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Has Pokémon Lost It's Meaning?

IrishButSober

Screenplay Writer
50
Posts
14
Years
    • Forgive me if it sounds like I'm preaching, because I'm honestly not; but does anyone feel like the purpose of Pokémon has slipped over the years? When it first came on, it was a show about bonding, experiencing new things with friends and generally showing how a team is always stronger than one individual. As cheesy as these messages were, Pokémon managed to whisk me away into this fantasy like world and feel a connection with these animated characters as a young child that very few shows did for me, (I wasn't into television much as a child.) I didn't care if people thought Pikachu was 'weak' or 'didn't have good stats', he was fun, he was light hearted and he made me smile as a child, so why would I care?

    As I got older, my view on Pokémon did change and I looked at is as a fond memory of my childhood that I loved to revisit and though I got into EV's and breeding, I found myself surrounded with people who honestly took it far too seriously. People got into huge debates/arguments/insult wars over which Pokémon was better, how the other person's team was pathetic. I even remember one horrible kid being seriously cruel to his sister because she wanted a Clefairy and he thought that was sad and pathetic because it had low stats and was useless.

    Now don't think for one second I am suggesting everyone is like that and so far, I have yet to meet a single person on this board who is like that, it's more from past experience of seeing how for some people, they have warped something that was meant to be about bonding and having fun, into some elitist kind of community which quite frankly looks a little sad and defies the point of Pokémon.

    Does anyone else feel that some people take this too far? So what if someone likes a Pokémon you don't, so what if someone wants to keep their Pikachu a Pikachu and not evolve it? I just feel that sometimes we take these things too seriously and lose sight of what it was meant to be about, which was originally something rather sentimental.

    ....Wow, that really did sound like preaching! XD Sorry guys.
     
    Zeta Sukuna

    Zeta Sukuna

    Descendant of the Inchlings
    1,727
    Posts
    16
    Years
    • I wouldn't say it lost its meaning, more then it being mistranslated at this point. I still see the meaning, and I see it from the games, but apparently the youth of today, with this new trend of more violent games, can't see it anymore, and that's sad.

    Or I could be wrong, and the kids of today can't really read the meanings. I, personally, don't care what pokemon you use, whether it's weak or not.
     
    Kirbychu

    Kirbychu

    2,347
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • Pokemon has not lost it's meaning, but I do think some people take it too seriously. I have witnessed situations similar to what you posted (Not IRL, of course).

    My guess is that more people are now using the internet than the good ole days of Gen I; because of this they are being exposed to all the mechanics and stats that are involved with the game,

    Another influence could be wi-fi battling, since everyone does want to win.
     

    IrishButSober

    Screenplay Writer
    50
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • I think for the most part you're right, Pokémon still has it's meaning, but I think it's harder to see and you have to look a lot harder than you did when it first came out. I'm only 17, so I suppose I fall under the "youth" of today and despite enjoying games like Halo and more violent games, I can see Pokémon being something different, perhaps its not so much the meaning, but the difference between these games that other kids can't understand. I suppose it just shook me up was all, that poor girl was heartbroken and looked like she was some kind of failure just because she liked Clefairy, really got to me since she's about eight years old and her big brother made her feel like that over something like Pokémon.
     
    Last edited:
    Timbjerr

    Timbjerr

    [color=Indigo][i][b]T-o-X-i-C[/b][/i][/color]
    7,415
    Posts
    20
    Years
    • IrishButSober said:
    I'm guessing you meant 'poop' instead of 'pop', even though either way your sentence makes no sense and is rather disturbing.
    Click to expand...

    no, I'm sure he meant 'pop'...in certain regional dialects, the word is used to describe carbonated beverages like Coca-cola or Dr. Pepper. Other dialects use the word 'soda'. XD

    Anyways, I've been straggling the borderline between competitive battlers and casual players for the past two generations. I read up one competitive battling stuff and know most of the game mechanics inside and out, but I have my favorites based mainly on their aesthetic and conceptual designs, and I often try to use them to their full potential despite what Smogon's tier lists say about them. XD
     

    IrishButSober

    Screenplay Writer
    50
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • Pop? I've never heard of such a thing, I guess it most be an American term.

