♪ I wanna be the very best, so I can pay my biiiills♪ ♪ To catch them is my real test ♪ ♪ until my wallet fiiiills ♪ ♪ I will travel across the land, can't afford a home. ♪ ♪ Teach Pokémon to understand ♪ ♪ The power that I have to- ♪ pay for every month, the phone bill, the Internet, car payments, and then there's the house payment too! Stop! No, just stop it. Stop. stop the song. I'm just- I'm just sad now... Real life sucks... ♫ Science Blaster by: SpellingPhailer ♫ Hello Internet. Welcome to game theory. *sigh* You know what? Screw this. I'm SICK of paying bills every month. I'm sick of the rat races, and the adpocalypses, it's time to leave behind all that YouTube drama and start traveling the land to catch animals and make them fight in eternal bloodsport to the death! ....Uh, Sorry, I meant to the faint, to the faint. It's muuuuuuuch better. That's right. Today, we're talking about our favorite PETA-triggering game: Pokémon more importantly though, we're talking about how to make dem poké-bucks. Poké-dollars? P-poké-skrill? Poké-bones! Poké-, whatever they are. The P with the two weird lines in it, you know what I mean. We've all had that dream though right? To be teleported to the world of Pokémon armed with only a few pokéballs and rise through the ranks to become a pokémon champion We'd make friends. thwart Team Rocket a couple times. Maybe hit on Misty a little bit... Or Brock. If you're into having no eyes... It'd be a great time! Or, so we'd like to think. You see, video games tend to gloss over the rest of life that comes along with.......you know, LIVING. You'd still have to eat, sleep, use the bathroom, or whatever the most convenient tree in Viridian Forest is. which means that all those hard-earned poké-dollars you're ripping out of the pockets of the bug catcher after burning his Metapod to a crisp are gonna have to pay dem bills. So it got me thinking. How rich would you be if you became a pokémon champion? what do the earnings of a Pokémon master truly look like? That's our question for today. So with that Pokémon Johto, Let's go. Game Freak the developer behind Pokémon doesn't give us basically anything for the day-to-day expenses for a pokemon trainer But they did model a lot of the games geography and culture to places IRL. I'm sure Gaijin Goomba did something on this in some video in the past. Hey goomba. Give me your notes. Thanks. For a guy with no arms you throw surprisingly well. SO the regions of Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn are based on the real-life regions of Kanto, Kansai, and Kyushu found in Japan. Unova is based on New York, Kalos is northern France and Alola is based off Hawaii. We even get hints that this is actually an alternate version of our own world Parasect's Pokémon entry from FireRed directly references China, to quote the Pokédex, "It scatters toxic spores from the mushroom cap. In China, the spores are used as herbal medicine." This is further shown with the first entry for Lieutenant Surge in the famed checker that calls him "The Lightning American". So with both China and America confirmed as countries in the game It seems safe to assume that we can easily compare the cost of living in Pokémon with the cost of living in our own world That means we need to figure out the exchange rates from poké-dollars to real-life Skrilla to figure out some sort of yearly income. To get the most accurate conversion, we're actually gonna be starting by converting Poké-dollars to Japan's currency, the Yen. The reason that I wanted to start here is that in the original Japanese versions of the games The currency used is, in fact, Yen And the symbol used is, uh, THIS. Line-box...line The kanji for Yen. The "Pokémon Dollar" was just created for the English translations of the games. But staying true to its Yen roots it kept the similar symbol, the P with two lines through it, as well as the yen's lack of decimals. But that's not all we can even get an insanely accurate conversion rate of real yen to in-game yen using the nice cold refreshing taste of lemonade. Could've been you diet coke but you never write me back. COME ON, COKE! I need that sweet brown liquid in my mouth! Archer: Phrasing? Throughout every Pokémon game in the series you can find a vending machine or store selling three different drinks: Bottled water, soda, and lemonade. The prices are consistent across the entirety of the Pokémon universe. From pokémon red/blue all the way to the newest re-release of pokémon ultra sun and ultra moon. What we're most interested in, though, is lemonade Or in the Japanese versions, Mikkusuorre... Yeah sounds about right. Line-line-line, line-line-swoop, swoop-line-swoop, Naruto Run, one-legged balance, and stupid "L". You see when translating the