Do you like Pokemon?

[Drago]

Alright, allow me to post an entirely noobish question that years ago would have been stupid. Even now it's fairly stupid. But hey, conversational piece.
The franchise is over a decade old now. For some of us (myself included), it's been around for over half of our lives. It'll never be what it once was, but the franchise still sells.

So tell me... Do you like Pokemon? Despite this being a Pokemon forum, were you ever that into Pokemon to begin with?

Personally, it's little more than a passable and uninspired game franchise to me these days. There hasn't been a bit of creativity since GS and I'm over Nintendo being cash grabbing twats. The idea of Pokemon itself still holds my interest, it's such a magical imaginative world that once had me so fascinated, and I still fic about it so it must be at least still interesting to me.

[RedStarWarrior]

I watch the anime from time to time. I find it stupid, but I can still watch it. The games are still fun, but I don't really play them anymore.

I guess I've lost interest, but it's not like I have no interest.

[mr_pikachu]

Yes, although I'll admit that, due to time pressures and such, I haven't done as much game-playing and anime-watching as before. My ficcing activity has declined a bit as well. It's still a very interesting concept to me, and the characters are... well, acceptable enough to keep my attention.

I do agree, though, that the franchise could do more. I guess that's what they've been trying to do with the side series like Ranger and Mystery Dungeon as well as one-offs like Dash and Trozei (okay, that last one was really uncreative). Since the main series is what gets attention, though, it does seem like they should be a bit more innovative with that. On the other hand, if the formula works, why change it?

...I'm getting off-topic. Yes, I still enjoy the series, even if it's not quite as captivating as it once was.

[Knight of Time]

I watch the anime a little still, I used to record several of the older (e.g. Kanto, Orange Islands, Johto) episodes on VHS tapes when I was younger, but I eventually stopped recording it. Heck, sometimes I even watch episodes of Pokemon, especially some of the newest ones, that haven't even made it to YTV yet.

The only other Pokemon related thing I'm into are the games, I'm mostly interested in the main series, but I haven't played any of the games in awhile. I do play the DS games from time to time, but that's only when I find some free time for them, which of course these days, is rather limited.

[Dark Scizor]

I watch the anime from time to time. I find it stupid, but I can still watch it. The games are still fun, but I don't really play them anymore.

I guess I've lost interest, but it's not like I have no interest.

Pretty much this.

I really do enjoy the games, but I don't play them much, if at all. The anime is nice to watch when there's nothing else to do and it just happens to be on. Or the rare occasion I decide to watch it on JapTV or something.

Pokémon will always have a soft spot in my heart though.

I'll admit that Pokémon Sunday is a pretty fun watch if I decide to have a Saturday night in.

[Heald]

Got into Red and the anime when I was 10. I hated pretty much everything that came after. Yes, I bought one every gen (Silver, Sapphire, Diamond, if you must know) but only out of curiosity than being a fan. It is a good game, but I feel that the formula has become stale.

Otherwise, no, don't really care for it now.

[Blademaster]

The anime is shit.

The console games have been going downhill since the N64 days.

The card game was fun until it became Yu-Gi-Oh! 2: We're Gonna Ban All Fun And Make Things As Complex As Possible Electric Boogaloo. But the Game Boy Color game was fucking glorious. I miss it. ;_;

The handheld games are on-off most of the time, but I have this weird feeling that something is coming that's gonna change something around in a big way.

The Pokemon themselves are typically awesome incarnate and I'd give everything I own for a few of 'em. Like a Ditto. 'Cuz then I'd have everything I own back and then some.

[ann1985]

The anime is shit.

[PancaKe]

I like Pokemon. I liked the original Blue and then Gold, and I'm enjoying Diamond... although not as much. I struggled to get into Ruby, and thus haven't played past the first ten miutes.

The anime was just that. Just an anime.

The concept, the world, the creatures and the possibilities are what keep me going. I love the concept, I love the stories I can spin off this, and actually - in most of my stoires I try and keep as far away from battling/gym leaders as possible... I like to explore the world and then put them into my own world.

I still like pokemon.

And I agree with Blademaster; I get the feeling someting big is coming...

Throwing it out there, I thought that mystery dungeon was a great idea and that they should use their pokemon world and concept to come up with more games rather than "OHAI LETS EARN BADGES". A contests only based game? Etc.

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

I never really ceased to like Pokémon though I didn't bother with it for several years. This has changed significantly in the past two years though. Me and my friend started training Pokemon again, we battle on the Wii almost every week, we are watching the anime again - and I even got Heart Gold imported from Japan and played through it. So yes, I do like Pokemon.

[Master Rudy]

Great minds must think alike since I'm having the same thoughts as Blade and Pan......wait a sec.....did I refer to Blade as a great mind?

But in all seriousness I think I went the typical pattern most everyone here did. Originally got into the series when I was 13, watched a few seasons of the anime, ect. Entering high school however I made damn well sure not to mention liking the games since we all know how much of a death sentence that sort of thing would be in the idiotic social ladder in most high schools. Trailed away from Pokémon during third gen due to lack of people to play with. I'm big on the battle aspect of certain games. Doesn't matter if they are tabletop or video games. That's most likely the reason why me and my best friend still play the DBZ/GT card game that lasted from 2000-'05 when Score had to fuck it up by putting a bunch of idiots in charge of the re-release/rules changes of Z. As I said in a topic I made the advent of Wi-Fi and the DS slowly drew me back in. I'm currently lacking Wi-Fi however so I've been half assing training a good team. However once I've got that going you can bet your ass I'll be taking part in the league we've got going. Finally I'm seriously looking forward to HG/SS and I fully plan on getting the Silver remake.