    I've played some competitive battles and honestly, there are some nice people who play competitively but understand Pokémon is not to take that seriously. It's more the superiority attitude some people have. Especially from a few people I have known personally who play Pokémon who seem to think unless you fight with the Pokémon in the 600+ collum, you aren't worth their time. It's just sad like I said, that it's become this overly competitive, elitist group for some people and I do stress the word 'some'.
     

    Tandem

    back with a vengeance!
    22
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • Haha, they must use the term 'pop' down south more often, because I'm from the US & I've never heard it applied like that either. xD

    But on-topic - I've tried competitive battling before, and I don't like it. I dunno... Like it's been said, people get wayy too serious about it, and I just don't think that's how pokemon should be. Nowadays, I tend to pick my pokemon based more on how they look, which probably isn't much better though, haha.

    And maybe it's a little pathetic of me, but the list on Smogon actually makes me feel a bit bad for the pokemon on the bottom tier. xD
     

    Yusshin

    ♪ Yggdrasil ♪
    2,414
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • Pokemon never had a meaning; it was just so kids lusting power could use that energy on pixels instead of bashing someone.

    And "Pop" is used in Canada; so is "Soda", but it's not as frequently heard. From what I know, "Pop" is a more Northern term, and "Soda" is a southern term.
     
    Sydian

    Sydian

    fake your death.
    33,379
    Posts
    16
    Years
    • Haha, they must use the term 'pop' down south more often, because I'm from the US & I've never heard it applied like that either. xD
    Click to expand...

    No we don't. S'called coke down here, no matter what brand you're talking about.

    Anyway, I'm going to move this in Pokemon General since it applies to more than just the games. As for the topic, it's late and I'm not inclined to make some elaborate post about it. Maybe some other time.
     

    Lil MuDkiP849

    Dream Chaser
    463
    Posts
    16
    Years
    • NY
    • Seen Aug 12, 2021
    IrishButSober said:
    Forgive me if it sounds like I'm preaching, because I'm honestly not; but does anyone feel like the purpose of Pokémon has slipped over the years? When it first came on, it was a show about bonding, experiencing new things with friends and generally showing how a team is always stronger than one individual. As cheesy as these messages were, Pokémon managed to whisk me away into this fantasy like world and feel a connection with these animated characters as a young child that very few shows did for me, (I wasn't into television much as a child.) I didn't care if people thought Pikachu was 'weak' or 'didn't have good stats', he was fun, he was light hearted and he made me smile as a child, so why would I care?

    As I got older, my view on Pokémon did change and I looked at is as a fond memory of my childhood that I loved to revisit and though I got into EV's and breeding, I found myself surrounded with people who honestly took it far too seriously. People got into huge debates/arguments/insult wars over which Pokémon was better, how the other person's team was pathetic. I even remember one horrible kid being seriously cruel to his sister because she wanted a Clefairy and he thought that was sad and pathetic because it had low stats and was useless.

    Now don't think for one second I am suggesting everyone is like that and so far, I have yet to meet a single person on this board who is like that, it's more from past experience of seeing how for some people, they have warped something that was meant to be about bonding and having fun, into some elitist kind of community which quite frankly looks a little sad and defies the point of Pokémon.

    Does anyone else feel that some people take this too far? So what if someone likes a Pokémon you don't, so what if someone wants to keep their Pikachu a Pikachu and not evolve it? I just feel that sometimes we take these things too seriously and lose sight of what it was meant to be about, which was originally something rather sentimental.

    ....Wow, that really did sound like preaching! XD Sorry guys.
    Click to expand...

