Some personal, ironic, lonely feelings with Pokémon

[EdgeTheLucas]

I didn't know where else to post this, forgive me for breaking any rules I did not foresee.

---

According to Wikipedia, Pokémon is the second-best selling video game franchise of all time. It's sold $270.8 million worldwide as of March last year, and that's without taking any additional sales the franchise has made since then. Clearly, a ton of people love Pokémon, myself included.​

So even with those huge numbers...how come nobody around me wants to play or talk about the recent games?

My family is indifferent to Pokémon. I tried to get my sister into it, telling her a few tips on how to play, while leaving her to her own devices so she'd have a unique experience, but she lost interest after the second gym (so much for deleting my Pokémon SoulSilver file just for her). My brother is the closest thing I have to someone who also likes Pokémon, but he's never played any of the games long enough to beat them, nor has he been curious enough to just talk about whatever aspect he might have wanted to with me (though he still enjoys the games).

My friends are very intermittent throughout my normal day-to-day life--I make one and eventually we part ways before long due to different circumstances (and I swear some kind of curse someone put on me where life won't allow me to keep friends for longer than 5 months before they leave, never to be heard from again o_0). The only friends I've kept for years on end (going on 3 ^_^) are the ones I've made online, ironically enough. They're all pretty big Nintendo fans...but even then none of them like Pokémon anymore, so I remain without anyone to enjoy it with. This leads to awkward moments where we share Smash fan rosters with each other, and on their rosters they only have Pokémon that have either already been playable in Smash before or are just ones that have a movie (despite people not liking some of those Pokémon that much anyway--they just assume people will want movie Pokémon. Do people really want to play as Shaymin in Smash...?).

Then there's the other problem. If I meet a friend who doesn't outright not want to play Pokémon in general, I'll meet a friend who instead loved the first 1 or 2 generations, then skipped and criticized the rest, usually on superficial aspects. These people aren't "genwunners" exactly because they tell me they don't outright hate the later generations or anything, as they openly admit to have not played them (they say this informatively rather than proudly), but they can still get obnoxiously sneer-y. This means if I can't just talk about Pokémon as it is these days I'll have to silently sit there tolerating their occasional unjustified sarcasm and snark toward it, before they move onto a topic we ALL like once again so I can keep having good times with them.

This thread is a call for anyone willing to share their loneliness regarding their Pokémon love, especially the recent games. Have any of you felt ironically solitary in your love of the second-best selling video game franchise of all time? Does no one around you play Pokémon or do they simply not like talking with you about it? I'd like to see how other people cope.

 

[Muskrat Catcher]

I think that its pretty cool that you brought this up, because I can relate somewhat. I am, however, lucky enough to have one person that loves pokémon just as much as I do, my girlfriend. She is the one that got me back into Pokémon after not touching the series throughout middle school, and upon rediscovering the series, I became a HUGE fan! While I did have my girlfriend to talk about Pokémon with, and play it with, nobody else I know really loves pokémon like we do. Funnily enough, there was a group of people in the marching band with me that were really into Pokémon as well, but they were all only fans of the competitive side of Pokémon. This may sound sappy, but I tried to get into the competitive side of Pokémon, but I ended up hating it because it pressured you to forego your favorites for strong pokémon. The competitive pokémon scene kinda annoys me in other ways too, but that's for another thread. Anyways, I could never relate to their discussions of the metagame, and all the other people who played it were either the type that just completed it quickly and move on to the next game, or are really bad at it and don't understand the game at all. My girlfriend is the only one that will listen to my theories, hold interest in battling with sub-optimal Pokémon, and just loves the game in general like I do.

[long story incoming. I didn't know I had so much to say. I just really wanted to share this, so thanks for listening]

