Pokemon IRL

[joehat]

I was just reading a thread I found interesting and decided to make my own. I'd like to post more on here anyway, I'm still fairly new =]

I've been a Pokemon fan for a long, long time. I'm 21 years old and in no way am I ashamed to say I still watch and play Pokemon. I might not be as seriously into it as some people (I don't go to events, I play VBA cause I don't have a DS, I don't EV train, etc.) Anyway..

I remember when Pokemon was HUGE a couple years back. Everyone liked it, and if you didn't, you probably never played or watched it. About when I was in high school Pokemon dwindled away. I still played my games but no one ever talked about it. If Pokemon was brought up it was only about how lame and childish it was. I pretty much kept my Pokemon habit to myself for the next couple of years. No one knew I still liked it. And then a couple months ago I was letting a friend of mine use my computer..

While I was watching TV I heard my friend laughing. When I came over he was going through my internet favorites and pulling up the Pokemon sites I had. He'd also found my games and episodes. I tried to play it off (not possible for me) but he was like dude..I still play Pokemon too. I was like huh? You make fun of it all the time! Turns out more than half of my friends ended up getting back into Pokemon haha. They've since fallen of the bandwagon again but hey, I still love Pokemon. No one should be feel embarrassed for what they enjoy.

I'm sure a thread like this has been around before, but what's your IRL Pokemon story?

 

[nakoma]

Yea I sorta know what you mean on that one. Back when I was still in grade school no one liked pokemon and my first year of highschool no one liked it and the school I went to was not a very friendly one. So I switched schools to an arts school and basically everyone likes it. I have seen people playing there pokemon games in the hall kids wearing pokemon t-shirts and i can talk to allmost anyone about pokemon. And thats been going on for about three years now. Grade 10-12+ (gotta do a victory lap)

 

[Tokin]

I was never a victim of post craze teasing(I've liked it all the time), and the reason why this isn't happening is because I was never ashamed of it and never made any attemt to hide it, curious isn't it?^^

 

[Chelzbell]

I don't have any interesting stories like that, but I am in a similar situation. I'm also 21 and I still like Pokemon. I mostly was teased by my brothers for my interest in the games/televison show (even though one of them was the reason I even started to like it). They would use my friend's names and say them in Pokemon voices. I was very annoyed by it.

 

[joehat]

Haha nice. And lucky you Nakoma, I barely have anyone to talk to about Pokemon! If I bring it up around my friends they're just like, ah yeah dude CHARIZARD. Hence, I'm glad I found this forum haha.

Haha yeah Chelzbell that would certainly be annoying. But it's cool to know that there are older fans who are still into Pokemon. It's nice that not everyone's fallen off the wagon.

 

[Swift!]

I'm still into Pokemon and have been since forever!
At my high school nobody said it was lame, they just let it keep going without saying anything about it. Until year 9, which is when my whole year started to play Pokemon again... I'm sure a lot of them still do and I know that a few of my friends do as well.
In my area it's not childish, it's epic... it's one thing that makes the kids in my area happy again. All 90's kids have played Pokemon R/B/Y and used to watch the original series. It's just another great thing that reminds us of our childhood.

 

[joehat]

Well put Kev. I like how you say Pokemon is "epic" in your area. I wish Pokemon was still epic around here. I think my friend and I are the only Pokemon fans in my neighborhood haha.

 

[Larvitar]

I've never been '' Busted '' for liking Pokémon. My friends at school keep Pokémon as a '' joke '' and I have no idea who likes it or not. I keep it as a secret and always when my friend is coming to my home, I hide all Pokémon stuff. I am sure that I would be bullyed badly at school, and it would be bad. If one of my friends would bust me, there would be lots of explaining to do, then I'd just hope the best..

 

[Hybernated Panda]

There has been people who come up to me in the middle of class...get right under my ear and ask advice on their Pokemon. And when i turn and give them advice in normal speaking tone they freak out. "Dude shhh...i can't have people know..". These statements came from the first string quarter back in my high school.

From that moment on whenever i saw him i just made fun of him for feeling ashamed of liking Pokemon. A week later him and all his football friends had gameboy advances and were battling and trading each other. Before you knew it, the new fad at my school was to have your gameboy ready to battle at any moment.
You'd be surprised who plays Pokemon, and with a little communication, a whole network of people to play with can open up.

If anyone asks me why i like Pokemon i just show them stuff like Tyranitar, Salamance and like scyther and just go "Its a game where you catch MONSTERS and BATTLE them, whats not to like?"

