Emotionally Attached?

[Eon-Rider]

I was browsing on other Pokemon forums and I came across a thread with this particular topic. I found it intriguing how a lot of the replies came out to be acceptances of them being real partners.

Personally, I find it ridiculous for a human to be attached to a bit of data. This is similar to the recent incident of the marriage with a man and a DS character.

Please be honest. Do you or have you ever been emotionally attached to a Pokemon?

 

[BHwolfgang]

To be honest, I was never 'emotionally' attached to my gaming console, but I did waste a lot of time on it, so the at least the moments I had during the game play was sentimental.

 

[AsaQuilava]

You're asking if I feel an emotional attachment to the product of perhaps hundreds of hours of hard work?
Something that gives me a small feeling of accomplishment and an enjoyable activity between friends?
That gives me something in common with thousands of strangers, all around the world?

Yes. I am emotionally attached to my pokemon.
We aren't attached to the bit of data; we're attached to the realization of our efforts.



Or anyway, that's what I think.

 

[piercesj]

I totally agree with you AsaQuilava

 

[Converge]

I agree with AsaQuilava aswell

Just the image in your mind youv created of the time and teamwork with your pokemon gives you a little bit of satisfaction and a sense of partnership

 

[Charmageddon]

Yes, I'm a little attached to my Pokemon. Not in a mentally-unstable way, just a way that shows how good a game Pokemon is.

It's like when you're watching a TV show, and your favourite character dies. You get upset, even distraught, despite the fact that logically you shouldn't care at all. It's all make-believe. But a good show, or a good game, pins logic to the floor and tells it to shut the f*** up, that's how we become attached to our Pokemon, it's such an immersing game that some tiny little part of our brain thinks its real, even though we know its not.

 

[Cherrim]

You're asking if I feel an emotional attachment to the product of perhaps hundreds of hours of hard work?
Something that gives me a small feeling of accomplishment and an enjoyable activity between friends?
That gives me something in common with thousands of strangers, all around the world?

Yes. I am emotionally attached to my pokemon.
We aren't attached to the bit of data; we're attached to the realization of our efforts.



Or anyway, that's what I think.

This.

No, I'm not gonna sob uncontrollably and slip into suicidal tendencies if my Diamond version somehow gets erased, but I'm definitely gonna feel something. Not just because I completed the Pokedex in it and that effort would have "gone to waste" but mostly because of the Pokemon on the cartridge. :( I'd miss my first Cherrim, I admit it! Yeah it's just a little bundle of data but it's my bundle of data. I put the effort into obtaining it, raising it, etc.

I find it a little strange that people wouldn't have any sort of attachment to their Pokemon, but I can still understand it. (There are some games where the teams I made... really just didn't click for me, so I never had any qualms with resetting them.) I think it's a bit extreme to compare basic affection for a Pokemon you put the effort into training to someone marrying a character in a harem game or whatever the deal with that news was. :/

 

[ArcanineOod]

In the mainstream games, I do get attached to my Pokemon. One of my Pokemon in particular; my Ranger Darkrai.
I downloaded the mission, played it to gain that Darkrai's trust, transferred it over to Platinum, and raised it. I've had it in my team since for a long time, and it's gone from not liking me at all to loving me, and even though the happiness meter's all to do with how many steps I walked and how many levels it's gained, I still feel attached to it. I've spent hours of my life raising and battling with that Pokemon, so it's only logical that I'd grow attached to it.
I've been on adventures with my Pokemon, and I totally agree with Charmageddon in that even though one knows they're not real, it's hard to stop feeling they are.

Don't get me started on the non-mainstream games. Goodness knows how attached I get to the characters in the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games!

xX

 

[Pikachukid]

Yup I get attached to some of my pokemon. I had a shiny ponyta and then it evolved and I didn't like the sprite much so I traded it on the GTS for a spiritomb but I didn't like spiritomb and i felt guilty because it felt like I betrayed a friend because of their appearances. I still miss that darn Rapidash.

 

[Pokeyomom]

Why not? I don't see what's the difference between being attached to coding vs./ hunks of metal, pieces of wood, or sacks of meat? I was pretty crazy about my Crystal. I wasn't whispering sweet nothing to it, but you could say that I had a level of attachment.

