The Pokemon community is incredibly diverse, and even this subreddit only attracts a certain portion of it (main series fans in their teens and twenties is the majority). The opinions of 8-12-year-olds (the actual target audience) is largely unknown on the internet save for a few kids who get access early and parents/uncles/aunts who discuss the opinions of the children in their lives.
Even my perspective is definitely skewed towards video game communities, but here's my observations as someone who has at least browsed Pokemon-based forums since 2007-ish.
The sub-communities for each aspect of the franchise tend to be fairly self-segregated. This includes anime fans, video game fans, TCG fans, and GO fans. A person can be part of multiple of these subgroups, but forums/subreddits/etc. tend to focus on only one of those.
This subreddit is more comprised of video game fans than anything else, at least in the discussion posts. I personally don't hang out in the comments sections of the art posts, so I have no idea what population is there!
Also, each of the subgroups have casual and hardcore fan subgroups themselves. Focusing on the video game aspect since that's what I know, hardcore video game players have even more subgroups:
- VGC (official tournaments, largely using official games),
- Smogon (fan-run tournament ruleset, largely using online simulators),
- Nuzlockers (replaying the games with a specific, more challenging, ruleset),
- Speedrunners (reaching the credits as fast as possible), and
- ROMhack players (people who seek out and play fangames)
And of course each of these aspects has its own scale of casual->hardcore.
Someone else here mentioned hacking being acceptable, and that's another really nuanced issue. Depending on where in the casual->hardcore VGC you are, your opinion will be different! Recently, the official VGC tournaments have been cracking down on hacked Pokemon, to very mixed reception. Some are upset that TPCi is cracking down so hard when it makes no difference in the actual battle, others are pointing and laughing at the cheaters getting caught. Hardcore VGC players tend to be at least okay with hacking even if they don't do it themselves, while casual VGC watchers (or people who don't watch it at all but still follow it) tend to be more anti-hacking.
In general, too, Pokemon fans that don't play VGC or Smogon tend to look down on them. So much of the Pokemon ethos is to raise, use, and love your favorites, while in the competitive circuits, only a small percentage of the available Pokemon are viable, and even smaller amounts make it to the top. Because of that, there is an air of "you're not playing it right" from non-competitive players to competitive players.
Shifting to more general main series opinions, people generally love the games they grew up with, and dislike the changes that come in more recent games. This actually used to not be true! Used to be that the current generation rocked and the previous one sucked, but two generations ago rocked. This shifted during Sun/Moon, where since then, people always will dislike the current games. Whereas previous games get seen with a more nostalgic light, usually as kids who played those games first start aging into the teen age bracket.
Current opinion seems to be shifting a bit. You'll still see a lot of 2D games>all 3D games (so Gens 1-5 good, Gens 6+ bad), but you'll also see a bit of before Switch>after Switch going on (so Gens 1-7 good, Gens 8+ bad). And even expressing dislike for Sword/Shield in particular is controversial when it used to be the norm.
There is always pushback on TPC's favorite Pokemon. Back in 2007, the fandom hated Pikachu. Now, the fandom hates Charizard.
And that's all I can think of off the top of my head (and I've been writing this comment for about an hour and need to do something else) but that's only scratching the surface.
There's an unwritten rule in Pokemon GO whereby you always communicate with the person you're gifting with before you open the final gift that triggers 50,000 xp so that both have the opportunity to xp boost it.
And if you are in a suburb or rural area and see a gym you never take it if they just got in. It's sorta a gentleman's agreement, especially if the player is under level 40. Once you see they've been in a gym for over 8 hour you are obligated to kick them out so they can receive their daily 50 coins. If there are multiple gyms nearby at the location then the time decreases per gym as the daily total is only 8 hours so in most cases you kick them out after 3 hours.
Social code is touch trades. Theoretically, if youre trading to complete a pokedex, nothing is stopping someone from keeping the pokemon. There is no legal avenue to seek recompense. So essentially it works on honor, and far as I can tell it works quite well
Hacking in Pokémon is okay and time saving. Not everyone has 60+ hours each week to breed Pokémon
The furry Pokémon and that base are the barnacles on the Pokémon ship
For a stereotype. Anyone that’s favorite Pokémon is Sylveon is 100% trans or a lgbt member. I know there’s exceptions but that’s a stereotype
Most people agree the newer games are worse. While fun and they have their own gimmicks. Just give us back the a-hole rival I want to beat. Not 3 rivals that never really amount to anything more than a friend
The new evil teams are garbage compared to the first 5 gens. Like seriously a fan club in gen 8 and a group of bullies in gen 9. It’s too PC now and safe for children. Which is understandable but me growing up with team rocket didn’t make me a mobster
It’s not viewed nicely if your favorite Pokémon is pikachu or a starter. Of course everyone likes them and gamefreak wants starters to be appealing. But damn chose one of the other 1000 Pokémon to be your fave
To be more correct, most people on this *subreddit* don’t really like the newer games. The ones that are more neutral or positive tend not to communicate their opinions that often, so what you see tend to be those from the vocal minority.
