So the Pokemon forum Smogon was named after the German name for Koffing as a reference to Nazi gas chambers
So the Pokemon forum Smogon was named after the German name for Koffing as a reference to Nazi gas chambers
It has come to light that the original logo in 2004 was a Koffing with a Swastika instead of the normal crossbones thing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPG6vIN8Kx8
Video by cecilily - We need to talk about the Nazi past of Smogon
This is so outrageous it seems fake, but they adressed it last year and decided not to change the name which is peak 
Pokémon Go to the Re-education Camps
Yoooo what the fuck
Jesus Christ the original site
It’s clearly changed since then with how strong of a queer presence is on that site. The video shows to me that Smogon is an example of something that started out as an edgelord hub actually doing something and changing for the better.
I think, at a bare minimum they should change the name and logo, but maybe I'm a lib for that as it would probably just be performative, just seems indefensible to me to keep it
Yeah that sounds reasonable to me. There’s of course going to be heavy backlash from people who have grown attached to it but enough people will get over it.
Because it is peak white liberal performative nonsense to change the name. It's exactly what every white city dwelling liberal does when they find out something has a dark past, they change the offensive part (or do an overreaction, an example could be made for the prime directive in star trek) then pretend everything is still all hunky dory while doing effectively nothing material.
Maybe I've just had too many encounters with liberals who just never really cared at all to begin with to say that.
but maybe I'm a lib for that as it would probably just be performative
True but we also don't want kids to unknowingly repeat Nazi dogwhistles. Maybe that's why Smogon gets zero attention in official spaces, turns out Nintendo doesn't want anything to do with a community whose name is a reference to gas chambers. I'm just mind-boggled that people don't see this as that big of an issue.
"Yes my community is called SS88 but we are different and mature now and getting more popular than ever"
You're telling me the people who started something because they were elitist gamers who wanted to reduce something fun and artistic entirely to a cold, soulless numbers game were also disgusting fascist pigs?
Thank goodness something like that would never happen anywhere else, especially not at my favorite video game company, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.!
i don't think taking the children's RPG too seriously is nazi behavior
wanted to reduce something fun and artistic entirely to a cold, soulless numbers game
As an autistic person who enjoys numbers games this feels kinda ableist tbh. People find joy in different things, you're not better for disliking numbers.
You could be right! I've just come across a lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot of people who sure did think they were better than everyone else for liking vidya game numbers more than others. And you only need to spend about 90 seconds with any group of WoW players who treat that game that way to uncover a social environment as disgustingly bigoted as anything you'd find on 4chan. And those guys sure didn't hesitate to utilize slurs of all varieties when putting down anyone and everyone who dared to care even a little bit about anything other than what the 3rd party website that ranked them said about how big their numbies were, at every available opportunity.
"Hardcore" Pokemon players could be different, I dunno. And I'm certain it's not a 1-to-1
I know I shouldn't generalize, it's not a thing I appreciate when others do. I just have a built-in bias because the most vile words I have ever heard another human speak came from number-centric WoW players who thought you were a lesser human being if you didn't care about your numerical parses as much as they did theirs; it is a type of person I struggled with for more than a decade, during which time I never met a single group of "hardcore" players who, as a whole, managed to avoid this type of behavior. (And many of the people who started out as players of the game exhibiting this behavior, are now high-ranking members of the company.)
Good thing we have you to tell those elitists the proper way to have fun
ya know, in comparison, this site ain't so bad
the bar is in hell
i'll take the occasional struggle session over actual fucking nazis any day
WHY MUST EVERYTHING I LOVE SUCK?
I have 1000s of matches on Pokemon showdown and have been lurking Smogon for years. What the fuck.
Good video, worth a watch if are invested in the community. At the end she argues that the site has changed, and cites the presence of a diverse community as evidence of that. Personally I am not going to use the site anymore because I am concerned about the ideology of the hosts and admins. If Smogon was and potentially still is a safe harbor for antisemitic behavior it will never be a safe space for any minority group. The logo is still a koffing, they just got rid of the swastika.
Every G*mer a nazi, I guess
is Bulbapedia bad too or is that okay
every once in awhile I wanna browse that just looking at random pokemon I don't know
Not sure but please don't tell me if serebii.net is cursed i don't think i could take it rn
Smogon council be like
VGC fans stay winning
ahhhh Gamers
WHAT
Smogon deez nuts
jfc
leave me alone
Disappointed but nut surprised
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
