Could it be that after the Willy Wonka experience, scammers from all over the world have joined forces to create the most shoddy version possible of beloved franchises worldwide to see if they could gain notoriety in any way? That’s what it sounds like after what we’ve heard this week from Singapore, where Pokéverse has become a frightful platform designed for hating Pokémon.
It has weakened!
Pokéverse (an event not associated with The Pokemon Company) promised famous guests, activities, “official” licensed merchandise, and many surprises… And, of course, it has provided quite a few surprises. The weekend pass costed anywhere from $43 to a little over $255. For that price, one would expect Pikachu in person to greet you and throw a couple of thunder shocks, but it’s not like that at all.
The two announced famous guests were Veronica Taylor (who played Ash Ketchum for the first eight seasons) and James Paige (the singer of the first English opening). And yes, they were there for the talks and the meet & greets. The problem is there wasn’t much else about ‘Pokémon’: throughout the convention, what fans could see was Frigga advertisizing, a company offering zodiac-based charms, and Kaloscope, one of the NFTs. I don’t choose you.
En otro lugar, tuvieron la oportunidad de jugar baloncesto en inflables y participar en otras actividades… que ni siquiera tenían logotipos de Pokémon, como si fuera solo cualquier parque infantil. El prometido Pikachu gigante se convirtió en unos cuantos peluches del personaje y los artistas que hicieron fanarts tuvieron que pagar una fortuna para estar allí (lo cual, sorpresa sorpresa, en su mayoría no recuperaron).
But you know what? If you’ve paid to go to a place that smells bad and, in fact, offers a bad experience, then what can we do? After all, we are adults, it’s our money, and we have the tools to file complaints and, perhaps, get our money back. The biggest problem is that Pokéverse used several terminally ill children as part of their collaboration with the Make-a-Wish Foundation. And regardless of how good or bad it was, taking immunocompromised children to a place like this makes no sense. The good part? It hasn’t gone quite as viral, so I highly doubt we’ll see a movie about this like we did about the Willy Wonka experience. That’s a nice takeaway.