game, the drink was actually turned to "lemonade" but the Japanese versions translate closer to "mix au lait" which is a French term that translates to "mixed with milk" and wouldn't you know it but you can actually purchase Mix Au Lait at Pokémon Centers throughout Japan in real life! During one of my last trips to Japan, I actually visited one of these Pokémon centers to sample some of the food. Everything there is so super cute! The Mix au Lait in case you're wondering is a fruity milk drink that reminds me a lot of Lassi. If you've ever had that. it's kind of a watery fruity yogurt drink But as you would expect everything at the Pokémon Center including the Mix au Lait was super overpriced and totally tourist trap-y. So instead to stay as true to the game as possible I found that there were vending machines actually selling cans of Mix au Lait for the low, low cost of 150 yen. Compare that to the in-game cost for lemonade at 350 poké-dollars, and we're actually able to get the conversion rate of 2.33 poké-dollars to 1 yen. Basically what that translates to is one poké-dollar equal to just under half of a real-world yen or to translate that to dollars a 100 poké-dollars is equal to about 39 US cents. So now knowing that, before we calculate how much we earn as a pokémon trainer We should figure out the costs of being a pokémon trainer. Thanks to Sun and Moon We know that the Pokémon world functions on the same 24 hour time cycle that our own earth functions on sun shows us that day in the real life is day in game and the same with night So with that in mind I headed over to howlongtobeat.com Which is a website that tracks how long to beat games pretty self-explanatory there to find the average time to beat a typical Pokémon game that turned out to be 52 hours So if you were to work the average workday of eight hours your journey would take you seven days But seven days to be a fully fledged Pokémon master doesn't seem right I mean sure in game you might be able to speed run your way to the top of the poké-charts but if we're looking at this seriously Like literally walking between cities battling trainers spending time to train up your Pokémon a trainer's journey to the top is gonna last way longer than a week So instead to figure this out, I followed a different trainers journey Ash from the anime. Sure, we all joke that Ash stayed ten years old for twenty years of the show But if you stop and look at the narration and context clues, there is in fact a clear passage of time that gives us a sense of how long Ash's Kanto journey takes him according to Takeshi Sciuto creator of the Pokémon anime in Pallet Town The rule is that new trainers begin their journey on April 1st following their tenth birthday in episode 9 the school of hard knocks We actually hear that Ash has had two months of experience and two badges "with two months of Pokémon experience You got two badges with only three" now fast forward to the episode holiday high jinks which according to official numeration is episode 39 that puts us at Christmas of Ash's first year as trainer another handful of episodes later, we have "Princess Vs. Princess" Which we know is set on March 3rd because it specifically refers to The celebration of Hinamatsuri also known as doll's day or girls' day a special day in Japan Dedicated to celebrating women that trip to Cinnabar Island for badge number seven takes place during the early summer and shortly thereafter We learned that earning his eighth badge the indigo League is only two months later Gary:"the Pokémon League only meets once a year, in the exact same pla-" Ash:"WHERE IS IT? WHEN IS IT? YOU GOTTA TELL ME!" Prof. Oak: "Atop the indigo plateau, exactly two months from today." which places the yearly indigo league championships around July or August in short Ash and quite honestly Gary who we also see in "Showdown at the Po-ké Corral" that specific episode have their first shot at being a true Pokemon master A year and three months after they started their journeys You know now that I've done that I back and calculate how old Ash is for the entirety of the series if you want to See that episode sometime in the near future Make sure you hit that subscribe button and let me know in the comments below I want Ash's age in the next three seconds three two, if that was annoying to you At least it wasn't a mid role according to online cost to raise a child Calculators the cost of a single parent raising a ten-year-old in the Kanto region of Japan for 15 months is gonna be about Twelve Thousand dollars that translates to a million three hundred twelve thousand one hundred twenty-eight yen Or just over three million poké-dollars geez with it costing that much It's no wonder that the parents are sending their kids out