    In my very honest opinion, i dont think the meaning of pokemon has slipped away, more-so i think the meaning of it has degraded from what it was originally about. The anime for instance(the current one), is literally jam packed with stuff about friendship, companionship, alot of that stuff, but it's mostly shown between the trainers and not AS much of the actual pokemon, though it's kinda true for the most part. HOWEVER, in the original anime(the first season and episodes) it reveals the struggles, the trouble, the extreme harshness, and the very close bonds with pokemon it takes in Ash's valient attempts to become a pokemon master. It details his adventures with not just running into wild pokemon, but what they would exactly do for him, how they feel about being trained under him, and how Ash deals with their behavior. The current anime lacks this kinda stuff, ESPECIALLY with the emotional aspects the older anime brought in (ash's butterfree leaving to be in the wild and the tough decisions made by the trainer(ash) to let it do so, the charmander ash encountered being treated so bad by its trainer to the point of almost dying(the fire on its tail going out), even the episode pikachu's goodbye was pretty emotional, and it truly showed just how big of a bond ash and pikachu have with pikachu deciding on its own to stay with ash, and just HOW much their relationship between trainer and pokemon has improved over the time when they first met) The battles they had with the gym leaders and other tough trainers really put their bond to the test, not just of *how strong* the pokemon is nowadays, such as with the lame, repetitive contest battles that are about *showing off pokemons skills* such as shadow clawing a pool of water to look stylish for points(i cant beleive something like that ACTUALLY happened) rather then training and determination between trainer and pokemon to become the champion and pokemon master, the best there ever was.

    But not only the anime, but the games themselves too. The old phrase *Gotta catch em' all* which was the symbolistic phrase even on the boxes of the old R/B/Y games, has become pretty obsolete now, i mean, how many people in the world are ACTUALLY going to go for basically about like 500 different guys(without the use of a hacking device which BTW has become so prevalent in the pokemon community now its disgusting) now?? Not only this factor, but to actually get most of them yourself, you need like 3/4 games (FR/LG, R/S/E, D/P/PT/HGSS), tons and tons of hours of searching, evolving, catching, trading, etc. SOOOO much more then the original games where trading was actually pretty rare considering you needed a friend with the game, gameboy and the right pokemon to fill the dex (sorry, no such thing as breeding for the starters) with a link cable, but made the experience of actually doing so VERY exciting and fun(hell even on the GBA games linking up is fun), and after you have that single friend and the stuff you need, it really only requires a single game, yours, and a single one for him, his. While some people may have found the experience enjoyable of doing more requirements to fill those pages up, most of the time people just say *screw it* and dont even bother, and for good reason.

    I do however like the inclusion of IV's, EV's, and natures, because they put SO much depth into the game it's crazy, like instead of just having a single optional moveset for a pokemon, with natures and EV's, you can turn it into a completely different pokemon. A good example is using focus punch on gengar, which is known in battling as a way of dealing with blissey, and with ev investment into attack, can deal with blissey no problem. Without the evs and natures and things, the typical standard case would be that gengar would get owned from blissey for already known reasons. This also however brings a curse to pokemon in general. As you stated, that little girl was being hated on for using a *favorite* as some of the community would call it, because the favorite was bad for battling and wouldn't provide much use for a team. Honestly, it's truly crushing that some people are like this, because a big part of pokemon actually as a matter of fact IS picking your favorites, but in battling sometimes they just won't make the cut, but i mean hey, anything could work if it's really planned out and strategized with team synergy, but people nowadays simply forget about it and just go 100% standard pokemon and head into battle. And that's why she was being hated on, because it would fail, i mean it doesnt take a rocket scientist to know it will, but if she has fun failing with her favorite pokemon, through thick and thin just how pokemon is supposed to be, then she's *enjoying* the game for what it really is, if i were there i'd rather see a brave young girl battle someone with a clefairy rather then ANOTHER salamence/scizor. Hell, if she stays with that pokemon through all the failures she'd receive, she might even mature over time and learn some reality from that clefairy, might even come up with an actual good way to use it later on as a matter of fact. THAT's what pokemon is supposed to be about, creating that bond with the pokemon and actually become a fearsome trainer with it, your own strats made up working for the pokemons strengths you've learned through time, and creating a team around it to cover it's weaknesses, and like ive said, it hasnt completely left that meaning behind, but it's extremely deterred.

    I hope my post helped come to your conclusion, and most of my own input is opinion, not fact, so don't take it too harshly =)
     
    Last edited:

    coolcatkim22

    Team Rocket's Rockin'
    892
    Posts
    15
    Years
    • IrishButSober said:
    Does anyone else feel that some people take this too far? So what if someone likes a Pokémon you don't, so what if someone wants to keep their Pikachu a Pikachu and not evolve it? I just feel that sometimes we take these things too seriously and lose sight of what it was meant to be about, which was originally something rather sentimental.
    Click to expand...
    Well I think this whole thing is about not trying to be seen as a childish. If you play a game competitively it's mature right? (Even though every game on the planet can be played competitively.)