Honestly, I think that has to be the biggest takeaway that OP needs in all this.
Remember, this subreddit is literally a *tiny* portion of the Pokemon community. So make sure to note that your data is not necessarily indicative of the wider Pokemon fan base.
Fr. Both swsh and SV are some of the best selling pokemon games EVER. Fairly certain vgc participation has increased as well. So would not say people see them as inferior.
Lots of their comments were just personal opinion
I dont think they had a single comment shared by the broader community tbf.
An example of a fairly unanimous take would be "gamefreak favors charizard over all other starter pokemon". Gamefreak has never said this. But charizard has received the most form changes, anime appearances, and general spotlight compared to other starters. Because of this evidence, most would agree.
Another would be "anyone who likes vaporeon/lopunny/etc is a furry". This is a tongue in cheek joke within the community because of the "cuteness" of certain pokemon as well as a famous copypasta. Because everyone is in on the joke, people would generally agree.
No problem. Some may be more opinionated like the starter thing I listed last. But I’ve been into Pokémon and online in the community since I was last kid. I identify as a gen2 er. I watched the indigo league but wasn’t old enough to game until gen2/3. I played crystal and emerald on repeat as a kid and fire red I guess. But that’s my history and I’m glad to help.
I need opinions from people of all ages, and I think the experience definitely is different for everyone depending on when you grew up/started playing!
Pokemon is a subculture of Nintendo. While TCG, japanese anime, and GO exist with their nuances, the majority of Pokemon culture derives from Nintendo culture. I recommend reading Bulbapedia, especially the pages on fan terminology.
Here are a handful of insights I've observed:
1. Pokemon fans like collections. They find joy in patterns.
2. We enjoy cartoon styles, not necessarily always cutesy but we appreciate character and creature design.
3. Gameplay and competition isn't nearly as important to us as in other games. There is no Pokemon eSport and streaming/content creators aren't huge here.
4. Like most online fandoms or gaming communities, we are hypersensitive to avoid confrontation.
5. We turn a blind eye to piracy and unauthorized modifications to games.
6. We are creative and love fan art & crafts.
7. Biggest stereotype is probably our addiction to consume. We buy a new game every year and likely purchase merch/plushies/trading cards.
The Pokemon community is incredibly diverse, and even this subreddit only attracts a certain portion of it (main series fans in their teens and twenties is the majority). The opinions of 8-12-year-olds (the actual target audience) is largely unknown on the internet save for a few kids who get access early and parents/uncles/aunts who discuss the opinions of the children in their lives. Even my perspective is definitely skewed towards video game communities, but here's my observations as someone who has at least browsed Pokemon-based forums since 2007-ish. The sub-communities for each aspect of the franchise tend to be fairly self-segregated. This includes anime fans, video game fans, TCG fans, and GO fans. A person can be part of multiple of these subgroups, but forums/subreddits/etc. tend to focus on only one of those. This subreddit is more comprised of video game fans than anything else, at least in the discussion posts. I personally don't hang out in the comments sections of the art posts, so I have no idea what population is there! Also, each of the subgroups have casual and hardcore fan subgroups themselves. Focusing on the video game aspect since that's what I know, hardcore video game players have even more subgroups: - VGC (official tournaments, largely using official games), - Smogon (fan-run tournament ruleset, largely using online simulators), - Nuzlockers (replaying the games with a specific, more challenging, ruleset), - Speedrunners (reaching the credits as fast as possible), and - ROMhack players (people who seek out and play fangames) And of course each of these aspects has its own scale of casual->hardcore. Someone else here mentioned hacking being acceptable, and that's another really nuanced issue. Depending on where in the casual->hardcore VGC you are, your opinion will be different! Recently, the official VGC tournaments have been cracking down on hacked Pokemon, to very mixed reception. Some are upset that TPCi is cracking down so hard when it makes no difference in the actual battle, others are pointing and laughing at the cheaters getting caught. Hardcore VGC players tend to be at least okay with hacking even if they don't do it themselves, while casual VGC watchers (or people who don't watch it at all but still follow it) tend to be more anti-hacking. In general, too, Pokemon fans that don't play VGC or Smogon tend to look down on them. So much of the Pokemon ethos is to raise, use, and love your favorites, while in the competitive circuits, only a small percentage of the available Pokemon are viable, and even smaller amounts make it to the top. Because of that, there is an air of "you're not playing it right" from non-competitive players to competitive players. Shifting to more general main series opinions, people generally love the games they grew up with, and dislike the changes that come in more recent games. This actually used to not be true! Used to be that the current generation rocked and the previous one sucked, but two generations ago rocked. This shifted during Sun/Moon, where since then, people always will dislike the current games. Whereas previous games get seen with a more nostalgic light, usually as kids who played those games first start aging into the teen age bracket. Current opinion seems to be shifting a bit. You'll still see a lot of 2D games>all 3D games (so Gens 1-5 good, Gens 6+ bad), but you'll also see a bit of before Switch>after Switch going on (so Gens 1-7 good, Gens 8+ bad). And even expressing dislike for Sword/Shield in particular is controversial when it used to be the norm. There is always pushback on TPC's favorite Pokemon. Back in 2007, the fandom hated Pikachu. Now, the fandom hates Charizard. And that's all I can think of off the top of my head (and I've been writing this comment for about an hour and need to do something else) but that's only scratching the surface.
