1st Gen Are the older Gens losing popularity?

[BettyNewbie]

I should note that by "Gens 1 and 2," I include FRLG and HGSS, which are now 11 (!!) and 6 years old, respectively.

Define popular. For me popular sounds more like "everyone likes it", but that would also imply that unpopular means "everybody hates it". If something loses popularity that means, it becomes more and more unpopular, which means that it gets from "everybody likes it" to "everybody hates it", or in other words: people who liked the games once, now start to hate it.
But that doesn't make any sense. Sure you could argue that people liked the games out of nostalgia and that they finally grew up and realized how terrible those games are, but isn't that just another onedimensional viewpoint? There clearly is more to the old games than just terrible graphics, a hugh amount of bugs and glitches and horribly implemented and unpolished mechanics.

Well, you do see quite a bit of hatred for Gens 1 and 2 (especially Gen 1) from younger fans who started with the Hoenn games, and as many (including myself) have said, those people make up the majority of posters on sites like this, nowadays.

I think Gens 1 and 2 still have many fans, but they're far less active online and more disengaged with the fandom than they were 6-8 years ago. And, why not? Neither Kanto or Johto has been in the spotlight for over half a decade now, and if those are the only regions/stories you care about (as is the case with many older fans), then none of the games released since BW offer much for you. Plus, these older fans are almost all in their mid-20s or older, when RL priorities start to get in the way of gaming and going online. Time will tell whether or not the same fate will eventually befall Gen 3-era fans...

Do I think, the old games lose popularity? Honestly, I really couldn't care less about that. I still like them and I know a lot of other people like them, too, even if they are not talking about those games, anymore. There's just no need to tell people how awesome the old games are, when everybody is busy having fun, playing the new games. I mean let's be honest: you play Pokemon to have fun and it doesn't matter if there's a Blastoise, a Giratina or a Primal Kyogre on the cover.

Fandom's no fun if there isn't any discussion, no sort of community. Instead, all you have are people playing old games in isolation. Maybe, they're still having fun, but it's a much colder, lonelier kind of "fun." :rolleyes2:

 

[Megan]

I should note that by "Gens 1 and 2," I include FRLG and HGSS, which are now 11 (!!) and 6 years old, respectively.

Well, there we go. The way I determine into which generation a game belongs is by the number of Pokemon available in the National Dex, which would put FRLG into gen 3 and GHSS into gen 4 respectively. But your method would explain, why people would start hating on the remakes.

You see, during the transition between gen 2 and gen 3 the engine wasn't the only thing that changed. They also strayed away from focusing on a player driven game to a more plot driven game. If you've played Crystal you probably noticed that they already changed something in including a subplot about you chasing and capturing Suicune.
Changing the focus of the game also changes the target group of the players. A more plot heavy game attracts people who love to play RPGs and after experiencing an awesome story of an evil team trying and succeeding to revive an ancient legendary that brought destruction to the world, that you had to stop (and you could catch it, which made it even more awesome), they were hooked.

I think, you can imagine what happened after GF released the remakes of gen 1. People who expected to see a cool story felt cheated, because the experience was so much different from what they were used to. The older players on the other hand, didn't like the change of focus in the first place, which resulted in anger and all the hate towards RSE.

The thing is: changing the focus brought more players than not changing it, which means more money. It's one of the main reasons why it's still the same as it was in RSE. That also explains why ORAS is so much more popular, because all they needed to do, was adding some new features and polish the story a little bit. That was all that's neccessary to make the players happy.

 

[Ycia]

Let's face it, older generations is really getting unpopular, it is because that, the fans of gen1 and gen2 are oldies, plus, I think it's being hated because it's being compared graphic wise and game-play wise(some aspects) to the newer generations.

Who would play pokemon blue if you have ORAS and an nds? Generations 1&2 in that time, is advanced for gbc. I think.

For me, I haven't played any pokemon games after generation 3, 4 onward became crazy after the introduction of the digipokemons. I only owned Yellow, Crystal and Emerald btw, saying that, maybe I'll play the newer ones if they add a 3rd version for the newer gens.

 

[BettyNewbie]

Well, there we go. The way I determine into which generation a game belongs is by the number of Pokemon available in the National Dex, which would put FRLG into gen 3 and HGSS into gen 4 respectively. But your method would explain, why people would start hating on the remakes.