into the woods to fight dangerous creatures for the better part of a year Anyway, those costs are broken down like you see on screen. But remember this is if they're living at home Ash stays in tents most nights and doesn't get himself an education so we can eliminate some of those larger ticket costs let's even eliminate the cost of clothing since the most ash has ever gotten himself is like a new hat that cuts our costs for his 15 month journey in half now sitting at six thousand dollars six hundred fifty six thousand yen, or 1.5 million poké bucks that is a whole bike and a half which doesn't make it sound like that much But seriously, that is a four Thousand dollar bike that the shop owner just gives you for free is the best free voucher ever Okay So six thousand dollars is the base cost of your journey and of course leaving out the prices of all Pokémon and related gear pokeballs Revives potions food for the Pokémon etc. But then again Aston's to get himself distracted on his journey So his quest may take him a little bit longer than your typical trainer It should all balance out the end Now it's time to start beating up on some random kids pets and stealing their cash the way to earn money as a pokemon champion Is defeating other trainers and taken their money I went through the entirety of Pokémon Red and Blue adding up what you earn from every battle each psychic bug catcher and last out there and then double check that amount via some player guides for the games and if you go undefeated, Against every random trainer on your journey you conquer every gym the first time and you send every member of Team Rocket You would make a total of drumroll please Three hundred twenty five thousand four hundred fifty poké dollars which equates to one hundred and fifty six thousand two hundred sixteen yen, or only one thousand four hundred twenty one dollars and fifty seven cents, uh, Honestly, I expected it to be much, MUCH, higher when putting this theory together But then I stopped and thought about it and it actually makes a lot of sense just take for instance the Elite Four Which should be the most profitable fights of the game sure earning five thousand poké dollars per fight. Sounds great But not so much when you're shelling out three hundred fifty dollars for a fee boss and lemonade the Elite Four Plus the rival battle gets you a total of twenty nine thousand seven hundred ninety nine polka dollars Which sounds great until you consider that it's only 85, cans of soda from the vending machine it converts to a whopping 117 dollars and that is the top of the top. We are talking the elite flipping four and don't forget This is just the base adventure if you're doing the Pokémon journey a second time I don't think Team Rocket has the turnaround time to take on the Silph company every week Plus misty isn't going to take you on again if you already have her badge So if you take out the special events that you most likely wouldn't be able to do again like the Silph company Takeover in the gyms the journey actually pumps out significantly less one hundred and eighty seven thousand sixty nine poké dollars or seven hundred twenty nine dollars and 57 cents. Whoo That is a hefty pay cut Literally cut in half and I'm not even including the trainers who aren't gonna fight you again Since you beat him, so badly the first time the long story short here is that being a pokémon trainer is the single worst financial? Decision in gaming ever. you spend a year out of your life slaving away climbing to the pinnacle of your chosen field living outdoors and getting shocked over and over and over again by Pikachu and you end up with a net loss of Four thousand five hundred seventy eight dollars and forty three cents. You lose money on your journey Even if you get to the end of it, honestly, it's like pursuing a career in theatre Where most places make you pay them to work there good times True story. all this is probably why you don't see too many adults out there trying to become Pokémon champions they eventually have to support a family and that is simply something that you cannot do as a Traveling battler. unless you're a gym leader or part of the Elite Four There is no way to make a living off of being a pokémon champion chase your dreams just prepare to file for bankruptcy Later, but hey That's just a theory a game theory and we didn't even talk about taxes Don't even get me started on taxes But now that we've proved that my backup career isn't gonna be backing me up quite as much as I hoped It would I'm gonna have to figure out a new way to save up some serious bucks luckily I know about honey my favorite free browser extension. And the sponsor for this episode is here to save us some cash Seriously, they save me money on