    I think it's about the fear of being out casted simply because you like something which people only pick on people who like Pokemon in the first place because they know it's gets their goat. Thus, we must make up ways why Pokemon is mature even though it is full of tedious mini games.
     

    IrishButSober

    Screenplay Writer
    50
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • Lil MuDkiP849 said:
    In my very honest opinion, i dont think the meaning of pokemon has slipped away, more-so i think the meaning of it has degraded from what it was originally about. The anime for instance(the current one), is literally jam packed with stuff about friendship, companionship, alot of that stuff, but it's mostly shown between the trainers and not AS much of the actual pokemon, though it's kinda true for the most part. HOWEVER, in the original anime(the first season and episodes) it reveals the struggles, the trouble, the extreme harshness, and the very close bonds with pokemon it takes in Ash's valient attempts to become a pokemon master. It details his adventures with not just running into wild pokemon, but what they would exactly do for him, how they feel about being trained under him, and how Ash deals with their behavior. The current anime lacks this kinda stuff, ESPECIALLY with the emotional aspects the older anime brought in (ash's butterfree leaving to be in the wild and the tough decisions made by the trainer(ash) to let it do so, the charmander ash encountered being treated so bad by its trainer to the point of almost dying(the fire on its tail going out), even the episode pikachu's goodbye was pretty emotional, and it truly showed just how big of a bond ash and pikachu have with pikachu deciding on its own to stay with ash, and just HOW much their relationship between trainer and pokemon has improved over the time when they first met) The battles they had with the gym leaders and other tough trainers really put their bond to the test, not just of *how strong* the pokemon is nowadays, such as with the lame, repetitive contest battles that are about *showing off pokemons skills* such as shadow clawing a pool of water to look stylish for points(i cant beleive something like that ACTUALLY happened) rather then training and determination between trainer and pokemon to become the champion and pokemon master, the best there ever was.

    But not only the anime, but the games themselves too. The old phrase *Gotta catch em' all* which was the symbolistic phrase even on the boxes of the old R/B/Y games, has become pretty obsolete now, i mean, how many people in the world are ACTUALLY going to go for basically about like 500 different guys(without the use of a hacking device which BTW has become so prevalent in the pokemon community now its disgusting) now?? Not only this factor, but to actually get most of them yourself, you need like 3/4 games (FR/LG, R/S/E, D/P/PT/HGSS), tons and tons of hours of searching, evolving, catching, trading, etc. SOOOO much more then the original games where trading was actually pretty rare considering you needed a friend with the game, gameboy and the right pokemon to fill the dex (sorry, no such thing as breeding for the starters) with a link cable, but made the experience of actually doing so VERY exciting and fun(hell even on the GBA games linking up is fun), and after you have that single friend and the stuff you need, it really only requires a single game, yours, and a single one for him, his. While some people may have found the experience enjoyable of doing more requirements to fill those pages up, most of the time people just say *screw it* and dont even bother, and for good reason.

    I do however like the inclusion of IV's, EV's, and natures, because they put SO much depth into the game it's crazy, like instead of just having a single optional moveset for a pokemon, with natures and EV's, you can turn it into a completely different pokemon. A good example is using focus punch on gengar, which is known in battling as a way of dealing with blissey, and with ev investment into attack, can deal with blissey no problem. Without the evs and natures and things, the typical standard case would be that gengar would get owned from blissey for already known reasons. This also however brings a curse to pokemon in general. As you stated, that little girl was being hated on for using a *favorite* as some of the community would call it, because the favorite was bad for battling and wouldn't provide much use for a team. Honestly, it's truly crushing that some people are like this, because a big part of pokemon actually as a matter of fact IS picking your favorites, but in battling sometimes they just won't make the cut, but i mean hey, anything could work if it's really planned out and strategized with team synergy, but people nowadays simply forget about it and just go 100% standard pokemon and head into battle. And that's why she was being hated on, because it would fail, i mean it doesnt take a rocket scientist to know it will, but if she has fun failing with her favorite pokemon, through thick and thin just how pokemon is supposed to be, then she's *enjoying* the game for what it really is, if i were there i'd rather see a brave young girl battle someone with a clefairy rather then ANOTHER salamence/scizor. Hell, if she stays with that pokemon through all the failures she'd receive, she might even mature over time and learn some reality from that clefairy, might even come up with an actual good way to use it later on as a matter of fact. THAT's what pokemon is supposed to be about, creating that bond with the pokemon and actually become a fearsome trainer with it, your own strats made up working for the pokemons strengths you've learned through time, and creating a team around it to cover it's weaknesses, and like ive said, it hasnt completely left that meaning behind, but it's extremely deterred.