And, FRLG, in particular, were just poor games, in general. Newer fans hated them for being a blah, watered-down version of what they got in Ruby and Sapphire, and older fans hated them for being cheap, lazy enhanced ports (they didn't change nearly enough to be true remakes) that dumbed down Gen 1 and lacked all of the soul and character of the the originals.

HGSS, on the other hand, were made with older fans in mind, so they're a bit more popular. They upped the difficulty level, fixed most of the problems with the originals, slightly altered the story, and added a ton of new content. They still had enough GSC in them to invoke nostalgia, yet were different enough to feel like a fresh experience and not just a lazy rehash.

That being said, you still pretty much have to be an older fan to fully appreciate HGSS. Despite the many changes and upgrades, the games still play out quite differently than the Hoenn/Sinnoh/Unova/Kalos ones, and people used to the "one new region, new Team, 8 new badges, all-new Dex" standard of the later games will be thrown off by Kanto and Johto's connection (hence people referring to the Gen 1 E4 as the "Kanto E4" and the Gen 2 E4 as the "Johto E4," when such things don't exist... they can't comprehend the idea of two regions sharing the same League) or the large number of what they call "Kanto Pokémon" appearing in Johto. The idea that an entire Generation could be a direct sequel to another is too foreign to them.

You see, during the transition between gen 2 and gen 3 the engine wasn't the only thing that changed. They also strayed away from focusing on a player driven game to a more plot driven game. If you've played Crystal you probably noticed that they already changed something in including a subplot about you chasing and capturing Suicune.
Changing the focus of the game also changes the target group of the players. A more plot heavy game attracts people who love to play RPGs and after experiencing an awesome story of an evil team trying and succeeding to revive an ancient legendary that brought destruction to the world, that you had to stop (and you could catch it, which made it even more awesome), they were hooked.

I think, you can imagine what happened after GF released the remakes of gen 1. People who expected to see a cool story felt cheated, because the experience was so much different from what they were used to. The older players on the other hand, didn't like the change of focus in the first place, which resulted in anger and all the hate towards RSE.

The thing is: changing the focus brought more players than not changing it, which means more money. It's one of the main reasons why it's still the same as it was in RSE. That also explains why ORAS is so much more popular, because all they needed to do, was adding some new features and polish the story a little bit. That was all that's neccessary to make the players happy.

Ruby and Sapphire definitely changed the way the games were plotted out, no doubt. While Gen 2 was a direct sequel to the original games with many older Pokémon, older characters, and even, the older region, Gen 3 flung you into a brand new region (with no connections to the previous two) with brand new Pokémon, brand new characters, and even, brand new Evil Teams. Even the games' plot was very different and far more fantastic/unrealistic, with you saving the world from a couple of warring Legendaries.

And, every new Gen released since then has pretty much followed this same pattern of hitting the Reset Button with every region. Sinnoh had zero direct connections to Hoenn, and yet again, brought in an all-new cast of Pokémon and characters with an all-new Save the World Epic centered around an all-new Evil Team and set of (godlike) Legendaries. Rinse and repeat with Unova and Kalos, although they attempted to mix things up a little more (same-Generation sequels with the former, huge Regional Dex with the latter).

While a lot of fans (particularly newer ones) love this setup, I find it tiring and formulaic, myself. I'd love to see another Gen that directly followed-up on a previous one and included two regions with 16 badges, more than anything else. Stories and continuity are important to me.

 

[CoffeeDrink]

I don't think so. Some of these games are still played heavily by the older Pokémon trainers here. Not to mention the hipster status of all the dweebs loving only the first 151 and hating everything else tch. Although I can see how they're not quite as stellar with the newer players coming into the series.

 

[Evening]

Gen 1 & 2 didn't have legendary Pokémon revolving around the plot and that's the best thing ever.
That aside, the two generations are still popular in my heart.

 

[acatfrommars]

Yeah, I believe that the older games are losing their popularity and have since Gen. 4 when Diamond and Pearl came out. This is similar with the majority of games though, companies come out it an ewer game in the series and instantly popular plummets for the game, and this can be seen in the price change. However, with Pokemon I still believe that many people still like to play the older games they just aren't as popular as X/Y and OR/AS are. I still like talking about them and playing them because they are great games, and bring back great memories.

