Kingdoms made of cardboard: When adults make it hard for kids to buy toys

The article reflects the author's disappointment with how adults exploit the Pokémon franchise for profit, making it difficult for children to access and enjoy the trading cards.

The writer criticizes this commercialization, advocating for sales to be restricted to children to preserve the intended audience's enjoyment.

The piece also touches on similar trends in other games like Beyblade and contrasts these with more inclusive gaming options like Magic: The Gathering, which offers alternatives to costly participation.

The writer concludes with a hope for a normalization of the Pokémon card market, emphasizing that some games should remain a domain for children.

OCTOBER 7 — I am an unabashed Pokémon fan.

While I don’t watch the cartoons as they’re not for me (that’s OK, kids deserve kids’ media), I do enjoy the video games and keep up with the franchise.

What I do find annoying is other adults who treat the franchise like a gold mine.

Today while I was at work I saw online adults queuing at the Ombak KLCC Pokémon popup to buy the latest Pokémon trading card drop.

They’re grown adults who probably don’t even know how to play Pokémon but are hoping to resell the cards for profit.

In the old days, kids could just stop by the local game store or LGS as they’re called and buy a random pack.

Nowadays to even get a chance at buying packs, they have to try and pre-order sets because otherwise they will end up paying ridiculous prices.

Right now, the average pack of a US pack of Pokémon cards in Malaysia is RM70 to RM100 ringgit for a pack with fewer than 10 cards.

It’s not just Pokémon.

The other day I passed by a Beyblade competition.

If you haven’t heard of Beyblade, it’s something like spinning tops or gasing but with plastic devices that look like jagged yo-yos.

There were kids and adults both playing and spectating, which I think is healthy and wholesome.

Less wholesome is adults buying up all of Toys R Us’ Beyblade stock to resell.

It upsets me because many kids into things like Pokémon or Beyblades either save up or hope to be gifted them during birthdays or as rewards.

When these things that are specifically made for children become entirely inaccessible to them because of adult greed, it’s reprehensible.

I do think the only solution to the current Pokémon card madness is to sell only to children because adults cannot be trusted not to try and make a buck.

Recently I’ve picked up Magic: The Gathering (MTG) after attending an event promoting it.

Like other trading card games, there is the gambling element in opening random packs but these days, you can play with your friends without spending money by using “proxy” cards.

Basically you look up good decks and then make or print cards to stand in for them, and play with your friends as though you have said cards.

Magic these days is also more flexible a game than it used to be. There is a “Pauper” format where rare or expensive/hard to get cards are disallowed, instead you make a deck from the cheapest, most common cards available.

There will always be speculators who are obsessed with card values and trying to get obnoxious sums via auctions but you can play your games without making it about expendable income.

To be able to afford to game in times like ours, I trade in my Nintendo Switch games after I’ve finished them for in-store credit at CEX.

I was excited to get the latest Fire Emblem game in the mail, without needing to spend more money but I’ll probably only get to play it when I go on a long break at the end of the year.

Thing is, people like me, adults, we have options.

Some things like Roblox and Pokémon cards really should just be for children and not wannabe speculators.

I personally can’t wait for the Pokémon card market to crash or at least normalise so we can see kids playing the games like they should, instead of being mind warped into acts of real violence.

That’s a whole other story to think about some other time.

In the meantime I will be mulling over whether I should sell my priciest MTG pulls…to bankroll more pulls.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.

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这篇文章反映了作者对成年人利用宝可梦系列牟利的失望之情，这种行为使得孩子们难以接触和享受集换式卡牌游戏。

