She Has to Catch'em All: The Great Pokemon Hunt of 2013

If you have read other posts on this blog you may realize I am married, you might also realize that video game collecting is fairly dry, it just isn't a spectator hobby. Now to collectors who love to find old games, new info, and insight it is very exciting. To me sharing info and the process of discovery is fun and interesting, to my wife well she is just happy that I'm happy and that I have something I enjoy.

Having appreciation and a deep love for video games comes  naturally to me, it was ingrained in me during my childhood, teenage years, and now adulthood. This is not true for everyone, often I read posts from other collectors that ask  things like "How do you deal with your wife / girlfriend who hate your collecting, or hate games or just don't get it?". The answer isn't easy, and often time this seeming small question can balloon in to a real problem in relationships.  So my advice on this subject, and while corny is fairly sound. Share the love, yup that's it. How you share games and make memories for those around you will cement the foundation of  their outlook. This is my example of sharing the love and making fond memories, it happened Easter morning.

She Has to Catch'em All: The Great Pokemon Hunt of 2013

My wife enjoys Pokemon, and Nintendo just happened to release a limited edition 3DS XL with Pikachu's likeness.

So given the timing of the release, a week before Easter, and the fact that my wife loves  Pokemon I hatched a plan (Egg Pun) that would have my wife seeking Pokemon this Easter.

Part 1: The Plan

First things first, acquire the 3DS. Well after checking Amazon, Best Buy, Target and a few other stores I was forced to order online. One big box store, which I don't love, had it. Objections be damned this was for my wife so I ordered it while cringing the whole time. The delivery date was set for March 28th- 30th, making me all in on this plan without a plan B. So of course it came on the 30th, the day before Easter.   

Part 2: Logistics

With the 3DS on it's way, I needed to figure out the best way to give it to her. I could  just put it in a basket and hide it, but that seemed to easy.  So what I came up with was a pseudo Easter Egg hunt, but instead of hidden eggs  it would be Pokemon. I went back to Amazon recalling I had seen small PVC Pokemon before. Without much effort I found a variety pack and with my prime membership it arrived in 2 days. You will notice in the picture 13 Pokemon, I actually bought a pack of 15, one was a dupe which I used later and one was Pikachu, which I used as part of the setup, you will see that part later.

Part 3: The Pokedex

After thinking about how and where to hide them, I knew I hadn't gone far enough and that simply replacing eggs with Pokemon wasn't going to cut it. Thinking about how my wife plays Pokemon it dawned on me that she always had a Pokedex near by, and that the Pokedex was an essential part of the Pokemon experience. The Pokedex was perfect because it would stand as visual guide and also a hint book to help my wife find the Pokemon.  The next challenge was to identify the Pokemon and get names, luckily they were numbered and that part went pretty fast. Next I began the best I could to stumble around through Word 2010 and create a book fold file that I could compose the Pokedex in by pasting pictures and writing clues. I am sure some of you are reading this and face palming but let me say I have little experience with graphic design or layout arrangement. Word and Excel are my bread and butter so I went with what I know. Overall it turned out all right, though my cover could have been a bit better.  (To see the Pokedex and all the Clues click here)

While creating the Pokedex, I tried to take the name and type of the Pokemon into account while thinking of places to hide them and how to phrase my clues. For Example Dewott I hid on top of our Harry Potter BluRays. The Clue saying Harry pOtter because Dewott is an Otter. For RoggenRolla I hid him on our iPad speaker stand because he looks like a speaker with the clue being music is the key. Pignite I hid on the fireplace, on not in, with the clue stating "I'm on Fire".  All of the clues went something like that with a few being letter puzzles.

I was very please with how the came out but now that I essentially had given her a clue book I felt like maybe the hunt was getting too easy. So thinking back to video games I decided to employ the collectors tactic I most enjoy, The Easter Egg, the fact that was Easter was an added bonus (also I love puns). So in the spirit of Easter I filled 6 eggs with candy and hid them around the house in addition to the Pokemon. The plan felt good and whole, 6 eggs and 13 Pokemon to find.

 Part 4: Easter Morning
At about 2 AM my wife finally went to bed, and I made my way downstairs to set everything up. Fast forward to 8:30 AM, the dogs are begging for breakfast so it's time to get up. I follow my wife and dogs down stairs and wait for the moment when she sees this  (To See the Letter Click Here)

Carlie is very surprised to see what I have done. I'm relieved she never caught wind of my plan.  She reads her instructions, takes her Pokedex and is very excited to begin catching them all.

 Part 5: The End
The hunt took Carlie just over 2.5 hours from start to finish. My wife really enjoyed it, but more than that it was another positive experience I gave her that involved games and collecting. Early on when we first started dating and I first starting collecting I made a few mistakes, like spending all my money on games, which meant I couldn't afford to take her out somewhere nice. I realized making those kinds of  mistakes could ruin two things I love. As with most things in life inclusive > exclusive.

As always thank you for reading.

 ~Johnny~

It puts the Pokemon in the basket!