The tail can also be swung to create distance between it and its foes before Nidoking charges. Nidoking uses this tail to smash, constrict, or break the bones of its prey and enemies. It is said that Nidoking's tail is capable of toppling a metal transmission tower. Each hand has three claws, while each foot has only a single hoof-like nail. Gray plates cover its chest and belly, and there is a gray, rounded spine on each elbow. There is a long, venomous horn on its forehead and a ridge of spines down its back. It has narrow eyes, large, spiny ears, fur-like tufts on its cheeks, and a short snout filled with pointed teeth. Nidoking is a large, bipedal, purple Pokémon with distinct reptilian features. 5.7.6 By transfer from another generation.It is related to Nidoran♀ and, starting in Generation V, can produce Eggs that contain either Nidoran♂ or Nidoran♀ when bred with Ditto. It evolves from Nidorino when exposed to a Moon Stone. Kocik is also an avid gamer and was co-host of a YouTube channel focusing on video game analysis called The Game Detectives.Nidoking ( Japanese: ニドキング Nidoking) is a dual-type Poison/ Ground Pokémon introduced in Generation I. Kocik’s work has also focused on colonialist renderings of video game map systems and representations of bureaucracy in video games.
His research focuses on queer games, queer gaming communities and fandoms, and queer mods of mainstream video games. Bioĭavid Kocik is a Masters student in Media Studies at University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and holds a BA in English Education from University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. Combining queer stories with a drastically increased difficulty, Pokemon Reborn also queers the socially-constructed identity of the “hardcore” gamer and reasserts the queer gamer and queer play as critical components of mainstream games.
Drawing from Jack Halberstam, Abigail De Kosnick, and other queer scholars, this paper also argues Reborn’s constantly shifting methods of winning, and therefore losing, queers the established form of success in the Pokemon series while constructing a queer community around the pleasures of familiar gameplay mechanics.
This paper argues queer playfulness and pleasure can stem from modding games by introducing mechanics that increase the difficulty of, and thereby change how to find success within, existing gameplay systems.
Queer game mod scholars, like Tom Welch and Evan Lauteria, posit that queer mods resist hegemonic forces by wholly subverting capitalist and heteronormative game designs of the original work. The game adds level caps, Field Effects, and other challenging mechanics to the Pokemon battle system, requiring players to adjust their Pokemon party and play styles throughout the game. However, rather than simply replace the (seemingly) heteronormative characters of Pokemon games with queer characters, Reborn also dramatically increases the difficulty of Pokemon gameplay. These characters engage in many familiar queer narratives, including coming out, familial discord, and pressures from heteronormative institutions, while also encountering typical problems associated with the Pokemon world, such as defeating the evil Team Meteor. While several Pokemon fan games feature cursory queer content, Pokemon Reborn has a considerably diverse queer cast of characters, including transgender Pokemon Champion Ame, pansexual rival Cain, and non-binary Gym Leader Adrienn, to name a few. Pokemon Reborn follows a long line of Pokemon fan mods, including Pokemon Insurgence and Pokemon Ash Grey. Additionally, this paper aims to begin conversations about the under-studied relationship between Pokemon games and queer fan communities.Ĭreated by Amethyst Liddell, Pokemon Reborn is a Pokemon fan game, released in episodes since 2012. This paper investigates the characters and gameplay mechanics of a fan queer Pokemon mod that challenges the assumptions of academic discussions about queer modding and queer play.