However, I was able to get some of my younger family who lives in San Francisco absolutely hooked on the franchise. It was kinda cool to see it happen. It all started when I saw my 7 year-old cousin Jackson owned pokémon white, and this was before I got a 3DS, so I couldn't play X&Y with my girlfriend, and she never played anything 5th gen. I was super excited to see that, since I really needed to evolve some Pokémon through trade, such as boldore to gigalith. He hadn't really touched the game in a while, nor completed it, but when I started telling him things he never knew about the game, and when he saw that boldore evolved into the epic-looking gigalith on his own screen, he regained immediate interest. Neither of us had completed the game yet, so we did so together, helping each other out along the way. He was absolutely baffled by the amount of depth these games had, and how connected you can get to your team, your opinions, your criticisms, and your friends who also have the game. Before long, he got his 6 year-old sister back into the game as well, as she owned a copy of Black 2. The next time we met, we had even more family together, and when my other 7 year-old cousin Sean saw us playing the games, he got hooked as well, and once that many pokémon loving kids were together, it was an amazing experience! Soon they were watching the anime, exchanging epic experiences, talking about how awesome each of their pokémon were, and it showed me just how much I was missing in those middle school years when I abandoned the series. Next time we all got together, I had gotten my 3DS, Y, and Omega Ruby, and let me tell you, showing all of the amazing new features added in these games to young kids absolutely blew their mind. Pokémon amie, the new graphics, mega evolutions, and the eon flute, all of which they had never even seen before, was incredible to them, and when Christmas rolled around a month later, every single one of them had a 3DS and a 6th gen game. I became the Pokémon master in their eyes, and they all loved me for my seemingly infinite wisdom regarding the games.

So I guess the point of this story is that certain types of people really like Pokémon, and others don't. I have tried to get all of my neighbors into the game, and failed every time (but when pokémon go comes out, I might be able to hook them if it delivers, since they all have a smartphone). But when you find the right group of people to introduce the game to, no matter how old, or how often you see them, its an absolute blast!

 

[EdgeTheLucas]

I think that its pretty cool that you brought this up, because I can relate somewhat. I am, however, lucky enough to have one person that loves pokémon just as much as I do, my girlfriend. She is the one that got me back into Pokémon after not touching the series throughout middle school, and upon rediscovering the series, I became a HUGE fan! While I did have my girlfriend to talk about Pokémon with, and play it with, nobody else I know really loves pokémon like we do. Funnily enough, there was a group of people in the marching band with me that were really into Pokémon as well, but they were all only fans of the competitive side of Pokémon. This may sound sappy, but I tried to get into the competitive side of Pokémon, but I ended up hating it because it pressured you to forego your favorites for strong pokémon. The competitive pokémon scene kinda annoys me in other ways too, but that's for another thread. Anyways, I could never relate to their discussions of the metagame, and all the other people who played it were either the type that just completed it quickly and move on to the next game, or are really bad at it and don't understand the game at all. My girlfriend is the only one that will listen to my theories, hold interest in battling with sub-optimal Pokémon, and just loves the game in general like I do.

[long story incoming. I didn't know I had so much to say. I just really wanted to share this, so thanks for listening]

However, I was able to get some of my younger family who lives in San Francisco absolutely hooked on the franchise. It was kinda cool to see it happen. It all started when I saw my 7 year-old cousin Jackson owned pokémon white, and this was before I got a 3DS, so I couldn't play X&Y with my girlfriend, and she never played anything 5th gen. I was super excited to see that, since I really needed to evolve some Pokémon through trade, such as boldore to gigalith. He hadn't really touched the game in a while, nor completed it, but when I started telling him things he never knew about the game, and when he saw that boldore evolved into the epic-looking gigalith on his own screen, he regained immediate interest. Neither of us had completed the game yet, so we did so together, helping each other out along the way. He was absolutely baffled by the amount of depth these games had, and how connected you can get to your team, your opinions, your criticisms, and your friends who also have the game. Before long, he got his 6 year-old sister back into the game as well, as she owned a copy of Black 2. The next time we met, we had even more family together, and when my other 7 year-old cousin Sean saw us playing the games, he got hooked as well, and once that many pokémon loving kids were together, it was an amazing experience! Soon they were watching the anime, exchanging epic experiences, talking about how awesome each of their pokémon were, and it showed me just how much I was missing in those middle school years when I abandoned the series. Next time we all got together, I had gotten my 3DS, Y, and Omega Ruby, and let me tell you, showing all of the amazing new features added in these games to young kids absolutely blew their mind. Pokémon amie, the new graphics, mega evolutions, and the eon flute, all of which they had never even seen before, was incredible to them, and when Christmas rolled around a month later, every single one of them had a 3DS and a 6th gen game. I became the Pokémon master in their eyes, and they all loved me for my seemingly infinite wisdom regarding the games.

So I guess the point of this story is that certain types of people really like Pokémon, and others don't. I have tried to get all of my neighbors into the game, and failed every time (but when pokémon go comes out, I might be able to hook them if it delivers, since they all have a smartphone). But when you find the right group of people to introduce the game to, no matter how old, or how often you see them, its an absolute blast!