I recently got into Pokemon cards, something i wasn't able to do when i was kid, and I'm basically sucked right back into the world of Pokemon.

It's Great.

 

[Ryusheika]

I've always loved pokemon, and I'm not afraid to tell my friends about it. Most of them think I'm weird for liking it still, but it's always been a game that I've gone back to whenever I get bored.

 

[Mōnštȝr¿]

Can't say i ever got made fun of..
I am the type of person who will kick *** for what I beleive in...
If you don't like whatg I like ok that's fine, but don't be a **** about it....
You know?

 

[joehat]

Haha absolutely Infernal! That's agreed.

 

[Crimson Arcanine]

Mine isn't a good one, I tell you that...

At once point (I was 14 at the time) in high school I used to use the school's computers to post up fiction on fanfiction.net. One day I left a floppy disk in a school computer which was later found by someone who was known to pick on me and he had a field day...well more like a field rest of the year. Although I didn't believe him ...supposively one of my stories was printed out, photocopied and distributed to some of the populance in the school. For the rest of the year the person who had found the disk and his best friends used to recite my fanfiction pen name when they saw me especially when others were about, which quickly ended up with me changing my pen name and being much more careful with my my disks. I never received any positive comments from any schoolmate about it.

 

[Thundєr]

I still play Pokemon too. I was like huh? You make fun of it all the time! Turns out more than half of my friends ended up getting back into Pokemon haha. They've since fallen of the bandwagon again but hey, I still love Pokemon. No one should be feel embarrassed for what they enjoy.

Haha, same here. I recently discovered that some of my friends still enjoys the Pokemon World.
My story is almost the same as yours.

 

[Cherrim]

I guess I'm at the age where nowadays, if someone sees Pokémon it's a nostalgic "oh man I used to LOVE that series" reaction over any other sort of reaction. It wasn't always that way but I guess everyone's matured? XD In high school and even some of elementary school, I was ridiculed a bit for liking it but... once everyone saw I didn't care and actually had some pride in liking the series, they pretty much stopped. (It's no fun to tease anyone when they don't take you seriously, after all.) Besides, most people couldn't help but admit they liked the series too--maybe not anymore but they had no reason to dislike it.

I actually managed to get a lot of people back into Pokémon both third gen and fourth gen. :P Back in third gen most people had a GBA or had access to one so they picked up FRLG since it was familiar. Then when Diamond/Pearl came along it was senior year and... well, no one but my friend and I really had a DS so we played DP and everyone else dug up their Gameboys and I think we had one game from every generation out at the lunch table. XD;

 

[Sexycheese]

Well....all my freinds hate pokemon XD
the only people I can play who like pokemon are an old lady who collects cat pokemon (shes 78) and a few 9n year olds.....I want some decent competition!!!!! they all suck!

 

[joehat]

Exactly. After high school, everyone seems to mature to a certain extent. Not just with Pokemon either. Any problems I had with liking Pokemon pretty much ended after high school. There's definitely a visibly small trend here. Most posters under 18 would definitely have problems if everyone knew they liked Pokemon, but most posters over 18 probably would just face indifference at most.

I can relate to your high school story Lightning. Back when I was in middle school, we used to play games on a site called Pokemon Village. We'd always go into the library when no one else would be there so we could have fun without getting made fun of (I really didn't care when we played, it was my friends who didn't want to get made fun of haha). Well one day here we are playing and a huge group of students walk in. At first they just look at us like they're about to laugh, but then they start pointing and smiling dumbfounded. Next thing you know we've got people you would've never thought liked Pokemon playing this game. You're absolutely right about the nostalgia factor. Most people take that into effect before they think about making fun of it.

By they way, does the story in the anime begin getting better after the Johto seasons? Haha, I'm trying to watch the anime all the way through, and I must admit I almost fall asleep during the Johto episodes. I've read in a few posts that it gets better after Johto but I'd like a few more opinions haha.

 

[I Laugh at your Misfortune!]

By they way, does the story in the anime begin getting better after the Johto seasons? Haha, I'm trying to watch the anime all the way through, and I must admit I almost fall asleep during the Johto episodes. I've read in a few posts that it gets better after Johto but I'd like a few more opinions haha.

Johto is the land of filler episodes. Hoenn, the story does get better but you lose the best character D:

Anyway, I agree with your original statement. I just don't tell anyone cause I know there would be teasing and tbh, its just easier.

 

[joehat]

Haha yeah. I know I'll keep watching it, but I'm gonna miss Misty ahah. And Psyduck.