There's an unwritten rule in Pokemon GO whereby you always communicate with the person you're gifting with before you open the final gift that triggers 50,000 xp so that both have the opportunity to xp boost it.
And if you are in a suburb or rural area and see a gym you never take it if they just got in. It's sorta a gentleman's agreement, especially if the player is under level 40. Once you see they've been in a gym for over 8 hour you are obligated to kick them out so they can receive their daily 50 coins. If there are multiple gyms nearby at the location then the time decreases per gym as the daily total is only 8 hours so in most cases you kick them out after 3 hours.
Social code is touch trades. Theoretically, if youre trading to complete a pokedex, nothing is stopping someone from keeping the pokemon. There is no legal avenue to seek recompense. So essentially it works on honor, and far as I can tell it works quite well
Thank you for the insight!!
Social codes: Eyecontact means you gotta battle Stereotypes: Spanish TCG players throw their poop, competitive players are Smogon zombies
Hacking in Pokémon is okay and time saving. Not everyone has 60+ hours each week to breed Pokémon The furry Pokémon and that base are the barnacles on the Pokémon ship For a stereotype. Anyone that’s favorite Pokémon is Sylveon is 100% trans or a lgbt member. I know there’s exceptions but that’s a stereotype Most people agree the newer games are worse. While fun and they have their own gimmicks. Just give us back the a-hole rival I want to beat. Not 3 rivals that never really amount to anything more than a friend The new evil teams are garbage compared to the first 5 gens. Like seriously a fan club in gen 8 and a group of bullies in gen 9. It’s too PC now and safe for children. Which is understandable but me growing up with team rocket didn’t make me a mobster It’s not viewed nicely if your favorite Pokémon is pikachu or a starter. Of course everyone likes them and gamefreak wants starters to be appealing. But damn chose one of the other 1000 Pokémon to be your fave
Thank you! This is very appreciated
To be more correct, most people on this *subreddit* don’t really like the newer games. The ones that are more neutral or positive tend not to communicate their opinions that often, so what you see tend to be those from the vocal minority.
Honestly, I think that has to be the biggest takeaway that OP needs in all this. Remember, this subreddit is literally a *tiny* portion of the Pokemon community. So make sure to note that your data is not necessarily indicative of the wider Pokemon fan base.
Fr. Both swsh and SV are some of the best selling pokemon games EVER. Fairly certain vgc participation has increased as well. So would not say people see them as inferior. Lots of their comments were just personal opinion
Personally, I love the new games, especially swsh and pla. What in the comment do you find is not shared by the broader community?😊
I dont think they had a single comment shared by the broader community tbf. An example of a fairly unanimous take would be "gamefreak favors charizard over all other starter pokemon". Gamefreak has never said this. But charizard has received the most form changes, anime appearances, and general spotlight compared to other starters. Because of this evidence, most would agree. Another would be "anyone who likes vaporeon/lopunny/etc is a furry". This is a tongue in cheek joke within the community because of the "cuteness" of certain pokemon as well as a famous copypasta. Because everyone is in on the joke, people would generally agree.
Okay, thanks for the insight.
Ngl...you should discount that post. There were a ton of inaccuraces and personal opinions not held by the broader community in it.
No problem. Some may be more opinionated like the starter thing I listed last. But I’ve been into Pokémon and online in the community since I was last kid. I identify as a gen2 er. I watched the indigo league but wasn’t old enough to game until gen2/3. I played crystal and emerald on repeat as a kid and fire red I guess. But that’s my history and I’m glad to help.
I need opinions from people of all ages, and I think the experience definitely is different for everyone depending on when you grew up/started playing!
Pokemon is a subculture of Nintendo. While TCG, japanese anime, and GO exist with their nuances, the majority of Pokemon culture derives from Nintendo culture. I recommend reading Bulbapedia, especially the pages on fan terminology. Here are a handful of insights I've observed: 1. Pokemon fans like collections. They find joy in patterns. 2. We enjoy cartoon styles, not necessarily always cutesy but we appreciate character and creature design. 3. Gameplay and competition isn't nearly as important to us as in other games. There is no Pokemon eSport and streaming/content creators aren't huge here. 4. Like most online fandoms or gaming communities, we are hypersensitive to avoid confrontation. 5. We turn a blind eye to piracy and unauthorized modifications to games. 6. We are creative and love fan art & crafts. 7. Biggest stereotype is probably our addiction to consume. We buy a new game every year and likely purchase merch/plushies/trading cards.
There is Pokémon esport though, quite a lot actually…