practically everything that I order online Which means my hard-earned poké dollars can buy more when I'm ordering stuff from places like Amazon, Google Buy, or wherever Snorlax candy comes from. 9 million people the equivalent of nine out of ten theorists If you go by subscriber numbers on this channel have already downloaded, honey Which automatically finds it applies coupon and promo codes from all across the internet on every single purchase that you're making that means that you don't have to do anything or download anything from sketchy websites that you may just end up getting free shipping. Or a Discount that you didn't know existed on all the things that you are already buying. It's completely free It takes only a few seconds to download and it works immediately. I mean look at this This is a screenshot of me buying over a thousand dollars worth of furniture for the baby room and honey saved me nearly 400 bucks and that's it. There are no strings attached There is that you have to buy it is just literally designed to save you money If you want to give it a try which you should because there's really no reason not to You can download it, for free, in just a couple of seconds right here at JOINHONEY.COM/MATPAT M-A-T-P-A-T. That's join, honey dot-com slash M-A-T-P-A-T or you've been on YouTube a couple times, you know The link is in the first line of the description You've been here before You can do it and while it might not save you enough to make up for all that money You're losing on the road to becoming a pokémon champion It can certainly make those poké gym dollars go a whole lot further So get on it theorists be the best ♪like no one ever was♪ at saving money online and let honey help you do it
What about endorsements? Someone has to be the face of lemonade and Pokemon gear in the game. Michael Phelps only makes $25,000 per gold medal, but is worth $55,000,000. An American olympian who is much less successful would only be making slightly over $6,000 per year, assuming they won a single gold medal. In athletics, solely winning does not bring in much money. It is selling your fame that makes a profit.
I made a YT comment, but I'd thought I'd like to post it here since I think you guys might appreciate it. I don't think this is a good estimate by any means, but I think it's closer to the actual exchange rate than MatPat's.
If you're talking about doing cash to conversion rates based off of the first generation of Pokemon, something to take into consideration is WHEN the Pokemon universe takes place. If it means anything. Since a lot of the show shows different technology than what's feasibly possible we can take a look at a couple of different things to gather around the timeline when Pokemon takes place. Namely, color screen PDA's, similar to the PokéDex used in the show. Color PDA's weren't a thing when Pokemon was released in 1996! So we can get a rough estimate of when this occurs by comparing it to the similar invention time frames. The first 8bit color PDA was introduced in 2000 by the Palm IIIc, but that PokéDex screen seems to have a lot more detail on it. This would require more research, but judging from the look of the following Palm m130c, which was released late 2000, It's safe to assume that around 2000 to 2001, I think it'd be a reasonable estimate.
Using an inflation calculator from https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm , which takes into account CPI, which takes things like finding cost of labor for a product, etc. into account, one dollar from between late 2000 to early 2001 averages to 1.43 today! This I think is a significant increase if you're comparing drink prices between the US and Japan. With this in mind, we can take a more realistic account for pricing.
I believe you could get a more realistic rate on using something like a bottle of water, which a similar sized one from a vending machine in japan costs 130 yen in September of '09 ( http://www.businessinsider.com/why-so-many-vending-machines-in-japan-2017-1#1-the-cost-of-labor-1 , in the picture, the one that looks most similar to the one in game), which costed $1.45 in '09 using a dollars to yen trading conversion ( http://www.macrotrends.net/2550/dollar-yen-exchange-rate-historical-chart ). Adjusting for inflation using the CPI calculator from September '09 to January '01, that's $1.16 for a bottle of water! With this in mind, we can calculate that the exchange rate from when the Palm m130c was released (Aug 2000 note: the difference between August of 2000 to January 01 is a negligible 0.01 cent difference. We'll assume that a PokéDex is a new, but not a BRAND new technology) to today, using an average yuan/usd exchange rate of 113.084, that would be about 131 yen for a bottle of water in 2000.