Now setting all that aside I will say this. GSC has been the biggest jump in overall quality so far IMO. RSE anf FR/LG had it's moments but that was truely the gen that gave me the "more of the same" feeling for the first time. Once again the DS and Wi-Fi helped out big time and could have potentially been the big save in a series getting stale. However Nintendo needs to capitlize on it. Some of their recent actions are starting to drain my confidence in the company overall but I've yet to count them out fully. This is Nintendo we're talking about after all. In any case with HS/SS I'm not going out on a limb and expecting too much. It's a remake after all and we're still in the current gen.

Now I don't know what Blade and Pan have in mind. As for myself I think next gen is going to pull out all the stops. 2010 marks the 15 year mark for the series. The sheer fact that they are doing GSC remakes in the first place shows that Nintendo at least knows the longtime fans are out there. Now say what you will about Pokémon being a cash cow. While true to an extent bear in mind that the oldest Japanese fans have been with the games since 1995. Fans in the US have been playing since 1998. Assuming the average age when playing the games for the first time is 8-13 that will put the oldest average Japanese player at 23-28 and the Americans at 20-25.

Now if I didn't lose you in my rant yet consider this. The games are easy enough for a blind, retarded kid with down syndrome and one arm to complete. The true complex nature comes from the battling. While most kinds today are most likely smarter than we were at their age I do find it very hard to believe that many would understand the concepts behind EV's, IV's, STAB, ect. The few tournaments I've heard about have mainly been winners in their mid to late teens. There are many other factors that come into play as well but at the end of the day the real battling is done by those that understand all the concepts behind it. These people tend to be the older players.

Now there have been a ton of spinoff games in recent years and from the general look most if not all of them are aimed at a younger crowd. This is not what the older players want. Sure you could always easily replace the older fans with newer ones but that's kinda counterproductive. The whole point is to gain as many new fans as you can while holding onto as many of the older ones as possible. Now as we all know Nintendo has taken heavy backlash over the years for not having more games aimed at an older crowd. The few 'M' games the Wii has seem to have failed horribly. In this case I can't fully put the blame on Nintendo. People starting giving up on them and their claims of more mature games in the Gamecube era. In my mind the four biggest series Nintendo has are Mario, Metroid, Zelda and of course Pokémon. The two that have evolved the most over the years are Zelda and Metroid. While they ain't exactly Shakespere anyone can see that the writing/storylines have gotten much better as the gameplay has evolved. Both series have even flirted quite a bit with getting darker as time went on.

This naturally leaves Mario and Pokémon and frankly I don't see fat boy getting out of the little quirks that made him famous in his own right. It's not a stab at Mario it's merely saying that Mario will never cross the line with darker, more mature storylines in my mind. If Nintendo were to go the route of making another series a little more dark I think it'll be Pokémon. It could be just what they need to breathe a little new life into it and not make it so stale.

In fact it seems the series is slowly going that route. Sure there's still the whole Gym Leader/Pokémon League thing but let's look at the later games. Now I can't comment on RSE since I've only recently gone back and gotten into that gen. In Plat (and I'm assuming Pearl and Diamond as well) we've got Cyrus who's put the entire safety of the world at risk for his own selfish goals. Plus his whole emontionally detacted nature in general just made him creepy as fuck. While it's still somewhat in "kid friendly" territory I think anyone who's been playing a long time can admit that this was the closest that Pokémon of all things has gotten to becoming a bit more dark.

Mark my words. I don't think Nintendo would be planning and releasing so many spinoff games aimed at younger fans if they didn't have something big planned for 5th generation. Nintendo's got to face the facts. The original fans are aging and if they want to keep them then the story needs to go in a new direction. New features aside we've been playing the same game for almost 15 years. Sure you could maybe make this arguement for the Zelda series but I'm talking about story here. In Zelda's defense it's always a decendent of Link fighting a newly free Ganon with it's own story elements to make it unique and different most of the time. Pokémon's story has ALWAYS been beat the gym leaders, stop Team ______, fight your rival and challenge the champ. In it's current state I think it's way too cut and paste to sustain it for much longer. Sure it helps Nintendo in the fact that they've got an anime aimed at younger kids as well as a shitload of toys and crap to go along with it. However if that were to end tommorow then how much longer could they seriously hope to recycle the same basic elements and story?

Something is hopefully brewing to make all this new again. Even with the anime and all that other stuff there's only so long they could keep this up I think. If Nintendo doesn't try something new with the series to keep the longtime fans around then either someone is eventually going to dethrone Pokémon with something that does the concept better or people who have been around forever are just finally going to say "fuck this shit!"

As one last note I could forgive the typical story for another go around if Nintendo somehow found a way to do Pokémon as an MMO. The player themself would decide if they wanted to take on the story elements alone or with friends. While I have no clue how in the blue hell that would work I think that if done right it could have potential to bump the awesome factor up to 11.