 

[athenian200]

Well, in my opinion, there's no practical reason to play Generation I or II anymore. Here's what dissuades me from playing them frequently, despite my nostalgia:

1. You can't trade Pokémon between those generations and any of the newer games. It makes you feel like anything you do on those games is a waste of time and energy, because you start thinking about getting your old Pokémon into a newer game to complete the Pokédex, and then feel let down when you can't.

2. There are enhanced Generation III and IV remakes of those games that are more compatible with modern games, and also have additional features and content.

3. The cartridges and systems that could play the old games are dying out, and the majority of people don't use emulators or buy the old games on the Virtual Console.

4. A major part of Pokémon is the social aspect, and newer games are able to be played over the Internet or through local wireless, meaning there's a better chance of interacting with other players even if none of your real life friends play Pokémon. With the old games, you have to know someone in real life who still has all the working hardware and is still actively playing on it to enjoy the old games to their full extent. As someone who had to buy both editions of a game and trade with myself for the first several generations, I fully appreciate what the new games have brought to the table as far as that goes.

 

[LordGrizz]

As the gen 1 players get older the fandom shrinks. Those who started in gen 3 are more prevalent on the internet as many have said, what confuses me is the hate for gen 1. Sure the graphics were crap but they were hindered by the era. It also had it's fair share of bugs but it kind of added to the charm I guess. At the end of the day the gen 1 games are classics, but much like any other classic, eventually it just falls into obscurity.

 

[illumine]

As the games moved in a direction in a sense opposite to the initial games - in their case, towards a more shallow and sparkly mode - it isn't necessarily to be unexpected that boards would increasingly involve people trying to justify this shift. Obviously this is generally just seen as a 'reasonable' shift, because of 'graphics' (which is ROM Hack logic, they made a change for instance to the code so it's better - rather than concerning the actual appearance or aesthetics of the games which need not go in that direction. As if they were just remakes, and it got better because it had sparkly features which did not add up to a coherent game.) or whatever, which tends to not seem to consider the first two Gens as actual games in the first place, with their own logic and atmosphere, principles, etc., to some degree, which could evidently for this reason be better than the succeeding. Of course, as that was when the series was most popular, your confusion as to this point might seem evident, as people on these boards are generally speaking concerned about not appearing to be 'underdogs,' but at the same time of course the modern games take place with a significantly decreased place in popular culture for them.

You should say that in such a case of increased accessibility and decreased relevance - for whatever reason - the reaction of portraying the modern games as the only 'playable' ones, while trying to ignore or sweep away the others, was the expected reaction in certain contexts. (This just made such games seem to stand out to the rest of us, of course.)

1. You can't trade Pokémon between those generations and any of the newer games. It makes you feel like anything you do on those games is a waste of time and energy, because you start thinking about getting your old Pokémon into a newer game to complete the Pokédex, and then feel let down when you can't.

You could complete such in those games, unless you're just using them as so to speak a feeder club for the modern ones, which is pointless. I mean, there are likely to be new ones regardless, but you're playing a game regardless, so playing those is no more a waste than playing the modern ones (but it feels like less of a waste of time than completing that?)

Not to mention the hipster status of all the dweebs loving only the first 151 and hating everything else tch

So not the kind of hipster that listens to Vampire Weekend, then, a different kind of hipster. Surely the only problem with that would be that the 150th and 151st are somewhat explicitly opposed and are so in nature.

Perhaps, instead of whining about Grimer, people should just accept that perhaps Vanilluxe is just at home in their generation of origin as Grimer was to Gen. 1, albeit with more depth, and this might not lead to favouring the later 'directions' of the game, which have less to say perhaps.

 

[FlamingFalcon]

I believe they are but due to the fact of how little content it could of held. Remakes would spark these generations quite a lot in my opinion.

 

[RivalGator]

I actually have never really liked the Hoenn region, but it isn't because I considered it to be the death of Pokemon. I liked GSC a trillion times more than I even did RBY, but GSC were my first games so that could have something to do with it. I would say that a lot of it is nostalgia, but I still love the GSC games even more than their remakes because as a child it was very fun for me to keep going and not know what was next, and finding out that there was a whole new region waiting for me was a huge, huge surprise. I miss surprises like that.

