{"id":431,"date":"2014-12-14T14:46:58","date_gmt":"2014-12-14T14:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bbs.studio-revolution.net\/magazine\/?p=431"},"modified":"2014-12-14T14:46:58","modified_gmt":"2014-12-14T14:46:58","slug":"dude-wheres-my-game-corner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bbs.thecoldstorage.uk\/magazine\/?p=431","title":{"rendered":"Dude, where’s my Game Corner?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Players of RSE and ORAS would have noticed that the city of Mauville got a makeover, transformed from a small city to a multi-stored complex of shops, parks and apartments. And between that revamp, the Game Corner building that hosted slot machines and a roulette minigame got…<\/p>\n

\"[Image:
\nClosed!?<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a disappointment, but not that big a surprise, especially considering that the previous three main Pok\u00e9mon games did not have a Game Corner of any sort. Why has the Game Corner been removed? Here we look back at the Game Corner history, and review why you\u2019re no longer allowed to gamble coins in a minigame (but yet still tell creatures to beat others up… and win money from doing that).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Important beginnings<\/h2>\n

The Game Corner was around in the first mainstream games Red, Blue and Yellow. Found in Celedon City, it housed a number of slot machines, all with the same standard game. Match three icons up and win a number of coins, with three lucky 7s giving the best reward. It also had a separate building for claiming prizes. Prizes included TMs like Blizzard, and the famed Porygon, a weak Pok\u00e9mon. But we weren\u2019t to know that, because it was worth a whopping 9,999 coins! That\u2019s a lot of gambling minigames.<\/p>\n

\"[Image:
\nUnless you just bought your coins. Then it\u2019s a lot of money.<\/em><\/p>\n

Because of this, Porygon was considered a symbol of achievement. It was the only way to get it, and ever since that infamous\u00a0episode in Pok\u00e9mon involving it in Japan, it was never seen in the anime.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not all \u2013 the Game Corner even held some plot relevance. Team Rocket had a secret hideout, which you could only find access to behind a poster in the Game Corner. The theme of a mafia-like gang making money out of exploiting a gambling establishment and using Pok\u00e9mon as prizes was a good one, and sneaking into their hideout was all because you poke around where you shouldn\u2019t in the Game Corner, the place of minigames (or minigame). Sadly for the Game Corner, this is the only time it ever had relevance to the plot, save for the remakes in FireRed and LeafGreen.<\/p>\n

Generation two had two Game Corners, but one was just the same old set of slot machines in Kanto. They had minor changes where for instance a Chansey would show up and help you get triple sevens on rare occasions. There was however an additional card flip game that you could play, although it wasn\u2019t as easy to make a large profit of coins from that game as easily. Again Pok\u00e9mon and TMs were offered as prizes, while in Crystal the Game Corner was certainly worth your while as a man standing outside would teach you moves like Ice Beam and Flamethrower for coins.<\/p>\n

\"[Image:
\nIt also came with more colours now.<\/em><\/p>\n

Generation three brought its own Game Corner too, and besides minor changes to the slot machines replaced the Card Flip game with one involving a roulette table. Furthermore, Pok\u00e9mon were no longer prizes, although you could exchange coins for Pok\u00e9mon dolls for your Secret Base. Meanwhile, there were additional \u2018Game Corner\u2019 buildings in Emerald and FireRed\/LeafGreen, but these just had a couple of other minigames that didn’t involve any gambling.<\/p>\n

\"[Image:
\nWhere the ball stops, nobody knows…<\/em><\/p>\n

Lastly came generation four, and Diamond and Pearl were the first games of that set. They brought only the slot machines through, but spruced them up with bonus rounds. If you activated them, you\u2019d end up in a minigame involving Clefairy and pressing the correct buttons in order. This could net you hundreds upon hundreds of coins, provided you could keep it going and that Clefairy didn\u2019t decide to take a rest. It was a nice expansion on the otherwise repetitive slot machine game.<\/p>\n

\"[Image:
\nAll hail Gamblor!<\/em><\/p>\n

The beginning of the end<\/h2>\n

But this was the last time that everyone<\/em> could experience the joys \u2013 or tedium \u2013 of slot machine minigames. You see, in the following game in Platinum (the ‘third’ and updated version of Diamond and Pearl), most of Europe (sans the UK, in fact) had it cut out. While the likes of Japan, America, Australia and so forth had it run just like before, you\u2019d get a random number of coins when talking to a coin machine instead of a minigame. Nearly all dialogue was also changed for the game too.<\/a> At least the TM for Explosion which required you to play the minigame was just given out in European games.<\/p>\n

\"[Image:
\nThis just isn’t as fun.<\/em><\/p>\n

But why did it go missing without an in-game word of explanation?<\/p>\n

The answer is because of anti-gambling laws that came out around the same time having an influence on game ratings. Upon people emailing Nintendo of Europe about this, the following replies revealed this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Pok\u00e9mon Platinum Version, the slot machines in the Game Corner cannot be operated by the player, to comply with PEGI age rating guidelines concerning gambling. Players can still get coins to exchange for items, simply by checking the slot machine.<\/em><\/p>\n

PEGI \u2013 Pan European Game Information \u2013 are the group that decide what games are rated in regards to what age groups they are appropriate for.<\/a> If they had kept the slot machines in, the recommended age for children to play this game would have skyrocketed from the then standard \u2018E for Everyone\u2019, by as much as a rating of ages 12 and up<\/a>. That would have been one of the last things the Pok\u00e9mon company would have wanted. Parents not buying games for their kids or stores refusing to sell to too-young customers due to store policies would have resulted in less sales. And that\u2019s ignoring the fact that having the minigame could have broken laws as well, and avoiding unnecessary law suits is in every company\u2019s interests.<\/a> This would be why they removed the slot machines from Platinum.<\/p>\n