 

[Dominus Temporis]

I'm attached to my games, not in an unhealthy way, but when you spend a lot of time and energy raising your team members, of course you're going to look at them as a little more than just data. Especially if you nickname them, giving something a name gives it character and personality, even if it's only in your mind...

The most emotional I've ever gotten was probably when my Crystal erased itself, in part because of all the time I'd spent with it and all the memories, but also because of the Raichu I raised all the way from a Pichu when I had relatives dying in the hospital. Sure, it wasn't real, but bringing up new life when I was losing people important to me helped take the edge off it. Losing that Raichu, and all the other beloved team members I'd raised, was a real blow to me.

 

[Katie_Q]

Not in a mentally crazy way, but I spend a lot of time playing pokemon games. If my diamond data got erased just now I'd be pretty upset, I haven't got very far on my pokedex on it and I'm only at the first bit in the battle zone, but I've still raised my pokemon on it.

 

[Venn364]

If my Pokemon game got erased I would be that upset that my pokemon had been erased I'd be upset that my pokemon had been erased. Plus my lvl 100 Dialga killing Pichu with VoltTack, Thunder, Thunderbolt and Iron Tail would be gone and I wasted hours finding a Pikachu with a light ball, teaching my Male Pikacu all the right moves and hatching a Pichu with that nature I wanted.

 

[RivalGator]

Actually, to be quite honest, yes. I am very attached to my Pokemon. I lost my very first Meganium, it was on level 100, and I actually cried over it. It broke my heart. I feel the same way when it comes to Blaziken and my Mismagius. If anything happened to them, I would probably just never play Pokemon again.

...Until HG/SS. Then I could get over it. XD

But yes. I took my Blaziken out of my Ruby when it started acting up. I guess I do have an emotional attachment to it. I think it's the fact that I had it since I was literally a kid. I'm used to it being there every time I turn on a game, I got memories with it. Battling other people and so on. So yeah... In it's own way, it's a big part of me in the video game world.



EDIT - And by the way, people, there is nothing wrong with being emotionally attached. I think being MARRIED to a virtual character is a bit far, but getting emotionally attached isn't bad. Like, I remember playing Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. I raised a really strong grey Chao named Champ, and I had him for a very long time. Eventually, right after winning a race, he sat down in the garden and died. I didn't know that he could become an egg again at that time, so I panicked and turned my GameCube off, and he was gone all together when I turned the game back on. I had spent so much time with him though, that it actually broke my heart that he was gone. I actually cried for a little while. It felt like one of my animals died.

I see it's kind of like losing your animals. You still take care of them, you spend your time with them, and you actually care about them in your own way. You think about them when you're not playing the game, and you are really proud of them when you battle them and win against other people. I mean, I am proud to say that I have an emotional attachment. I have that with my Chao and my Pokemon. I'll openly say that.

 

[.Gamer]

I'm not so emotionally attatched to them as I get frustrated when they:

hurt themselves in their confusion (five turns in a row)
are fully paralayzed
miss for no reason
always seem to get frozen from every ice beam

im not emotionally attatched as in crazy in love as i am that i feel winning the game, for lack of a better term, and putting together a really good team is fun, and if it gets erased or whatever, i think of all the time i wasted. (like my 220 hour gold version that the clock ran out on....)

 

[Nudge]

Emotionally Attached? Nah, I see it as something to do to pass the time when I'm bored or have some free time.
However if my game got erased or I lost it I'd be a little ticked off after putting all those hours into it for nothing.

 

[yaminokaitou]

No, but I am proud of them and would be sad if the game died and I lost them.

 

[MizuJosh]

Kinda. Having played since I was 7... I will always have a fondness for Blastoise, Espeon, and Kingdra... Their nicknames are always the same: Squirt, Espe, and Draco, respectively.

 

[Pokedude45]

like what ppl have been saying if you put a lot of hard work into something then of course your gonna be attatched to it

i feel attatched to my latios and latias because I got them both from my emerold without cheats of hacks

then traded them to my diamond

then to platinum

and soon to soul silver

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

As others have said, I'm emotionally attached because of all the work I've put into raising them up and teaching them moves.

But it's more than the Pokemon themselves... it's my Pal Pad registry, my Elite Four/Battle Frontier/Contest wins, even my now fully decked out villa and Secret Base... in short, every accomplishment I've achieved in the game that I have some sort of attachment to, call it emotional or not.