Taking the 200 Pokémon Dollars that it costs for water in game to that rate in 2000, this would be a much easier currency relation to 1.52 Pokémon Dollars to 1 yen. If you rounded down that yen value to 130, the exchange rate would be a little higher at 1.54 Pokémon Dollars, as I don't see too many vending machines charging a lower rate for an amount that's not as easy to put in a vending machine. So what does that mean in USD? So we'll take a similar 100 Pokémon Dollars divided by 1.54 and divided by an average yuan/usd exchange rate of 113.084 yuan from October 2000 to February 2001 to 1 usd, we get $0.57 cents for every 100 Pokémon Dollars. That's a whopping 68% INCREASE in value compared to MatPat's estimate.
That means that the cost of living you found in USD for $6,000 would equate to a much more reasonable cost of 1,052,632 Pokémon Dollars. Which still ends up meaning that you will be short about 727,182 Pokémon Dollars rounded up Pokémon Dollars in debt from the 325,450 Pokémon Dollars you would earn. This would be $4144.94 in debt and $1855.07 that you would earn on your journey.
Taking out the events, for earning only 187,069 Pokémon Dollars, that would mean you would be in 865,563 Pokémon Dollars in debt. This would earn you $1066.30 and you'd be in $4933.71 in debt.
Yikes.
EDIT: Corrected Debt without special events.
Not only would trainers be broke, but many other people would be rich. Let's use the machamp movers company as an example. Where irl, the pay would be split between the five or so workers, in pokemon there is one worker and his living tools (pokemon). The pokemon don't demand payment for what they do, so the one person who does the move gets all the money.
This works in relation to many other jobs too. To the more morally grey humans, pokemon aren't just pets too battle with. They're essentially free labour. Want lots of energy? Get a pikachu to use thunderbolt. Want an easy-to-transport fire hose? Whip out your squirtle and use hydro pump. Want to infiltrate your rival company and learn their secrets? Zoroark at your service.
See what I'm getting at? Pokemon can be used to get myriad chores done quicker, more efficiently and at no extra cost. Most of them have near human intelligence too, if not equal or surpassing. And they do whatever you tell them to. Makes you wonder why there was no Great Pokemon Rebellion yet...
You telling me we cant work as pokemon trainers because it's not profitable... Damn. Capitalism attacks again
It feels wrong how u took the lemonade and currency from the games but the timing from the anime. Either get both from the anime or both from the games. Don't even dare compare ash to the playable characters in the games, they're not equal. Also in the games the locations r much closer together than how they show it in the anime, all u need to travel is a (million pokedollar) bicycle
You know what I want more than how old Ash is, is when Pokemon is taking place. That, and pokemon's ability to take over a lot of energy generation and labour, would have a huge effect on the economics of Pokemon. There's a lot of futuristic stuff in this world, but a lot of moving, lifting, frying, electrifying and flying is being done by everyone's personal pokemon. The pokemon are 100% not getting paid any more than a horse would get paid to drive a carriage. So they have some really interesting technological focus! They've never had to invent bulldozers because they have loyal Onixes etc, so they spent their time in electronics and technology making videophones and digital encyclopaedias and healing sprays and magic capture hibernation balls, instead of anything practical or industrial. I feel pretty sure that the poke-yen was just supposed to be an actual yen, adjusted for hypothetical future inflation. Assuming people are eating a pretty normal diet of donuts/onigiri and the occasional magikarp, I would think food is the biggest struggle of a pokemaster financially is to provide to the hundred pokemon he probably has. I guess they're just conveniently not hungry in "hibernation" in Bill's PC? Do they experience time in there?
vs seeker and that thumbnail is utterly pathetic.
This is so stupid. You compare a 7 day long adventure to a 1 year and 3 months long adventure. You also forget that you can sell items (nuggets), you can items with pokemon that have ablitity pickup.
But nontheless, if you earn little less than 1,500$ in a week in a game, then you would earn 1,500$ * 65 (weeks in 1 year and 3 months) = 97500$ and cost of living is 6500$, by your calculations
But this theory does not hold up, you have to be consistent either to anime or the games.