So essentially, European stigmas against gambling is to blame for the minigame removal. To be fair, the laws do have good intentions behind them, but they do in my opinion go too far as to remove minigames in a Pok\u00e9mon game. But what about HeartGold and SoulSilver, the games that followed Platinum? These were the remakes of Gold, Silver and Crystal, and as expected they had fancy slot machines too, complete with a Smeargle!<\/p>\n

\"[Image:\"[Image:
\nWhat do you mean, you don\u2019t remember this?<\/em><\/p>\n

…Well, HGSS really did have slot machines \u2013 in Japan. Every other country however had the slot machines removed as well, and replaced with an entirely different minigame called Voltorb Flip.<\/p>\n

\"[Image:
\nThis isn\u2019t a slot machine.<\/em><\/p>\n

You see, during the year separation between Platinum and HGSS, the ESRB \u2013 Entertainment Software Rating Board which functions for America and other countries<\/a> \u2013 also toughened up on gambling references within games. It\u2019s not just the European laws to blame here now. Japan had no such restrictions, but everywhere else certainly did. In fact, with Platinum the uncensored version of the game in Australia received a rating of PG rather than E for Everyone, the only mainstream Pok\u00e9mon game sold there with such a rating.<\/p>\n

Luckily, they did put more effort in than they did for European\u2019s Platinum. The interior may be redesigned and there may be no slow machines, but a minesweeper style game was put in for our enjoyment which requires a bit more skill than your standard slot machine game. The key point in this game was that you couldn\u2019t actually lose coins, so hence it wasn\u2019t gambling \u2013 you either won coins, or you didn\u2019t. This may have been planned\u00a0in advance too, as data for Voltorb Flip was apparently found in Japanese copies of HGSS. It wasn\u2019t enjoyed by everyone, while others far preferred it to the slot machines. But one could agree that it was still better than no Game Corner at all.<\/p>\n

The end of the Game Corner<\/h2>\n

Sadly, that is exactly what followed. The fifth generation of Pok\u00e9mon games lacked in Game Corners. Game Freak must have decided that putting it in for only one country was too much trouble, and such a in-game location unfitting for non-gambling-style games. The fifth generation entries did have minigames however; BW introduced the Dream World which allowed you to play simple flash games on the computer, while B2W2 had Entralink missions which were pretty fun to play. But that was as far as it went. X&Y also followed suit, this time having minigames within Amie but again no Game Corner.<\/p>\n

Then came ORAS, the latest remakes by Game Freak. But instead of Voltorb Flip, we got a sad owner standing by\u00a0his inaccessible store, telling us that he had to close his store for \u2018reasons he\u2019d rather not talk about\u2019. Poor guy, it\u2019s not his fault the world we live in doesn\u2019t want children \u2018gambling\u2019 in Pok\u00e9mon. That said, it would have been nice if he could have ran some other games at least, instead of giving us the remainder of the Game Corner prizes from RSE – the starter Pok\u00e9mon dolls for your Secret Base. That’s all he has left, besides the memories.<\/p>\n

So now you know – the Game Corner is no more, because of anti-gambling laws and video game rating boards enforcing tighter restrictions on gambling references. If DPPt ever get remade, it’s more than likely that it too will suffer the same fate as Mauville’s Game Corner. So keep your original copies if you ever want to see that Clefairy smile fortune down on you and gift you coins.<\/p>\n

\"[Image:
\nFarewell, sweet Game Corner.<\/p>\n

<\/em>
\nWritten by bobandbill
\n<\/em>Edited by An-chan, Bay Alexison and Dramatic Melody<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Players of RSE and ORAS would have noticed that the city of Mauville got a makeover, transformed from a small city to a multi-stored complex of shops, parks and apartments. And between that revamp, the Game Corner building that hosted slot machines and a roulette minigame got… Closed!? It\u2019s a disappointment, but not that big … Continue reading “Dude, where’s my Game Corner?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[271,184,44,274,267,273,270,269,265,138,147,272,221,30,275,143,268,266,32],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-anti-gambling","tag-banned","tag-bbs-magazine","tag-card-flip","tag-closed","tag-esrb","tag-european-laws","tag-gambling","tag-game-corner","tag-hgss","tag-oras","tag-pega","tag-platinum","tag-pokemon","tag-roulette","tag-rse","tag-voltorb-flip","tag-why-is-there-no-game-corner","tag-wynaut-magazine"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3SwsJ-6X","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":434,"url":"https:\/\/bbs.thecoldstorage.uk\/magazine\/?p=434","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":0},"title":"From RSE to ORAS – what has improved?","author":"bobandbill","date":"December 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Before the Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald (RSE) remakes in the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (ORAS) games were released, I wrote an article on what I would have liked to have seen improved upon in these new 3DS games. Today, we look back on that list and see how impressed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/bbs.thecoldstorage.uk\/magazine\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":371,"url":"https:\/\/bbs.thecoldstorage.uk\/magazine\/?p=371","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":1},"title":"From RSE to ORAS – Top Ten Wanted Improvements","author":"bobandbill","date":"June 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A lot of people got terribly excited when Game Freak finally went and announced remakes to the Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald games. We\u2019ll be able to revisit Hoenn in all its watery, tropical glory on the 3DS with Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. 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