarel and Hawlucha (for HMs, and also because Hawlucha is the best pokemon), Solrock (for sky battles), and Blaziken, Venusaur, and Greninja (for type variety). Solrock is the only one I can really see switching out if I need to, but I like having a pokemon that can sky battle while still providing two different types that none of the rest of my team have.

Sun/Moon isn't allowed to come out yet, I still only have two badges in Y. Adulting is hard need more time for videya gaims plz.

So, nothing related to the new stuff, but I've finally gotten around to playing more of Y since I bought it like... three years ago. My team currently consists of: a ninja frog, a plantosaur, a kung-fu firebird, a psychic rock, a luchadore parrot, and a beaver. Pokemon is silly.

I get most of my gaming news either through word of mouth or from Ars Technica. Ars is a more general tech news site, but they usually pick up the major gaming stories.

It seems to me that if we're talking about paying employees, it would be "administrative" people rather than "creative" people. Paying remixers, judges, album directors, etc would be weird, but someone like a lawyer, accountant, or web developer seems reasonable to me. I'm sort of assuming that this would all be happening after OCR gets official non-profit status, though.

Like, actual breakfast, or a muffin under a heat lamp "breakfast"?