The unexpected philosophy of Pokémon

Danielle, who goes by Dani,  researches a question that sounds simple until you stop to think about it: can you have a relationship with something that isn't a person - or even alive?

Her PhD at Birmingham City University explores the relationships players form with the creatures and worlds they encounter in games, with a particular focus on Pokémon and Animal Crossing.

It is a long way from the English and Philosophy degree she completed at the University of Dundee in 2024. But for Dani, the connection between philosophy, literature and games has always made sense.

She first began thinking seriously about it during her third year at Dundee, when a Natures Cultures module introduced her to ideas about relationships, animals and coexistence.

“I was absolutely taken with the work we got to engage with about relationships and coexistence with animals and nature,” she says.

As a lifelong fan of games such as Pokémon, Dani quickly began making connections between those ideas and the relationships players form with the creatures and environments they encounter in games.

That essay helped set her on the path from an English and Philosophy degree to a Master's by Research in Games and Arts at Abertay, followed by her PhD.

But Dani's time at Dundee was about much more than her studies.

She arrived at the University in 2020 and graduated four years later with First Class Honours, as well as the Wimberley Prize, awarded for outstanding academic achievement.

Alongside her degree, she became a student ambassador, helping prospective students discover the campus she had only recently arrived at herself. She was senior section editor and later editor-in-chief of The Magdalen, Dundee's student magazine.

She was also elected Vice President of Academia at the Students' Association before becoming its Societies Officer, with responsibility for more than 100 student societies, including their training, finances and day-to-day challenges.

And throughout much of this time, she was working nights. From 2021, she worked as a 999 emergency operator and relay assistant with BT, before becoming an NHS 24 call handler until she graduated.

“I wish I had a good answer for this, because to this day I have no idea how I juggled everything,” she says.

“I’m a bit of an obsessive organiser and I live and die by to-do lists, so that really helped me keep on top of everything I had to do. It was not easy though!”

It is an unusual CV for someone who now spends her time thinking about Pokémon, Animal Crossing and the nature of relationships between humans and non-human beings.

But that combination of interests is precisely what makes Dani's research possible.

Taking games seriously

Games studies can sometimes be dismissed as less serious than the study of books, films or other traditional forms of media. Dani strongly disagrees.

“Games are no less of an important object of study than books, films, or any other type of media,” she says.

For Dani, what makes games particularly interesting is their interactivity. A player does not simply watch a story unfold or read words on a page: they participate in the world and make decisions within it.

“What’s special about games is how they immerse you in their world and make you act within it, something that books and films can’t do.”

That changes the relationship between the audience and the work itself.

Her English degree is equally important to the way she approaches games.

A game can be understood as a text as well as a system: something that can be read closely, interpreted and questioned. Its story, its silences, what it rewards and what it prevents the player from doing can all reveal something about the world it creates.

Philosophy, meanwhile, provides a way of asking questions that other disciplines may take for granted — including what it means to have a relationship with something that is not a person.

That question becomes particularly interesting when the “something” is a Pokémon.

From Pokémon to AI

Dani's research may focus on games, but the questions she is asking have relevance far beyond them.

As people increasingly interact with artificial intelligence, the nature of our relationships with non-human entities is becoming an increasingly important question.

Dani sees a connection between the relationships players develop with characters in games and the relationships people can feel they are developing with AI systems.

She describes this through the idea of “procedural reciprocity”: a relationship can appear reciprocal because the other side responds to us, while the nature of that response is ultimately determined by its programming.

“So while emotionally and affectively, it can feel very real, it’s ultimately an asymmetrical relationship.”

It is a philosophical question that games have been asking in their own way for years — and one that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore as technology develops.

For Dani, that is exactly why games are worth taking seriously.

Her journey from an English and Philosophy classroom in Dundee to a PhD researching Pokémon might seem unexpected.

But the questions at the heart of her research - about relationships, stories, agency and what it means to interact with something that isn't human — began with the subjects she studied at Dundee.

And the experiences she gained outside the classroom were just as important.

The ambassador scheme, The Magdalen, the Students' Association and its societies are all still part of University life, offering today's students the same opportunities to build experiences beyond their degree.

Dani's story shows just how far those experiences can take you.