Hey man, thanks for sharing this story, it made me smile. I'm glad your girlfriend loves Pokémon, and that you managed to get a lot of kids into it as well. I'm not particularly social (I'm mildly autistic, actually), so going out to talk with my younger relatives wasn't something I really did. I might try it later down the road, even if most of my younger cousins are in middle school and aren't into video games (perhaps my two youngest cousins could get into it, as they are both very young).

Even if it is a little frustrating that a lot of the people you meet can't get into Pokémon, it's so wonderful that the few you know that are, are all very enthusiastic about it. But you're right, perhaps I just need to look for certain crowds around me that aren't my current friends and family. Like you said, apparently some types of people really like Pokémon, and others don't. I hope I get to meet more of them later, but at least I got to meet you through this thread, so that's something

 

[Swamp Sensei]

"It's so dumb now. They made a Pokemon based on a Chadelier."

"Ah Chandelure! It's actually very popular as most people like its design."

"It's a chadelier!"

"So?"

"..."

"..."

"uh it's based on an object..."

"So were Voltorb and Magnemite and Exeggcute."

"Are those new ones?"

"Those are some of the first ones made."

"..."

"..."


I know your pain.

I'd feel less irked if most of the people who didn't play Pokemon anymore didn't attack newer generations for uninformed reasons. They don't simply dislike it. They're actively trying to dislike it to seem cool.

 

[EdgeTheLucas]

"It's so dumb now. They made a Pokemon based on a Chadelier."

"Ah Chandelure! It's actually very popular as most people like its design."

"It's a chadelier!"

"So?"

"..."

"..."

"uh it's based on an object..."

"So were Voltorb and Magnemite and Exeggcute."

"Are those new ones?"

"Those are some of the first ones made."

"..."

"..."


I know your pain.

I'd feel less irked if most of the people who didn't play Pokemon anymore didn't attack newer generations for uninformed reasons. They don't simply dislike it. They're actively trying to dislike it to seem cool.

Oh, the Internet friends I mentioned had something to say about that defense. When a friend of mine complained about the Vanillite family and Trubbish, and how he decided then and there that "Yes, Pokémon designs really HAVE jumped the shark," I said those sorts of designs had been there from the beginning, citing Voltorb. He countered that "At least Voltorb was based on an object within the games, Vanillite is literally just Ice Cream the Pokémon," after which I cited Exeggcute instead, since it was just 5 or 6 pink eggs with angry anime eyes. Once again, he felt like defending them by saying "Well, sure, the first 2 generations had dumb Pokémon, but the NEWER generations have REALLY DUMB Pokémon." I told him that was a pretty subjective thing to say, that maybe he'd change his mind if he actually played the games themselves, but he was too stubborn about it.

Like I mentioned previously, it's not too huge of a deal because almost all of the other time we agree on a lot of things and he's very rational and unbiased during those times. It's Pokémon that, for whatever reason, he gets super subjective and uninformed about it.

I notice this a lot. You might follow some interesting and cool Internet personalities that are intelligent and rational and analytical towards the stuff they cover, but for some reason, when it comes to Pokémon, they suddenly drop all that and act like my friend up there. It's very disconcerting and frustrating.

I suspect my other Internet friend really MIGHT just be disliking the later generations of Pokémon just to seem cool, because he actually only ever voices 2 concerns. The first is that he doesn't like that that, even if he collects all the Pokémon, he'd "have to collect them all over again the next generation," which from Generation 3 onward simply isn't true, and I told him as such. He stopped playing Pokémon around generation 3 because he couldn't transfer his Pokémon from the first 2 generations, but I told him that was no longer the case and cited all the different ways you could transfer your Pokémon to each successive new generation. He just went quiet, before voicing his second concern: he thinks Pokémon has gotten way too complicated because of these Natures and EVs and IVs he hears about. I told him that was only for super high level Pokémon play and that he didn't need to look at it to have a good time, citing advanced play techniques from Smash and how you could completely ignore them and still have a ton of fun. He went quiet...and 5 months later, when Pokémon was brought up again, HE GAVE THOSE 2 COMPLAINTS ONCE MORE, giving me the impression that he didn't even entertain the notion of my answers to his problems.

He and my other friend went back to snarking about the later games intermittently while I just sit there and let them because it's not too much of a deal, even if it's really really frustrating to me. If I ever counter about how they're wrong or that maybe, if they're a bit more open-minded and gave the later generations a chance, they might like it the same way I do, they either shut me down or taunt me irrationally for even liking the later generations.

Just...

Ugh.