    I hope my post helped come to your conclusion, and most of my own input is opinion, not fact, so don't take it too harshly =)
    Click to expand...

    I agree whole heartedly with what you've said, I do have a competitive team that I use in the OU League simply because it's whats expected. However, I also have my "favourite" team, which consists of the Pokémon I love, such as Wartortle. The amount of times I've seen a Garchomp or Mewtwo being used online has bothered me greatley since I honestly don't think it takes much skill at all to win with a Mewtwo, it simply isn't hard and takes little stratedgy outside of looking up Smogon. It's probably why my desire to play OU has gone down greatley and I just battle with close friends most of the time.

    I suppose Pokémon itself hasn't lost its meaning, rather other people have lost the meaning and replaced it with something far too serious and I'm sorry, but if you are taking Pokémon THAT seriously, you just look not only like an ass, but also a moron. Picking on people because of their Pokémon choice? Sad.
     

    560cool.

    An old timer?
    2,002
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • ^Why I don't Wi-Fi Battle^

    I don't . But why ? Because my team is roughly trained, like in the olden days : VS Seeker anyone . I never EV Train and I don''t think I will ever do so . Every guy I battle has an Uber Dragonite trained to spam Outrage to kill me . I don't care ! I want to have fun with Pokemon and I am . Playing with NPCs and training different teams . I HATE seeing people hatch thousands of eggs to get a perfect nature . I HATE EV Guides ..........

    I'm not saying Competitive Battlers are wrong . I just want to make sure they're havin' fun, not wasting their life on a stupid Salamence which needs to be flawless . My Salamence is OK, at Lv. 56 and I like him that way . I don't need any EVs ...
     

    Mew~

    THE HOST IS BROKEN
    4,163
    Posts
    15
    Years
    • Seen Apr 13, 2016
    Well, your talking about how people not knowing what the meaning is, right? Well, them pokemon hasn't lose its meaning, the people have :\
    Well... I still see pokemon the same as when I was young... maybe even alot better... well, it got better(IMO)! The meaning has always stayed the same... even from when it started... people would still curse other people about there pokemon, havent got an ledgend, etc... maybe you were playing on red version too much in your house unware of whats happening about in the outside world XD...

    About POP, You dont hear it much... put it is a real word, you see it on those really cheap drinks in your local newsagents "POP" I guess its called that because when you open it it goes "POP"

    Though, this discussion about "POP" is really off topic XD
     

    Corvino

    Vive le roy
    8
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • I don't care about IV/EV training and probably never will. This is possibly because I have very little patience, but in my opinion it does mechanise something that's supposed to be fun. Maybe other people do find it fun to methodically raise Pokemon with high stats, but... I don't.

    I find that people take gaming too seriously on the whole - not just Pokemon. I'm an avid gamer, and I play everything from FPS to RTS to RPG, but by no means do I take what I do seriously. I appreciate that some games are competitive by nature, but to be honest? Some games just get the fun sucked out of them by people who take them 100% seriously (case in point: Counterstrike).

    Competition's fun when it's light-hearted, but when it gets down to mean-spirited boasting, glitch abuse, obsessive IV/EV training etc. it kind of detracts from the experience.
     

    Ihtesam19

    The Best Pokemon Trainer
    94
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • IrishButSober said:
    Pop? I've never heard of such a thing, I guess it most be an American term.

    I've played some competitive battles and honestly, there are some nice people who play competitively but understand Pokémon is not to take that seriously. It's more the superiority attitude some people have. Especially from a few people I have known personally who play Pokémon who seem to think unless you fight with the Pokémon in the 600+ collum, you aren't worth their time. It's just sad like I said, that it's become this overly competitive, elitist group for some people and I do stress the word 'some'.
    Click to expand...

    Umm not really, in Bangladesh they use the term Pop.
     
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