Or maybe we're not supposed to think about how Pokecenters are funded/supplied and just take this strip for the strawman it is.
edited 13th Apr '10 10:02:22 AM by MajorTom
I see the Awesomeness.
Or maybe they've got the whole slave labor thing going on to fund everything. Considering how many Chancy's they've got running around those pokemon centers, it's entirely possible they just feed the Chancy's without paying them?
Fight smart, not fair.
... what would a Chansey do with money?
EDIT- for that matter, given Chansey's "Soft Boiled" move in the games, do they even need to feed them? <.<
edited 13th Apr '10 11:36:26 AM by TeChameleon
I see the Awesomeness.
Only if they're sticking to Equivalent Exchange. They need the pp which I assume is provided by feeding them.
edited 13th Apr '10 12:10:20 PM by Deboss
Fight smart, not fair.
Resistance is Futile
This reminds me of the dilemma 'cure all cancers, or all pokemon become real'.
My sister and I solved it this way. Get all pokemon to become real. Use their moves to cure cancer. Everyone wins.
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But you can heal and restore pokemon just by taking a nap in some places. Surely, the Pokemon Center can't be too vital.
Anyway, the comic is about pointing out the Fridge Logic of the games. If we're arguing, it must be doing something right.
We're not just men of science, we're men of TROPE!
Pokemon Centers are funded by armies of Meowth that do nothing but use Pay Day all day long. Sure, it's abuse, but it's lucrative abuse.
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
Resistance is Futile
Wouldn't that cause inflation, throwing the entire economy into chaos?
New User Handle
I see the Awesomeness.
This is true. I've seen that somewhere. I think it's on You Fail Economics Forever under "something for nothing". Hm, perhaps the various abilities of pokemon have pushed the world into a state of near post scarcity?
Fight smart, not fair.
Sales Tax. Why do you think Pokéballs cost $200? 
Not Actually Indie
It's possible that a large portion of revenue from pokemon fighting (from televised fights, for instance) goes to funding Pokemon Centers, but considering how often their services are required as a result of non revenue generating activities, I can't see that providing adequate funding by itself.
...eventually, we will reach a maximum entropy state where nobody has their own socks or underwear, or knows who to ask to get them back.
The possibility that you are all overlooking is this:
Pokemon Centers literally cost nothing. Why? Because energy costs nothing! It's a world inhabited by creatures that regularly ignore the most basic laws of physics! They create matter out of nothing, and can produce high level energy just by existing!
The only things you need to pay for are items and food that actually cost time and effort to make, but energy is practically limitless.
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: Pokemon is set in a post-scarcity socialist utopia. All of the "money" is actually an artificial currency created for trainers, and everything not related to Pokemon is free- with the exception of the furniture and mail and so on that you can buy. That stuff is the equivalent of carnival prizes that you buy with your arcade tokens.
And Team Rocket are infiltrators from a capitalist country, thinking they're smart for stealing everything they can, not realizing that it's all free.
edited 13th Apr '10 3:28:57 PM by Treblain
We're not just men of science, we're men of TROPE!
Some Gal
200 pokedollars. It says so in the wiki.
Some Gal
Totally Not a Schoolboy
They just use Yen (though not the sign for Yen that you're probably familiar with).
Let's play a game about Pokémon...
It's a world inhabited by creatures that regularly ignore the most basic laws of physics! But...but how else could the world ignore the laws of physics?
Poke Patent #9000: the power plant:
The power plant can generate up to 2000 times as much electricity as lightning.
Poke Patent #2300: the cruise ship:
The cruise ship has been recorded to travel as much as eighty times as fast as a Lapras. This may be because it runs on electricity.
Poke Patent #8900: the garden:
A garden can mature ten times as fast as the flower on a Venusaur's back. This may be because of electricity.
edited 17th Apr '10 12:07:36 AM by newtonthenewt
She's playing with fire! He's not ready for Nibbly Pig!
Falls Up
For a so called lacklustre comic it sure is generating some interesting discussion.
And here I thought it was about how Pokémon is one of the few game series' where sleeping at an inn - or rather, using a Pokémon Centre - heals status conditions as well as HP.
edited 29th Apr '10 1:34:56 AM by Jaabi
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I smell a Zubat comic coming on.
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
Why do I even read this comic? I don't even like the game it's based on.
^^^The Pokecenters do function as actual hospitals in the anime. I think for standard battle injuries they did use the healing machine, but there was also a back room with beds for seriously injured/sick/dying Pokemon. Pikachu had to be taken back there in one episode (because of a fight with a grimer, if I remember correctly) and no one paid a cent.
Universal healthcare is Fridge Logic in the Pokemon world though. It makes sense for the trainers to pay for healthcare if they battle Pokemon because it's, well, it's their fault when their Pokemon get the crap beaten out of them. The government must be funneling a ton of cash into Pokecenters with all the legal cockfighting going on.
derp derp derp