 

[curiousnathan]

I think it's only natural that they are losing popularity as time passes. They will forever be liked by a lot of people, particularly those of us who grew up with them. Now with a lot of the newer generation growing up with Black/White, ORAS and XY they naturally don't have an appreciation for where it all began. It's kind of sad if you think about it, but at the same time it's inevitable. Hopefully they choose to play them one day, but like many games it'd be difficult to go from playing something as pretty as ORAS to something as ugly a RBY.

 

[Melody]

By no means are they losing popularity. They have simply taken their place in history. I think that the re-release will generate some more buzz, even if it's more centered on the older generation. Heck, we will be sharing this generation with our children now....at least those of us who do have them.

In rebuttal to your comments about the 3rd gen, that's simply untrue. Yes there /are/ some hardcore Genwunners who disliked Gen 3. That's to be expected. But it's not the end, it's a continuation. Personally Gen 3 did a good job, and FR/LG was and still is a GOOD remake of the first gen. As someone who grew up with first, second, and third, I was happy. I have good memories of them all.

In the end though, it all started with Generation One, for without One, we would have None.

 

[DigitalMewtwo]

I met someone too who also wouldn't play a game that was 8bit. Honestly though, Pokémon during the gameboy and gameboy color era has always been the most impressive games on the gameboy. No one will find that many gameboy games as packed as pokemon.

I especially have a deep fondness for Pokemon Crystal and Yellow.

Yea it seems as if kids today think that if it doesn't have good graphics, then the game itself isn't fun. Thing is, that isn't the most important aspect to any game, whether it's Pokemon or not.

As for myself, I always have been more partial to Gen 2 than Gen 1, but I still have a soft spot for the games that started it all. I'm way hyped to be able to play and enjoy them again :).

 

[Starlight Latias]

For some people they may not be popular, but i still love playing Gen 4!, and i play on getting copies of all the Pokemon games i'm missing, i think that all of the games are awesome!, i'm mostly of a Fangirl for Generation 2, the one i started with!, Generation 3 i really loved Emerald! and Generation 4 Pearl was great and i absolutely love Soul Silver!

 

[AnbuBorutoUchiha]

BW2 was fresh and just because it isnt orginal like Red its still great it shows how far games evolved

 

[Hiidoran]

BW2 was fresh and just because it isnt orginal like Red its still great it shows how far games evolved

Gen V was wonderful in its own way. I don't think anyone is really calling it out or anything.

Sure, fans are more involved and interested in the latter generations; it's to be expected. They're more graphically appealing and they play on modern consoles like the 3DS. Heck, until the ports come out and/or without an emulator, it's pretty hard to even play the older generations these days. Of course they're losing popularity. They're still pretty important to the franchise though. There will always be those fans who have a deeper appreciation of the first generations that got them into the franchise in the first place.

And yeah, for a time there was some backlash on Gen III from people who considered the first two generations to be the best, but honestly, you don't hear much of that argument anymore. It seems now it's more popular to scoff at Gen IV, and I think that's a trend we're going to continue to see as fans get older and more generations are introduced.

 

[CheckyArch4]

I wouldn't really say they were but with HG/SS and LG/FR people skip out on the originals and play the reboots. That's what I did but then went back and played the original games which were the same but without colour and different sprites.

 

[ShinyUmbreon189]

By no means are they losing popularity. They have simply taken their place in history. I think that the re-release will generate some more buzz, even if it's more centered on the older generation. Heck, we will be sharing this generation with our children now....at least those of us who do have them.

In the end though, it all started with Generation One, for without One, we would have None.

I honestly believe that's what Nintendo is aiming for. They know there's still older generation folks that play them and that lots even have kids by now so why not bring them back on a 20 year anniversary? Whenever I have kids, if anytime soon lol, Yellow is the first game they'd be playing. All I know is my kids ill be going into elementary school smart as hell already knowing how to read and everything. Plus it would most likely have them appreciate the franchise even more.

But yeah because these newer generation kids that grew up on Gen 4 and later never played the original and probably never will since it doesn't have the flashy up-to-date graphics. I'm almost certain, that if they played it they would complain because Pokemon have no abilities, their movepools are limited, no breeding, etc. I wonder when RBY ORIGINAL remakes comes out if they'll even buy it because it's not up-to-date. They should play it so they can witness the beginning of Pokemon. Hell, I can't wait for them to be released I'm just itching to play Yellow on something other than an emulator or a phone.
But me personally, I didn't care so much for gen V and I never played Gen VI other than Gen III remakes and probably never will.