Since Scarlet/Violet came out I found myself one of those people looking down on Pokemon and thinking that we were simply in an era of GameFreak following trends that were anti-gamer.

I honestly looked at SV and couldn't distinguish gameplay from SWSH. I couldn't see the appeal.

I was ready to jump on Wind/Waves as the "next SV" and I was starting to wonder how many "Gen 9s it would last."

Then the Direct happened and I watched it. Not to see the game. Not to see if it was for me. I watched it out of pure hate for "What Pokemon has become" and "Why doesn't GameFreak listen anymore."

The moment the SEA vibes appeared on the screen and the colors jumped out I felt something different.

I'm old now. I played CS 1.6 semi-professionally. I've played WoW, Eve Online, Tarkov, Arc Raiders all for thousands of hours each (Arc maybe less but getting there).

I throw around the word Woke like I'm back in the school playground when the first 151 deck of PoGo cards came out and it was the cool thing to do.

Wind/Waves reached out of the screen, tickled my ADHD Infused Ferret Dopamine Receptors, waited for me to cry and then said, come here child, it's ok... and gave me a massive hug.

I feel awful that we've moved into an era now where the hate of games and the Devs don't listen narratives are genuinely drowning out everything.

If I was GameFreak I would feel suffocated. I wouldn't be fixing bugs, I'd be hiding, crying, shaking in the corner.

How have we ended up like this.

To all those hating on WW and wishing its downfall without even trying it. You are what's killing Pokemon. Not the devs, not the "woke virus". It's you.

That's not to say some games don't deserve a level of scrutiny... Gen 10 just isn't one of them.