Category Archives: Digital

Catching Mew in Pokémon Red and Blue

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2nd 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean Mandarin

Story

 

“Dude this just went viral again yesterday on Twitter. Catching Mew under a tuck in Pokémon Red and Blue was a rumor that was circulating before we were even born. People thought that a Mew was hiding under a truck and they thought they could move it and catch it. Turns out there is no mew under the truck but the game was bugged so you could abuse them to catch mew elsewhere. Anyways, there was a update on Pokémon Go and now you can catch Mew in it but people are finding it in real life under trucks man haha.”

 

Context

 

I acquired this data from my older brother, who is a competitive Pokémon Video Game Championships (VGC) player that avidly travels to local and regional events, as well as qualifying and attending the 2017 Worlds Championships.

My brother heard of this story while chatting over his friends that play VGC on twitter. Twitter is the main social platform these players utilize to communicate with each other. The saw the tweet of the Mew under the truck and they all laughed about how they truly belived it as a child.

Mew is a legendary Pokémon that was not meant to be acquirable in the Pokémon Red and Blue. However, game developers later said that there was a gltich that could be abused in the game that allowed players to catch Mew.

Pokémon Go is a smartphone game that allows users to catch Pokémon in real life. The camera shows the surrounding areas as is, but Pokémon can be found when seen through the screen. As players started to find the legendary Pokémon Mew under trucks, just like the rumor they believed in years ago, they shared their experience on social media, which went viral.

 

Analysis

 

Catching Mew in Pokémon Red and Blue is a gaming legend. This is because of alleged stories that people hear of players catching the supposedly impossible to catch Pokémon in a very real and accessible place within the game.

 

The Secret Cow Level in Diablo

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2nd, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean, Mandarin

Story

 

“There was a rumor where if in Diablo, if you clicked on a certain cow in Tristram a specific amount of times, you can go to a secret cow level that was just full of cows.”

 

Context

 

I collected this from my older brother, who has been an avid gamer with me since as long as I can remember. When we went abroad to Vancouver, Canada, to study English, we started playing on Diablo on the desktop computer at the house of his homestay. This was in 2006, when Diablo II was already out. By the time we played the game, the game developers have already debunked the rumors and created a secret cow level in Diablo II as a tribute to this rumor. However, despite knowing that the rumor was not true, we would consistently try to click on the lone cow of Tristram different amount of times, hoping that the rumors were actually true and we could witness that awesome moment.

Blizzard Games, the company that created Diablo, continues to create more Cow Levels in new games in the franchise.

 

 

Analysis

 

This collected data emphasizes the propagative nature of folklore. Some rumor that was traveled by word of mouth grew to become a tradition to keep up for the franchise. The rumor on its own is a gaming legend and the ritual to the cow level happens in a very real place within the game.