Pokemon's

I would like to tell about the  Pokemon phenomenon. One can think of the target audience between ages of 10 and 14 playing funny looking handheld games and trading card games. Is it real the picture and archetype of the target customer group? To be honest - no. When I was younger, like 9 years old (1998) Pokemon first appeared on Western and Polish television as well as gameboy games and trading card games. They were great and at that moment I found them very addictive. Many people aged between 9 and 16 at that time became addicted to funny looking monsters and simple idea of collecting them and trading them with other players ( this was the main intention of their creators because of different versions with ‘exclusive’ obtainable creatures). Nowadays they are in their late 20s or 30s and still they try to “Catch ‘em all!” ( the motto of animated Pokemon series). I have to admit that the first version was available only on the gameboy but over time developed 'Emulators' for the systems by which started to play well on consoles, computers, and not just on gameboys. How did it start?

In 1996 a Japanese company named Nintendo created an odd-looking game with a simple idea: to collect monsters, train them, trade them via the transfer cable with other players and to become best trainer. First two Pokémon games were released in Japan : Pokémon Green and Pokémon Red. What is in one game cannot be present in the other. This idea encouraged players to interact with other people to trade monsters. At that time it was revolutionary, because player battles, trades and society ( things outside the game ) became the most important parts of a game.

Original covers of first games (Pocket Monsters Trainer)

http://i2.listal.com/image/1804419/600full-pokemon-green-version-cover.jpg

http://theologygaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Pokemon_red_box_ja.jpg

Evolution-revolution

This series became very popular inside and outside Japan. Soon after original release Nintendo created manga, anime and a trading card game. ‘Western’ release brought another three games : Blue, Red, Yellow (last one was based loosely on animated series). These games are known as the first generation. Nintendo made a few mechanism of unique pokemon not obtainable in any way than attending events licensed by the Japanese company. After wireless network became more popular Nintendo implemented battling and trading via Wi-Fi.

Outside electronic game

Hasbro (owner of Pokemon and many other TCG*) still organizes tournaments of Pokemon Trading Card Game online and offline ( with real cards ). I used to attend them in Warsaw at one of Warsaw stores which sold board games and various trading card games and I saw many times people playing pokemon. They looked as though they had been between 25 and 40 years old. I was a Pokemaniac. Still,  I sold my old Gameboy color many years ago along with a few games ( Pokemon games as well). Now I pity my old handheld console which gave me so many positive memories.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCOo6SAVI80

* Were you into Pokémon? Did you collect cards or other collectibles?
* Do you feel nostalgic about things you loved to do as a child?

Motivation

Hi guys!

Today I would like to introduce the courage and self-confidence topic.

Self-motivation and preparing oneself for an event/occasion etc.

Definition of motivation can be found anywhere on  the Internet : “Motivation is a psychological feature that arouses an organism to act towards a desired goal and elicits, controls, and sustains certain goal-directed behaviors. It can be considered a driving force; a psychological one that compels or reinforces an action toward a desired goal. For example, hunger is a motivation that elicits a desire to eat. Motivation is the purpose or psychological cause of an action.

Motivation has been shown to have roots in physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and social areas. Motivation may be rooted in a basic impulse to optimize well-being, minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure. It can also originate from specific physical needs such as eating, sleeping or resting, and sex.

Motivation is an inner drive to behave or act in a certain manner.  Once I  came across a sentence on a website , psychologytoday.com  : "It's the difference between waking up before dawn to pound the pavement and lazing around the house all day." These inner conditions such as wishes, desires, goals, activate to move in a particular direction in behavior.”

But how does the theory confronts with reality?

I found problems in motivating myself on many occasions. I lacked in perseverance on completing my tasks before deadline and suddenly it came to me like a shock - I had a problem, I realized that from my school when I started  getting bad marks because of not doing tasks or doing them wrong, in a hurry. I read a lot and talked with my friends  about how they motivated themselves. Then a solution was clear - no matter how many time I spent on thinking what I should do it didn't bring me closer to achieve my goals. Then I tried the simplest thing ever – I tried doing tasks on the same day or day after I received it. It was very hard at  the beginning but soon after I noticed that my marks got better.

Now I will tell you something about my friend.... It's a secret... I recently talked to my friend about motivation and how life goes by. This is what I heard from him: " I've wanted to start my driver's course since September last year when I came back from the States. But I am the type of a  person that needs time to process a lot of information and, more accurately, I need to find time and motivation to enroll. So I wanted to, but was too lazy to actually do the first step. :) However, I am the type of person that makes decision REALLY quickly when I must or am forced to. For example during my university years (I miss them!) when there was one (!) day left to apply for another major (spanish Philology) and no time to lose, I managed to get all the papers, take some necessary photographs of my horrible face, fill in all the paperwork and officially apply. If I had had more than a day (like maybe two weeks), I probably would not have done anything, and never would have enrolled! The same thing was with this driver's course. As I was saying, I wanted to but had no motivation. Then one of my work buddies (another English teacher) said she had just enrolled and was waiting for the first class. She asked me to join (as we spoke about the necessity of having a licence a  month before) and having NO TIME to make up my mind, I decided "what the hell! It's time!" and did it"

It gave me lots to think about.

 It's basically about the first step - and then I either get involved or not.

How is it with you guys?

Do you need to force yourselves to get somewhere?

Do you need someone to push you a bit?

Here is some video about motivation I found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQfE0SMU4Ck