Sorry if this reply makes for a weird and uncomfortable read, but even after what Muskrat Catcher said, I still feel bummed out about how two of my best Internet friends are so eager to attack Pokémon in such an uninformed way. I guess you're right, they might just dislike it to look cool after all. Which is a shame since I don't think either of them are cool for doing and saying stuff like this.

 

[finalark]

Your friend's distaste for the later gens probably comes from a love of nostalgia rather than a love of Pokemon.

 

[Babycowland]

I have a hard time finding people offline who play games period, let alone Pokemon, haha. I'm not sure if people are into that stuff and just don't talk about it much or if the people I see on a day-to-day basis just have really different interests than I do (which is fine, of course). I have seen people talk about Pokemon (the original 151) as a source of nostalgia though.

If I had to guess, part of the reason why some people have fond memories of liking Pokemon back in the day but don't care for the newer games may be because they see it as a kid's game and something they've too old for now. Since there's some stigma associated with liking things made for kids, I think it's probably more socially acceptable for people who are older not to like Pokemon, or at least, not to admit liking it.

That's been my experience anyway. Personally, I believe Pokemon, like many Nintendo games, is a game made for all ages, not just for younger children. That said, I understand that there are plenty of people who don't believe that and plenty of teens who are under a lot of pressure to seem adult and mature who don't want to be seen playing a "kid's game."

 

[Muskrat Catcher]

I kinda mentioned it at the end of my first post, but I really think that Pokémon Go is going to really appeal to those types of Pokémon players that played the first gen, and stopped shortly after. I watched the trailer like 10 times, and I have noticed that all of the Pokémon showcased in it are first gen pokémon, and almost all of the people are young adults, the age that gen 1 players should be about now, so it is evidently targeting that audience. Also, it further targets people who have abandoned nintendo consoles long ago since it is going to be exclusive to smartphones, which pretty much every person that age owns, even though they probably never bought a 3DS, or maybe even a regular DS, they will still be able to play it. I am actually hoping that Pokémon Go does cater to those types of fans, because then, I believe I have a pretty good chance of wrangling a bunch of people back into the game. I even have plans for starting a Pokémon Go club at my high school with my girlfriend so that we can once again revive the Pokémon love at our school (that group of avid competitive Pokémon fans at my school graduated last year, so now there is very little pokémon talk anywhere in the school). I hope that you guys try to take advantage of Go as well to get all your friends back into Pokémon. (Needless to say I am extremely excited for this game)

 

[Swamp Sensei]

I met a little kid recently. Came over at a party my parents hosted at my house.

2nd Grader.

He took an interest in my games so I showed some.

"You still like Pokemon?"

"Yeah, who doesn't?"

His older siblings nodded their heads while he sat there astounded.

I think there's a strange idea that Pokemon is for little children as opposed to simply being family friendly.

 

[Arcturian]

I know more adults that play Pokemon than kids who play Pokemon.

 

[ElectroLightning]

If they are personal, why would I tell you?

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

I have a friend I know from school back in the day I still talk to

He's not that much into pokemon anymore, but every new generation he keeps up with the latest news of the latest game and talks to me about it.

I, a 30 year old man, still love pokemon.

My sister recently got her sons the first 3 pokemon movies, and they are in love with pokemon

I've let them play my game, although they don't get it at all. They just wanna see Pikachu

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Pokemon Go has made Pokemon surprisingly big again.

Maybe this is what the series needed.

 

[finalark]

Pokemon Go has made Pokemon surprisingly big again.

Maybe this is what the series needed.

I'm really hoping Go's popularity will help sales for the main series.

I'm also really hoping that the addition of Pokemon beyond the Kanto Dex will help the mainstream accept mons beyond the 151.

 

[Muskrat Catcher]

We are actually in a pretty cool spot right now thanks to Pokémon Go! It's like the second coming of Pokemania! I wasn't alive for the original one when every single child owned a Gen I game, so I was bummed that I missed it, but it's basically happening again! Where people from all age groups and backgrounds are either playing the game or are much more aware of Pokémon than ever before. Pokémon Go has made Pokémon a major part of our society once again! And it's pretty awesome!

 

[Lord Dio]

You said who wants to play Shaymin in Smash? No one.
But speaking of that movie.....
Who wants to play Giratina's Origin Forme in Smash? THIS GUY!!!!!!

Also for a very long part of my life I've experienced pokemon loneliness, but not in a way you'd expect. I was introduced to Pokemon and grew to love it because of two things I've been involved with for many years: The Pokemon show/movies, and the trading card game. And I've been lonely for those two parts of pokemon for quite a while. Thankfully, I bought a ds last year and I've finally been able to start playing the games.