Disagreement does not equal argument... necessarily

I have a friend named Terry. Terry is a Catholic and I'm an atheist. His beliefs get capitalized because they have a sacred book, a city and a guy in a funny hat*. Mine don't because it's not a religion; It's the complete absence of one. You'd think we would argue constantly or couldn't be good friends if you knew nothing about us and judged us solely on stereotypes of those two words. You couldn't be more wrong. In fact, there's a lot of things we agree on. One of the few things we come to blows about, figuratively, is Pokemon. Specifically, how many of them exist.

At the moment, Nintendo makes the spurious (possibly blasphemous) claim that there exist 719 different species. I lost count myself after it passed the 500 mark, but I don't feel like most of those are... well... real. To me, there are exactly 252 monsters that would fit into your pocket. Terry's even more extreme. He makes the claim that he's a Pokemon fundamentalist and the only ones that exist are the original 151 and Missingno (the glitch Pokemon, number 000). I at least see the 2nd generation as being "real," meaning that after Gold, Silver and Platinum, the Pokeverse stopped collecting new species**.

In Terry's world, the psychic types reign supreme, dark and steel don't exist, there are only three ghosts and dragons, Onix and Scyther don't evolve and everything is a helluva lot simpler. Things get a little more balanced and complicated with mine and the world is a bit more interesting, but I'm biased towards my own viewpoint*** so take analysis that with a grain of salt. We at least agree that fairy types are stupid.

Why did I start this by mentioning our world views about the supernatural? Because I feel it shapes our Pokemon argument, if such a frivolous and silly discussion can be called an argument. I'd much rather call it a disagreement. The places where we disagree are huge, but we're both so far from the norm that it really doesn't matter that much. We're making up rules to a made up game just to please ourselves psychologically. There's probably a metaphor in there somewhere, I'm just missing it. I now feel better for having got this on paper... or whatever the hell you write a blog on.

* Okay, okay, not JUST because of those things, relax.

** This is similar to my viewpoint on the three Indiana Jones films. People tell me there's a fourth and that I've even seen it in theaters. I don't recall it; I've blacked that memory out.

*** LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IS. Stop claiming that game reviewers are magically different in that respect.

I've read it twice. But I still don't get what you want, mostly because you are both wrong. There are 719 Pokémon currently.

Nice blog! Different people can be friends along as they are similarly enough to understand and appreciate each other. I am spiritual, and I have friends that are atheists and we talk, agree and disagree on things. The important is that we accept each other.

Argument has an undeserved negative social stigma. The definition is as follows:
1. an oral disagreement; verbal opposition; contention; altercation: a violent argument.

2. a discussion involving differing points of view; debate: They were deeply involved in an argument aboutinflation.

3. a process of reasoning; series of reasons: I couldn't follow his argument.

4. a statement, reason, or fact for or against a point: This is a strong argument in favor of her theory.

5. an address or composition intended to convince or persuade; persuasive discourse.

A disagreement is a state of affairs where two people do not agree, but they do not necessarily need to air their feelings on the matter. As you were wrong about this matter of semantics, I must assume your friend is right about Pokemon.

The difference between Terry's god and Pokemon over 252 is that there is direct evidence for the latter. Unless you are invalidating later games as not being canon somhow? I know almost nothing about Pokemon.

I feel like listening to your Pokemon argument is what a dog feels when listening to a Catholic and an atheist argue about God. Complete lack of context.

There might be a metaphor... if his views about Pokémon caused him to live every day knowing that a huge amount of the human race would spend an eternity being tortured in the most brutal possible ways after they died. If not, I'm not so sure it's that close of a comparison.

Also, teeny weeny Vatican city is a sovereign country, oddly enough. Which is why it gets the (purely statistical and misleading) honor of being the country with the highest crime rate per-capita in the entire world.

Hah, once again someone trying to tell me there are more than 3 Pokemon games and more than 151 Pokemon. You won't fool me with this elaborate ruse.

@video_game_king said:

That, and many, many, many other reasons. I think chief among them is that we're both dissatisfied with a game series where the motto is "Gotta Catch 'Em All" and doing so would require us to go back several generations, purchase multiple games, dump hundreds of hours into each and attend a lot of Nintendo events. Shockingly, there aren't a lot of those in Boise, ID. I just wish Nintendo would make in an MMO (They never will, they does not understand the internets) and just keep adding on new worlds or realms or shards or whatever the hell you call MMO worlds. I'd higgety hang in Kanto & Jhoto and let everyone else explore the rest of the worlds.

Whatevs, man. Houndoom rocks. Keep looking for those Poke-chemtrails, bro.

That's nice to hear. Glad I'm not an isolated incident on this bumpy road we call life.

Too few people recognize the distinction between blind argument and cordial debate, which leads to the well-meaning leaving public discussion in the hands of the unreasonable.