作者批评了这种商业化行为，主张将销售对象限制在儿童，以维护目标受众的娱乐体验。

文章还提及了其他游戏（如战斗陀螺）中的类似趋势，并将这些趋势与更具包容性的游戏选择（如万智牌）进行了对比，后者提供了无需花费高昂成本即可参与的游戏选择。

作者最后希望宝可梦卡牌市场能够正常化，并强调有些游戏应该仍然是儿童的领域。

10月7日——我是一名不折不扣的宝可梦粉丝。

虽然我不看动画片，因为它们不适合我（这没关系，孩子们应该看儿童媒体），但我很喜欢电子游戏，并且一直关注着这个系列。

我觉得很烦人的是，有些成年人把这个系列游戏当成了金矿。

今天上班的时候，我看到很多成年人在网上排队，在吉隆坡城中城 (KLCC) 的 Ombak Pokémon 快闪店购买最新发售的宝可梦集换式卡牌。

他们是成年人，可能根本不会玩宝可梦游戏，却希望通过转售卡片牟利。

以前，孩子们可以去当地的游戏商店（简称LGS）随便买一包卡牌游戏。

如今，即使想有机会买到卡包，他们也必须尝试预购套装，否则最终只能支付离谱的价格。

目前，在马来西亚，一包美国产的宝可梦卡牌的平均售价为 70 至 100 令吉，而一包卡牌的数量不足 10 张。

不仅仅是宝可梦。

前几天我路过一个陀螺比赛。

如果你没听说过战斗陀螺，它有点像旋转陀螺或陀螺游戏，但使用的是看起来像锯齿状溜溜球的塑料装置。

现场既有孩子也有大人，既有玩耍的，也有观看的，我认为这很健康也很有益。

更令人担忧的是，一些成年人大量买断玩具反斗城的所有战斗陀螺库存，然后转手倒卖。

这让我很沮丧，因为很多喜欢宝可梦或战斗陀螺之类的孩子要么攒钱，要么希望在生日或奖励时收到这些玩具作为礼物。

当这些专为儿童设计的东西因为成年人的贪婪而变得完全无法获得时，这是令人发指的。

我认为解决目前宝可梦卡牌狂热的唯一办法就是只卖给儿童，因为不能指望成年人不从中牟利。

最近我参加了一个推广万智牌（MTG）的活动，之后就开始玩这款游戏了。

与其他集换式卡牌游戏一样，打开随机卡包也存在赌博的成分，但如今，你可以使用“代理”卡牌与朋友一起玩，而无需花费金钱。

基本上，你可以找到一些好的卡组，然后制作或打印一些卡片来代替它们，然后像​​拥有这些卡组一样和朋友们一起玩。

如今的万智牌也比以前更加灵活了。它有一种“平民赛制”，在这种赛制中，稀有或昂贵/难以获得的卡牌被禁用，取而代之的是使用最便宜、最常见的卡牌来构筑套牌。

总会有一些投机者痴迷于卡牌价值，试图通过拍卖获得巨额资金，但你可以玩游戏而不把它变成一种挥霍无度的收入。

为了能够在如今这样的经济环境下玩游戏，我会在玩完 Nintendo Switch 游戏后，将其兑换成 CEX 的店内积分。

我很高兴收到最新的《火焰之纹章》游戏，而且不用额外花钱，但我可能只有在年底的长假期间才能玩到它。

问题是，像我这样的成年人，我们有选择。

像 Roblox 和宝可梦卡牌这类东西，真的应该只给孩子们玩，而不是给那些想投机的人玩。

我个人非常期待宝可梦卡牌市场崩盘，或者至少恢复正常，这样我们就能看到孩子们像应该的那样玩游戏，而不是被扭曲思想，做出真正的暴力行为。

那是另一个故事，以后有机会再细说。

与此同时，我将考虑是否应该卖掉我最贵的几张万智牌……来筹集资金购买更多卡牌。

* 这是作者或刊物的个人观点，并不一定代表《马来邮报》的观点。

两部新的中国大片向我们展示了如何做到这一点。

你的孩子今晚睡在青年旅舍吗？

当一切都是广告

预算紧张的泰国人权委员会主席表示，即使允许其自行创收，也希望获得更多公共资金支持。

近51年后，霹雳州前警察总长邱崇光的女儿依然记得这位身着制服的男人。

“幸福的家庭？”：扎拉·凯里娜的继妹称她从未见过这位少女，但经常在社交媒体上看到照片。